Sometimes, my fingers follow the notes but don’t seem to end up at the right places–they cross over and jump around all over the place and it just doesn’t feel right. How do I find the correct fingering so playing is easier (and I play the right way)? – Vivianne Hey Vivianne– sounds like your fingers are out of control! This is common; we just…read more
We don’t push people away on purpose, but we’re always doing it. We all need people to trust us: When people sign up at your studio, when people come to your lessons… Even when you meet someone. You don’t want to push people away. You want people to stay and believe what you’re telling them. But we’re always pushing people away and we don’t know…read more
You probably have an amazing goal right now. We all have goals… But we always say things like: “I don’t have enough time…” or “If only I had enough money…” And we give up on our goals. Sometimes we get into ruts and we get stuck for a long, long time. Some of us force ourselves to practice for 10 hours straight until the piano…read more
Let’s face it: We’re lazy creatures. Sometimes we just need a boost. Motivation makes life a lot easier. And fun(ner). Like motivating yourself to ‘practice’ piano (pieces you know you should play but don’t feel like playing)… Or motivating students to practice piano. … Or losing weight, or anything else. Things we put off for days, months, even years. What if I tell you… It…read more
Who doesn’t love sight reading? Let’s back up: Who hasn’t struggled with sight reading– teaching or learning? It’s one of the hardest skills… But it’s also one of the most important. That’s where SightReadingMastery comes in. Today we have an awesome giveaway with SightReadingMastery, a site that wants to help you teach and learn sightreading. Does it really do the job? I was pleasantly surprised…read more
Feel like there’s almost nothing new in Christmas music? You’re wrong. ;) If you’re looking for Christmas pieces that aren’t common, I’ve got you covered. I’ve found these awesome pieces that are now on my to-order list. :D They’re great for performances, recitals, and personal enjoyment. If you’re ever perplexed over duplicate Christmas pieces for recitals, these are great alternatives. The videos are embedded below…read more
I recently wrote a guest post on The Cross-Eyed Pianist. Here’s a quick excerpt… Remember the “spotlight”? When all eyes are on you, every little action feels 100 times more obvious. We all want more sparkle in our performances– and it comes with the right mix of confidence and nervous energy. Being confident is easy. So is performing comfortably. You just need to make the…read more
Have you ever felt like it was the right time to raise your prices, but held back? Here’s something to think about: We’re selling our time for a price: How much is your time worth? There’s a lot of hush-hush about raising prices and we don’t talk about it a lot. If you raise your prices, people will desert you– right? Nope. People can be…read more
Let’s kick off the new season with happiness and positivity! If these four places change your day even a tiny bit, even if you forget about your worries for only 5 minutes today, then my goal has been achieved. 1 – Gives Me Hope “Inspiring Twitter-length stories.” What more can I say? It really gives you hope that there’s more to the world than what…read more
How would you have turned out if the teachers who taught you didn’t exist? I’ve been pondering this idea over the past few days. Mr. K*, a former English teacher of mine passed away during the summer and I had attended his memorial two days ago. I seem fine right now while you’re just reading text, but that day, I couldn’t get a clear sentence…read more