All Keyed Up

Creative Conversations for Today’s Piano Teachers

 

An interview podcast in which Ben Kapilow speaks with a wide range of professionals about topics that are pertinent to the field of piano teaching.

Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Barbara Fast: Let’s Talk About Practicing

Barbara Fast, Director of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma and co-author of iPractice: Technology in the 21st Century Music Practice Room, offers guidance to teachers in working with their students on developing an efficient practice routine. Topics discussed include finding motivation to practice, practice journals, combatting a negativity bias, interleaved vs. blocked practice, and Hardest First Practice.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Tim Topham: The Art of Communication

Tim Topham, internationally renowned music educator, piano teacher, writer, podcast host, and founder of TopMusic, discusses effective communication, both as a podcast host and as a piano teacher. Topics discussed include bringing out the best in others, being prepared while also staying present, building a brand, saying “um,” and vulnerability.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Clinton Pratt: Manage Your Studio With Ease

Clinton Pratt, owner of Piano Sensei, speaks about stress-free studio management. Topics discussed include the benefits of flat fee billing, invoices, group lessons, advertising, student acquisition, and student retention. Clinton offers many resources to help teachers manage their studios, available here.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Marvin Blickenstaff: Nuts and Bolts of Piano Pedagogy

Marvin Blickenstaff, world-renowned piano teacher, discusses his thoughts on some of the central aspects of piano pedagogy. Topics discussed include lesson planning, technical exercises, teaching rhythms, identifying notes through landmark reading and interval recognition, score study, emotional expression, and the lifelong project of continually improving as a piano teacher.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Shelly Davis: Communicating with Parents

Shelly Davis, host of the Piano Parent Podcast, speaks about effective communication with piano parents. Topics mentioned include in-person versus written correspondence, parents sitting in on lessons, using parents as allies to encourage a productive practice schedule, and the show Supernanny! Shelly has created a page dedicated to "All Keyed Up" which outlines some of the episodes and resources discussed in the interview.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Marcantonio Barone: Teaching Bach

Marcantonio Barone speaks about the importance of Bach’s music in his studio. Topics discussed include preparatory work leading up to the first Bach piece, developing hand independence, working with students on articulation choices and motivic analysis, teaching music history, and playing Bach with musicality.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Dorla Aparicio: Group Lessons

Dorla Aparicio speaks about the nuts and bolts of running a thriving group lesson program in a piano studio. She speaks about determining appropriate rates, marketing strategies, piano camps, finding repertoire, and the benefits students receive from group instruction. She offers a variety of resources to help piano teachers with structuring their group lessons, from freebies to teacher training workshops to sheet music, all of which are available at her website.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Jerald Simon: Making Music Theory Meaningful

Jerald Simon speaks about motivating students to feel passionate about music theory concepts. In this interview, Jerald speaks about many of the resources he offers to help to this effect. These resources are available at his website and at Amazon.

Read More
Ben Kapilow Ben Kapilow

Becki Laurent: JoyTunes

Becki Laurent speaks about her work at JoyTunes and the educational value of the Piano Maestro app. She also offers tips for teachers to maximize their use of Piano Maestro in their studios.

Read More