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Welcome to the blog at Melody Payne – Music for a Lifetime!

From piano teaching tips to games and activities for piano lessons, sheet music, and much more, we have something just for you! 

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The Importance of a Quarterly Review for Your Piano Teaching Business

The Importance of a Quarterly Review for Your Piano Teaching Business

As piano teaching business owners, we spend a lot of time planning ahead. We plan ahead for lessons. We plan ahead for festivals and recitals. We plan ahead to create the ideal piano teaching schedule. But do we ever look back on our businesses to review and reflect on what has already happened? A quarterly review can help you see clearly where you are, where you want to go, and what you need to do to get there in your music business.
How I Use Easter Piano Worksheets to Conduct Spring Assessments for Beginners

How I Use Easter Piano Worksheets to Conduct Spring Assessments for Beginners

Spring is the perfect time to assess how much students have learned over the course of a school year. Easter Piano Worksheets is a comprehensive resource that helps teachers to assess students’ knowledge of theory fundamentals.
Click here to read what a group of professional piano teachers believes are the top 5 things to include in a solid piano studio policy.

The Top 5 Items to Include in Your Piano Studio Policy

A solid piano studio policy can serve as the cornerstone of a professional piano studio. The policy is the one single document where we list all of the “rules and regulations” of our studio, and where we explain not only what is expected of us, but what we expect of our piano students and their parents. Click here to read what a group of professional piano teachers believes are the top 5 things to include in a solid piano policy.
Inspire Your Teens to Level Up With Video Game Style Music

Inspire Your Teens to Level Up With Video Game Style Piano Music

Help your teen and tween students stay excited about piano with these fun-to-use, super accessible video game style pieces. I’ll show you all sorts of ways you can use Saga Land in your studio. Perfect for online lessons and digital pianos too!
5 Reasons to Use Junior Superstar Scales with Young Beginners

5 Reasons to Use Junior Superstar Scales with Young Beginners

Young beginners can feel excited when starting piano lessons. It is important to capitalize on that early enthusiasm and help students to progress quickly. Even young beginners can benefit so much through learning to play pentascales. It’s a great means to isolate important skills such as keyboard geography and recognizing intervals.
12 Fabulous Springtime Color by Note Worksheets for Your Young Musicians

12 Fabulous Springtime Color by Note Worksheets for Your Young Musicians

Looking for springtime coloring worksheets that focus on treble and bass notes? Look no further! These 12 cute coloring pages are sure to please students of all ages, and you can download, print, and use them today.
Simplify Your Tax Prep with My Music Staff

Simplify Your Tax Prep with One Simple Tool

Whether you’re a piano teacher who is reading this in March as you’re preparing your taxes, or reading in June when tax season seems so far away, staying on top of our taxes is something we should be doing year-round! Today I’m going to show you a very simple way to stay on top of your expense receipts so you won’t have to cram or panic at the last minute.
Laptop, piano studio policies, latte, coffee on a desk

10 Favorite Freebies for Piano Teachers

Did you know there’s an entire library of free resources on my website that were created just for you and your piano studio? Today I’m going to take you on a quick tour of my 10 favorite freebies for piano teachers so you can download and start using them today.
Video Piano Lessons

Teaching Pre-Recorded Video Piano Lessons: A Free Mini-Course

In this free mini-course, I’m answering all of your questions about pre-recorded video lessons. And there are some fantastic questions! I’ve also included demonstration videos of pre-recorded video lessons to give you an idea of how easy they are and what a great addition to your skillset and lesson options they can be.
Practice challenge chart with piano keys and gingerbread men

How to Host a Piano Practice Challenge

I love challenging my students to practice a specific number of pieces, measures, pages, minutes, days, at a predetermined tempo, or accomplishing a specific goal or goals over a short period of time. Why? Because practice challenges are highly beneficial to students in a number of ways. Learn how practice challenges benefit students, and how to host your own!
Copyright symbol, following copyright and trademark law in the piano studio

How to Follow Copyright and Trademark Law in the Piano Studio

Copyright and trademark: These aren’t topics you’d particularly expect on a piano teaching website, right? But with more and more of our businesses going online every day, and with more and more of us designing piano teaching resources for our own studios and to give away or sell to other teachers, these are topics that absolutely cannot be overlooked and ignored. Continue reading to see how you can ensure you are following copyright law in your piano teaching business.
Studio Management Software for Piano Teachers: My Music Staff

My Music Staff: The Best Studio Management Software for Piano Teachers

My Music Staff, MMS, is web-based studio management software that can help you with a variety of administrative tasks that you do for your piano studio. It’s like having your own personal assistant! If you’re an independent studio owner, or if you own a music academy with multiple teachers, My Music Staff can automate many of your administrative tasks to give you more freedom in your schedule to do what you really love – teach!

Welcome!

Hi! I’m Melody Payne, a pianist and piano teacher, educational resource author, a fun-loving wife to the most wonderful and talented hubby I could ask for, and a lifelong learner who loves to share. I want to make your life as a music teacher easier by writing and sharing helpful and relevant music teaching articles, and by creating educational resources with your very own students in mind. If you are a parent who wants to enroll your child in piano lessons, I’d love for us to get started building those skills that can give your child a lifetime of musical enjoyment!

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