The Lesson Line is a newsletter providing special information for students taking Simply Music piano lessons through Potluck Creative Arts. Get useful tips to help make your piano lesson experience as successful as possible!
Recently, a Simply Music teacher asked the worldwide teacher body about how to handle a group of young students who were getting bored. Their parents are unable to attend lessons, and the kids don’t practice much. It’s obvious that skipping practice is likely to lead to slow progress and, consequently, to boredom. What can...
At the Simply Music teachers’ conference I attended in January 2010, some of the most experienced teachers told everyone that the three most important elements of the Simply Music method are: The practice pad — which even their most advanced students use, without fail, whenever learning any new piece. Controlling the events — i.e.,...
Lots of videos of my students this time around! Some from Simply Music, a bit from me, and some directly from one of my students as well. First, a couple of months ago I mentioned that Neil Moore had been impressed with some videos he saw of a number of my students after they...
Students and parents/coaches often believe that the Simply Music method is demanding. It can be a challenge to be as diligent as the method instructs. It can be hard for parents to actively involve themselves in supporting and taking responsibility for their kids’ practice routines. At first, it may have seemed relatively easy to...
Here are a couple of videos that are on one hand just for fun and on the other hand great evidence for why we learn Accompaniment as part of Simply Music piano lessons. The first video, by the Australian musical comedy act The Axis of Awesome, shows how tons of famous pop songs can...
Recently, ScienceNews magazine devoted a special issue to the connection between music and human development. There are a number of feature articles exploring why people make music and how it can have a “profound impact on the body and the brain.” Check out this special issue, A mind for music. Leave a comment below.
When Neil Moore, Simply Music’s founder, saw the videos I’d made of a number of my early students after they completed the first level of the Simply Music Foundation program, he called to tell me how impressed he was. I was asked to provide the original video recordings so that Simply Music could consider...
Bill Giruzzi lived next door to me in the dorm when I started college. We were there next door to each for three years and have been friends ever since. He’s also the person who first told me about Simply Music, and then not long after I started teaching he became one of my...
Last month, you saw how the Formula for Success could help you better understand yourself as a student and point the way toward improving your results. The 100 possible points came from ten different success factors. But the success factors actually go to 11, and so we need a new formula! A seat can’t...
