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April 29, 2025

The Missing Link in Piano Teaching — Fixed.

Oclef Notation isn't just a better way to mark music. It's a visual system that turns confusing movements into clear, teachable steps. Most beginners don’t naturally connect sheet music to what their hands need to do — and that disconnect slows everything down. In this quick video, we’ll show you how to bridge that gap by marking crossovers, pivots, and shifts on the score itself. It’s like giving your students a GPS for their fingers. Whether you're inside a Kaizen session or leading your ow...

November 02, 2018

Why are there levels for students learning piano?

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.

September 27, 2016

3 ways to improve your music student’s ears

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 21, 2016

The five whys in music education

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...

September 06, 2016

The piano teacher’s word cloud

The piano teacher’s word cloud
I love my job teaching kids. But I often have a feeling like I’m a broken record. The other day, one of my students came to the lesson very prepared and when I asked him what happened, he looked at me and said “I just did what you said to do.” (facepalm) So I decided yesterday to compile all the words that I say most often about practice. It was a fun exercise for myself and I wonder how my words overlap with yours. 🙂 “Practice in sections repeatedly. Hands separate and together. Each time th...