Making piano lessons fun and engaging!

Happy Tuesday!  I am looking out from my window at the clearest blue sky and beautiful oak tree branches swaying in the wind....simple pleasures!  Have you ever had students ask why there was a line going through middle C?  I have.  I could simply say that that's the way it is and be done with it but there's no fun in that so I make it into a mystery that the students need to solve.  The best way to explain this is in dialogue form with a few pictures thrown in the mix.  There's obviously a lot more dialogue happening between myself and the student but I simplified as much as possible here.  From beginning to end this mini lesson only takes 5 minutes! The Mystery Behind Middle C Student: Why does middle C have a line through it? Me: Ah! I am so glad you asked that.  There is actually a very good and logical reason for it.  In order to understand why Middle C has a line through it let's back track a little bit by revisiting the staff. ...

Happy New Year!  It has been quite a while since I've blogged!  Moving is not one of my favorite things to do but we're all settled into our new home and I've slowly begun to build up my student base here.  It was very difficult saying goodbye to all of my wonderful students back in Frisco but keeping in touch with them has made it a bit easier.  I'm looking forward to teaching piano to a whole new group of kiddos!  Oh! I finally have a website up and running thanks to my amazing husband!  Check it out at www.msdaphnepiano.com .  Thank goodness I have a technologically savvy spouse or I'd still be in the dark ages.  It's still a wonder to me how I was able to create this blog all on my own. Blogs are so interesting to me because we can have a particular audience in mind that we think we are blogging to but never know for sure who's actually reading it.  I imagine my audience to be college students majoring in piano pedagogy o...