You Need a Website for Your Teaching Studio. Here's Why.

A few years ago I was interviewing a new student and her mom and the interview was going quite well. Towards the end of the meeting I asked if there was anything else they needed to know about my musical activities. The mom replied "No. I've read up everything to know about you online and I know all about your musical activities. That's why we're sitting here in your studio."

As it turned out, I accepted this student and she has been studying with me for the last two years. But what that really hit me in that interview was just how savvy parents can be. They know the lay of the land on the internet, they know how to navigate online services, register their kids in activities, find information about people and services, and Google things that they don't know.

Which is why I'm quite concerned about the long-term prospects of music teachers who don't feel that it's important to have an online presence, and are leery of spending the time or money to set up a studio website.

I still recall a workshop that my friend Nikki Loney (co-founder of the Full Voice series) gave in Burlington a while back. Nikki doesn't remember saying this, but I always take notes in workshops so that I remember important off-the-cuff things that clinicians say and then forget afterwards. What Nikki said that had such a huge impact on me:

If they can't find you on Google, you don't exist.

In the marketplace of today's business world (and teaching piano, voice or any other instrument, like it or not, is part of it), you need an online presence and social proof in order to show that you actually exist. Nothing too complex, just a good website, a mention here or there, a bio for a festival, a few concert programs for starters. A blog or a YouTube channel are even better because you can churn out a steady stream of fresh content which works well for building a captive audience and search engine optimization. A Facebook presence is also worthwhile if that's where your market is. 

I experienced a frustrating moment when my studio reached capacity this summer. The usual studios I send students to were also mostly full, and I feel it's important to send prospective students to excellent teachers in my area (especially ones integrating The Royal Conservatory's Certificate Program). Taking a quick look at some of the teachers in my area on a few online directories, I hadn't heard of them before and decided to Google them for more info. In most cases, I came up with nothing. If you choose to appear on online directories only without any other web presence, that can present a problem if parents can't find any other information when the Google you. They might assume you've moved, retired, or passed away. Either way they'll look for someone else that has a more substantial presence before they decide to call or email anyone. Or they'll look for the larger online presence of a music school and what their integrated programs might have to offer.

As a former President of Hamilton-Halton ORMTA, I discovered an interesting and potentially challenging situation with individual studios. Many teachers in the area who had been successful for many years were experiencing falling numbers and had difficulty attracting students in their area. At the same time, many teachers in the same area who were able to leverage their online presence had studios which were completely full.

If you're in a city or suburb of a city, I strongly feel that the old neighborhood piano teacher business model (advertising through bulletins put up at churches, supermarkets, and community centres) is no longer entirely viable, and in order to succeed in 2018 and beyond, you need to be able to attract students from much farther away in order to fill your studio. Once you can fill your studio, you'll also be more justified in raising your rates year over year. I've recently talked to several teachers over the last while who have not raised their rates in ten years because of the fear of neighborhood competition and a declining market.

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One of my major goals for the coming year is to educate music teachers about how important it is to have an online presence and what it can do for you. This summer I gave a workshop at The Royal Conservatory's Summer Summit 2018 in Toronto entitled Creative Approaches to Technology in the Teaching Studio. This workshop arose out of a reticence and fear I had noticed among many music teachers regarding technology, and a desire to explain why it is important as a precursor to taking first steps in this field. Having a working knowledge of technology for me was as simple as writing a blog, running a studio website, and using cool tools to create interesting lesson experiences for my students. Over the next few weeks I'll be fleshing out many of the ideas from my Summer Summit presentation.

Photo by Ira Selendripity on Unsplash

 

Pedagogical Tools for Score Reading

One of the most useful reading skills for working pianists can also be the most terrifying. Billie Whittaker in Good Company talks about the basics of score-reading and some pedagogical concepts behind it. She also references Brenda Wristen's Pedagogical tools for preparing and performing open scores and the large number of scores available on ChoralWiki. Billie's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Score Preparers is very useful for those starting out with the skill. Here they are in a paraphrased form:

• identify unisons
• write in functional or root/quality chord symbols
• use arrows
• write numbers between staves
• group pitches in one hand on the score
• use brackets to indicate similar repeated intervals or chords
• identify voice crossings

In particular, I've found that writing functional or root/quality chord symbols is a simple but useful way of keeping your harmonic grounding in a sea of clefs.

Tackling the legendary Advanced Keyboard Skills class at Eastman was my first foray into score reading. The book that we used to learn the basics of the skill was Morris and Ferguson's Preparatory Exercises in Score Reading. The C clef exercises in particular were a game changer for us once we got the hang of the reading skills. For the course's final exam, we had to play the Exposition of Mozart's Magic Flute Overture from full score.

Little did I know just how useful the skill would be over the coming years, especially once I got into the new opera field. On many occasions during the workshop process, the only score available was the full one, which made score-reading skills absolutely essential.

How have you used score-reading superpowers in the profession? Leave a comment and tell us your stories!

Enhanced Repertoire Features are Coming to My Music Staff

Burlington, Ontario-based My Music Staff has been one of the primary tools in my teaching studio for several years. One of the features that I use the most is repertoire management, allowing you to select active repertoire for each student, which then shows up in both student and parent accounts, as well as in the lesson notes which get sent out at the conclusion of every lesson.

Yesterday MMS mentioned that major changes are in the works with the way repertoire is handled, including a dedicated repertoire menu, rich editing in repertoire notes, bulk assignment of repertoire (great for class situations), and auto-completion of multiple repertoire entries. Here's the video of the new features to be rolled out over the coming days:

Writing in depth about how I use My Music Staff to rock my students' studio experience (especially with lesson notes) is long overdue and something that I plan to do in the coming while.

The Mayron Cole Piano Method is Now Available as Free Downloads

Respected piano pedagogue Mayron Cole upon her retirement has changed the name of her piano method to FreePianoMethod.com and is offering it for free on her website. The downloads for each level need to be accessed separately, but there are loads of supplemental materials that you could use in a variety of lesson situations.

April 30 Workshop: The Art of "Re-Arranging" Popular Music with Christine Tithecott

As my Presidential duties with Hamilton-Halton ORMTA draw to a close this spring, I'm glad to announce our final workshop of the year: Christine Tithecott will be doing a three-hour interactive workshop on arranging pop music for your students, starting at 9:30am this Monday, April 30 at St. Matthew on-the-Plains Anglican Church in Burlington. About the workshop:

Do you have students learning poorly arranged sheet music downloaded online? Are you frustrated with finding only difficult arrangements of the newest popular songs? Is the idea of dabbling into popular music daunting? This highly interactive workshop will approach difficulties encountered in teaching and learning popular music and show how to tailor arrangements to suit the needs of any student.

Here's some info about Christine Tithecott, a teacher and clinician that you'll be hearing a lot from in the coming years:

Christine Tithecott holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa, as well as a MMus in Performance and a BMus (Honours) in Music Education from the University of Western Ontario. She has worked previously at Iowa State University in Ames, IA.

In high demand as a clinician and adjudicator, Dr. Tithecott presents master classes for young pianists and workshops on pedagogical topics for piano teachers throughout North America. She has presented lectures at national conferences for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations (CFMTA). Christine is a member of the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators Association (CMFAA), and a clinician for the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA). Additionally, Dr. Tithecott has served as en editor for Conservatory Canada’s New Millennium Series. 

An avid performer, Dr. Tithecott has had the opportunity to perform as a solo and collaborative artist throughout Canada, USA, and Europe. Christine has a strong passion for performing and promoting contemporary repertoire, and has performed with numerous new music ensembles including Ensemble 319, and The CNM Ensemble (Iowa City, IA).

Christine currently resides in London, where she is on faculty at Western University’s Don Wright Faculty of Music. She also works as a collaborative artist, and maintains a full studio of private piano students.

Admission is free for ORMTA Hamilton-Halton members, $5 for students, and $15 for non-members.

Facebook event listing

St. Matthew on-the-Plains map link

We Are Rhythmic Beings

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash

Christin Coffee Rondeau writing in the Full Voice blog about why singers need to move:

1) Because music and movement are inextricably linked.  We’re all used to hearing the term “music and movement” applied to children’s music classes, so on some level, we acknowledge that movement is an important aspect of music education. Perhaps, on an intellectual level, we even think of ourselves as rhythmic beings. However, as we grow in age, we also grow in inhibitions, meaning that creative, expressive movement eventually takes a backseat to what we perceive as more sophisticated musical pursuits. In so doing, we miss the fact that movement cannot be removed from music--even sophisticated, nuanced music.

Christin's points are highly valid, and not just for singers. It's important for all musicians to realize that rhythm, more than being an intellectual concept, is something physical and tangible, and the feeling of rhythm in the body is something that unites the every genre and style of today's music in a direct line of descent to the very first music-making impulses of our early human ancestors. 

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A quick tangent and shameless plug for my friends: Take a look around the Full Voice website after the link above. Hamilton-based Nikki Loney and Mim Adams are quickly growing their Full Voice series into one of the major voice methods, with a strongly growing international distribution. They also have a blog and podcast that I highly recommend. 

The Mandarin Translation of 31 Days to Better Practicing

In 2007, I wrote a series of articles entitled 31 Days to Better Practicing, which quickly became one of the cornerstones of content on this blog. A few years later, I expanded this series of articles into a free ebook of the same name, which has been read widely and been used in many piano pedagogy classes. Until now, one of the drawbacks of this work was that it was only available in English.

That changed this weekend, as Yihan Zhang has just released the first instalment of the 31 Days Mandarin translation on the WeChat platform so that the ebook can be available to Mandarin speakers in China and throughout the world. You'll need the WeChat app and can subscribe to Yihan's AndMusic channel on that platform to receive the rest of the articles, which will be released over the next month (a QR code to subscribe is below).

3 Ways to Memorize Music When Nothing Else Works

Lydia wrote an interesting comment on my 2007 article about memorizing music:

I notice that many of your tips for memorization include the word memorize in them. "Run the piece from memory, mistakes and all, keeping track of all the slips." In other words, memorize where you messed up. "Memorize, the articulation, memorize the dynamics, memorize the work away from the piano." These are all suggestions I've heard from my teachers for years, but my question is always HOW? HOW do i memorize the dynamics, HOW do i memorize the form, HOW do you expect me to remember where I messed up after playing a piece? These are not suggestions for people who have difficulty memorizing. These are variety exercises for people who are already decent at memorizing. Do you have tips for people whose brains simply refuse to remember these things?

What an awesome comment! Lydia asks some completely valid questions here. There are indeed times when absolutely nothing works. In the 11 years since originally writing that article, I've found this to be the case with myself, especially as I age and tend to think a little differently.

The situations that Lydia describes are places where thinking laterally can work. Rather than a full frontal memory practice assault, consider working in different ways. Here are some ideas:

1. "How do I memorize the dynamics?" Dynamics aren’t just a volume dial, but a way into playing with different tonal colors, textures, shades, and moods. All of these colors can be accessed through varieties of touch, and you can commit them to memory by remembering what the touch feels like. Practice with the music, not just reading and listening for the dynamics, but feeling the speed of attack and quality of touch. This is something that the body can remember. And if the body remembers it, the senses and emotions are never far behind. How does a piano feel? What about pianissimo? Fortissimo? Dolce? Mezzo forte? What about crescendo and diminuendo? Being aware of the slight changes in touch and pressure with these dynamics in practice can unlock a way to perform with them as well.

2. "How do I memorize the form?" Get out a blank piece of paper and draw the form. Take what you know about the basics of the form that you’re playing, whether it be binary, ternary, Sonata, Rondo, or whatever. Draw the main divisions. Write the bar numbers, phrase lengths, cadential points, and key centres on the page. Then try to play from the piece of paper. Still confused? Write in as much information as you need. Your written-out form can serve as a cheat sheet.

3. ”How do you expect me to remember where I messed up after playing a piece?” Record yourself. It has been said that there is no more effective, blunt, or honest teacher than observing yourself play on video. If you’ve got the guts to watch yourself having memory bloopers in a run-through of whatever work you're preparing, you can go a step further and figure out exactly when, where, how, and why the mistakes happened. Then figure out how to fix them. Then record/watch again and look for progress.

But to be completely honest, sometimes memory is simply not happening. Unless you’re in a situation where playing from memory is absolutely compulsory, consider using the music. There’s no pride lost in using the score in order to bring a work to life and feel confident in performance.

New from Faber Piano Adventures

Those of you who teach Faber Piano Adventures might find some of these new publications and links useful:

• You can find the Faber Piano Adventures complete catalog and desk reference here on PDF. Remember that with PDF files, you can search the entire document for specific text with Command-F on the Mac and Control-F on Windows.
• Online downloads and support videos for their chord and scale books
• New release: Hanon-Faber: The New Virtuoso Pianist, which revisits these well-known exercises from the viewpoint of contemporary piano pedagogical thought. Here's Randall on the thinking behind this new edition:

Building the Right Type of Goals

Frances Wilson has some wise words on our fixation with goal-oriented learning and how it can become unrealistic:

There’s nothing wrong in having goals – they can provide a useful focus – but they can also create disappointment and unhappiness, especially if one does not always fulfil one’s goal. In addition, goals can be curiously anti-motivational. If all your endeavour is focussed on a single goal, what else is there to work for when that goal has been reached? This approach can create a “yo-yo effect” where you might go back and forth from working on a goal to not working on one, which makes it difficult to build upon your progress long-term.  

 If you are continually working towards a goal you are in effect saying “I am not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach the goal”. The problem with this attitude is that we tend to postpone happiness and fulfilment until we reach the goal. Thus, it puts a huge burden on us to succeed, which can create unnecessary stress. Instead, we should be kind to ourselves and enjoy the daily process: keep to a realistic daily practise schedule rather than stressing about that big, potentially life-changing goal.

Far better than result-oriented goals (which are often at the mercy of gatekeepers) is to focus on goals that we can achieve as a result of our own hard work and perseverance. In other words, goals that are oriented towards process, knowledge, and small initial gains that work towards a larger final picture.

Read Frances' The Systematic Pianist to get a better idea of the types of systems that build towards realistic goal-setting.

Songs for Interval Recognition

Many students learn intervals through identifying them with a song that they know. Fortunately, there are lots of websites where teachers and students can compile useful lists of familiar songs to help them remember intervals that they need to know, in both directions.

• Laura Krzyston's list
• From the Woodshed's list
• EarMaster's list (great for customizing study materials)
• Wikipedia list
• Joel Falconer on song associations

My personal favourites are Rush's YYZ for the descending tritone and the Price is Right theme for the descending minor seventh. 

Professional Development for Pianists 101

Professional development is a long and never-ending road, with no clear end in sight, but many rewarding waypoints along the way that can energize your career. We are led in equal parts by necessity, curiosity, and passion, sometimes by hunger. Without further ado and in a somewhat loose order, here are 101 things you do to jumpstart your Pro-D today:

1. Build your repertoire.
2. Build your technique.
3. Learn a scale system from over 100 years ago. (see Dohnanyi, Brahms, Liszt, etc.)
4. Play through an entire book of Celebration Series Piano Etudes. Marianne Uszler once mentioned in one of her books (The Well-Tempered Piano Teacher, I think) that playing through an entire volume of Celebration Series etudes is one of the best warmups one can find. 
5. If you're a vocal coach, learn more languages. In addition to the usual English, French, German, Italian, and Latin, that could include Russian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian, or even Hieroglyphics (see works of R. Murray Schafer).
6. Learn how to sight read better than anybody else. 
7. Develop killer aural skills. I've recorded 11 sets of Online Ear Tests for The Royal Conservatory's Four Star Sight Reading Books that are are used by developing pianists across North America. 
8. Learn how to read from scores.
9. Learn how to transpose. Human transposition skills, if developed, are better and more reliable than anything you can find on a computer program. Singers will love you for this, call you regularly, and give you more work. 
10. Learn how to play from figured bass.
11. Learn how to play from lead sheets.
12. Learn a few 2-3 minute solo works that you can play anywhere. You never know when you might need them. 
13. Learn how to sing from a first-rate voice teacher. There is no more committed voice student than a fine collaborative pianist! 
14. Learn new musical styles. 
15. Find a country and learn its music. 
16. Play through all the repertoire for a composer.
17. Play through all the repertoire for a genre. 
18. Learn how to arrange pop music for classical piano. See Christopher O'Riley's arrangements of Radiohead. 
19. Learn how to compose. 
20. Learn how to use MuseScore, Sibelius, or Finale to craft beautiful and professionally presented scores that performers will want to play. 
21. Find performers who will want to play your music. 
22. Learn how to play with an orchestra.
23. If you would like an orchestra gig, check out the rep lists from orchestral piano openings. It's a ton of prep but worth it in the end if you get the gig. 
24. Learn how to conduct. It has been said that no-one has such an effective entrée into the conducting world as collaborative pianists. Why? Because they can read scores better than anyone else. 
25. Learn how to play with the rhythm section of a band. Hint: sit back on the beat. 
26. Start a chamber group.
27. Start a choir.
28. Start an opera company. 
29. Art song may be dying as an art form. Build a community around intimately and beautifully presented art song programs, many of which can become one-of-a-kind projects in an urban area. (see the Florestan Recial Project)
30. Organize house concerts. (see Groupmuse)
31. Develop a working knowledge about the body and how it functions at the keyboard. There is no better guide than Thomas Mark and Barbara Conable's What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body. 
32. Learn yoga.
33. Learn meditation.
34. Learn how to demonstrate yoga and meditation techniques to performers so that they can learn to address performance anxiety more effectively. 
35. If you're primarily a collaborative pianist, learn how to teach piano.
36. If you're primarily a piano teacher, explore the world of collaborative piano.
37. If you're primarily a soloist, explore both #35 and 36. 
38. Keep track of the accounts that you have with all current clients.
39. Learn how to write and send a professional invoice. If you're a freelancer, this might be the most important piece of advice in the entire list. 
40. Learn accounting and bookkeeping. I recommend Heather Young's Finance for the Arts in Canada as a quick primer to get your feet wet.
41. Learn an accounting program such as QuickBooks Online (all platforms) or if you're on Windows, learn Simply Accounting (much closer to the classical accounting process but much more difficult).
42. Build a website. No, you don't need anyone to do it for you. Do it yourself. Do it now. (see #53)
43. Update your résumé. 
44. College teaching résumés can often clock in at more than 15 pages. For many potential positions, no one will even bother to read a résumé of this length. Therefore, write a succinct 2-page résumé and know which context is best to send the long or short version.
45. Realize that your website is your résumé to most people. 
46. Realize that not just your website, but the totality of all your online activities, including your website, blog, Facebook profile, Twitter account, YouTube comments, and LiveJournal rantings from 2004 are also your résumé.
47. Assume that every potential recital partner you work with with from now on will Google you in detail before they even meet you. 
48. Assume that every parent who wishes to interview you for potential lessons will Google you in detail before they even decide to call you to set up the interview. 
49. Assume that everyone you wish to interview for will Google you in detail (or have administrators who will, in even greater surgical detail) before they make the decision to book you for an interview. 
50. You need to look fabulous. Get a wardrobe upgrade and some world class promo shots. Come up to Toronto and Liz Parker can get you started with both wardrobe acquisition and staging the photo session. 
51. Learn how to network. Not just the LinkedIn pretend connections. Real connections with real friends in the professional world that you can trust and count on. 
52. "If they can't find you on Google, you don't exist." - Nikki Loney
53. You need online registration for your teaching studio or collaborative piano practice. You really need it. Online registration is a killer app and no one will be able to compete with you once you've got it set up (more in a later article). I recommend My Music Staff as the simplest, most professional, and cheapest solution that gives you everything you need. 
54. If you're looking for work, answer your phone and email messages faster than anyone else. 
55. Know the best freelancers in town and ask how to get on their referral list. 
56. Know the busiest teachers in town and ask how to get on their referral list. 
57. You need a calendar whose events can be linked to invoicing. Again, My Music Staff fits the bill like no other. (see #53)
58. Post your résumé online. Update it often.
59. Learn how to teach music theory. There is no better guide than The Royal Conservatory's Theory Syllabus, 2016 Edition, supported by the Celebrate Theory series.
60. Learn Robert's Rules of Order. Nearly every executive, board, and academic committee uses these. Knowing them well can help to kickstart your way to leadership and governance.
61. Join your local MTNA branch if you're primarily a teacher, or your local NATS branch if you primarily work with singers.
62. With #61, go to the next meeting and talk to some members of the executive. If you're under 50 years old, chances are that they'll recruit you for the executive within the year. 
63. Don't teach repertoire piecemeal. Teach a system where repertoire, etudes, technique, ear, and sight skills are taught in tandem in order for your students to reap the benefits of structured music education. I recommend The Royal Conservatory's Piano Syllabus, 2015 Edition  (and the Celebration Series books that support it) as the best overall method. Consider also working towards RCM Teacher Certification and join a vibrant and growing community (and gain access to years of online teaching materials).
64. Learn how to speak about music in an inspiring manner. 
65. Learn how to give a killer workshop. 
66. Learn how to use PowerPoint in a workshop. Don't be boring.  
67. Learn how to write about music in an inspiring and engaging way. Don't be boring.
68. Start a blog.
69. Learn Squarespace. 
70. Learn WordPress. This is what Helen Hou did and now she's the lead developer at WordPress.
71. Learn how to use Facebook Pages in order to build a community for your projects. I did this for the Collaborative Piano Blog several years back and now have over 3,500 followers. 
72. Learn how to use Facebook Groups in order to foster better discussion around communities. Nicole diPaolo created the Collaborative Pianists' Community, which is now one of the most useful places on the internet for substantive discussion among collaborative pianists. 
73. Use Facebook ads to promote your studio or your projects. Everyone that has used this service has mentioned how useful its demographic targeting is, and at very reasonable rates. I've seen Facebook ads used to promote artists, albums, teaching studios, and organizations, but I've never seen a Facebook ad that featured a collaborative pianist. Promote yourself. The field is open. 
74. Learn how to use Twitter the right way to promote yourself. And I don't mean just tweeting links and boasting about yourself. I mean connecting and communicating with people. 
75. Learn how to use Instagram to promote your projects. Remember to #hashtag your #projects so the right people are drawn to your content. 
76. Learn how to use Pinterest boards to show all the cool stuff you're using in your work. Take a look at what Teach Piano Today has done with their resources and links. 
77. Once you've done #65 or 67, submit your articles to MTNA or NATS branch, regional, or national newsletters and magazines. These organizations always looking for well-written articles from members. Afterwards your articles can easily be spun off into future workshops.
78. Learn how to be a podcaster. As with #76, there is no better example in the piano field than Teach Piano Today (you can the episodes they did with me here, here, and here.)
79. Learn how to interview people. Hugh Sung is really, really, good at this skill. You can find his interview with me here. 
80. Write your own method book. 
81. Rather than giving a sizeable cut to publishers, publish it yourself. Nikki Loney and Mim Adams did this with The Full Voice series and now have a large international body of sales. Hint: they have a podcast too! (See #78)
82. Learn about the balance between administration and creative staff at every place where you work. Often there is a shared vision and purpose between the two groups, while at others you may find an insurmountable gulf.
83. Know the difference between a coworker and a colleague. Always seek out colleagues, who are to be valued and treasured.
84. Learn about Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Green Lumber Fallacy. Many of the best administrators in the arts field have a very limited arts background, but that doesn't necessarily limit their passion for the arts or how well they can manage organizations. You can learn much from these administrators, and they make wonderful colleagues. 
85. Learn how to organize yourself, your stuff, and your surroundings. 
86. Check out the Getting Things Done method of David Allen. Even after 15 years, it's still the gold standard in productivity.
87. Learn Agile Methodology. Many companies and products are organized using this philosophy. (see #53)
88. Learn Kanban to organize your projects. 
89. Prefer to use pen and paper? No problem. Check out Ryder Carroll's Bullet Journal, Patrick Rhone's Dash/Plus system, or one of Mark Forster's time management systems. 
90. Learn project management.
91. Learn event planning.
92. Learn how to be a leader.
93. Learn governance.
94. Learn how to reach your potential. (#95 may just be the best way to accomplish this)
95. Learn how to help others reach their potential. (perhaps even more important than #94)
96. Read books about the great composers and performers. 
97. Read books about the great teachers. 
98. Learn how the great teachers helped others reach their potential. 
99. Learn how to impart genuine artistry to your recital partners.
100. Learn how to impart genuine artistry to your students.
101. Act as a beacon for the lifelong love of music.

Less is More

Embed from Getty Images

Frances Wilson on Marginal Gain Learning:

Learning music is hard: from the junior student faced with just three or four lines of music to the advanced pianist embarking on a full-length piano sonata or multi-movement work, the learning and upkeep of all those notes is a daunting prospect and requires many hours of consistent, thoughtful practise. For me, MGL is a way of “being kind” to yourself as a musician while also enabling one to practise and process music in a meticulous and mindful way. The trouble is, we tend to define achievement through one significant moment – learning a whole page or movement of a piece of music, for example – and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis which accumulate to create a significant whole.  

MGL is a training strategy that emphasizes making tiny incremental gains over a long period of time in order to maximize performance. I particularly like how Frances explains her process in utilizing these strategies for both music learning and teaching.

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Musicians have much to learn from the world of training and productivity processes. Over the next while I'll be looking at how I use several of these to drive pedagogical and organizational aspects of the work I do at present.

2 Things Classical Pianists Need to Know About Learning Pop and Jazz Chords

Classical pianists often have a lot of difficulty playing the chordal style of jazz and pop music. Perhaps it's because classical piano emphasizes technical passages that value scales, arpeggios, and counterpoint above straight chords. Or perhaps classical piano's emphasis on reading skills de-emphasizes the deep listening and kinaesthetic experience of playing chords (often from chord symbols) that jazz/pop pianists are so familiar with.

At any rate, most intermediate classical pianists have some catching up to do, and their affinity for playing some sort of popular music is tempered by the difficulty of working through a lot more chords than they are used to reading in a piece.

Here are two steps for getting the chords right:

1. Read the correct notes for each chord from bottom to top. Don't just get a general sense of the chord or guess at it. Read every single note from bottom to top to ensure full accuracy. Yes, that includes accidentals too. 
2. Remember the sound and feeling of where your fingers go. This is the area where non-classical pianists really shine. If you're developing these skills as a classical pianist, focus on the particular sound quality of the chord, as well as the distances between fingers and relationship of white to black notes.

Transferring to kinaesthetic and auditory memory as soon as possible is very important for classical pianists learning jazz and pop music. If this doesn't happen, you might find yourself in the unenviable position of having to re-learn the notes every single time you play.

Once you're comfortable with the style, next steps include learning how to play from chord symbols alone and discovering the improvisational art of jazz.

Terrence Dawson on the Collaborative Arts and the Developing Musician

Vancouver-based pianist (and former colleague from my time on faculty at the University of British Columbia) Terence Dawson makes a brilliant case for the study of the collaborative arts in the education of every pianist in his essay Collaborative Arts and the Developing Musician in Sparks & Wiry Cries:

Let’s face it: Pianists are often told that the mere act of producing sound on a piano is “too easy”! It is certainly true that pianists do not have to be concerned with breathing or intonation. However, much effort is directed towards becoming physically involved with sound production. Pianists often include these aspects when discussing music. Technique study for pianists involves intense listening to enable a singing line that includes breaths in appropriate places. It includes hearing harmonies, voicing, and discriminatory listening for tone and timbre. We speak of linking notes with the fingers for the development of a seamless, supported legato. In short, we strive to hear our repertoire in a symphonic sense, borrowing generously from the language used by our fellow instrumentalists and singers.

Free Technical Requirements Charts Available for the 2015 RCM Piano Syllabus

Joy Morin over at Color In My Piano has assembled a fantastic free resource for teachers who will be using The Royal Conservatory's 2015 Piano Syllabus over the next few years: a PDF download with complete technical requirements charts for the new syllabus.

This is by no means a unique resource, since each technical requirements book already contains a technical requirement chart. However, Joy's PDF will be an excellent on-the-go resource for students and teachers who need a quick reference while playing or teaching.

10 Things You Need to Know About the 2015 Royal Conservatory Celebration Series and Piano Syllabus

Every seven to eight years, The Royal Conservatory revises their materials for their Celebration Series and Piano Syllabus, which provides the teaching materials for thousands of teachers and their students across North America. These books also provide the foundation of The Royal Conservatory's enormously popular examination system in Canada and the United States. The last revision of the series happened in 2008, so 2015 is the year that the materials are due for reissue in revised form.

But this time it’s different.

Much different. Rather than a small, incremental change, the 2015 Celebration Series is a compete reboot of the series, with a huge amount of new and innovative material. Starting in 2010, hundreds of teachers were contacted for their input regarding how the 2008 Piano Syllabus could be improved in the next edition. In 2013, the RCM initiated a call for submissions for repertoire to be included in the new syllabus and Celebration Series. As a member of the repertoire committee, we personally went through over 600 piano works for inclusion in both the syllabus and repertoire/etude books.

A considerable number of compilers and reviewers were assembled, resulting in over 40 sequenced books of repertoire, etudes, technique, and musicianship skills. I was involved with multiple aspects of this huge project, so I can appreciate the immense amount of writing, reviewing, coordination, negotiation, design, and editing that went into such a huge series. Now that the series has finally come out, I'm proud to have been a part of this initiative, which represents the input of literally hundreds of teachers and composers across North America.

If you’re teaching with the RCM system, here are some of the key changes that you need to know about:

1. There are both book and online version of the syllabus. We all work in different ways. Therefore, teachers will have the option of either using the syllabus in book form or as a PDF file.

2. A huge number of new selections have been chosen for the repertoire and etude books of the Celebration Series. There are 22 books of repertoire and etudes in the series, which have been meticulously chosen, levelled, and sequenced for both enjoyment and pedagogical value. The 486 works in the series consist of around 75% new selections, taken from composers from around the globe, including a significant number of Canadian and American composers. You'll also see a huge number of works by living composers - this aspect in particular has always been dear to my heart as a musician, and I'm glad to see the works of so many active composers included from around the world.

In addition, the repertoire lists in the Piano Syllabus contains a huge number of repertoire selections that can be chosen for exams that aren't found in the official repertoire books. Take a look through the rep lists for each level - you'll find a lot of gems.

look inside

Celebration Series: Piano Repertoire 1 (2015 Edition). Composed by The Royal Conservatory Music Development Program. For piano. This edition: 2015 edition. Celebration Series!. Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th century and 21st century. Elementary (Level 1). Method book & listening CD. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.C5R01).

3. All the recordings are brand new. Over the course of several months, pianists such as Michael Esch, Robert Kortgaard, Janet Lopinski, Lang Ning Liu, Peter Longworth, Benjamin Smith, Li Wang, and Dianne Werner assembled in the studio of legendary producer Anton Kwiatkowski to record all the repertoire and etudes in all levels of the series. As Artistic Consultant, I had to ensure that all of the pianists adhered to a high level of artistry while maintaining complete faithfulness to the score. This will ensure that pianists learning the repertoire will always have a reference-quality recording to listen to while learning the music.

Important note: if you buy the first edition of the 2015 Celebration Series currently in stock, you will receive both the compact disc and a download code for the recordings. The reason for this is that CDs are rapidly becoming obsolete, and many young students aren't exactly sure what CDs are for or where to put them. After the first edition is sold out, all subsequent editions of the 2015 series will only include download codes.

4. Technical Requirements are streamlined.  One of the main complaints about the 2008 technical requirements was that they were too complex and arcane (Grades 4 and 7 in particular come to mind). With the new series, the RCM listened, and the technical requirements are now streamlined into a much more effective sequencing. In addition,  the technical requirement books now have sections on Understanding Keys and Patterns, Practice Tips, Keyboard Theory Activities, and Looking Ahead in addition to the full requirements. There's even a progress chart at the back of each book so that students can keep track of their skill development.

look inside

Technical Requirements for Piano: Book 3 Composed by The Royal Conservatory Music Development Program. For piano. Technical Requirements for Piano. Technique. Early Intermediate (Level 3). Book. 16 pages. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.TEC03U).

5. Ear Training materials and requirements are revised. The changes to ear tests for 2015 are numerous. The clapback exercises from Preparatory A through Level 4 now require the teacher or examiner to identify the time signature and count in one measure before beginning the example. Intervals are also presented differently at different levels: ascending and descending from Levels 1 to 4, melodic ascending or descending and harmonic from Levels 5 through 9, and melodic or harmonic, ascending or descending at Level 10 (which now includes the major and minor 9th). Chord identification is now introduced at the Preparatory Level, and the sequencing of chord identification is considerably different. Cadences have been replaced with chord progressions, with specific chord progression options from Level 5 onwards. For more specific information, please consult the 2015 Piano Syllabus.

6. Sight Reading materials and requirements are revised. The philosophy of Boris Berlin's original Four Star books was that the craft of sight reading is a teachable skill, and that its component visual, aural, tactile, and analytical skills could be taught. The new Four Star books stay faithful to the original philosophy, with several changes. Sight clapping exercises now will require that you tap a steady beat for one measure before clapping or tapping the actual rhythm. In addition, sight reading examples at Level 5 and above are now presented as a single example, with a boxed subset of the entire selection acting as the rhythmic example.

7. Online ear training is now available for each level of the Four Star books. Here's how you access it: when you purchase a Four Star book, look on the inside back cover - there will be a unique code that you enter at the website listed below it (one for Canada, one for the US, but offering identical content). That code will enable you to access the online ear training content that corresponds to that level's ear training requirements. One of the genuine benefits of the online ear training is that they are all played on a grand piano in a recording studio, by a human (namely, me). Having genuine and aesthetically pleasing acoustic samples will be immeasurably better for students' aural development compared to the relatively tasteless MIDI samples to be found on most ear training apps for the iPad.

look inside

Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 7 Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. For piano. Ear Training. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Intermediate (Level 7). Book and online audio. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S07).

8. The substitution policy is expanded. One of the important things that we learned through the development process of the syllabus is that teachers want flexibility to assign students material that they believe is both fun and has pedagogical value. With that aim in mind, substitution policies are considerably different, and allow for Syllabus, Teacher's Choice, and Popular Selection substitutions from Levels 1-10. For more specific information, please consult the Substitutions Summary on page 10 of the 2015 Piano Syllabus.

9. There are small changes to the marking scheme for most levels. To reflect the changing priorities of the repertoire, the mark totals for some grades are slightly different. From Levels 1-7, the current 18-18-14 repertoire marking scheme will now be 16-18-16. Levels 8-9 repertoire marks will change from 16-16-12-12 to 14-16-14-12. Memory marks for Preparatory levels will be in line with levels 1-7: 2 marks each up to a maximum of 6 marks for playing from memory. Memory mark deductions for Levels 8-10 will now be 1 mark each (as opposed to 1.5 marks for Lists A and B in the 2008 Syllabus). For more information, the 2015 Piano Syllabus is your best resource.

10. There is a cross-over policy that is in effect from now until August 31, 2016. The cross-over plan this time around is different than in previous years. From now until August 31, 2015, students can freely mix and match from the 2008 and 2015 repertoire and etude books. From September 1, 2015 until August 31, 2016, some elements will immediately move to the 2015 Syllabus, while others will be in a cross-over period. Your best bet is to look at the specifics of the RCM's official cross-over plan to ensure that you're preparing the correct elements for upcoming examinations.

Stay tuned for more follow-up articles that dive more deeply into the details of the 2015 Celebration Series and Piano Syllabus. I'm honored to have been asked to participate in so many facets of this enormous project, and I look forward to hearing how students across North America progress with this new method over the coming years! If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I would be glad to get back to you either on the blog or on the Collaborative Piano Blog Facebook page.

The 2015 Edition of the Royal Conservatory Piano Syllabus is Now Online

After several years of preparation, writing, performing, producing, finalizing, proofreading, editing, and amending, the 2015 Edition of the Royal Conservatory Piano Syllabus is finally available in pdf form, with the print edition soon to follow in music retail stores across North America.

This Piano Syllabus will form the foundation of piano studies in the United States and Canada for thousands of students, teachers, adjudicators, and examiners over the next 7-8 years.

It was an honor to have collaborated with so many brilliant individuals in the preparation of this syllabus, and my contributions have included the following:

• With Dr. Thomas Green and Anne-Marie Page, playing through well over 600 works in order to choose new selections for repertoire lists at all levels
• With Dr. Janet Lopinski, co-writing the technique revisions that went into both the Technical Requirements of the Syllabus and the revised technique books.
• As Artistic Advisor for the recordings, working in the studio with the legendary Anton Kwiatkowski through the process of recording the repertoire and etudes. The many fine pianists featured on the set include Peter Longworth, Robert Kortgaard, Lang Ning Liu, Li Wang, Janet Lopinski, Dianne Werner-Simon, Ben Smith, and Michael Esch. I also played a few of the repertoire and etude selections in the latter stages of the recording process. 
• Playing all of the intervals, chords, chord progressions, and playbacks for inclusion on the recorded online content for the Four Star books. The online content for the sight reading and ear training is perhaps the most ground-breaking portion of the entire publication series, as it is an online musicianship training course on a scale that has not been attempted before, all utilizing acoustically recorded samples on a grand piano (not MIDI!). 
• Writing the Helpful Hints section of the dropdown menu content on the online portion of the Four Star books. 

The new syllabus takes effect on September 1, 2015. If you have any questions about the content and/or implementation of the 2015 Edition of the RCM Piano Syllabus, please leave a comment below and I would be glad to respond. 

Getting The Most Out Of Your Practice Time

Much of what I tell my students about practicing involves explaining ways of making their work more efficient and rewarding given their often limited time at the keyboard. so it was a pleasant surprise indeed to see Noa Kageyama's 8 Things Top Practicers Do Differently making the rounds on Facebook this week. 

A research project at the University of Texas at Austin tested 17 piano majors to see how accurately they could learn a musical passage under controlled conditions. The performance results were then checked against how each pianist had practiced, and the researchers came to the following conclusions about those who had played the most accurately:

1. Playing was hands-together early in practice.
2. Practice was with inflection early on; the initial conceptualization of the music was with inflection.
3. Practice was thoughtful, as evidenced by silent pauses while looking at the music, singing/humming, making notes on the page, or expressing verbal “ah-ha”s.
4. Errors were preempted by stopping in anticipation of mistakes.
5. Errors were addressed immediately when they appeared.
6. The precise location and source of each error was identified accurately, rehearsed, and corrected.
7. Tempo of individual performance trials was varied systematically; logically understandable changes in tempo occurred between trials (e.g. slowed things down to get tricky sections correct).
8. Target passages were repeated until the error was corrected and the passage was stabilized, as evidenced by the error’s absence in subsequent trials. 

Much of what I talk about in lessons involves slowing down, finding mistakes, practicing in smaller chunks, and repeating passages until they're right. It was a pleasant surprise to see this type of method backed up in research.

Chamber Music Connection: Promoting the Role of Chamber Music in a Musician's Development

One of the biggest challenges with developing musicians has always been how to create opportunities for learning chamber music. The Chamber Music Connection is a non-profit that looks to fill that void:

The Chamber Music Connection (CMC), located in Worthington, Ohio, provides an environment where student musicians (age 7 to 70) realize their potential and flourish. Studying and performing with local and nationally acclaimed musicians, while connecting with peers in small ensembles, the musicians who come to CMC grow both musically and personally. Leadership, responsibility, and cooperation are learned small ensembles where each person must play a different musical part. Students are grouped together based on many factors: age, musical ability, and their potential to learn from (and teach) each other. They must collaborate to achieve their musical goals. Musical mentors, including local pedagogues, members of the Columbus and New Albany Symphonies, university music professors from Denison, CIM, and Baldwin Wallace, and visiting chamber music artists performing at the Southern Theatre, coach the student groups in learning to play together and creatively discover their own musical ideas. CMC is a place where people, music, and life connect.


What an amazing mandate! Some young musicians from the CMC program playing intermediate-level piano quintets:




You can check out the Chamber Music Connection calendar here.