All Keyed Up

Dorla Aparicio speaks about the nuts and bolts of running a thriving group lesson program in a piano studio. She speaks about determining appropriate rates, marketing strategies, piano camps, finding repertoire, and the benefits students receive from group instruction. She offers a variety of resources to help piano teachers with structuring their group lessons, from freebies to teacher training workshops to sheet music, all of which are available at her website.

Jerald Simon speaks about motivating students to feel passionate about music theory concepts. In this interview, Jerald speaks about many of the resources he offers to help to this effect. These resources are available at his website and at Amazon.

Courtney Crappell speaks about some of the specific topics associated with teaching students of today's generation, sometimes referred to as Generation Z. He discusses student vs. teacher-centered learning, goal-oriented versus process-oriented approaches, how the presence of free Youtube piano tutorials affects piano teaching, and, paradoxically, some of the risks of overgeneralizing based on age and ignoring other aspects of identity and individual variation among students.

Becki Laurent speaks about her work at JoyTunes and the educational value of the Piano Maestro app. She also offers tips for teachers to maximize their use of Piano Maestro in their studios.

Flo Arnold, owner and co-author of Pianimals, speaks about the story and pedagogical philosophy behind the popular method book.

Misha Stefanuk speaks about teaching students to play convincingly in a variety of styles, his jazz piano exercise books, and his bestselling easy piano arrangements. In the episode, Misha takes us through some of the exercises from his book “Jazz Piano Lessons.” You can access sheet music for the exercises he discusses here. You can see more of his publications on his Sheet Music Plus and Mel Bay pages.

Chrissy Ricker speaks about her teaching resources, easy piano arrangements of classical and popular pieces, and her compositions.

Ariel Weiss discusses some of the major concepts from Alexander Technique that help pianists play with less tension and more fluidity, power and expressivity. She offers a weekly Zoom masterclass for musicians on Fridays at 12PM EST (Zoom link here), and she hosts a Facebook group called Move Free, Play Free.

Orli Shaham speaks about her Bach Yard series, as well as her experiences teaching at the Juilliard School.

Doreen Hall speaks about her book “The Ultimate Preschool Piano Activities Book: Complete Guide to Hands-On Preschool Piano Teaching.”