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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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Develop Strong Sight-Readers with “The Great Sight-Reading Challenge”

Sight-reading is an incredibly valuable skill for musicians. While some piano students naturally gravitate towards exploring new music and sight-reading fearlessly, others are more hesitant to begin developing this important skill. I created “The Great Sight-Reading Challenge” to give all of my students some sight-reading motivation and to challenge them to sight-read three pieces or sight-reading flash cards/exercises each day at the piano and to help them become strong sight-readers.

9 Must-Haves for a Successful First Piano Lesson

Whether you’re teaching a first piano lesson, a trial piano lesson with a prospective student, or a meet & greet, you’ll need a solid plan to teach the student and interview the student and parents effectively and efficiently. Here’s my own lesson plan for a first piano lesson with a brand new student who comes into my studio for the first time for what I call a meet & greet mini lesson (definitely a low pressure and friendly name for our first meeting!).

How to Use the AnyTune Pro App in Piano Lessons to build excitement

AnyTune Pro is an app that allows you to change the tempo and key of a piece or song, and even set practice loops to drill a specific section! My students and I are loving this app, and I wanted to share with you how we use it in piano lessons. Perfect for practicing, performing, playing in a band, learning lead sheets and chord charts, and even for using with piano method books! Click here to learn more and grab a free download to help you get started!

Easy Composition Activity for Beginning Piano Students

I love doing fun activities in piano lessons to reinforce the notes, rhythms, and other concepts students are learning, while being creative in a totally different way. Keep reading to learn about a fun composition activity I do with my youngest elementary piano students, and see how easy it can be for your youngest students to compose their very own piece! #musiccomposition #composingmusic #elmused #melodypaynepiano

How to Teach Online Piano Lessons

Thanks to videoconferencing tools such as Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, and many others, teaching online piano lessons is becoming more and more popular among teachers all over the world. Learn about finding the right clients, introducing concepts in online lessons, visual aids, having online students perform in your studio recitals, what to do when your screen freezes, and more.

How to Use Printable Sticky Notes in Piano Lessons

Printable sticky notes in piano lessons can give students ownership over their own practice sessions. Quick, easy, customizable sticky notes work for scales, solo repertoire, theory, recital prep, and so much more! Students follow their own practice steps, make practice time more effective and efficient, and come to lessons more prepared.

How to Go with the Flow in Piano Lessons

When students enter our studios, they usually arrive with some sort of baggage. Leftover and unprocessed feelings or emotions from the day, worries, stresses, fears. We often don’t see or hear about these issues, especially with students that are really good at “keeping it together”, but sometimes those feelings rear their heads during our weekly lessons with our students, causing a pause in our instructional time and begging for our attention. Here’s a recent account of one of these experiences with one of my college students: How we overcame the mental obstacles so he could perform beautifully, in spite of his anxiety.

My Word of the Year #onelittleword: CULTIVATE

Do you choose a word of the year to guide your goals or attitude for the year? To reflect on as you move through the decision-making process? To inspire your thoughts, attitudes, and ideas through the year, to help you maintain focus, and to shape your mindset? I love choosing a word each year to help me be intentional in my life and business. Keep reading to see how #onelittleword can guide you too!

Host the Best Ever “Happy Fall, Y’all!” Costume Recital

Is your studio recital coming up soon? Need help organizing the details (costume ideas, festive and easy decorations, food, student gifts, certificates & awards) and planning the perfect recital? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! Learn how to throw the most amazing “Happy Fall, Y’all!” piano recital your studio has ever seen: fantastic performances, fun games, delightful costumes, and the perfect programs!

Basketball Dribble Specs in Piano Lessons? Yes Please!

When students are sight-reading, why should they learn to keep their eyes up and on the page and not on their fingers or the piano keys? There are a lot of reasons, but one of my favorites is that it increases fluency in reading music. Visit the blog to learn how use basketball dribble glasses to help kids and beginners of all ages learn to sight-read with greater accuracy and confidence, and try this fun piano teaching idea in your own studio!

3 Simple Rules to Help Your Piano Students Play Musically

Increase your students’ musicality instantly and help your piano students play musically! If your students follow these 3 rules, they will be on their way to learning how to create magical, musical, moving performances every time they play the piano. Recital performances will improve, lessons will be more fun, and home practice will be much more motivating! Check out these piano teaching tips and help your students, even young beginners, learn how to play musically from the very first piano lesson.

Accompanying 101: 10 Tips for Beginning Accompanists

Here are ten tips for beginning accompanists that my piano students have used when playing for a choir, singers, or soloist, and hopefully your young accompanists will find them useful for accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists as well. If your students follow these helpful tips, they’ll accompany their first gig like a pro!

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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