small doses

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Alma Mater Blues Rhythm

(Over time, different teachers have faced situations in which a student finds it challenging to process the Alma Mater Blues rhythm. Here are Neil’s thoughts on how to handle such situations, video posted September 28, 2022. Below his video tip are two representative posts/questions within…

Teaching Fur Elise A Section

I’m generally very rigorous about following Neil’s instructions, since time and again I’ve come to understand why he does things the way he does. I’ve recently had a situation where I felt I had a good reason to do something a little differently from what…

Getting the Humpty “Swing”

I have one student who is really struggling to get the “swing” feel for Alma Mater Blues and also Rocking Honey. It seems for some it comes so naturally, and for others, it’s a huge effort. We verbalise the “here’s humpty dumpty”, we clap the…

Strategies to help an anxious student

One of my students is a six-year-old boy who has confidence problems to the point that when he thinks something looks too hard, he gets anxious and teary and refuses to try. Last week when I demonstrated Dreams Come True, it took a whole five…

Teaching tip: Preparatory Learning

Teach a very small portion of something without revealing what it’s leading to. This works great with Arrangements, e.g. Soapy Dreams (Dreams #2): I teach just the LH chord shape and ask students to try it in different locations on the piano. Once everyone’s got…

Student does not want to learn to read

One of my best students (a 12-year-old home schooled girl who gladly plays for at least an hour every day, always has her Playlist current as well as an arrangement or her own variation to share each week) had been a bit reluctant to begin…