The Modern Musician Show with Colin Thomson

035: Help Students Connect with Music by Teaching Pop with Tim Topham

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Bio:

Tim Topham is an internationally-renowned music educator, piano teacher, writer and presenter.

Tim has 20+ years of experience in education, having taught in the United Kingdom and a number of states of Australia in subjects as varied as music, outdoor education, PE, mathematics and IT.

Through his blog at timtopham.com, Tim regularly inspires over 8000 teachers across the globe with his imaginative teaching tips and ideas.

 

Key Take Aways:

 

  • As a teacher, it is your duty to find out what kind of music will actually help your students to connect with music on their own terms
  • Continually be trying new things in music lessons. You don't have to do everything you hear or read about, but keep trying to implement new concepts and continue on with the things that are working well for you
  • A common misconception is that every little detail of music should be adhered to. This is often not the case when teaching pop music
  • If a student comes to a lesson and wants to play something, it is important to step back and find out what aspect of the song really stands out to them, and then you can teach them that. Sometimes it's little more than a motif or riff
  • Because the majority of music written these days is entirely chord-based, it makes sense to take this approach to learning piano, and especially learning pop songs
  • When you're first starting to build a following online, provide quality, relevant, and free content
  • Don't ignore analytics if you're trying to build a following. Notice what's working, and do more of that
  • Don't neglect to collect your fan's email address immediately as soon as you start to build your audience
  • The best way to collect your fan's email address is to give away something for free in exchange for the email

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    Special Offer for Modern Musician Listeners:

    50% off PianoFlix: Teaching Pop Piano if you use the code MODERNMUSICIANCO at checkout!

     

    Recommended Books:

    "Performance Success" by Don Greene

    "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss

    "Content Machine" by Dan Norris

     

    Learn more about Tim Topham:

    TimTopham.com

    Twitter: @timjtopham

    FaceBook

     

     

    Quote of the Day:

    "The way to create art is to burn and destroy

    ordinary concepts and to substitute them

    with new truths that run down from the top of the head

    and out of the heart"

    -Henry Charles Bukowski

     

     

    If you would like to be considered for featured artist, email music submissions [email protected]

     

    Shownotes: modernmusician.co/035

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    The Modern Musician Show with Colin ThomsonBy Colin Thomson interviews musicians and entertainers like Bryan Callen and Bobby Owsinski , to get advice on what musicians should be doing today. Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, and Justin Timberlake should also come on the show, as well as Taylor Swift, Justin