Skipped lessons

I'm learning that missing lessons is frustrating!

This past week Jeff has to cancel and this week I am going to have to miss because of musical rehearsals. We'll see what happens when we do finally get together!!

Lessons With Jeff

So I realize that it has been a while since I've posted anything because I am not in Piano Ped anymore but that doesn't mean that I've stopped giving lessons.

A friend of mine asked if I wanted to give her friend Jeff lessons and that he is a sophomore here at Wayne State. I jumped at the chance to get into a real lesson setting where I'm not being graded but I'm doing it for me!

My first lesson with Jeff went fantastic! He is an awesome student and is more than willing to practice and learn. I did go to Dr. C and ask her where I should start becauase even though I like to think I know what's going on...I really don't always :) She gave me some great ideas and starting points! Thanks Dr. C!!!

BACKGROUND INFO:
Jeff took piano lessons for three years and then quit, that was back in Jr. High. He told me that he really wants to learn and get back into lessons because piano is something that he can take with him wherever he goes and it's something he can do for the rest of his life. That made me one happy piano teacher.

We started the lesson sight reading some elementary level stuff and he did a great job. He can look at the notes on the keyboard and name them all day long but when he sees the notes on the page he has to think for a minute and sometimes count the lines. I had him take a piece that he is not playing and write in all of the notes so that he has a little more practice in naming them. I think I'm going to continue doing this until he is able to look at the note on the page and name it right away.

I have him started on Hannon exercises as well to help build his technique and we'll eventually get into scales. He's already picking it back up very very well and we've only had one lesson. I think this experience will be great for both of us.

The only thing I am worried about is that it is already pushing March and we're out of school in May so I hope that he'll want to continue when we get back in August. We'll see how it goes. I am very excited about this and I can not wait to watch him progress and myself progress as a teacher.

So in conclusion....I think I am going to keep up on my blog so that I know what is going on and I can look back and see what steps I took with a student that already kind of knows what is going on.

Heidi 6th lesson

This was my last lesson with Heidi. We just palyed through some fun pieces and she sight read some things and did very good. She wants to take lessons this summer and since i will be in the omaha aera i think we are going to try and get something going. I really liked giving her lessons. I felt like sometimes I wasn't sure what to do or how to explian things but I'm sure that that'll get easier the more I do it.

Heidi 5th lesson

Todays lesson went well. We reviewd things we worked on last time and went further into dotted rhythems. Now that she knows how to count them she is playing them better. She asked me today if we could continue our lessons into the summer because she really wants to learn how to play piano better so we're gonna see what we can work out.

Heidi 4th lesson

Heidi did very well tonight. I started her in a new book and we worked on a couple songs that went higher and lower than the notes that she knows but she went with it and made it fit in her hand. We worked on fingering as well and she is understanding that you don't have to stay in the "C" position all the time. She is loving learning new things and get exctied when she gets some new concept.

Heidi 3rd lesson

Heidi seems to be doing really well. She is remembering what we went over from previous lessons and is using those things when she's learning new things. We talked about staccattos and she seemed to grasp it very well. I think that when I go home for spring break I'm going to look through some of my old books and see if I can get her into them. I can't wait for my next lesson.

Heidi 2nd lesson

My second lesson went pretty well. We reviewed what we did last week and worked on some things that she had problems with. We continued on in her book and she seems to be reading the music pretty well and she's figuring things out on her own with very little help from me. I gave her some new things to work on to help her technique. She is very excited to play and I can't wait to see how far she can get in the next few weeks.