Today’s post features Susan Petters, an innovative teacher who’s unique circumstances lead her to develop a lesson schedule that helps students quickly master their piano fundamentals. I’m sure you’ll love learning her techniques, and you may even want to try some of them out in your own studio.
Susan writes:
I have been teaching piano for 15 years. My husband is an Air Force officer so we move every 2-3 years. I mainly get beginner students or transfer students with many holes in their basic foundation so I have developed a studio where the students can get a good foundation in a short amount of time.
I first got my ideas when I took a course on group piano. I liked the premise of the students working together to develop their talents but knew I would not be able to have students all at the same level moving at the same pace for very long. So I master planned an idea and it has turned out to be the best way to do the beginning years of piano.
I do 1 hour lessons each week with 1/2 hour at the piano and 1/2 hour doing theory (I have a theory lesson to fit their needs). Because they can sit and do the theory in the studio without much help from me I can then have another student at the piano while one is doing theory. I do 3 of these lessons a month then on the 4 week we have a master class where I get together 4-6 of my students and they play a memorized song for each other. We play games and at the end they get to buy stuff with their piano dollars they earned by practicing 5x a week.
I have received much praise from parents for this approach–the kids love it so they learn:)
When asked about her favorite resources at Eartrainingandimprov.com, Susan replied:
That is a tough one because I love it all. The resources are wonderful I view them often for ideas but I think my favorite is the improv videos. I am actually going to hook up a keyboard to my computer and let the kids view the videos as they work on their songs so they can replay it as many times as they like and it won’t take away from their time at the piano it would be part of their theory time. It also gives them something different to work on besides theory games.
Thanks, Susan, for letting us get to know you and for sharing your piano teaching tips!
Have a question or comment for Susan? Leave a reply below.