playing-based

I have an older (70ish) student who plays pretty well, but stumbles over what the diagrams mean. I’ve reviewed them countless times and of course, told her to watch the videos. When she’s playing at her lesson, she looks at her hands most of the…

• Last updated 7 years ago
• diagrams, Gordon Harvey, older students, playing-based, self-generation

I have encountered a problem that is new for me. One of my students (8 years old) has trouble with the sets of two fingers in Night Storm. She can tell me which are the three sets of two and what to do with them…

• Last updated 7 years ago
• controlling the events, F1, foundation 1, Night Storm, playing-based, RH/LH, single thought processes

I have a prospective student coming to an FIS. She has a woman from her church teaching her traditional lessons. The teacher told her Simply Music is “mostly memorization”. I’ve heard the objection twice from her already. How would you address this concern with a…

• Last updated 7 years ago
• comparing traditional to Simply Music, memorization, playing-based, SM vs traditional, talking about Simply Music, talking about SM

I have an 11-year-old that has been learning with me and I have just learned that she is teaching herself from the music book and NOT looking at the videos or listening to the audio files. I couldn’t quite work out what was going on;…

• Last updated 7 years ago
• claiming territory, coaching parents, Laurie Richards, playing-based, reading, Robin Keehn, SHMs, Student Home Materials, students learning from music

I got a call from a mom today. Her son (11 years old) is getting teased by his peers at school for not learning ‘real’ piano. I will spend time with him and his family to highlight the differences of the method architecture, explain the…

• Last updated 7 years ago
• communication, playing-based, SM vs traditional, traditional

Today I re-listened to the audio file about the reading process. I am a new teacher – my students are all on level 1, and I am yet to see how the entire reading process unfolds. I do have an opinion however, about the comment…

• Last updated 10 years ago
• generative students, Gordon Harvey, importance of reading, Laurie Richards, learning tools and strategies, playing-based, reading, reading as the goal, reading process, Robin Keehn, sight reading

I have started teaching another 6 week session at our community center here. The first one I taught went amazingly well. Everyone got it and I am now teaching lessons to 2 of my previous students from that class. So, I just started another one.…

• Last updated 4 years ago
• Dreams Come True, Laurie Richards, learning a new way of learning, patterns, playing-based, tools, traditional students to SM, workshop

Our family just got back from a weekend at the New Hampshire Highland Games (USA) which featured workshops on learning to play the Folk Harp. Over the course of the day we learned 3 – 5 songs to play as solos or group ensembles made…

• Last updated 6 years ago
• fragmenting, other instruments, patterns, playing-based

I have been working with two women in a shared lesson for the past five months.  One is excelling, one is struggling.  One cannot read music, one can a bit.  One is listening to what I recommend, one continues to do it her own way.…

• Last updated 6 years ago
• adult students, cheating by reading, playing-based, previous experience, shared lessons, students who use music book

I’ve noticed sort of a trend, or maybe just a tendency, crop up around level 4 – 5. Parents start getting really antsy about reading, and worried about all the money they have invested in piano lessons. It’s been over a year, and their kid…

• Last updated 7 years ago
• Laurie Richards, patterns, playing-based, reading concerns, reading preparation, tool of the week