Bio
Melody Payne
Everyone deserves the best and most creative music education we can offer!
My goal is to provide creative piano teaching solutions to the issues piano teachers face on a daily basis. I am working hard right beside you to help you live your best piano teaching life.
bio
Dr. Melody Hanberry Payne is a classically trained pianist and enjoys teaching piano lessons in her home studio to children and adults of all ages and abilities. She writes blog posts on a variety of relevant topics for piano teachers, and she and her team create and sell piano teaching resources and sheet music in her online music resources store for piano teachers and students around the world.
Dr. Payne is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music who has served as a full-time music professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Sterling College, and Mississippi College, and an adjunct Professor at Emory and Henry College. She received the Pittman Young Faculty Award from Mississippi College for excellence in teaching and for leading and directing the Taylor School, the MC Department of Music’s musical outreach program for children and adults in the community. Additionally, Dr. Payne designed and administered the Piano Pedagogy Master’s Degree Program at Mississippi College.
Dr. Payne holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Doctor of Philosophy in Music with emphases in music education and piano pedagogy from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where she studied piano with Constance Carroll and piano pedagogy with Dr. Steve Betts. She is a member of the Music Teachers National Association, the Virginia Music Teachers Association, and served as President of the Blue Ridge Music Teachers Association.
She has presented research on practicing, early- and intermediate-level pedagogical piano compositions, and piano performance accuracy at the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and the Mississippi Music Teachers Association State Conference. She has presented lecture recitals and workshops on beginning group keyboard experiences, intermediate piano literature, practicing, and technology in the piano studio at local and state levels, online piano teaching at the Virtual MTNA National Conference, and a variety of topics as a presenter for the MTNA/National Piano Foundation webinar series.
Melody and her husband Greg live in Marion, Virginia, a small town nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
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A personal note from Melody:
Hi! I’m Melody, and I’m a self-employed musician who teaches piano lessons in Marion, Virginia. Being a piano teacher is one of my favorite things in the world. In short, I’m a Southern Girl who is also a piano teacher, blogger, and someone who loves being creative.
I have a doctorate in music, and I’ve been teaching piano lessons since 1990 (Yes, I was just barely in high school!). Teaching piano lessons, especially to beginners who are in elementary school, has always been one of my favorite things, and I couldn’t imagine my life without my sweet students. They bring so much joy to my week, and seeing their lightbulb moments when they nail a new concept makes my day every single time!
I have always loved creating resources for my own students and wanted to share those resources with other teachers, so in October 2013 I began my journey as an educational resource author so I can make those resources available to teachers and students around the world. My passion for creating continues to grow on a daily basis! I love putting together music worksheets and other resources, music decor items, organizational materials, and Bible resources.
I have also enjoyed blogging about piano teaching and all things music-related since 2012. My original blog was The Plucky Pianista, and all my more recent posts are located here on my current website at melodypayne.com/blog.
Featured Publications
My work has been featured on a variety of different sites, and it has been an honor to collaborate with many amazing musicians over the past several years.
- Unlocking Your Musicality, Part 1 Contribution to the 100th episode celebration of The Musicality Podcast at Musical-U with Christopher Sutton
- Getting “Off Book” Podcast Interview on The Musicality Podcast at Musical-U with Christopher Sutton
- “The Top Influential Piano Blogs You Should Be Reading” at Digital Piano Review Guide
- “7 Piano Experts Share Their Business Growing Tips” at Tim Topham
- “TTTV 052: Teaching Skype Lessons with Melody Payne” Podcast Interview at Tim Topham
- “Problem solved! Seeking solutions online. Part 1: Blogs” by Karen Thickstun, Cara Haxo, Abigail Huston, and Joanna Reinhardt in Clavier Companion Magazine, July/August 2015. My original Plucky Pianista blog was listed as number 3 of 20 music teaching blogs that resonated with college piano pedagogy majors, according to their evaluation rubric.
- “Choosing a Life in Music” at Musical-U.com (scroll down to the last section of the post)
On a personal note…
In addition to all the incredible music projects I am blessed to be part of, I love things that are totally not music related (Ghirardelli hot cocoa, fuzzy slippers, sunrises and sunsets, trying new foods, baking… Those are all incredibly comforting, don’t ya think?).
I love Jesus, my hubby, piano, and traveling! My favorite thing in the world is being with my amazing hubby Greg. We LOVE traveling and going on fun adventures together, especially to small towns and national parks, and we love exploring new restaurants with amazing food!
We’ve been married since 2010, and we’re loving every minute of it! We live in a home that we renovated in Marion, Virginia, a charming and peaceful town nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains of southwest Virginia.