Curriculum
Introduction of chord inversions, use of scales
I’m still a relative newbie, trying to wrap my head around fitting all the pieces together. Can someone further down the path give some insight on the following please? I’ve done the Composition and Improv as well as Accompaniment training (and Supplemental Programs for these),…
Difficulty in identifying notes on piano
I am seeing some gaps in the foundation of my two 9-year-olds. They are at the end of F1 and their playlist is strong, and they have been starting Accompaniment 1 with learning the basic chord triad shapes. They seemed to understand it well but…
License Agreement question regarding photos
I know that it is against our license agreement to have video of us teaching. A parent asked me yesterday to take a photo of my hand on the D minor chord in Honey Dew, and I told her it’s against my license agreement. I…
Students want longer songs
I taught a workshop this morning (an intro to Reading Rhythm and Reading Notes) for 5 of my middle school aged students. It went well and at the end I asked for some general feedback from them. They all said they want to play longer…
Time for More Music: August
I’m wondering how long it takes for other teachers who have taught TFMM August in a private lesson? I have been teaching this piece to a student and it seems to be taking forever. We made a commitment a few months ago that we would…
Transition chord for changing keys
Quick Accompaniment question: What bridging chord to you use to link the two versions of Scarborough Fair? Transitioning from A minor to C minor, that makes it the 5th of C minor. Would that be G major? It doesn’t quite hit the mark for my…
Sparse information in Reference books
At the beginning of Foundation 4, Lead Me to Light and Lullaby have so much less on the reference notes. How do you introduce these pages to students? Given what you’ve learned so far in presenting SM, I’d firstly like to hear your thoughts on…
Integrating Arrangements and Variations
I have the teacher training for Arrangements 1, but I’m not sure how to integrate teaching the arrangements with teaching Foundation songs. Is there a published order that we can follow? How do you manage teaching Arrangements and Variations? When students come back with Dreams…
Difficulty in playing finger 5 on chords
I have a student struggling to play all three notes of the triad evenly. She is playing fingers 1 and 3, but neglecting to push down finger 5 consistently. Any tips on how to work with her on this? See if she can rotate the…
Squidgies Boogie order
Please help with Squidgies Boogie (Foundation 4). In the training videos, Neil Moore refers to the altered 12 bar blues in the teacher notes, but I don’t see the 12 bars listed in my teacher notes page. He says the second measure stays as I.…