Suzuki Book 1 Training - Part 1

In my piano studio, I teach the Suzuki method. I have been teaching it now for nine years, but have been wanting to get certified so that I can really teach the true philosophy of the method. I started looking for a teacher trainer about a year and a half ago and couldn't really work my schedule in a way that would fit their's. I was told about a teacher trainer in Fort Worth who is amazing, sent her an email and had my training set up in about two days. I am so excited that I have finally found a teacher trainer that will work with my crazy schedule! I have only had one session so far, but I feel like I have already learned so much!

My first session consisted of two and half hours of observation, plus two hours of training. During the observation time, I observed three different students of varying ages and skill levels. The first student is nine years old and in the middle of Suzuki book 1. She has been taking for one year. Her tone and technique is absolutely incredible! I was very impressed by her theory knowledge as well. She is learning not only her major scales, but also the chords with inversions of each key. I remember learning this when I took piano lessons, but what blew me away was the fact that she also knows the figured bass for her inversions! That was something I did not learn until college, but here is this nine year old learning it. My teacher trainer also has her students learn Happy Birthday in each key as they learn that key's scale. That is such a good idea!

The next little girl is six, and she at the beginning of Suzuki book 1. She also has been taking piano for a year, but like the other little girl has fantastic tone. I was so impressed with how quickly she could read notes and how well she knows the piece that she is working on. I think that with her lesson, I was most impressed by how well she jumped right in to her new piece! During the nine year old's lesson, the teacher had given the younger girl a new piece to look at. By the time it was her turn to have her lesson, she was ready to try the first few measures and did extremely well!

The last student is eleven years old and is in the middle of Suzuki book 2. Just like the other girls, this student had extremely good tone and knew her pieces so well. I was very impressed by her review pieces and the fact that she could easily pull out any section of a piece and play it not only memorized, but also hands seperate. A big part of the Suzuki method is review, and I have always wondered how to better incorporate review into my students' practice time. This teacher has review down to a science, and I am glad that she will be teaching me exactly how she does it! That is something I will definitely be using in my own teaching!

In each of the girls' lessongs, I was completely blown away with the positive and encouraging attitude the teacher held. Even the way she approached wrong notes or chords was so positive, and she never told the girls that they did anything wrong, but that they did it differently. She also allowed the other student who was observing the lesson to get involved in the lesson. It was so neat to see the students be a part of each other's lessons.

After the two and half hours of observation, we had our two hours of training. Because it was the first training session, it was a lot of business like going through the training manual and her expectations of me throughout the course. I will be not only learning Suzuki book 1 as she teaches me with the techniques that she uses for her students, but I will also be reading a few articles about the philosophy of Suzuki and writing short summaries of those articles. Some of the articles look very interesting and will be very helpful.

I really can't wait to learn more about how this teacher teaches, because she has found way to incorporate all of the Suzuki principles, even reviewing into the piano method. I have been wanting to find a way to inporoate review, but I have always found it difficult to use review in piano, because the students cannot all play the review pieces together in group lessons. But with this teacher's method of review, my students will be able to get that important aspect of the Suzuki method!

I will definitely be posting more about the training sessions after my next session which will be in a week and a half!

Happy teaching! If you have any Suzuki advice or fun experiences to share about your own training, please feel free to comment!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Music Teacher's Helper

One of my best resources for my private studio is Music Teacher's Helper (MTH). This website is a must have for any private music teacher!

I started using this website a quite few years ago, but only used it for the free website. Yes, I said FREE website! There are a bunch of templates to choose from. They recently added quite a few "premium" templates, but there are still a good selection of free templates. While the template is not very customizable, the pages are. It comes with a few standard pages like a Home page, Registration page, Links & Files, Photos and a Login page (for parents and students). I have added a few of my own pages such as a studio calendar and policy. The Contact page is especially useful for those interested in lessons. They simply fill out the form and an email is sent directly to your inbox. If you'd like to see what a MTH website looks like, please take a minute to check mine out: Alicia's Piano Studio

About two or three years ago, I began using the website for it's other features in addition to the free website. It has so many features that really help any music teacher keep their business organized: calendar, student/parent information database, invoicing and mileage tracker (for those who travel to their students' houses). One of my favorite features is the report feature. By entering payments from your students, MTH will actually create a report at the end of the year for your taxes. You can even create a mileage report and an studio expense report. It is so helpful when filing your taxes when that time of year comes along!

I recently discovered a new use for the calendar. Of course, there is the typical calendar features for entering your teaching schedule. Students and/or parents can also sign in and cancel their lesson if they need to miss it. However, on top of entering your student schedule, you can also add in appointments that are available. This way if a student or parent signs in to the website and needs to cancel their lesson, they can also register for a makeup lesson. I have just started using this feature, but it seems to working marvelously so far. I am excited about eliminating the back-and-forth that often goes on when trying to reschedule lessons.

MTH makes it very easy to either send an email to all of your students and parents at once. I send out a lot of email reminders and do a lot of my communicating through email, so this feature is amazing. I just type out my email using the email feature, choose who I want to receive the email and hit send. You can even choose to have a copy sent to yourself. Also in the email feature are templates. You can either use their pre-made templates or make your own. This feature is perfect for automatic reminders and welcome email for new members of your studio.

The invoicing feature is so convienent. You can either manually create invoices or set up an automatic invoicing system. The invoices look professional and are sent directly to the parents' email inboxes. You can even add fees to the student's account for late payments or whatever fees you charge, which will show up on the invoice.

If you are interested in trying MTH, there is a 30-Day FREE trial! After that, your price level is based on how many students you have. The prices are very reasonable. Here are the various levels and their monthly fees (notice they offer a free plan in the bottom, right-hand corner):

I also just joined the affiliate program, so if you would like to sign up for MTH, please either use my promotion code: (14E320) or click on any of the MTH links on this blog. By doing so, you will receive 10% off your first payed month! So, please sign up through me!

I hope that you take a while to check out this fantastic teaching resource! I really couldn't imagine my teaching without this wonderful website!

If you already use MTH for your music studio, please comment and share your favorite features!

Posted with Blogsy

NTSA

This weekend, I got the opportunity to attend a North Texas Suzuki Association meeting. It was so exciting! The NTSA is a local music association for Suzuki teachers. Music associations provide performance opportunities, judging events and other amazing opportunities for students! If you are not a part of a local music association, I highly recommend that you find one near you and join. Personally, I have waited a while to join an association, because I had not found one that fit what I was looking for. However, upon finding the NTSA, I will definitely be joining. In fact, after the meeting, I went home and sent the membership person an e-mail saying that I was interested in joining. I am so excited about the opportunities that will be opened up to my students!

In addition to having opportunities for my students, going to the meeting and joining the NTSA will provide me with some fantastic contacts within the Suzuki community! In just one afternoon, I was able to meet some other Suzuki piano teachers, get some ideas for where I should take my Suzuki book training and get new ideas for piano group lessons! I even got to utilize some of those new ideas tonight in my own group lessons, and both my students and myself had a blast!

I also have a membership with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. This a fantastic association to be a part of. By being a member of SAA, I have access to message boards where I can ask questions, get advice and get connected with other Suzuki teachers. I also get the quarterly Suzuki Journal, which is filled with articles that are so helpful in my teaching. I love being a part of the Suzuki communitee and look forward to getting more involved!

What music associations are you a part of, and do you think are the best benefits for both you and your students?

Posted with Blogsy

iPad

My very favorite product that I use with every single music-related thing that I do is my iPad! I have had it for a year and a half now and love it! I use it for my private teaching, classroom teaching, worship leading and accompanying. Here are specific ways I use it:

 

Private Teaching: I have a desktop, which obviously doesn't transport easily to my studio. So, I use my iPad for so many things while teaching my piano students. I use it for its obvious uses such as calendar, YouTube videos and email. But there are so many apps that help me in other ways, and so many of them are FREE! I have a rhythm app that gives rhythmic examples, so that I can have my students practice rhythm. The Dropbox app is also a huge asset as I can access files that are on my computer while in my studio. I can also use apps for searching for sheet music. My favorite is Sheet Music Direct.

Classroom Teaching: My favorite use for my iPad in the classroom is the Plan Book app (I will have a post about Plan Book very soon). It allows me to view and edit my lesson plans. It is so convenient to have right there by my side while I teach. And of course, I use it to show videos or play music.

Worship Leading: I upload my chord charts to my iPad and plug them into a setlist app. It is perfect for last minute setlist changes and keeps me from lugging around a notebook filled with chord charts. The app can also keep track of when a song was last used, which keeps me from using the same song too often.

Accompanying: This is probably the coolest way that I use my iPad. I upload my music to my iPad and plug it into a sheet music app. On top of that, I bought an AirTurn pedal that connects to my iPad through bluetooth. While playing, I can simply tap the pedal, and it turns my page! It's a pianist's lifesaver!

I will try to give some detailed reviews about some of the apps that I mentioned above. But I just wanted to give you a brief overview of what the iPad can do for you! It is so nice to have, because you can take it anywhere. Because it is mobile, I end up using it even at home instead of my desktop for a lot of things. If you can afford it, I certainly recommend buying one of fantastic gadgets!

If you already have an iPad, how do you use it in your teaching, worship leading or other music activities?

 

Posted with Blogsy

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Teaching Timbre! My name is Alicia, I am so glad that you have decided to check out my blog.

For just a little about myself, I am in my early twenties and am happily married to my wonderful husband of four years, Jason! We have a precious Golden Retriever, Brandy, and I have her spoiled rotten. ;) I have been teaching private piano lessons for nine years and have a Bachelor of Music degree in Church Music. I accompany violin lessons, voice lessons and choirs, and lead worship any chance that I am given that special opportunity. I also play piano and/or sing for my church. Lastly, I just took a position at a small, private school as a part-time music teacher.

I have tried, previously, to start a blog or two, but didn't succeed. I discovered that the reason I did not succeed was because I was trying to write about things that were not my passion. But I think I have it right this time, and I am beyond excited about this blog!

This blog is going to be about... you've probably guessed already... music! Other than my family, music is the one thing in life that I am passionate about. You will mainly find things related to music teaching (both private piano teaching and classroom music teaching). However, I will also be included things related to worship leading, music reviews, and whatever other music-related thing that come across my mind.

I hope that this blog will prove to be a resource for your own teaching, as I will review products, blogs, apps, and more that I either already use or come to use over the life of this blog. I will also provide teaching tips and maybe even questions for you to answer as I come across challenges in my own teaching.

Thank you again for stopping by Teaching Timbre! If there is anything specific you would like to see on this blog, please feel free to leave a comment. I always appreciate your feedback.

Happy Music Making!

Posted with Blogsy