This lesson uses my Piano Music for Sight Reading – Preparatory Level book and features a cameo by Scruff the dog.
Skills
March Song with Lucy — Scaffolding the lesson: Lesson 009
Gone Too Soon with Armaan: Lesson 012
Sight Reading Duos
It seems so obvious, but I’d never thought to do it. I had created pages and pages of Sight Reading Flashcards. But I’d never used them with more than one student at a time. At one of my group classes last Saturday, I had three girls about the same age of Continue Reading
Ten Tips for Teaching Teens
Natalie is sprouting blackheads. Ethan feels a sudden need to be cool. Sophia was flat-chested last month but today is wearing the bra she definitely needs. Jason shot up four inches over the summer and none of his pants are long enough. Rich has the beginnings of dark fuzz on Continue Reading
I Couldn’t Read The Music
I snatched it down. I’d spied it right away. SHEET MUSIC! My very first piece of music was poking its head out of my Christmas stocking. The Spinning Song. It was the sheet music for THE Spinning Song. Like the Golden Gate Bridge or my mother. It had always been. My Continue Reading
Sight Reading is like Vaccination
When my son Bryce was six-years-old, my husband Tony took him to see the film Spirited Away in the theater. It clocked in at just over two hours in Japanese with English sub-titles. I thought it was a bad idea. Bryce couldn’t read yet. It was going to annoy everyone. As the Continue Reading
Breaking The Rules Of Engraving
Music notation has problems. One of my frustrations with standard notation is the way that the beaming of eighth notes (quavers) sets up students to see things in groups. Seeing things in groups is lovely, but can cause a student to make rhythmic assumptions that are incorrect. Example: This passage Continue Reading