Creative Piano Pedagogy

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What's the big deal about Ear Training, and what benefit (if any) does it provide to piano students? Music teachers often forget to educate the ear in the same ways we help students develop healthy technique, a sense of rhythm, or reading music. 

In this episode, Elizabeth breaks down Ear Training by defining it and giving practical examples of how educating the ear helps students progress in other musical skills. The episode concludes with an encouragement for teachers with 3 practical tips for using Ear Training with their own students, regardless of the teachers' experience with ear training.
Whether you're new to exploring Ear Training or have been doing it for decades, this episode will leave you feeling encouraged, challenged, and (hopefully) inspired with fresh perspectives and practical tips.

Resources from this episode:
Piano Teachers Book Club closes Sept. 30- save your spot! 

Ear training resources created by Elizabeth:
Dogs at Play- Major/minor Ear Training Printable Activity
Soccer Fields- Printable Intervals on Staff/Piano Keys Activity
Holiday Dogs- Printable Major/minor Ear Training Activity

Other activities:
Interactive Ear training activities (and more) by Berklee
Free Theory, interval, and ear training activities
Blob Chorus free game- a favorite!

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You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
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As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

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When a new preteen student was unsure of what music she even liked, Elizabeth tried something different: she had the student sight-read a stack of new pieces and rate each one like a restaurant critic, choosing 1 to 5 stars. The result? A hesitant student turned into an eloquent critical thinker who begged to do it again the following week. In this episode, Elizabeth breaks down why the activity worked so well and challenges teachers to find similar "ins" through their own students' quirky interests. 

Registration for the Piano Teachers Book Club is open through September — join us for a supportive, curious community of piano teachers reading and discussing together all year long!

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Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
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You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

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After a fantastic summer break and the Piano Teacher Reset Virtual Retreat, the podcast is back and packed with realistic, practical tips to take the pressure off yourself and set a warm, supportive tone in your studio for the upcoming school year!

• Community Updates: Announcing a brand new seasonal format for the Piano Teachers Book Club!
• Warm Welcomes, No Guilt: How to welcome returning students back without negativity 
• Adapting to Transitions: Navigating back-to-school schedule shifts, changes to students' routines, and growing with our ever-changing students as they grow!
• Reviewing & Re-Engaging: Fun tactics for setting students up for year-long success at their first lesson back and using the new free Piano Practice Bingo resource!
• Redefining Your Role: Let's shift away from "manufactured excitement" to embrace your role as a consistent coach, champion, and tone-setter.

Book Club Sign Up

CPP Membership for Free Member Resources

Online Shop & Digital Downloads

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Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
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You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

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It is common for the independent studio teacher to be quite isolated. We have to be intentional about creating our communities and connecting with our colleagues, and often our colleagues also include our former teachers and past students (or current students!). In our technology-heavy world where we are "connecting" with people behind a screen, it can be easy to tear each other down rather than build each other up, especially in the pursuit of a bigger platform. Join Elizabeth and Tara as they discuss how we can build up our colleagues rather than tear them down. At the end of this brief episode, we present you with a challenge and we would love to hear about the results!

Links mentioned in this episode:

Piano Teacher Reset Registration
Join Creative Piano Pedagogy for free

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
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You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

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Improvisation intimidates a lot of classically trained piano teachers, not because we lack musicianship, but because we assume we need to sound brilliant on day one. Dr. Louie Hehman joins me to break that myth wide open and to show how improvisation can start with the simplest materials: two chords, a familiar bass line, or even five black keys. We talk about why “wrong notes” are not disasters, how recovery is a skill you can teach, and how lowering the pressure actually raises the joy at the piano. 

We dig into what it looks like to teach students whose skills grow unevenly, like the child with an off-the-charts ear but slower reading. Instead of forcing a one-track method, we explore how to use a student’s strengths as the pathway to reading, theory, and technique. We talk “Yes And” pedagogy: honoring Bach and Beethoven while also embracing jazz, crossover listening, student interests, and the playful experiments that keep music alive in the 21st century. If you want more confident piano improvisation, stronger musicianship, and a studio where creativity is normal, hit play and then share this with a teacher friend. 

Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what’s one small improv habit you can try this week?

• Louie's recommended jazz book for piano teachers (affiliate link)- https://amzn.to/3RRJJAK Skills for the Modern Pianist
• Join the Piano Teacher Reset Waitlist! 

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
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Follow on YouTube

You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

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Elizabeth and Tara share practical ways to teach older neurodivergent piano students with more respect, less fear, and better results. We focus on clear expectations, collaborative communication, and adult-appropriate materials so teens and adults leave lessons feeling confident instead of overwhelmed.

If you want more inclusive teaching strategies for ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other learning differences, this one will leave you with scripts and next steps you can use immediately. Subscribe, share with a teacher friend, and leave a review so more piano teachers can find these tools!

--> If you have a teaching question or topic you'd like us to feature on the podcast, we'd love to hear from you! Send us an email or contact us here. 

Links
-check out some of our favorite piano books for older teen/adult students
-create a free Creative Piano Pedagogy account and check out the freebies
-join the waitlist for the virtual summer retreat- The Piano Teacher Reset!

If you enjoy the podcast, you can support us with Buy Me A Coffee a monthly or one-time donation to help keep it going. Any amount helps encourage and further our mission of providing practical resources for piano teachers!

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
Follow on Facebook
Follow on Instagram
Follow on YouTube

You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

Send us Fan Mail

Piano teaching gets a lot easier once you stop treating every missed practice session like a personal insult! I’m joined by Dr. Christina Mathis, founder and director of Carey Music Academy at William Carey University, to talk about what it looks like to teach with infectious joy and humor while still honoring the reality of busy schedules, neurodivergent learners, adult beginners, and stressed-out college students.

Christina shares how she helps students build sustainable practice habits, stay creative when life is packed, and find joy in the process, not just the “big moments” like festivals, exams, and performances. We also talk about human capacity and boundaries, including the hidden cost of “yes” when students stack commitments, scholarships, sports, and theater. As pedagogues, we want to ensure that students are enjoying their lessons rather than create environments where students approach lessons with dread and anxiety, and sometimes that means we have to check our egos at the door.  

If you’re looking for real-life music education strategies that still produce strong musicianship, this fun and engaging conversation will meet you right where you teach.

Subscribe, share this with a fellow teacher, and leave a review so more piano educators can find the show! 

Links:
Learn more about Dr. Christina Mathis and her podcast here!

Follow Dr. Christina Mathis on Instagram!

Check out our new Member Resources here!

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
Follow on Facebook
Follow on Instagram
Follow on YouTube

You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

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Awareness is a start, but it’s not the finish line. Tara Mock joins me to unpack three words we hear constantly in music education and piano pedagogy right now: autism awareness, autism acceptance, and accessibility. From there, we move into what accessible teaching actually looks like for neurodivergent piano students and for learners with invisible disabilities. 

Tara shares lived perspective around Tourette syndrome and the complicated reality of concert etiquette, judging processes, and policies that unintentionally exclude. The takeaway is simple but demanding: accessibility is not an option, and we can keep learning by asking better questions, listening to families, and staying skeptical of miracle solutions.

✨ Subscribe for more conversations on neurodiversity, inclusive piano teaching, ADHD, dyslexia, meltdowns, and accessible music education, and if this helped you, share it with a teacher friend and leave us a review! What’s one small change you could make this month to increase accessibility in your studio?

Links:
Create a free Member Account to access the freebies in the Member Resource Library! 

Last call for Spring Book Club! Join us and read Bright Not Broken together!

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
Follow on Facebook
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Follow on YouTube

You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

Send us Fan Mail

Recital season can bring out the best in a studio and the most stress in our students. We’re taking a fresh, practical look at performances, festivals, and adjudications with one guiding question: does this experience help a student leave feeling joy, momentum, and pride in their music, or does it pile on fear that makes them want to quit? I share how I decide when an adjudicated event is a great fit and when it is simply not worth the anxiety, and you’ll also hear my perspective after more than two decades of adjudicating. We wrap up with an encouragement for end-of-year lessons and how to keep the joy in music making.

From today's episode:
Last chance to join the Spring Piano Teachers Book Club- there's room for you!
The Repertoire List we love (with ratings/motivation)
Join our Free Membership to access free resources!
Carnegie Hall Kids- great music games/quizzes!

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
Follow on Facebook
Follow on Instagram
Follow on YouTube

You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast! 

Send us Fan Mail

What if the real breakthroughs in your piano studio have less to do with scales and more to do with the space between the notes—how we set boundaries, model calm, teach appropriate social skills and communication, and design lessons that students can actually navigate? 

We start with the gap most teachers feel but rarely name: students arrive with different developmental ages than their birthdates suggest. That mismatch can make a brilliant nine-year-old look like a distracted preschooler unless we plan for social-emotional learning. You’ll hear how a simple routine (paired with clear gestures) builds delayed gratification, listening, and respect. Along the way, we share stories—from the unforgettable iPad-in-the-microwave moment to quiet wins where consistency and kindness changed the arc of a lesson.

We also announce fresh resources to support your growth:
-a free member portal with a growing library of digital tools (click "Join Now" at the top menu)
-spring book club of "Bright Not Broken" to better understand twice-exceptional students
-a summer cohort of Adaptive Piano Pedagogy 101
-new St. Patrick's Day themed activities for lessons
-brand new sacred sheet music by Elizabeth for Lent

If you’re ready to move from firefighting to foresight, this is your roadmap to proactive teaching that protects creativity, honors neurodiversity, and gets more music made.

Support the show

Subscribe to our email list here so you won’t miss future courses, freebies, teacher events and more.

Love the show? Buy us a coffee and support the podcast.

Let's stay in touch!
On the website/blog
Follow on Facebook
Follow on Instagram
Follow on YouTube

You can find all of our favorite repertoire and teaching tools on the Amazon Storefront (affiliate link)
Questions or suggestions? Send Elizabeth an email:
[email protected]
As an Amazon Affiliate, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through our links. Thank you for helping support the podcast!