You know those moments when something just *clicks*? When something suddenly makes sense to you that was confusing before or you make a new connection or you realize you're able to do something you didn't know you could do.

Sometimes we call these a-ha moments or breakthroughs. These are some of my favorite things to observe in my studio: when a student recognizes a new musical concept, makes a new connection, or can do something independently that they couldn't do without help before.

I've been looking back through my journal notes for the 2022-23 school year and reflecting on the a-ha moments and the learning that took place.

In this episode, you'll hear five short stories from my students, 1st grade to 8th grade, taken straight from my teaching journal.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Evernote

Piano Safari Level 1

Faber Piano Adventures Level 2B

Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson

Free Rhythm Pattern Cards

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Summer is a great time to rest, recharge, and work on professional development. This is often when we as music educators attend conferences and workshops, participate in training and certification programs, take summer classes at a local university, and catch up on all the reading we intended to do during the year.

If you've been listening for a while, you know I've shared several book and reading-related episodes in the past:

I talked about Daniel Pink's book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us back in Ep. 003, I shared insights from Keith Sawyer's book, Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity in Ep. 009, and I unpacked Carol Dweck's book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success in Ep. 049.

I also shared a summer reading list for music teachers in Ep. 031 with a few novels and non-music or teaching books, if you're looking for other suggestions.

Today, I'm sharing a curated list of 11 pedagogy-related books for music teachers. Some explore the research on how the brain works, others outline the tenets of effective practicing; some touch on meditation and wellness practices in music teaching and performance, others teach foundational pedagogy principles. Some I've read, and some are on my reading list, but all offer a fresh perspective on the teaching and learning process that I hope will inspire and inform your teaching practice in the year to come.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Ep. 003 - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Ep. 009 - Book review: Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity

Ep. 049 - What Every Music Teacher Should Know About Mindsets: Insights from Carol Dweck's Book

Ep. 031 - A Summer Reading List for Music Teachers

The Musician's Toolbox: Thoughts on Teaching and Learning Music (Diane and Nick Petrella)

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

Ep. 038 - The Secrets of Interleaved Practice

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

The Inner Game of Music (Barry Green & W. Timothy Gallwey)

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

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

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

The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness (Gerald Klickstein)

Teaching Music with Purpose (Peter Loel Boonshaft)

The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (Victor L. Wooten)

The Practice of Practice: How to Boost Your Music Skills (Jonathan Harnum)

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

"What just happened?" I asked a 4th-grade student one Friday afternoon.

"I made a mistake," she said, looking down at her hands still resting on the keys.

We talked about that for a minute—how sometimes mistakes happen innocently. Sometimes, a mistake is a way of getting our attention, a way for the body to say to the brain, "Wait! I don't really know this yet."

We listened for mistakes and inherent learning opportunities for the rest of the lesson. We talked about insecure fingers, uncertain rhythms, and risky leaps. We talked about how to practice and prepare these things, develop confidence, and be an observer while practicing at home.

This is the work of actively reframing how we see and respond to mistakes.

Earlier this year, I read The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self by prize-winning pianist and pedagogue William Westney. (I mentioned it back in Ep. 055 as I was reading it.)

As I read this book, I found myself bringing some of these concepts into my studio to study and evaluate them in practice.

In this episode, I want to share some of these practical takeaways: how I'm integrating some of the ideas from Westney's book into my teaching, the questions I'm asking my students these days, and a reflection on how we approach mistakes in the music teaching and learning process.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

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

Ep. 055 - Begin Again: The Case for Experimentation in Your Music Teaching

Are We Learning From Our Mistakes? Insights From William Westney's, "The Perfect Wrong Note"

Piano Pedagogy Research Laboratory at The University of Ottawa

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

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

We've been working a lot on rhythm in the studio this spring.

I've always made an effort to incorporate a rhythm activity into each lesson, but I've found myself being more intentional about this in recent months and becoming more aware of how I teach rhythm and how students develop these skills.

In this episode, I'll share seven ways I'm practicing rhythm in the studio with students from 1st through 12th grade, including several teaching strategies, games, and challenges for those who need something a little more difficult.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Music Learning Theory Rhythm Content Learning Sequence

Rhythm Keeper (Musikal Husky)

An Interview with Samantha Steitz of Musikal Husky (Musician & Co.)

Piano Safari Sight-Reading Cards

Ep. 008 - 10 Creative Ways to Use Rhythm Pattern Cards in Your Teaching

Rhythm Pattern Card Set

Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day (Helen Marlais)

RCM Syllabi

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

"Do you know 'Brave' by Sara Bareilles?" I asked 10-year-old Anthony in a piano lesson one week.

"Yeah," he said.

"Well, I read recently that 'Brave' and [Katy Perry's] 'Roar' have a lot of things in common. What do you think?"

"Huh. I've never really thought about it!" he said.

We listened to both songs a few times and made a list of musical characteristics on the whiteboard. I let Anthony take the lead on what we were listening for—accompaniment style, key, tempo, vocal register, and contour—stepping in to guide the conversation, as needed. Anthony sat at a keyboard in the room, picking out parts of the melody or accompaniment as he listened.

Is this an example of formal or informal learning? Or, is it both?

The context was formal (we were in a school classroom having a private piano lesson) but the genre and learning style were informal (popular music and learning by ear). The learning was intentional (there was an end goal) but the ownership of the experience was something that we shared (we both contributed ideas—I didn't go into the lesson with my mind already made up).

That brings us to an interesting question to ask in our teaching: What makes learning formal or informal? And can it be both? How can we balance formal and informal learning in music education?

That's what we're going to talk about today.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

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

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

I was talking with one of my high school students a few weeks ago about music by women composers.

We were studying "Canoeing" by Amy Beach in the Celebration Series Level 7 Piano Repertoire book, the third piece in her Op. 119 collection, From Six to Twelve for Piano written in 1927.

We listened to a recording of the piece and played through the score. We discussed how the rippling eighth notes between the hands create a sense of paddling, left then right. We talked about Amy Beach's life, marriage, and musical career.

This is how the idea began for studying and learning music by women composers during the month of March, International Women's Month.

In this episode, I'll talk about the composers and scores we'll study over the next four weeks and share a resource list of elementary and intermediate piano music written by women composers that you can reference in your teaching.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Celebration Series Level 7 Piano Repertoire

From Six to Twelve for Piano, Op. 119 (Amy C. Beach)

Album des Enfants, Op. 123 (Cecile Chaminade)

6 petites pièces (Charlotte Sohy)

Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process

Album des Enfants, Op. 126 by Cecile Chaminade

Scenes Enfantines, Op. 92 by Mel. Bonis

Canoeing, Op. 119, No. 3 by Amy Beach

Portraits in Jazz by Valerie Capers

25 Progressive Etudes by Louise Farrenc

Little Gems for Piano (Paula Dreyer)

Interview with Paula Dreyer (Musician & Co.)

Up-Grade! (Pam Wedgwood)

The Old Boatman (Florence Price)

Gifts of Asia (arr. Emilie Lin)

Splattered with Fun! (Glenda Austin)

I'm Not Scared (Nancy Telfer)

Pictures and Beyond, Book 1 and Book 2 (Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee)

At the Piano (Katherine Hoover)

Piano Dreams (Anne Terzibaschitsch)

Cool Piano, Book 1 (Heather Hammond)

Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 1 + Christmas Jazz, Rags, and Blues (Martha Mier)

Enchanted World (Winnie the Pooh) (June Armstrong)

At the Lake (Elvina Truman Pearce)

Very Easy Little Peppers (Elissa Milne)

Higgledy Piggledy Jazz (Elena Cobb)

Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project

Impressions: Suite for Solo Piano (Jennifer Eklund)

The Best of Melody Bober, Book 2 (Melody Bober)

Victress Sessions (Andrea Dow)

A Collection of Florence Price's Piano Teaching Music Vol 1. Beginning Pieces (Florence Price)

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Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

It was 1997.

My piano teacher had just shown us a picture of Belle, Bonne, Sage, a rondeau about love written in the shape of a heart by 15th-century French composer, Baude Cordier.

This signaled the beginning of the annual studio-wide Valentine composition project.

Every year around this time, my piano teacher invited us to write our own piece of music, a "musical Valentine," as she called it. The idea was to not only write an original piece, but gift it to someone—maybe a grandparent, friend, or neighbor—and perform it for them.

We worked on these compositions for several weeks, usually starting right after Winter Break, making a little progress with each lesson so that we had a finished work to perform for someone by Valentine's Day.

This is a story about writing my first Valentine composition project, how I remember the creative process, and how I modified this project for my own studio all these years later.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

Belle, Bonne, Sage (Baude Cordier)

The Valentine Composition Project (free printable)

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

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

What does the beginning of a New Year signify for you? What kind of season do you find yourself in these days?

I recognized recently that I am in a season of learning.

Of course, I am still actively teaching five days a week, but at the same time, I'm reflecting, jotting down stories and realizations at the end of the teaching day—things I'd like to do differently next time or things I didn't plan but observed or participated in that ended up teaching me something as well as my student.

I'm reading and incorporating a few new teaching approaches and testing them out in particular lessons. I'm studying new repertoire and brushing up on my music history to share with my intermediate students this semester. I'm also embracing being a beginner in something outside of music.

This season is marked by experimentation—that desire to try something new, play with it, and study the results. How does it work? How does it feel? What are the benefits and challenges? What will I do differently next time?

Here are four ways I'm embracing experimentation in my music teaching this season.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

A Piano Teacher's Legacy (Richard Chronister)

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

18 Books to Read This Year (2023 Book List)

Book List for Musicians (2023 Edition)

Art Shop

Blackwing Pencils

Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson

Rhythm Keeper, Vol. I (Musikal Husky, Steve Aho & Samantha Steitz)

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

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

As teachers, we spend so much of our time focusing on what our students are learning and discovering. Are they progressing? Are we challenging them enough? Too much? How have they grown in their musicianship this year? What should we focus on in the next few months?

Our students deserve this kind of reflection and planning to guide their learning and promote their continued skill development.

But what about us? Are we progressing? Are we challenged enough? Too much? How have we grown in our musicianship this year? What should we focus on in the next few months?

Taking time to reflect on our teaching practice is an important and necessary part of the teaching-and-learning equation. So today, I'm looking back on all the moments I documented on the podcast this year and sharing seven things I've learned as a music educator.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

The 8 Best Books I Read in 2022

Ep. 044 - What Do You See? The Power of Observation in Music Lessons

Piano Safari Repertoire 1

Ep. 051 - The Pokémon Piano Lesson

Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process

The Post-It app for iPad

Ep. 043 - Rediscovering the Joy of Scavenger Hunts

Ep. 045 - The Blues Composition Project

Ep. 041 - Focus On the Music

18 Books to Read This Year (2022 Book List)

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Carol Dweck)

Ep. 049 - What Every Music Teacher Should Know About Mindsets: Insights Into Carol Dweck's Book

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

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew

Researchers suggest that twenty to thirty percent of teachers in America have moderately high to high levels of burnout (source). Maybe you know the feeling:

Tired, mentally and emotionally.
Distracted and uninspired.
Going through the motions.
Trouble making decisions.

These are warning signs.

Why does this happen? Why do we get burnt out and is there anything we can do about it? Today, I'm sharing five practical things you can do when you feel stressed or burnt out plus a few of my go-to resources.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Burnout: Unlocking the Stress Cycle (Emily Nagoski, Ph.D., Amelia Nagoski, D.M.A)

Overwhelmed? 8 Ways to Overcome It (Think Simple Now)

Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World (Emily P. Freeman)

How to Use Milanote As a Music Educator

FitOn app

Free Batching Worksheet

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

Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew