Studio Management
Playlist Practice Issues
i have made up a haphazard list of playlist practice ideas to give students ideas for different ways of going through their songs to keep them alive. Some of the ideas I have gotten from other teachers. i would like to get even more ideas.…
Playlist Games
After reading Simpedia postings and experiencing answers from my students to my question, “Can I have a look at your Playlist”, I decided only a couple of nights ago to write up the songs of each level on individual small cards and group them into…
Dropping Songs off the Playlist
I am wishing to discuss whether or not teachers begin to drop songs from the playlist when it has begun to get over 40 songs. As I have not gone past the Reading Program (rhythm and notes ) I’m not sure which songs are really…
Adult Students Marking the Playlist
I am wondering about how other teachers find getting adults to tick the playlist. Especially men look at me with that “Not going to happen, lady” look in their eye. I am finding that retired women seem happy enough to do it, and some personality…
Variations & Arrangements – Taking Notes
I have a questions about writing notes for Variations/Arrangements. I understand clearly from all my training materials that there are no support materials for this, and I am not to let them write down notes or clues for how the songs went. So, I am…
Parents Writing Extra Notes
Having been fairly clear about the need to have students and parents refrain from writing extra notes for themselves or their children, and still seeing some of them doing it, I decided to include a reinforcement in my monthly newsletter. The text follows: ” I’ve…
Keeping Notes to a Minimum & Managing Projects
I would like to add to what Neil has said about “Writing Notes” and “Managing Projects” by sharing my experiences of these issues in the hope of helping new teachers. WRITING NOTES I was a “traditional” piano teacher before becoming a Simply Music teacher. When…
Bringing Student Home Materials to Lessons
I’m just finishing up the training for the new Playlist/Notes books (which seem really great & I echo all your comments that Sheri & Jy are fantastic!). However, I had a big question come to mind. They mentioned bringing ONLY the playlist/notes books to class.…
Three Leg Pizza Stool
Somewhere in the training or archives, someone mentioned using the analogy of a three legged stool to illustrate the roles we each have (teacher, parent and student) and the importance of each one doing their part. I find this to be very helpful and use…
Mastery of Tools
I recently had a conversation with all my students, no matter what level they were in, that I think they all found very valuable for their future learning. This is long but I think you might find it as valuable as my studio has. And…