Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning

One of the things I love about teaching is that we can draw on many disciplines to make our work better—art, psychology, learning theories, and even neuroscience. Recently, I’ve been reading about what brain research can tell us about practicing and how we learn, and it’s fascinating.

Welcome back to our 2-part series on practicing.

In part 1, we talked about the art of practicing. I shared what I’m learning from Madeline Bruser’s book, The Art of Practicing, and how I’m carrying these concepts and strategies into my practice sessions and studio.

In this episode, part 2, we’ll explore Molly Gebrian’s book, Learn Faster, Perform Better. This book is all about the neuroscience of practicing: how we learn, process, and retain information. If you’ve been reading along with us in the Musician & Co. Book Club, you likely have some insights of your own, but I wanted to share what stood out to me and how it’s impacting my practicing and my teaching.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music From the Heart (Madeline Bruser)

Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing (Molly Gebrian)

Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)

Sign up for the Lunch & Learn: Practicing Workshop on 11/10 (it’s free!)

Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume 1 (J.S. Bach)

Ep. 038 - The Secrets of Interleaved Practice: What We Can Learn From Cognitive Science

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

This fall, I read two books about practicing: The first is Madeline Bruser’s, The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart. The second is Molly Gebrian’s 2024 release, Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician's Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing.

Art and science. Because practicing requires both.

This is part 1 of a 2-part series about practicing and what I’m learning and applying from both books.

In this episode, part 1, we’ll talk about the art of practicing. I’ll share what I’m learning from Madeline Bruser’s book and how I’m carrying these concepts and strategies into my practice sessions and studio.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music From the Heart (Madeline Bruser)

Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing (Molly Gebrian)

Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)

Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume 1 (J.S. Bach)

The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (William Westney)

Ep. 060 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts.

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings.

It was about this time last year when I got a panicked email from a parent: “Jack broke his left wrist this week. What does this mean for piano? He’s in a cast.”

Has this ever happened to you? Some parents may assume that lessons need to be paused during this time. I mean, they can’t play with only one hand… or can they?

The answer is yes, and there’s more and more one-handed repertoire available. With a broken foot, we can focus on repertoire that doesn’t use the pedal, or they can learn to pedal with their left foot for a few weeks.

But more importantly, what I want to convey to parents (and students) is that playing is only one facet of musicianship. There are so many other things we do in lessons, so many other skills we’re working to develop. It reminds me of something Frances Clark once said, “Teach the student first, the music second, and the piano third.”

Today, I’m sharing a list of nine lesson activities you can do with a broken arm. Some of these are specific to piano, but some are relevant no matter what instrument you teach. I hope the next time you find yourself in a situation like this, you’ll have just what you need to continue learning and making music together.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!

Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day (Helen Marlais)

Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1 (Samantha Steitz & Steve Aho)

Ep. 059 - 7 Ways to Practice Rhythm

Ep. 026 - My Favorite Aural Skills Games + Activities

Ep. 085 - Everyone Can Improvise

Ep. 083 - Bernstein and Bill Evans

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

Learning to play the piano isn’t just about learning repertoire pieces. It’s about developing a set of keyboard skills that lets you make music anywhere, with anyone, in any style. Technique, performance, and sight-reading are part of it, but so are harmonization, transposition, chord knowledge, and voice-leading. It’s more than the ability to perform what’s on the page; it’s understanding how the music is made.

In this episode, I’ll share why keyboard skills matter for students of all ages and a few strategies I’m using in my studio to build them into lessons from the very first year of study.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!

RCM Piano Syllabus

Piano Safari Repertoire Book 1

Diversions (Juan Cabeza)

Piano Safari Friends

Piano Safari Sight-Reading Cards

Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day (Helen Marlais)

Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1 (Samantha Steitz & Steve Aho)

Ep. 085 - Everyone Can Improvise

Through the Windowpane (Chee-Hwa Tan)

A Child’s Garden of Verses (Chee-Hwa Tan)

Free download: 12 Variations on Diversion 12 (Juan Cabeza)

Create First! Duet (Forrest Kinney)

Free download: 27 Easy Chord Progressions (Tim Topham)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

When I was in grad school, I took an elective class on Improvisation. I remember shuffling into the 3rd-floor classroom that first day, pulling a blue chair into the semicircle like everyone else, unfolding the desk and preparing to take notes.

Everyone was quiet. There was a palpable uncertainty among the group—all classical musicians by training. When had we ever been asked to improvise? No one wanted to be put on the spot.

We started by talking about where to start with improvisation. “Improvisation is something we can all do,” our professor, Dr. Christopher Azzara began. “We’re born improvisers.”

The challenge sometimes is trusting that creative process. Trusting that we have something interesting and musical to say.

Improvisation is a skill like anything else; it can be learned and developed. Of course, there’s safety in writing it down, but learning the fundamentals of improvising and giving yourself time to experiment and practice this can be really fulfilling, especially in teaching.

Today, I’m sharing a few simple ways to build improvisation into your teaching practice in meaningful ways, even if it’s new to you. You’ll learn what improvisation is and how to get started, how to find inspiration and musical ideas, and activities to do with your students in lessons. I’ll also share a few examples and recordings from my studio recently.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!

Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, Book 1 (Azzara & Grunow)

A Systematic Introduction to Improvisation on the Pianoforte (Czerny)

Piano Safari Repertoire Book 1

Ep. 066 - A Winter Improvisation Prompt for Elementary Piano Students

Piano Safari Repertoire Book 2

Lyric Preludes in Romantic Style (William Gillock)

“Chromatic Monochrome” in Moving Pictures (Naoko Ikeda)

Ep. 021 - How to Use Praise With Intention

Ep. 036 - Let’s Talk About Improvising

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

Earlier this month, I hosted my 14th studio piano recital. There’s always so much that goes into planning and preparing for an event like this:

Choosing repertoire
Booking the venue
Polishing memory
Emailing parents
Practicing “piano bows”
Coordinating with the facilities manager and the piano tuner
Borrowing percussion instruments from the music teacher
Scheduling duet and ensemble rehearsals
Finalizing and printing programs
Planning a reception

We spend months learning the music and practicing performing. What happens if you play a wrong note or miss a key change? What happens if you forget the repeat or play the first ending twice?

We discuss arm movement and phrase shapes, articulation, and projection, and how it feels and sounds different in the big theater vs. the classroom where we have our lessons. We listen and observe.

Today, I’m sharing my own recap and reflection on this year’s recital—how it went, what I learned, what I observed, and how it’s shaping my teaching practice for the year ahead.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: some of the links in this episode are affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase through any of them, I will earn a small commission. This helps support the podcast and allows me to continue creating free content. Thank you for your support!

Ep. 070 - The 3-Month Recital Plan

Ep. 064 - How I Plan a Year of Student Repertoire

Circus Sonatinas (Chee-Hwa Tan)

Through the Windowpane and A Child’s Garden of Verses (Chee-Hwa Tan)

The Simpsons Theme

Celebrated Lyrical Solos, Book 1 and Celebrated Virtuosic Solos, Book 5 (Robert Vandall)

Inspired Piano Teaching (Marvin Blickenstaff)

Piano Safari Repertoire Level 2

“Criss Cross” (Florence Price)

Musikal Husky

Ep. 081 - Celebrating Women in Music: An Inside Look at Our Studio Informances

Ep. 077 - A New Approach to Teaching Group Classes

Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned From Hosting a Musical Informance

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

It starts simply. Two blocked jazz chords with I-V in the bass. And then the vocalist comes in:

“Twenty-four hours can go so fast. You look around, the day has passed…”

This is Leonard Bernstein’s song “Some Other Time” with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, written for the 1944 musical, On the Town. It’s about three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York City who meet three women before leaving for war. Four characters perform this song (in the stage version), hoping to catch up some other time, but knowing they may never see each other again.

I first heard this song a few weeks ago on Bill McGlaughlin’s weeknight radio show, Exploring Music. We’ve been listening to this show for over 16 years—we have it on while we cook and eat dinner.

A few weeks ago, he did a series called “Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace).” Nestled in the middle of the Wednesday night program, he paired Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” with jazz pianist Bill Evans’ improvised solo piano recording, “Peace Piece.”

I was captivated.

I got up from the dinner table and went to the piano to find the two chords by ear, playing along gently with the recording.

Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes of these two pieces of music—exploring how they’re made, what they have in common, and how hearing them played back to back inspired a listening and improvisation project in my intermediate-level studio class last month.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

“Some Other Time” (Bernstein)

Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin

“Peace Piece” (Bill Evans)

The Profound Impact of Peace Piece – Bill Evans Time Remembered Documentary Film

“Flamenco Sketches” (Miles Davis)

“It’s Been a Long, Long Time” (Harry James)

“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” (Wall-E)

“It Only Takes a Moment” (Wall-E)

Ep. 042 - What Does It Mean to Be a Teacher-Facilitator?

Get a free 15-minute consult with me

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

Some of you may not know this about me, but I’m a musician and an artist.

I always loved art as a kid—from finger painting in my blue smock at my Little Tikes easel to coloring and tracing to the pastel class I took one summer. For a while, my answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was “An artist or illustrator.”

Music was always there, too—singing and playing the piano, learning letter names as I learned the alphabet, and later, accompanying, teaching, performing, and arranging.

At some point, I set art aside to focus on music. I still did craft projects from time to time, but I didn’t consider myself an artist.

Then, during the pandemic, I found myself drawn to it again. In between online lessons, baking Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and reading through Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, I watched online painting tutorials. I practiced mixing colors in an art app on my iPad. I ordered supplies and started painting tiny acrylic landscapes.

Now, five years later, I have a dedicated art table in my home office. I have a somewhat regular artistic practice alongside my music work. I’ve found that painting is a different facet of my creativity, a new form of artistic expression. And I have to say, it makes me come alive—to embrace my creativity as a whole, to invest in multiple aspects of my creative self at once.

And I’m not the only one.

From Felix Mendelssohn to Arnold Schoenberg, Joni Mitchell to Miles Davis, many musicians have found painting to be another form of artistic expression that complements and informs their musical side.

In this episode, I’m exploring what art is teaching me about music. Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, I hope this inspires you to think about all the different facets of your creative self—and how to embrace them in your work.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.

Songs Without Words (Mendelssohn)

On the Spiritual in Art (1910) (Kandinsky)

Pictures At an Exhibition (Mussorgsky)

Clair de Lune (Debussy)

“October,” Lyric Preludes (Gillock)

Piano Mastery (1915) (Brower)

“Waltz for Miles,” Portraits in Jazz (Capers)

“Rainbow Colors,” Piano Safari Repertoire 2 (Hague)

Prelude in C, Op. 11, No. 1 (Scriabin)

My artistic process

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (Mason Currey)

Join the Musician & Co. Book Club (it’s free!)

On Developing a Daily Ritual: Insights From Mason Currey’s Book

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

March is Women’s History Month and by extension, Women in Music Month—an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate women’s contributions to our field.

As a teacher, I love finding ways to honor and celebrate things like this with my students. A few years ago, we did a studio-wide blues composition project (see Ep. 045) during the month of February, Black History Month.

Then, there was the year I created a 4-week study unit for one of my high school students focused on women composers. In Ep. 057, I talked about the composers and scores we were planning to study and shared a resource list of elementary and intermediate piano music written by women composers that you can reference in your teaching.

This year, we’re celebrating Women in Music Month with a series of musical informances. In this episode, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re preparing including how I’m structuring the events, how we’re highlighting women’s contributions to the field, expectations I have for my students, and ways we can include the audience in the process.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.

Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project

Ep. 057 - Women in Music Month in the Studio

The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory (2022), ed. J. Daniel Jenkins

Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned from Hosting a Musical Informance

Democracy and Education (1916/1997), John Dewey

Musical Informance Planning Guide

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can work together:

1️⃣ Need fresh teaching ideas? Schedule a quick 25-min. call and we’ll brainstorm on a topic of your choice. Build an idea bank that you can pull from in the months to come.

2️⃣ Have questions about teaching or managing your music career? Book a 60-min call and get personalized advice, creative ideas & step-by-step strategies on up to 3-4 teaching/business topics.

3️⃣ Develop the skills and strategies you need to plan the year, refine your teaching methods, and manage your time more effectively with a suite of online courses and professional development trainings

When you think about practicing, what do you picture?

Maybe you think about your instrument in the living room or your favorite practice room at school. Maybe you picture your studio with morning light streaking across the floor or in the evening with a few lamps casting a cozy glow. 

Certainly, practicing happens in all of these spaces. But it can also happen at your desk, in the car, at the breakfast table, on a walk, in a carrel at the library, or in a classroom where no instrument is present. 

How? Because practicing is more than the mechanics of playing an instrument. Practicing involves all the different components of musicianship—many of which can be practiced and developed away from your instrument.

It all starts by thinking a little more creatively about what practicing can look like. 

In this episode, you’ll learn about the importance of thinking in music plus 14 practical ways to practice away from your instrument (for students, teachers, and music professionals alike).

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through some of these links.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport)

The Music Man (1962)

Speaking the Piano: Reflections on Learning and Teaching (Susan Tomes)

The Gordon Institute for Music Learning

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens (Benedict Carey)

Ep. 023 - How to Practice Efficiently in 30 Minutes Or Less

Ep. 039 - The Secrets of Interleaved Practice: What We Can Learn From Cognitive Science

Ep. 60 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew