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Collaboration between two foreign countries can be fraught with deadly secrets, dangers, and mysterious politics. Fortunately, in the case of piano classes in Brazil and the United States, these were not the circumstances. In fact, our collaboration fostered creativity and relationships among the students in both countries.   Beginnings When c...

Dr. Guy Duckworth, a pioneer of group piano pedagogy, died on January 27, 2015, at the age of 91. He was my professor in the unique graduate programs that he created and directed at the University of Colorado at Boulder in Piano Performance Literature and Pedagogy: Process of Group Environments. His legacy will live on through the students he taugh...

Improvisation activities with your group classes can be surprisingly effective. Working with their peers can help encourage and motivate students to try out different ideas and get over any initial hesitation they have about improvising. It is an activity that can engage everyone, and students get to develop their aural skills as they listen to eac...

from the series: ​Independence Day: Music Reading Craig Sale, Editor Group lessons are able to facilitate the learning of music reading concepts in an efficient, effective manner. A recent Keyboard Companion readership survey showed that roughly  half of those responding utilize group instruction in some way - occasional group lessons, we...

​from the series: The Heart of the Matter: Rhythm Bruce Berr, Editor It is an often-discussed perception that  as we get older, time seems to pass  faster and faster. This phenomenon has been observed and written about throughout the ages in many different cultures. I remember my own personal suspicions about this being confirmed when I w...

​The Magic Triangle: Teacher/Student/Parent ​G roup teaching takes special skills. I rediscovered this fact last Fall when I began teaching Music  Together, a program for infants, toddlers, and their caregivers. True, I had taught regular third and first grade sometime during the Dark Ages of my 20s, but time passes and memories fade. I distin...

Although the term group teaching defies  a simple definition or universal application,  most piano teachers today include  some type of group activity in their teach i ng-  from regular weekly or monthly group  l essons to an occasional "practice recital. "  Likewise, every piano teacher uses some  form of technol...