Picture this: your next student is about to arrive. It’s the student that never practises. Lessons can be a slog, repeating the same thing from week to week. This sucks the joy out of lessons for both students and teachers! There are two main approaches for teaching...
Navigating the World of Piano Teaching
Keys to Success
Dive into the world of piano teaching with The Keys to Success blog from Nocturne Notes.
You’ll find piano teaching tips, free resources and tales from the piano!
How Much Practice is Enough?
Piano teachers have a sixth sense for whether a student has practised, don’t we? The tricky thing is there is no number we can simply give to students or their parents as to the magic number of minutes to practise. A rough guide suggests that children can concentrate...
No Music, No Problem: Ways to Handle Students Forgetting Sheet Music
Imagine this: you're sitting in your teaching studio, eagerly anticipating your next student's arrival. You answer the door, and there they stand, empty-handed. A wave of dread washes over you as their parent sheepishly apologises for forgetting the music. So any...
A Hands-On Approach to Music Theory
My first ever “proper” job was teaching music theory to other music students. Whilst I learned a lot of teaching skills, and it really reinforced all my theory knowledge, I also discovered a deep-seated aversion to the traditional classroom setting of teaching theory....
The Case Against Method Books: A Different Way to Teach Music
When I was a teenager I started Saxophone lessons, and picked up a few bits on other instruments like the guitar. By this point I was a committed Piano student - practising every day, and practising more pieces/studies than my teacher assigned (my mum still had to...