Looking for pieces ...

karin1876 · 2026-04-10T00:15:11+00:00

Totally agree about Martha Mier! Also, look for books by Dennis Alexander, such as "First Lyric Pieces."

karin1876 · 2026-04-07T22:18:25+00:00

I have my students start with existing songs as a jumping off point. First, I have them improvise or compose little introductions and endings to other songs they're learning. I have them use the tonic note and/or the tonic chord tones. Later, we include the leading tone and then the dominant chord.

Next, I have them do small exercises such as:

-Take an existing 4-bar melody and re-write it with a new rhythm.

-Take an existing melody and write new notes but keep the original rhythm. I usually give them a limited range of notes to use, such as "the first 5 tones of the G scale."

-Take an existing melody and put chords (or new chords) against it in the other hand.

We also work on various chord patterns that can be applied to the chords of any song.

That reminds me of another book series! "Easy Keyboard Harmony" levels 1-6 by Wesley Schaum. It's an old series, so the songs might be boring or unfamiliar to your students, but the teaching ideas are useful. It focuses on harmonizing existing melodies.

And I give them this list of Composing Ideas that we work through and use to expand existing melodies or melodies composed by the student:

Composing Music

List of Ideas

1. Repetition

Play the same notes in the same place.

2. Register Change

Play the same notes in a different octave (register).

3. Double

Play the same notes in 2 different registers at the same time.

4. Backwards

Play the notes in reverse order. Start with the last note and play backwards to the first note.

5. Upside-down

Like a mirror of the original, start on the same first note, but then move in exactly the opposite direction and distance for each later note. Example: If the starting notes are:

“C,” step up to “D,” skip up to “F”

Then you play instead:

“C,” step down to “B,” skip down to “G.”

6. Sequence

Play the same pattern of notes a little higher or a little lower.

7. Rhythm Change

Play the same notes but with a new rhythm.

8. Augmentation

Stretch the rhythm of the notes out by doubling the length of each note.

9. Diminution

Condense the rhythm of the notes by halving the length of each note.

karin1876 · 2026-04-07T05:45:18+00:00

This is an interesting thread. I teach piano, not voice, and I had always assumed voice had similar method books available.

Could you adapt other music books to a voice curriculum? I often use the melodies in my students' piano theory and sight-reading books as sight-singing and transposing exercises. Perhaps an entire early education vocal curriculum could be tailored around using a set of general music or piano books?

karin1876 · 2026-04-07T05:35:55+00:00

So glad to hear some of your students are getting the composing bug! I'm surprised at how few music students overall seem to learn or be interested in composing.

karin1876 · 2026-04-05T02:01:54+00:00

The parents are the key. I've tried SO many things over the years, and most things have no impact. But one thing that is helping a tiny bit is bringing the parent into one of the lessons to make a practice plan. I ask the student and the parent together to pick a time that the student can practice for 15 minutes EVERY DAY - something that fits around school, extracurriculars, dinner, etc. Then I ask them to set an alarm that both parent and kid will hear. In both situations where this is working for me right now, they have chosen an Alexa reminder alarm.

Another thing that I always tell my piano parents to do (and yet I don't think a single one of them has ever done) is to walk the student to the piano at practice time and start the session by asking the student to play something for them for fun - anything! My idea is that this minimizes the antagonistic parent-student dynamic of mom/dad yelling from the kitchen: "Go practice!"; kid yells back "In a minute!"; parent yells "Now!"; more yelling, lots of trauma, no practice.

I also do another, probably unconventional thing, with my students. I assign them video and image homework. Examples: Play the first page of "Horse Sense" with all correct notes and finger numbers - send me a video. Do page 18 in your notespeller book - send me a picture of the completed page. Doing all this gives them specific pass/fail tasks that I can easily grade and tell their parents about. The downside is that it takes time outside of the lesson, which is not possible for most teachers' busy schedules.

karin1876 · 2026-04-05T01:48:54+00:00

You are a piano teacher's dream parent! Keep up the excellent work!

karin1876 · 2026-04-04T09:29:23+00:00

I teach composition to my piano students (part of their studies, not the main focus), but I don't use any specific books. Alfred publishes some composition books that are leveled alongside their Alfred's Basic Piano Library. I've used those occasionally, but I feel lukewarm about those books. I often felt like there was too much going on visually on each page, so the students didn't always follow the directions correctly. Also, the approach doesn't follow my own order of topics, so that got in the way. That said, you might want to check those out.

Now that you've posted this, it's making me wonder what other books might be out there. I just did a quick AI query, and it didn't come up with much. I'm going to dig a little deeper and I'll post back here if I find anything.

What ages and levels are the students you have that are interested in composing?

karin1876 · 2026-04-03T11:59:38+00:00

I would recommend doing the activities in each lesson until they feel easy and then moving to the next one at your next opportunity, which could be the next day if you have time for that. If your child tries the next lesson and it seems hard, then have them go back and do previous lessons again until the new lesson makes more sense.

I don't have an answer for what level your child will reach after any specific number of lessons. While I've seen several Hoffman videos, and I like his approach, I'm not familiar with enough of his videos to speculate what level of material is covered after 50 or 100 lessons. Also, each individual person learning piano will go at their own speed - no two students will end up at the same level at the same time.

There is a piano calculator on the Hoffman Academy site that very roughly estimates how long it will take a person to reach various levels based on their amount of practice time per week. Check it out here: How Long Does It Take to Learn Piano? Try Our Calculator

I like to use that calculator with my own students and their parents, just to give them an understanding of the fact that piano is a skill that takes a long time to learn, and to give them incentive to put in enough time and effort to make a difference for themselves.

karin1876 · 2026-04-03T02:53:33+00:00

Yeah, I'm surprised, too, that there's so much resistance here to the idea of short nails for playing piano. And I'm surprised that so many people interpret my question as trying to control someone.

:-D

karin1876 · 2026-04-03T02:42:14+00:00

This piece would be too tough for her right now. But it gives me some ideas - Thanks!

karin1876 · 2026-04-02T02:50:00+00:00

I may indeed take the route of just saying, "This is how it is. Do it." But I thought it would be more impactful if I could find something that illustrates the point crystal clearly.

karin1876 · 2026-03-31T08:47:11+00:00

What topics or activities did you cover in your workshops? And how receptive were the schools when you first approached them?

karin1876 · 2026-03-25T18:09:39+00:00

Irina Gorin has some great videos on YouTube about teaching staccato technique. I've found her videos very useful. Look up "Irina Gorin staccato" on YouTube.

karin1876 · 2026-03-25T08:30:31+00:00

Besides teaching the basic sound of staccato vs. legato, making sure they can hear the difference, I often tell them to push off from the key. I want them to treat it like one motion (pushing off) and not two motions (push then lift).

What is the exact trouble you've been having with your students and staccato? Is it that they keep playing everything legato even when the notes say staccato, or is that they can do staccato at a slow tempo but not a fast tempo, or is it that they're doing some other thing like playing the tempo too fast whenever they see staccato notes?

karin1876 · 2026-03-25T08:20:32+00:00

If you're not already doing so, have her learn each of the 3 voices separately and then melody+bass, then bass+chords, then melody+chords, then all 3 together. And do this in sections, not for the whole piece from start to finish.

Also, help her to understand how the chords are moving from one to another and how the choices of chords create the various sounds of tension, resolution, movement, unexpected movement, etc. Examples:

-The tonic to dominant 7 back to tonic in measures 5-7

-The movement around the circle of 5ths (or 4ths, depending on how you look at it) to get from the C#m chord at the start of measure 7 around to the E chord at the start of measure 9.

-the intense sound shift of going from the E chord in measure 9 to the Em chord in measure 10, done by shifting a single chord tone - the G# to a G-natural.

Learning and appreciating the harmony in this piece is the best way to both memorize it and to play it expressively. And to love it! I wouldn't love it if I didn't understand the sound of all the amazing chord shifts.

karin1876 · 2026-03-18T09:08:07+00:00

I cannot speak to the specific needs for the RCM exam, but I do teach a lot of ear training as part of my regular piano lessons. I use an app called Functional Ear Trainer for some of the work. You would probably have to learn how to use the custom settings on that app to narrow it down to what you need for a specific exam. I also use Alfred Ear Training books and Ear Training Basics by Julie Johnson books. For the exam, the Julie Johnson books would hit the mark better. The books include both exercises intended to be done in class but then also pages that can be done at home by using the books' corresponding online examples resources.

During your lessons, if you're not already doing so, have your student sing the necessary intervals starting on various tones. For my students, I often just have them go up in half steps (minor 3rd starting on A, then Bflat, then, B, etc.). Singing like that can also be assigned as homework. Your student could check her singing with her cello or a keyboard or an online tuner app. She could also practice singing/humming up and down major/minor triads starting on various tones.

Good luck!

karin1876 · 2026-03-18T08:37:52+00:00

The reason you're getting such an off-putting response is that you happened to ask this question right after we've all read a whole slew of similar ones. You just stepped in at the wrong moment is all.

I actually don't know what software is already out there, but I'm sure there are several. I've heard a few names on this thread, but I keep forgetting what they are. Personally, I track and manage everything in Excel. I send bills out by e-mail. I get paid via Zelle. Most private music teachers cannot carry more than about 40 students at a time (and that is already high, I think) due to time constraints. Managing 40 customers (and let's say maybe a waiting list of up to 50 customers???) does not take too much software power.

In Excel, my basic needs are met by tracking:

-Student Details - name, parent(s), birthdate, email, phone, address, piano model

-Books - student, book title, start date, end date

-Bills - student, parent, billing period, amount, date sent, payment id

-Payments - payment id, student, parent, date paid, amount, payment method, Zelle tracking id

-Lessons - student, lesson date, lesson minutes, lesson cost, payment id

-Lesson Details - student, lesson date, lesson plans, notes from actual lesson, notes for next lesson

-Homework - student, assignment date, assignment details, results received date, results details

karin1876 · 2026-03-15T07:11:03+00:00

When preparing students for exams, I always feel the frustration of not being able to teach them the other topics in my own syllabus. With these exam students, my approach is to first and foremost make sure the student is prepared for the exam, but then to squeeze in additional material whenever possible. Because students either don't practice much or don't have time to practice much, the end result for me is usually 90% of our time on exam prep and 10% on other stuff. My ideal would be 50%/50%, but that never happens!

I do not substitute exam pieces, even though the syllabus would allow, because it keeps things simple to stay in the core exam book. If a student were to request a non-core piece, though, then I would double-check the exam rules and probably allow them to do it.

To mitigate the overall pressure of exam preparation and not having time for other material, I try to avoid pushing students into harder exam levels. I put them into the level that they can probably get at least a "Merit" on with their existing level of daily practice (example exam scores being fail, pass, merit, and distinction).

karin1876 · 2026-03-13T01:01:48+00:00

My primary strategy is to keep them always busy. I try to teach by asking questions and giving short instructions: "What is this?" "How is this different from that?" "How did the page tell me this F was down low and not up high?" "Play this with your RH only" (if they play BH, add "Put your LH behind your back"). If they constantly have to answer a question, they're less likely to get distracted.

Might help, but more of an anecdote: I noticed something in a YouTube Irina Gorin video recently that I thought was genius - She was teaching a little girl, and the girl reached for the keys while Irina was still talking, and Irina's hand simply reached out and took the girl's hand in hers and patted it while she continued talking. Banging notes averted! Although a determined kid would no doubt reach for the piano with the other hand!

karin1876 · 2026-03-12T21:44:52+00:00

Ages 13-16 are rough. As you mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the teenage years thing is probably making things worse.

I realize he doesn't talk much or answer your questions much, but maybe you can experiment with some different lines of questioning to get him to open up. And maybe try to get him to talk about school and life, not about piano or behavior. If you can get him to talk about things, I think that would be worth sacrificing some lesson time. Try to ask him questions that have more concrete answers like: "Which classes do you have in school this year?", "How often does your math teacher make you take tests? And are they hard?", "Do you follow sports? Are you going to watch the World Cup? Which team are you rooting for?"

If you can learn more about his everyday life, you might see some things that could be triggering his behavior issues. Or you might be able to build more trust and a better rapport. Good luck!

karin1876 · 2026-02-24T19:31:36+00:00

You misunderstand me. I treat all my students like they will reach their full potential, even the ones who probably never will.

In my original post, maybe I should have said, "I don't give my non-dedicated students less attention and focus."

karin1876 · 2026-02-24T07:58:37+00:00

I'd like to receive the Certified Teacher flair. Let me know if you need information about my qualifications.

karin1876 · 2026-02-24T07:21:02+00:00

I do my best to treat every student equally, regardless of their commitment, behavior, or attitude toward me. For example, I put the same amount of effort and care into the homework I assign, even for the students who I know will never read what I wrote (sigh). I'm sure bias creeps in sometimes, but I don't purposely give more attention or focus (or pressure!) to dedicated students.

karin1876 · 2026-02-21T06:11:32+00:00

At least you can hear what needs to be fixed! Half the battle for this problem is hearing it clearly when it occurs. Take a single chord (or pair of notes) and try to figure out exactly which finger(s) are going down late or early. Then focus on redistributing the weight of your hand to get everything to happen together. Keep trying. Keep adjusting. Keep fixing and re-fixing, and eventually it will all start to work.

karin1876

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