Are you looking for ways to spruce up your piano teaching? Or are you trying to teach yourself how to play the piano and are looking for resources to do that? If you answered yes to either of those questions, look no further! Here are my top 5 piano teaching tools for every pianist:
1. A way to make learning music fun.
Fun activities in lessons and at home is one of the most important piano teaching tools you can use! Students will not progress if they are not enjoying the learning aspect of music.
Check out this website for fun games, quizzes, and other activities to help solidify note reading.
I also love the resources on MakingMusicFun.net. They have a whole library of free (and very well-written) sheet music, unique games and worksheets, lesson plans, music history, and more.
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2. A worksheet packet (or workbook or app) to solidify note reading.
One of the most important aspects of playing the piano is being able to read the music. I’m all for playing by ear, but a piano student can severely limit him/herself by not learning how to read music. It is another language, after all! Here are some suggestions:
Want to teach your students to read music in 21 days? Get this worksheet packet. (My students love using worksheets. The quirkier the better!)
Want to teach yourself how to read music quickly? Take a look at this workbook here.
And while you’re at it, check out the NoteMatch! It’s an amazing tool for teachers and students to help solidify note reading. The NoteMatch is a bendable whiteboard musical staff that sits just behind the keys of the piano. The makers turned the musical staff on its side and spaced the notes out just right so that the lines of the staff on the NoteMatch line up with the key on the keyboard. It’s a unique and smart visual representation of how the staff works in conjunction with the keyboard. Here’s what it looks like:
*Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you any extra! And I will never share any product that I don’t love, especially when it comes to music.
3. A good metronome.
Whether you are teaching students how to play or teaching yourself, every good pianist needs a metronome. This tool helps guide students and teachers to make correct decisions in regards to tempo, and it helps solidify
I personally really enjoy the Pro Metronome app because it’s free and you can download it to your iPhone or Android!
4. Staff paper (or another way to transcribe music).
Staff paper is a necessary tool for all musicians. Having some on hand will help you transcribe anything, whether your piano student needs help understanding theory or you are beginning a composition project.
The Transcribe! software is a really helpful app that gives you the tools necessary to transcribe a piece of music. It doesn’t do the actual transcription for you, but it has many components that make it easy to do, which in turn helps you get better at transcribing on your own.
I also love this staff paper notebook and take it with me pretty much everywhere I go. I’m also really interested in trying out this awesome music notebook; the
5. A favorite pencil.
Pencils might seem a little odd on this list, but I am speaking from personal piano teaching and learning experience that using a fun, colorful pencil to write down instructions makes learning way better. (I had one purple flower pencil that I used for years as a piano teacher until one day I lost it and my students freaked out!)
Some of my favorite pencils are these music ones (they also come with stickers) and these patterned mechanical pencils.
Do you have any favorite piano teaching tools? Let me know in the comments!
For more information on using sight reading and ear training as piano teaching tools, check out these posts here and here.
Great read! And your March 4th post was equally enjoyable. I’m a big fan of music and music history. Like you, I find Howard Goodall to be a great resource for learning about the history of music. I came across him by accident three years ago and was happy I did. I learned to play guitar during my adult years (and wrote a post about it back in March 2018 🙂 ). Piano is something I would hope to be able to pursue at some points as well. Right now, my schedule is too busy. But I’ll definitely keep the Alfred All-in-One book in mind 🙂
It’s a great resource! I hope one day you will have the opportunity to learn piano. 😊 I don’t know how to play the guitar; I’ll have to add that to my list of things to do!