10 Tips and Ideas to Improve Your Piano Teaching

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Whether you’re looking for help with running your piano teaching business, practical ideas for teaching certain pieces or age groups, piano student gift ideas, or help with technology for piano teachers, you’re going to find something helpful to improve your piano teaching in our ultimate blog post roundup.

Here are our TOP 10 blog posts that you found helpful last year.

 

#10 – 7 Tips for Attracting Online Piano Students with Your Studio Website

7 tips to attract online piano students with your studio website

Since Covid-19, piano teachers have entered the world of online teaching like never before.

Some teachers have decided they love online teaching. If that’s you, and you’re wondering how to grow your online studio, I have 7 tips for you!

After reading this post, you’ll have a toolbox of ways you can grow your online studio too!

Read 7 Tips for Attracting Online Piano Students with Your Studio Website

 

#9 – Improve your piano teaching with Accompanying 101: 10 Tips For Beginning Accompanists

Two sweet girls playing piano together

Whether you’re a pro at accompanying or just starting, this blog post will give you 10 helpful tips for you to apply or to pass along to your students who are just reaching the point of collaborative music.

This post will help you to improve your piano teaching as a collaborative coach.

Read Accompanying 101: 10 Tips For Beginning Accompanists

 

#8 – A Deep Dive Into Schubert’s Waltz In B Minor

How to teach Schubert's Waltz in B Minor

Schubert’s Walt in B Minor, D.145 / Op.18, No.6 is the perfect piece to assign your intermediate students.

Janna Williamson will equip you with the technical considerations, musical characteristics, historical considerations, theoretical considerations, and more with her guest blog post and video tutorial.

If you feel uncomfortable teaching classical repertoire, this blog post will help you improve your piano teaching for intermediate students.

Read A Deep Dive Into Schubert’s Waltz In B Minor

 

#7 – How To Help The Piano Student Who Doesn’t Practice

Piano student who doesn't want to practice

Do you teach students who don’t practice?

In this article, we’ll define the student who doesn’t practice, list reasons why this piano student doesn’t practice, and discuss specific things we can do to help the student become an excellent and motivated practicer.

There’s even a list of things you can start doing in your lessons today to motivate and encourage your students and help them learn how to practice! 

Read How To Help The Piano Student Who Doesn’t Practice

 

#6 – Introducing The Circle Of Fifths To Your Music Students

Are you intimidated by teaching the circle of fifths? You don’t have to be!

In this blog post, I break down exactly what you see in my circle of fifths chart plus how you can easily teach it to your students and use the chart to help students with chords & key signatures.

Using the circle of fifths is an easy way to improve your piano teaching skills when working on scales, key signatures, and more.

Circle of fifths on a desk with colorful pens

Read Introducing The Circle Of Fifths To Your Music Students

 

#5 – Fun & Affordable Prizes Piano Students Love!

I’m one of those teachers who loves using prizes and incentives for my students.

If you’re there too, you realize that there can be two problems: 1) Keeping a prize bin stocked can be expensive! 2) It can be tricky to find something students love to put in those prize boxes!

This blog post will give you plenty of prize ideas that are fun and affordable.

Fun & Affordable Prizes Piano Students Love!

Read Fun & Affordable Prizes Piano Students Love!

 

#4 – Goals For Piano Students And Teachers: How To Set And Achieve Them

If you want to take your piano teaching business to the next level, or if you want to work on setting goals for your piano students, this blog post is for you!

I’ve curated 5 goals to consider adding to your own list. This is the most practical and individualized way you can improve your piano teaching.

These items can be added to your list of goals and accomplished at any time of year, and as a result, you’ll be feeling great about yourself, your piano teaching business, and your students, all year long.

Piano studio goals workbook on iPad

Read Goals For Piano Students And Teachers: How To Set And Achieve Them

 

#3 – Fun And Affordable Gift Ideas For Your Piano Students

Whether you’re wanting piano student Christmas gift ideas or recital gift ideas, here is a list of 55+ fun and affordable gift ideas that can make your life so much easier. It’s a list you can return to every year.

Fun and Affordable Gift Ideas for Your Piano Students

Read Fun And Affordable Gift Ideas For Your Piano Students

 

#2 – The Best Equipment For Teaching Online Piano Lessons

I’ve received so many questions about equipment for teaching online piano lessons that I thought it would be nice to share a list of all of my favorite tools and resources that I’ve added to my online studio over the past several years.

Improve your piano teaching experience as an online teacher with some of these recommendations (for example, I share my favorite webcam plus dozens of other tools).

If you’re interested in teaching piano lessons online, you’ll definitely want to give this post a read!

The Best Equipment for Teaching Online Piano Lessons

Read The Best Equipment For Teaching Online Piano Lessons

 

#1 – 9 Essentials to Include in a First Lesson

Whether you’re teaching a first piano lesson, a trial piano lesson with a prospective student, or a meet and 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 and greet mini lesson (definitely a low pressure and friendly name for our first meeting!).

This will help you improve your piano teaching and gain confidence from Lesson Day 1.

Little boy at his first piano lesson

Read 9 Essentials To Include In A First Piano Lesson

What have you done to improve your piano teaching in the last year?

Comment and share with us what has worked for you — or what kinds of ideas you’re experimenting with right now to improve your piano teaching skills during the coming year!

 

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Melody Payne

Melody Payne

Dr. Melody Payne is a pianist, teacher, and educational resource author who believes that all piano students deserve the best musical experiences possible, in every single lesson. Melody self-publishes pedagogical materials for piano students as well as piano teaching articles and professional development courses for piano teachers. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Music with emphases in music education and piano pedagogy and a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from Louisiana State University, and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music through the Music Teachers National Association. Melody and her husband Greg live in Marion, Virginia, a small town nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, where she teaches children and adults of all ages and abilities in her online piano studio.

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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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