Episodes
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The interview process for finding a music teacher goes both ways:
The teacher is interviewing the student and family to assess musical, physical, and emotional readiness; determine if the student (and parents) have the same goals for musical study; and evaluate whether or not they'd be a good fit in the studio. We talked about this in the last episode, Ep. 072 - The Case for Consultations in the Music Studio. So, go back and listen to that, if you missed it.
At the same time, the student(and often the parents) are interviewing the teacher to assess musical skills and qualifications, teaching style, method and curriculum choices, and extracurricular offerings.
The end of the school year and the summer months are a popular time to interview and onboard new students in your studio.
This episode is meant to provide some guidance for you, the teacher, in preparing for these interviews or consultations with prospective families. Think through these questions in advance and be prepared to discuss your qualifications, teaching approach, and expectations, along with any studio experiences or opportunities you provide.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Ep. 072 - The Case for Consultations in the Music Studio
Piano Safari (Fisher & Hague)
Piano Adventures (Faber)
The Music Tree (Clark & Goss)
The Suzuki Method
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Ep. 069 - A Musical Informance to Celebrate the Solar Eclipse
Ep. 071 - 3 Things I Learned From Hosting a Musical Informance
Musical Informance Planning Guide for Piano Teachers
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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Years ago, I received an email from a piano teacher asking about initial consultations and interviews.
“What do you do? What questions do you ask? How long should it be? What materials do you give them?” These are great questions!
Here are some of the reasons I offer consultations to prospective families in my studio:
1. They give you an opportunity to meet prospective students (and their parents) face-to-face before either of you commit to lessons.
2. For students who are transferring from another teacher, it's important to see what music they're currently working on, assess what they know, and determine where you want to begin in your first lesson.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to structure a prospective student consultation (including what to have the student bring or prepare ahead of time), six questions to ask, how to plan your time together, and how to onboard new students and families after the consultation.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
My Go-To Plan for First Piano Lessons
Printable Rhythm Pattern Cards
Customizable Email Templates for Studio Teachers
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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Missing episodes?
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Welcome to another episode of the Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning podcast. Today’s episode is part 3 of a series I’ve been working on this spring all about how to plan and organize a musical informance.
I first mentioned the idea of a musical informance in Ep. 068. An informance is basically an informal performance or an informational performance where you share insight into the music and the learning process with the audience. In Ep. 068, I shared a few examples of musicians who exemplified this model of education and engagement in the past, talked about what separates an informance from a performance and how you could structure this in your studio, and shared how my students and I were preparing for this event.
In Ep. 069, I talked more specifically about the theme of our informances this spring—music to celebrate the Total Solar Eclipse happening here in Rochester. I shared my repertoire list, the questions I asked my students as they prepared, how I built in opportunities for student creativity and input, and how I organized the event with parents and families.
Today, I’m sharing how it all went including three things I learned, what went well, and what I would do differently next time.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Ep. 069 - A Musical Informance to Celebrate the Solar Eclipse
Musical Informance Planning Guide: A Resource for Studio Teachers
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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The birds are chirping, the first Spring flowers are popping up in the front yard, and Rory, my dog, insists on laying in the middle of the daffodil bed whenever the sun is out.
These are my seasonal cues that it's time to start planning for our annual end-of-year studio recital.
As the title of this episode suggests, I usually spend 3-4 months planning all the details of this event, helping my students prepare, and communicating with parents and families so they know what to expect.
Last year, I wrote down my recital-planning checklist month by month so I could share it with you here on the podcast. So if you're on a similar schedule and starting to plan your year-end recital, here's an inside look at my process.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Customizable Email Templates for Studio Teachers (Musician & Co.)
How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Piano Pantry, Ep. 016: Recital Planning Made Easy
Piano Pantry, Ep. 065: Teacher Talk with Ashley Danyew
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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I did a poll on Instagram recently to see if any of my music teacher friends had ever hosted a musical informance. A few said "yes," a few said "no," but a surprising number of respondents chose the third option: "What's an informance?"
An informance is basically an informal performance or as Eastman professor Dave Headlam describes, "A performance for the information age." (source: Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory)
There's a teaching component and a performing component, and depending on how you structure it, a conversational or interactive component.
In Ep. 068, I showed you in real time how I was researching, planning, and organizing my first musical informance for my students.
Today, I'm sharing more details about our upcoming musical informance—my repertoire list, the questions I'm posing to my students as they learn and prepare, opportunities for student creativity and input, and how I'm organizing it with parents and families.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
D. Headlam (2021). "Musical Informance: Performance for the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197551554.013.2
Ep. 068 - How to Plan a Musical Informance
Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin
Doodle Poll
The Rising Sun (Nancy Telfer)
A Morning Sunbeam (Florence Price)
Solar Eclipse (Piano Safari Repertoire Level 2)
Rhythm Pattern Card Set
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Sunshower (Martha Hill Duncan)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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This year, Rochester, NY is in the path of the total solar eclipse. There are lots of special events happening in town—the orchestra is performing a special concert, the science museum is hosting a festival, and the schools are giving everyone the day off to experience this historical event.
As I looked ahead at this year, I thought it might be fun to plan a special event of our own to mark this occasion in the studio. Maybe special repertoire? An incentive program?
Then I thought about the informances the performing ensembles at my school put on early in the year: an informal demonstration for parents of what they're learning and what they're working on.
What if we did something like this in the studio? I thought.
Today, I'm taking you behind the scenes in real-time as I research, plan, and organize my first informance for my students. I'll share a few historical examples of musicians who exemplified this model of education and engagement, talk about ways you could structure this, outline the necessary components that separate an informance from a performance, and share how my students and I are preparing for this event.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Ep. 064 - How I Plan a Year of Student Repertoire
D. Headlam (2021). "Musical Informance: Performance for the Information Age." The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197551554.013.2
C. Nowmos (2010). "Using Informance to Educate Parents and Demonstrate the Music Learning Process." General Music Today, 23(3): Special Focus Issue: The Informance as a Teaching Tool in General Music, 5-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/104837130936
"Watch me play... the audience!" (Bobby McFerrin)
Live Improvisation at the Kennedy Center (Bobby McFerrin)
Interactive performance at Cornell (Bobby McFerrin)
Curious, Collaborative, Creativity (CCC)
Curious, Collaborative Creativity: A Guide for Transforming Music Ensembles (Dr. Caron Collins & Dr. Danni Gilbert)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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"It feels almost like if we don't document it, did it happen? And I need proof that it did."
I was listening to an interview with Erin Napier of Home Town on Southern Living's Biscuits and Jam podcast recently and this statement stayed with me.
"A major part of my personality is documenting," she said, and I nodded to myself.
In this episode, I'm sharing what I've learned about the art and practice of documentation, six things I'm documenting in the studio lately, practical resources I use to track and organize this data, and suggestions for developing this practice in your music studio.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Biscuits and Jam interview with Erin Napier, Season 4, Ep. 28
What Is Documentation? (Suzanne Briet)
Social Construction (Oxford Bibliographies)
Social Construction and Pedagogical Practice (Kenneth J. Gergen)
Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1
Ep. 059 - 7 Ways to Practice Rhythm in Private Lessons
An Interview with Samantha Steitz of Musikal Husky (Musician & Co.)
Ep. 066 - A Winter Improvisation Prompt for Elementary Students
Ep. 018 - This is What an Elementary Piano Buddy Lesson Looks Like
Ep. 062 - A-ha Moments in Music Teaching
Musical Alphabet Cards
Ep. 056 - The Valentine Composition Project
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look Into My Lesson-Planning Process
Buckland, Michael. 2018. "Document Theory." Knowledge Organization 45(5): 425-436
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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Do you improvise with your students?
If you have a classical background like I do, you may not consider yourself an improviser, but researchers and educators Christopher Azzara and Richard Grunow remind us that "we are [all] born improvisers, as evidenced by our behavior in early childhood." (source)
In their series, Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, they define improvisation as "the spontaneous expression of meaningful musical ideas." It doesn't mean making things up in the moment; it means making meaningful choices, sequencing patterns, snippets, and ideas from a vast vocabulary of musical material, as I talked about in the last episode, Ep. 065.
In this episode, I'm sharing a simple Winter-themed improvisation prompt I use with my elementary students this time of year.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation
Ep. 065 - How to Build a Musical Vocabulary Using Tonal Pattern Cards
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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I received an email from a listener recently, a piano teacher in North Carolina. She had purchased a set of my tonal pattern cards and was looking for ideas and suggestions for how to incorporate them into her teaching this year.
This prompted me to sit down and think through the importance of building a musical vocabulary (rhythm and tonal), how we learn to read music, and creative ways to engage our students through listening, pattern recognition, matching, imitating, and improvising using a basic set of tonal pattern cards.
In this episode, you'll learn about the mental process behind how we read music, the importance of reading patterns vs. individual notes, a 5-step sequence for musical skill development, and seven creative ideas for using tonal pattern cards in your teaching on a regular basis.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
Understanding Dyslexia and the Reading Brain in Kids (H. Korbey)
The Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Printable Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Older Elementary
Printable Tonal & Rhythm Pattern Card Set: Younger Elementary
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Last week, I posted a reel on Instagram of my annual planning process for my studio. At the end of the summer, I pull out all my books, curriculum charts, and other planning notes and spend several hours making repertoire plans for each of my students.
There are lots of ways to go about this—it takes time to try things and hone in on a process that makes sense to you, helps you feel organized and prepared, and works for your studio.
Today, I'll share a little more insight into my long-term planning process. I hope this inspires you and gives you a few new ideas or approaches to take back to your studio planning this year.
For show notes + a full transcript, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
My Instagram reel about repertoire planning
RCM Syllabi
Notability app
How to Use Notability for Assignment Sheets in Your Studio
Ep. 047 - An Inside Look at My Lesson-Planning Process
Ep. 039 - A Creative, Integrated Approach to Teaching Music Theory
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 1
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 2
Celebration Series, Preparatory A
Piano Teaching Music, Vol 1 (Florence Price)
Through the Windowpane (Chee-Hwa Tan)
Piano Safari, Repertoire Book 3
A Child’s Garden of Verses (Chee-Hwa Tan)
Let’s Quest 2 (Chrissy Ricker)
Perfect Patterns Plus (Chrissy Ricker)
Lyric Preludes (William Gillock)
Preludes in Patterns (Kevin Olson)
Sebastian Sessions (Andrea Dow)
Chopin Sessions (Andrea Dow)
Portraits in Jazz (Valerie Capers)
Disney Songs for Classical Piano (Phillip Keveren)
Melody’s Choice, Book 4 (Melody Bober)
Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 5 (Martha Mier)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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"I found this piece that I'd like to learn," one of my high school students said to me in a lesson earlier this summer. He carefully laid out the pages of the score of Alexander Scriabin's Prelude in C Major, Op. 11, No. 1 that he'd downloaded from IMSLP.
"I have a question about it, though," he said turning toward the score. "How do you count this?"
He pointed at the first line written in flowing quintuplets straddling the barlines. I leaned in to take a closer look. My student is very mathematically-minded, so we talked about how the beats are organized and divided into groups of 2+3. The way that it's notated in cut time creates tension—a feeling of pushing or transcending the boundaries to create something free and expressive.
Next, we studied the tonal structure, the repeated use of 4ths, moments of tension and resolution, the way the hands sweep in toward the center in contrary motion. We talked about the formal structure, the technical challenges inherent in the left-hand octave leaps and open arpeggios.
The more we analyzed the score together, the more intrigued I was to take it home and learn it myself. So I pulled up a copy of the same edition on my iPad that day and saved it to my forScore library for later.
Scott Price once said, "The teacher is always and forever the student and the student is the teacher.” What does this look like in practice? In this episode, I'm sharing a glimpse into a project I've been working on this summer and what it looks like to be a student again.
For show notes, click here.
Resources Mentioned
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Scriabin’s 24 Préludes, Op. 11
IMSLP
forScore
Schoenberg’s Drei Klavierstücke (1894)
Ep. 060 - How Do We Approach Mistakes in Music Teaching & Learning?
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy (Richard Chronister)
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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
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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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)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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"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!)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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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
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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"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?
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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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)
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts >>
Find me on Instagram: @ashleydanyew
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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
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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
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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
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