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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Selena Pistoresi: Embracing Neurodiversity
Selena Pistoresi, founder of Notable Music Teaching, discusses her work in helping piano teachers work with students with special needs. Topics mentioned include the DSM-V, creating a sensory friendly environment, stimming, the limitations of overuse of aural teaching, teaching technique to students with motor difficulties, and presuming competence.
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.
Eleonor Bindman: Bach Piano Arrangement and Transcription Resources
Eleonor Bindman speaks about Bach's output and her easy piano arrangements and transcriptions of his works.
Ashley Frith: Thoughts on Music, Self-Reflection, and Anti-Racism
Ashley Frith speaks about her work as a composer and Director of Racial Equity and Belonging at Community MusicWorks. Topics mentioned include the connection between her compositions and her social justice activism, color blindness, stereotyping, approaches to scholarship and outreach, selecting repertoire, and the challenge of true self-reflection.
Darryl Harper: Thinking Through Improvisation
Darryl Harper, jazz musician and Associate Professor of Music at Amherst College, speaks about his scholarship on improvisation. He discusses improvisation through many lenses, including history, culture, education, and neuroscience.
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.
Courtney Crappell: Teaching Today’s Generation
Courtney Crappell speaks about some of the specific topics associated with teaching students of today's generation, sometimes referred to as Generation Z.
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.
Flo Arnold: Pianimals
Flo Arnold, owner and co-author of Pianimals, speaks about the story and pedagogical philosophy behind the popular method book.
Misha Stefanuk: Teaching and Arranging Across Styles
Misha Stefanuk speaks about teaching students to play convincingly in a variety of styles, his jazz piano exercise books, and his bestselling easy piano arrangements.
Chrissy Ricker: Teaching, Composing, and Arranging
Chrissy Ricker speaks about her teaching resources, easy piano arrangements of classical and popular pieces, and compositions.
Ariel Weiss: Alexander Technique
Ariel Weiss discusses some of the major concepts from Alexander Technique that help pianists play with less tension and more fluidity, power and expressivity.
Orli Shaham: Bach Yard and Juilliard
Orli Shaham speaks about her Bach Yard series, as well as her experiences teaching at the Juilliard School.
Doreen Hall: Teaching Pre-Schoolers
Doreen Hall speaks about her book “The Ultimate Preschool Piano Activities Book: Complete Guide to Hands-On Preschool Piano Teaching.”