Oclef Blog

May 29, 2024

The Power of Struggle: Embracing the Growth Zone in Piano Lessons

In the 1970s, psychologist Noel Burch introduced the "Four Stages of Learning" model. The first stage, "Unconscious Incompetence," is where we all begin. We don't know what we don't know. But as we start to learn, we move into the second stage, "Conscious Incompetence" - we become acutely aware of how much we have to learn. This is where the real growth happens, but it's also where almost everyone gives up. They hit a wall, get frustrated, and decide it's too hard. But here's the thing: that...

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May 26, 2024

Why Piano Lessons are great for children and their developing mind

““Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better” - Samuel Beckett from Worstward Ho (1983)”

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May 23, 2024

Why Multiple Teachers Works Best: The Power of Diverse Perspectives in Piano Education

The study produced an interesting statistic that has caught the attention of both researchers and practitioners: the mortality rate of patients rises significantly when they are seen by fewer healthcare providers. This finding was reported by EClinicalMedicine in 2021 and it shows the importance of having multiple perspectives on a patient's health when they are in the care of healthcare professionals. This multi-perspective approach helps to make sure that no aspect of a patient's condition ...

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May 06, 2020

A piano school where kids actually practice daily and find purpose in music

This all started back in 2014 when I was finishing a 6 month long touring season as a concert pianist. My Aussie tour manager, Tim, had just left to return back to London and this time I decided I wasn’t going back. I decided I was done with touring for multiple reasons, but mainly because I didn’t see myself expanding to a 9 month schedule after 5 seasons of intense preparation and constant travel.

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October 01, 2019

Piano Education at 7AM

Walking into our school to setup our Kaizen Piano Class at 7AM yesterday and seeing 7 kids already practicing on their sight-reading books made me think about how far we’ve come as a piano education company. I quit my career as a concert pianist after my last tour in 2014 and had this crazy idea that piano education could be “fixed”. Traveling from city to city I’d meet people and when they chat with me on planes, hotels or random interactions, it would always be the same story. “Wow so you’r...

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November 20, 2018

A Tree grown from Dreams

And knowing as many parents and kids as I do, I talk with them. I listen to them. I ask them.

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November 15, 2018

Harley-Davidson figured out a secret.

But if you look deeper into what they do, it’s so much more. I admire their company so much. It’s unbelievable what they’ve created.

November 09, 2018

What’s the best way for a child who is five years old to learn a new language?

If the parent doesn’t speak the language, then that child should setup 4–6 times a week with a native speaker or teacher of that language. They would speak that language to the child as often as possible, engaging with them, and teaching them to understand step by step. And those daily lessons would be about 15–20 minutes at most (especially during the early years). It would also be smart to teach that child’s parent some fundamentals and help them understand how to help their child at home i...

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November 04, 2018

Food is important.

But they really need daily watering and care. If you consistently water and care for your crops, the total success of the harvest will be bigger. More crops will survive and grow properly.

November 02, 2018

Why are there levels for students learning piano?

First of all, for those wondering, these levels are all made up. Some group of people decided a while back to start categorizing pieces by difficulty and then organizing them into 10 levels. Level 1 is the easiest and 10 the hardest.

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October 31, 2018

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Over the last 4 years I’ve also learned so much about group format and see it as an integral part of this new model. This new daily model would include a classroom where 4 students would come to practice for units of 20 minutes (with unlimited sign ups allowed). They would have access to top-of-the-line electronic pianos, comfortable headphones and friendly teaching fellows or a teacher always available to help.

July 10, 2018

Two Steps Forward and Three Steps Back

Clothing sizes. Politicians. Cats. What do these three things have in common? Inconsistency. No offense to cats, which I love, but they don’t exactly have a consistent way of treating people. These three unrelated objects are often annoying or even harmful when they are inconsistent. We fall under this category too. Whether it be our relationships or our commitments, we have been inconsistent at some point in our lives.

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July 05, 2018

Become the Music

If a student is detached from their music, there is no music. If they play enough times without passion, they develop a habit of detachment. Eventually, the student is merely pressing black and white plastic keys for half an hour every day.

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July 04, 2018

A Study in Impatience

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” You could build a miniature replica of Rome in a day, but it wouldn’t be as glorious as the real thing. “Good things come to those who wait.” Then again, you have been waiting for your concert tickets for over an hour so you could leave and enjoy something else in the meantime. But, now you would be missing out on what would have been an awesome night. “Patience is a virtue.” Impatience is a vice.

October 24, 2016

5 ways to make memorizing music your strength

One thing that always kept my attention when talking with fellow musicians was discussion about memory. For pianists it’s often the top thing on our minds heading into concerts. How is my memory? Sviatoslav Richter who was one of the greatest pianists of all time and one of the top 5 of the 20th century ran into lots of anxiety over his memory in the later stages of his life. So he began to use music. Lang Lang often will use a score on stage if he’s performing a relatively new work. Two more...

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October 21, 2016

2 questions you have to ask when looking for a music teacher

In most of the auditions and interviews I take these days, I don’t get many questions from parents. It’s strange to me that they wouldn’t want to know more before committing to learning in our studio. So I thought about what 2 questions I would ask if I were a parent looking for a piano teacher. Here’s what I came up with: 1. What are your expectations from my child regarding practice? Do you suggest an amount of time or goal-based practice?” 2. Do you believe that talent matters in learning ...

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October 18, 2016

Practice is tough

Practice is tough. I know. I’ve practiced over 30,000 hours since I started. Getting to the point where you feel more fluent with music than your own native language is a sign that you’ve found your calling. But when I hear from parents that, “it’s tough for my child to focus.” or “did you’re mom ever have to ask you to practice?” I can’t help but smile. My answer: Practice is tough for everyone. Even for a child who grew up to be a concert pianist. That’s why we do it. It’s a journey that we...

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October 15, 2016

Can video recording change music education? (Part III of III)

In the first part of this mini-series on video I talked about video recording lessons and in part two I talked about how video can help parents and students at home. In the last part of this series we will be talking about the silent, yet intimidating question going through student’s heads every time they practice. Am I better? I have asked a lot of questions in my lifetime, but in order to make it as a concert pianist, I needed to ask the above question millions of times (literally). It’s th...

October 12, 2016

Can video recording change music education? (Part II of III)

It’s pretty clear when you see a video whether or not something is right or not. So what does this mean for piano teachers? It means we get recorded a lot. On average, parents ask to record me playing 6 times a day (yes, I’ve been keeping track). It’s smart for several reasons for them to do this. 1. Videos empower the parents to know what’s right: notes, rhythms, hand position, etc. 2. Students engage with the teacher more than once a week. And they do it in a setting they’re most familiar w...

October 09, 2016

Can video recording change music education? (Part I of III)

The feedback loop is one of the most fascinating aspects of learning. It’s a simple, but powerful process that happens hundreds of millions of times in our life. We learn We change We improve It’s this process and the forces that live in and between it, that decide how far we go. A passion and curiosity for learning, an openness to change, and a persistence to improve, these are all parts of that process. So last year when I came across a Clavier Companion article from one our early Oclef sig...

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October 06, 2016

“I did it because my friend did”

I hear this a lot. I’m a big believer in the positive use of peer pressure. There have been so many successful studies to show how social proof and peer pressure can change our behaviors and thoughts. One of the areas that education hasn’t optimized yet is their ability to harness peer pressure in a positive way. I often hear from my students that they chose to start something because their friend is doing it or because they heard of someone they know doing it. It’s a classic example of socia...

October 03, 2016

Why do we teach?

At the end of every teaching day, I’m exhausted. Just like any other job you love, you’re depleted emotionally, physically and mentally. Teaching music is particularly rewarding since you see your students grow and develop over the years. But what I find incredibly rewarding is when I see students use the skills or mindset they have from piano, in their life outside piano. We often give presentations in theory class and it’s always the new students who feel most uncomfortable. Amy was a new s...

September 30, 2016

How to see without looking

Some beginners have trouble with looking too often at their hands. You can tell early on in the lessons because when they start working on reading music, their eyes are always looking at their hands. It’s okay to look when necessary, but if they’re looking straight down the whole time, you gotta say something. The upside is that these students often memorize music quickly. But if you ask them to sight read it’s almost impossible. They are unable to connect the notes on the page with how their...

September 27, 2016

3 ways to improve your music student’s ears

One of the toughest things to teach students, is how to listen. Over the past few years I’ve really pushed students to listen and think about listening as much as possible. I find that it’s one of the best ways to help them improve. How do we help students listen better? Here are three ways that will help music students listen better: 1. Sing – This is by far the quickest tool to help students improve their listening. Although convincing them to sing may be tough at first, it’s totally worth ...

September 24, 2016

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

I recently ran an audition for students looking to join our studio. It reminded me of my last audition – the day I was accepted into the Royal College of Music in London. But this time I was the one doing the decision making. It’s really tough. You see the students come in and they’re all dressed well and nervous. But it’s the one’s who do the right things: look you in the eye and say hello, place the music on the table, and even say thank you when they’re done; those are ones I’m likely to s...

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September 21, 2016

The five whys in music education

Taiichi Ohno pioneered the Toyota manufacturing system back in the 1950’s and he did it by taking the exact opposite approach of American car factories. He gave power to the workers and had managers serve the workers. To this day, workers in a Toyota factory can still stop the whole manufacturing process with the flip of a switch. Once that switch flips the manager comes by to help the worker and they begin the questioning process. If the whole manufacturing line needs to stop then everyone s...

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September 18, 2016

Avoiding errors vs. achieving excellence (Part II)

A teacher of mine from a long time ago once told me that mistakes in performance are like if someone walks in front of the TV while you’re watching a show. This always stuck in my mind. The person walking in front of the screen temporarily messes up the line of communication that you have with the TV, but it doesn’t effect your understanding and appreciation of the story, characters and setting. You still enjoy the show and by the end, you probably won’t even remember the person who walked by...

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September 15, 2016

Tough love

Every so often I need to reach for the tissue box in lessons. Tears happen. Does it mean we’re too tough as teachers? It depends. I often push students as hard as I think they can go. The result is a deeper student to teacher connection in the long term, but a frustrated student in the short term. I push them because they can do it. Because I believe it’s the right thing to do. It’s tough being a student. I know. I was there and went through every lesson, recital, competition, audition, tours...

September 12, 2016

Avoiding errors vs. achieving excellence – Part I

One of my first blogs on Oclef was a message that I sent to my students before a competition. You can read it here – The Perfection of Pursuit What I work to make clear to my students in every opportunity is that mistakes and errors are not the problem. The problem is almost always maintaining the correct focus or mindset. Do your students fear making mistakes? Or are they more focused on creating excellence in their music? Perspective is everything. I think this is the one big differences be...

September 09, 2016

Want to keep students long term – do lessons (at least) twice weekly.

When I first started teaching at my current studio there were several students who I taught twice weekly – they were all beginners. I found that they progressed quickly because I was able to guide their practice and they knew they would have a lesson in a few days, so they practiced regularly. Two years later, I still have all of those students. They are no longer on the twice weekly plan, but the effects have lasted. Most of the students are now doing really well and are stable in their lear...

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