Monthly Archives: October 2017

29/30 Teaching with a torch

Posted on October 30, 2017 by

I had a “light-bulb” moment the other day, when I was teaching a young lad who is good at playing by ear, but is finding reading the notes on the music hard work by comparison. This pen-torch happened to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, Lessons that have happened | Tagged | Leave a comment

28/60 Watching Ballet with Year 1 and 2

Posted on October 29, 2017 by

One of the many, many, sudden changes to my lesson timetabling was occasioned by a clash between gymnastics with year 5 and 6 in the hall, and my year 1 and 2 lesson in the hall. Well, music can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Class Teaching, Lessons that have happened, Listening Music | Tagged | Leave a comment

27/60 Active Repertoire

Posted on October 29, 2017 by

A recent post on www.pianodao.com reminded me that I had meant to do something about “active repertoire” If you go here; https://pianodao.com/2017/10/29/christmas-repertoire-sheets/ you can read all about it, and track back to the first post on this subject. The idea … Continue reading →

Posted in The organised teacher | Tagged | Leave a comment

26/60 Curriculum from Civitas

Posted on October 26, 2017 by

I discovered this free download via tracking through a long series of teaching blogs – you know how it is – one thing leads to another…. There is this series of books, one for every Primary School year; which lead … Continue reading →

Posted in Class Teaching, Resources | Tagged | Leave a comment

25/60 Manuscript Tape

Posted on October 20, 2017 by

I’ve just bought myself a little roll of stick-on, peel-off manuscript tape; (image from amazon, but I bought mine from www.musicroom.com for £5.99 – a bit cheaper than amazon) It was one of those sorts of things you add to … Continue reading →

Posted in Resources | Tagged | Leave a comment

24/60 Using “this” to teach “that”

Posted on October 17, 2017 by

I’m currently teaching a whole class year 3 classical guitar group. https://makemusiceveryday.com/category/social-learning/ That’s 30 children, sitting on chairs in three rows in the school hall, each encumbered by what looks like a guitar the size of a baby whale balanced … Continue reading →

Posted in Class Teaching, Guitar, Learning, Lessons that have happened | Tagged | Leave a comment

24/60 The Benefits of Teaching by Numbers/Letters

Posted on October 16, 2017 by

What!?! I hear you cry. Wasn’t the last post a diatribe against exactly this idea? Err, but nothing is quite as black and white as it seems. For example, teaching little five-finger warm ups (here I am wearing my pianist … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning | Tagged | Leave a comment

23/60 Teaching by Finger Number/Note Letter

Posted on October 15, 2017 by

Please don’t. I think it is is such a BAD idea… What has provoked this post, is taking on a number of young piano students recently. They turned up with numbers written over EVERY SINGLE NOTE in their pieces. Ugh. … Continue reading →

Posted in Lessons that have happened, Practising, Theory | Tagged | Leave a comment