Piano Parent Podcast: helping teachers, parents, and students get the most of their piano lessons.

In today's show, Ken Thompson shares valuable insight into piano technique. 

"Technique is a tool that serves performance. If you use the tool in performance, you are able to be free musically, to express yourself, and to send a musical message to your audience. In order for that to happen, the tool needs to be reliable."

Learn more at www.PianoParentPodcast.com/331

Keep this list handy for any time your piano kid participates in a studio recital or piano event. These are wonderful things you can do to make this important day as stress-free and calm for your piano kid as possible.

Get your free Checklist download and find other tenth episodes at www.PianoParentPodcast.com/330

I am amazed at the things students collect in their music bags. I've seen everything from books and music that was completed long ago to old theory tests and worksheets to candy wrappers from my prize box. Once I even found a banana that was well past its expiration!

So many odd items creep into my own music bag. Exactly why do I have three types of breath mints, two lip balms, and seven hair ties?!?

On today's show, let's clean out our music bags together.

See the companion video at www.PianoParentPodcast.com/329

Sometimes, no matter how much you want your piano kids to enjoy their lessons and learn to make music, they just don't get it. Sometimes, even if you've done everything right, they still end up quitting.

That's the topic of today's show.

Learn more at www.pianoparentpodcast.com/328

I started to call this chat "Hobbyist vs Serious Musicians" but realized that's not a fair description. Some would say I'm a hobbyist at podcasting - because I make ZERO money doing it - but I still take it very seriously. That's why I made the change to "Hobbyist vs Career Musicians" - some of our piano kids are doing lessons for a season, without the intention of pursuing music in college or as a profession while others have different long-term plans.

Your goals have a big impact on the teacher you select and how that teacher will go about teaching you to play the piano.

Please visit www.pianoparentpodcast.com/327 to learn more.

I started to call this chat "Hobbyist vs Serious Musicians" but realized that's not a fair description. Some would say I'm a hobbyist at podcasting - because I make ZERO money doing it - but I still take it very seriously. That's why I made the change to "Hobbyist vs Career Musicians" - some of our piano kids are doing lessons for a season, without the intention of pursuing music in college or as a profession while others have different long-term plans.

Your goals have a big impact on the teacher you select and how that teacher will go about teaching you to play the piano.

Please visit www.pianoparentpodcast.com/327 to learn more.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Where words fail, music speaks”- a quote by Hans Christian Andersen. Today’s musical mystery will tell you the story of an occasion where words could have gotten you fired so music was the only way to communicate.

Hear the full story in today's Musical Mystery Opus 4, No. 2 "Turn out the lights, the party's over!"

Visit www.pianoparentpodcast.com/326 for more information about this mystery as well as a link to other Musical Mysteries.

This is a busy time of the year. To avoid schedule conflicts and the urge to do all the things, parents need to be proactive, set priorities and make difficult decisions for their piano kids.

Listen to today's show to learn how.

Check www.pianoparentpodcast.com/325 for more information.

Ashlee Young is a piano teacher with a passion to help musicians plan more effective and efficient practice sessions. In today's interview, she shares how you can move from reading individual notes to more lengthy phrases in the same way we progress in reading letters, words, and sentences.

Visit www.PianoParentPodcast.com/324 for more information.

March 29 is the 88th day of the year - PIANO DAY!!

To celebrate one of our favorite days of the year, we are going to do a fun Piano Day Project where we will encrypt a secret name in our special, one-of-a-kind melody.

Learn how in today's show!

Get your free Alpha-Numeric Code maker at www.PianoParentPodcast.com/323.