All Keyed Up

Melissa Martiros, Dean of Music at Anna Maria College and Founding Director of OpporTUNEity, discusses her community outreach work. She speaks about her organization, which strengthens the ties between post-secondary music programs and their local communities while promoting the use of music as a means to engage undergraduate students in educational programs that emphasize social change. She also speaks more broadly about the topic of community outreach.

Dennis Alexander, one of North America's most prolific and popular composers of educational piano music for students at all levels, discusses composing pedagogical piano music. He discusses his own compositions and offers some thoughts on the field of pedagogical piano music in general, as well as advice for aspiring composers.

Nicola Cantan, creator of Vibrant Music Teaching, speaks about teaching composition to piano students. She addresses the topic generally while also highlighting some specific composition resources offered by Vibrant Music Teaching. Topics discussed include the pedagogical benefits of composition, creative vs. non-creative approaches, integrating composition and improvisation with other elements of piano teaching, micro-compositions, long-term sequencing of composition curriculums, and teaching lyric-writing to students of all skill levels.

Leila Viss, author of The iPad Piano Studio, editor for the American Music Teacher Magazine, and host of the Key Ideas podcast, discusses some of the characteristic features of dynamic piano studios. Topics discussed include apps, backing tracks, varied repertoire, playing piano in bands, improvisation, the Effective Practice Tracker, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation.

Christina Whitlock, independent studio owner, professor, pianist, adjudicator, and host of the Beyond Measure Podcast, comes on to join in a pep talk for piano teachers. The goal of this episode is to help make piano teachers feel great about the work that they do! Christina discusses some optimistic ways of reframing our thinking around some elements of piano teaching that may pose challenges, and she also discusses some positive elements of piano teaching that may go unnoticed that could perhaps become more of a focus.

Dr. Mario Ajero, internationally recognized authority in incorporating technology in piano pedagogy, speaks about some ways that piano teachers can broaden the focus of their lessons to teach without an over-reliance on note-reading. He also addresses some ways that technology can help to that effect. Topics discussed include learning by video, rote teaching, playing by ear, Piano Maestro, pop music pedagogy, and Home Concert Xtreme.

Dr. Scott Price, internationally renowned expert on music and autism, offers some advice for piano teachers on how to most productively and successfully work with students with autism. Topics discussed include person vs. identity first language, defining autism, avoiding abstractions, lesson planning strategies, technique, and visual learning.

Dr. Leah Claiborne discusses her scholarship on pedagogical piano music by black composers and more broadly speaks about the process of how piano teachers can diversify their repertoire and students. If listeners are interested in learning more about Leah, she has many webinars and articles at Clavier Companion.

In this episode, she discusses many resources that piano teachers might consider investigating in their attempts to diversity their studios:

- Teaching Pieces by Florence Price
- Portraits in Jazz by Valerie Capers
- Anthologies of Black Women Composers by Hildegard Publishing
- Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora by William Chapman Nyaho

Julie Knerr Hague and Katherine Fisher, the authors of Piano Safari, discuss the pedagogical thinking behind this very popular method book series. Topics discussed include sequencing, mapping real world experiences onto musical concepts, the value of learning pieces that de-emphasize note reading in favor of other skills, landmark note reading, building strong fingertips, and general advice for teachers to maximize the use of Piano Safari in their studios.

Geraldine Anello, Broadway music director and pianist, speaks about her transition from a formal classical training to playing shows in a variety of styles. She compares her current teaching philosophy with the one in which she was brought up, and she talks about some stylistic differences between classical and Broadway piano playing that she picked up over the years. Topics discussed include groove and rhythmic emphasis across different styles, effectively playing bass lines, the importance of practicing with recordings, phrasing, and technology. She is also a published poet, having recently released a poetry collection called Naked (Truth).