You know I love art, right?

Do you also know I love children’s books?  And I obviously love the piano.

Put them all together, and what have you got?!?!

Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum by Robert Andrew Parker

The children’s picture book follows the childhood of Art Tatum, one of the all-time greats of jazz piano.  Art Tatum had very bad vision that only got worse with age.  The book tells how, because of this, he loved playing around on his family’s piano.  As he grew up, he had many opportunities to play for people- first at his church, in his school, at cafes, and soon he became a fixture in local bars.  Shortly after that, he was asked to play for a radio station, five days a week.  As the book says, he soon became famous for his ability to “play one song and then weave another song in and out and through it.”

I especially love the above picture, as I have my own tiny pianist at home.

I confess, I did not know who Art Tatum was when I picked up this book.  But I have since been listening and watching videos of him on YouTube.  And I am in LOVE.

Don’t you just hate it when you discover something or somebody you wished you had discovered long ago?  I’m glad to have found Art Tatum.  How about you?

Could there be anything better than after a week of practice, a student comes to lessons and says,

I want to play this piece for the next recital!

Well, I’m sure you could think of a dozen better things, but this one is pretty good, wouldn’t you say?

Enter the fabulous giveaway HERE

If a student seems daunted by a piece that moves around a lot, this is what I do.

I have the student do a “dry practice,” where she simply moves her hands to the new positions.  She doesn’t play a note- the goal is to just get her hands where they belong.

Then, to make it really fun, I time the student!  The goal being, of course, that she will improve with each “dry run.”

It’s a sneaky way to get my students to drill.  They love trying to beat previous times, so they’re willing to do this over and over. 

It’s also a very effective self-esteem boost.  The second time is generally always faster than the painfully slow first time.  And the third much faster than the second.  I always point out how much they improved.

Once they feel comfortable moving their hands, we introduce the notes.

I hope you’re having a fantastic weekend!  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway HERE.

And visit our sponsors there ————->

I made a mistake.  I had a teenage student who was involved in many different musical instruments and organizations.  I assumed she also had plenty of piano experience.  (My bad for not asking clearer questions).  So I assigned really really really hard pieces.  The stuff that you play only after years of lessons.

And guess what?  She rose to the challenge.  She learned those hard pieces.  And played them beautifully, I might add. 

It wasn’t until months after she started taking lessons that I somehow realized she only had (maybe) 6 months of piano experience.  My first thought was to scale back, and give her easier pieces.  But I stopped myself from that instinct.  I continued to give her hard pieces and she continued to rise to the challenge.

No doubt, her other musical experience helped her learn these pieces so well.  But, don’t you think that maybe she also did so well because I expected it of her?   I think when we expect the best, we get it.  I don’t advise teachers to go out and assign ridiculously advanced pieces for all beginning students, but I do think taking risks and pushing students can have great advantages.  As long as we never push too hard, of course.

Enter to win the giveaway here

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that rhythm is one of my HUGEST (not sure if that’s a word) issues with students.  Maybe it’s because it was a huge issue for me when I was a beginner, so I end up teaching it poorly.  Or maybe it’s a huge issue for lots of beginners.  I really don’t know.

But what I DO know is that I have a fantastic new tool to help students UNDERSTAND and FEEL rhythm.  Have you heard of Animusic DVD’s?

These creative DVD’s use animation and music together to teach some very important concepts. Since rhythm is my current issue, let’s talk about that.

I use the above video or the one below during lessons. I have the student try and find a beat, and then nod her head, clap her hands, or tap her feet to that beat.

The Animusic DVD’s come with a list of Teacher Tips for each video. Some of the items on the teacher’s tips for these videos are: Can you maintain the pulse in your foot while clapping one of the other rhythms in your hand? Can you find the underlying pulse of this piece? Does the use of rests, or silence, in the music make it difficult to find the pulse?

You can also use Animusic DVD’s to help students learn about pitch, melody, dynamics, tempo, mood and expression, and more. These DVD’s are a great thing to have in your studio, especially for use during the summer, when you have time to pay attention to more fun things! For more information, or to buy a DVD (currently on SALE!  Woo hoo!), click on the Animusic button in the center column of this page.

Have you planned what you’re doing this summer yet?

I hope you’re having a great weekend!  My recital was yesterday.  I’ll tell you all about it next week.

Also, stay tuned next week for another great giveaway (have you checked out this week’s fantastic giveaway?), a really awesome tool for teaching rhythm, and a fun tip for teaching crescendos.

And be sure to visit the sponsors of Piano Teacher’s Retreat in the middle column.

I hope your weekend has started out perfectly lovely.  Enjoy your day and…

…be sure to visit Piano Teacher’s Retreat’s sponsors over there!

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Are any of my readers in Salt Lake?  I’m dying to learn some duets.  If you live in the Salt Lake City area and are interested, please email me at pianoteacherblog@yahoo.com.

Go check out an awesome giveaway for a Composers Activity Pak at Laura Lowe’s Piano Studio Blog!  Just click here!