This app is fantastic for so many reasons, including that it doesn’t require any logins or show any ads, making it much easier to recommend to families with young children. Below I’ve answered a couple of questions that you may have when determining if Bees Keys is a good addition to your studio and teaching.

What does the app do?

In the (free) classic mode, players click on the correct key that matches the note name (such as D or re) in the honeycomb held by the flying bumblebee. Teachers can customize settings to use either ABC or solfège note names, as well as adding sharps/flats or focusing only on white keys. Settings customization also applies to bee speed and on-screen keyboard size/layout. To play, you choose the correct key to advance and collect them all. Choose the incorrect key and you will lose a life. After three lost lives, the game is over. This element is great to encourage thinking rather than button-mashing!

How much does it cost?

Bees Keys is FREE to download for both Apple and Android phones and tablets! I’ve been excitedly waiting for the Android release for several years so that all of my students and piano-teaching friends could get it, and it’s finally available! The app recently updated to include a paid “Pro” version: a one-time fee (no subscriptions!) of $6.99 USD that unlocks additional ways to practice. With the Bees Keys pro version, students play the answering keys on their own piano (acoustic or grand) for the app to hear the answers! You can calibrate your own piano or connect through MIDI or Bluetooth. My students enjoy playing it both ways: the classic mode is fun to tap the screen, but the pro mode is fun to connect their instrument sounds with having the app listen. Pro mode also has a “Find every key” mode, where you can select a note (such as C or do) to find each one of on your piano, and the app will listen and collect each note for a bee. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the calibration! It seems on-par or even better than that of Note Rush, which I’m very happy with.

Which students is this good for? How can I use it in my lessons?

I use Bees Keys for all of my students, from preschoolers to adults, when they first learn to identify the white keys. Most people love a fun little phone game, and adults don’t mind the childish aspect since it’s obvious how it helps them practice the concept they just learned. Some students pick up on the white-key identification quickly and don’t need to review much, while other students benefit greatly from downloading the app on their own device and playing it at home as part of piano practice. I also highly recommend this app for beginning students who will be missing a lesson while on vacation, as this game can be played without WiFi or a piano! Rather than having students forget the white keys they’ve been learning while they go on a road trip, they can keep the concept fresh and use their screen time to their musical benefit! My own kids beg to play the “piano bee game” on my phone any chance they get!

The creators of Bees Keys have also recently posted several “free-bee” printable worksheets for teachers to use in their lessons to supplement the concepts practiced in the app. They are so much fun! Continue the bee theme by coloring and matching bees and their notes/keys. I’m definitely going to be using these in my group lessons!

One of my favorite features of the free version is the “1st Lesson Tutorial” mode to help students get started. You begin by identifying the groups of 2 and 3 black keys, then groups of CDE, and finally groups of FGAB. As a teacher, you can simply select to have students do a certain section of the tutorial if you’d like to only practice finding groups of 2/3 black keys, for example.

You can incorporate it in lessons as a little break or fun activity, or send the link for families to download and use at home during practice. At the end of this article, my paid subscribers can download a PDF to print and cut handouts with QR codes for parents to scan and download Bees Keys on their device; no need to send them links. This is great for teachers who would like to give access to the app to their students but don’t necessary want to deal with the technology themselves.

Click here to access the Bees Keys website, which includes links to download the app, worksheets, and additional information for teachers. I hope that you enjoy using Bees Keys in your studio as much as I have! It’s truly been such a beneficial use of technology for my students, and several piano families have told me that it’s an app hit! Let me know in the comments if you’re trying it out or if you already have a Bees Keys success story!

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Axolotl Finger Numbers

I like to play several games to review finger numbers before we place them on the keys. After teaching that “thumb is number one!” (I have them chant that phrase five times while wiggling their thumbs), I ask “If thumb is number one, what would our pointer fingers be?”. After they answer “two!”, we logically determine that the rest of our fingers are three, four, and five.

Up next come the review games. This simple axolotl game doesn’t require any prep work or materials, just your fingers and some axolotl imagination!

Place your hands by your face so that your fingers resemble axolotl gills. Instruct your student to face you and to do the same. Review your finger numbers by saying the name of a hand (e.g. “Right hand!”) and then a finger number (e.g. “Two!”) and have the student wiggle their corresponding finger/axolotl gill. Repeat until you’ve reviewed each finger number!

A simplified version is for students to have their hands out in front of them, identify the correct hand and finger number, and then raise their hands by their face while they wiggle that finger. Alternatively, they can place a ring on the correct finger and then bring their hands up to be their gills so you can check it.

My younger students love pretending to be axolotls as they review their finger numbers. I love how simple this activity is to add into a lesson as a silly wiggle break that still uses our time efficiently to review musical concepts.

As a thank you to my paid subscribers, download the matching axolotl finger number coloring page below!

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As piano teachers of young beginners, it is essential that we help them form healthy technical habits at the piano. Sitting correctly at the piano is just as important as knowing how to read music and identify the keys on the keyboard, especially because we help build habits that will last a musical lifetime. If a student sits on the bench with their feet dangling, it forces their upper-body muscles to overcompensate for the instability that comes from not having their feet grounded.

I’d like to share a few of my favorite resources to help our smallest students sit at the piano in a way that will create a firm foundation for their feet.

Two Heights, One Step Stool

This is one of my most-used items in my piano studio, aside from my piano itself. The majority of my students under the age of seven need support for their feet as they play the piano. Enter the “Skip Hop Double Up Step Stool.” This step stool comes with two separate stools that can be stored with one in the other, combined to make a two-step stool, or used as separate stools. The smaller dark-gray stool is the PERFECT height (6 inches) to support 5-7 year old’s feet without being too tall. I’ve tried several other stools and they’ve all been slightly too tall for most of my students. This Skip Hop stool has been a game-changer.

The taller stool of the set is a lighter gray and is 8.5 inches tall, which is a perfect height for preschoolers (3-4 year olds) to support their feet. I also appreciate how wide these stools are, so my students can comfortably rest their feet without needing to have them squished together. The stools are also compact so they tuck away easily under or next to the piano.

In addition to using the stools in lessons, I take my stools with me to recital venues so that these young pianists can have the support they need while they play. This also reminds the parents how important it is for students to sit correctly as they play their instrument.

The Pedal Extender

Story: a few years ago, my four year old son was DYING to use the damper pedal. He had discovered that by pushing it down, sounds stretched and muddled together. It was fascinating to him, and it became his ultimate goal during his preschool-piano lessons to play with the damper pedal as much as possible. This was a problem though, because he couldn’t reach it while sitting on the bench. I bit the bullet and bought a pedal extender for my studio, and it has been absolutely worth it! My students love being able to comfortably reach and use the pedals. Several of my students have even used it for their NFMC Festival performances, and the judges were thrilled to see how it helped enable correct pedaling for the tiniest pianists. The picture below shows how the pedal extender works: pedals with felt-bottomed extension rods push down on the piano’s pedals, allowing the same look and feel of the piano pedal, but at an elevated height. The height can be adjusted through different knobs, making it easy to customize to different pianos. It also doubles as a footstool for students to rest their feet when not using the pedals.

“The Piano Stool is Cool!”

The majority of my students don’t give me any pushback about using a stool to rest their feet, especially after understanding the purpose behind it. Explaining that it’s going to help them play more comfortably if they have their feet grounded helps kids understand why they need to use a foot support. The biggest problem I face is how many kids want to wiggle and lift the stool with their feet while they’re not actively playing. A gentle reminder is typically enough to get them to stop and keep their feet still.

I’ve found it helpful to introduce the stool from lesson one, explaining how we put our feet as one of the steps of “How to sit at the piano” (detailed post coming soon!). As part of this activity, students can do or take home a coloring page showing a child sitting at the piano while resting his feet on a stool. I took a picture of my own student sitting at the piano and used a coloring page generator to turn it into his very own activity! You can create custom pictures for your own students, or paid subscribers can download and print this “Piano Stool is Cool” coloring page.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission to help support my writing at no additional cost to you.

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I was already planning to host a birthday party-themed summer piano camp, as my 1926 Mason & Hamlin grand piano was celebrating its hundredth birthday. After asking a few piano teacher friends “Am I crazy for wanting to incorporate a bounce house into my lessons or camps?”, the unanimous answer was that I should give it a go.

Obviously safety and liability are concerns when activities like a bounce house are involved. As part of piano camp registration, parents sign a liability release and agree to studio policies regarding the bounce house. Examples of policy wording are included at the end of this article. Thankfully, no injuries were sustained!

There are so many ways you can use a bounce house to help learn and review music! In summer piano camp we learned finger numbers and the music alphabet, and used the bounce house games to review.

Beach Ball Bounce: Notes, Keys, and Finger Numbers

I bought a pack of inflatable beach balls and used a permanent marker to make three types of music review balls:

• Notes: Draw a note symbol (quarter, half, etc.) or rest on each stripe of the beach ball. When a student catches it, they shout the name of the note or rest under their right thumb.

• Keys: Similar to the notes idea, draw sets of either two or three black keys on each of the segments. Draw a star on one of the white keys on each keyboard section. Students should shout the name of the key shown on the stripe where their right thumb lands.

• Finger numbers: Place several stickers or do small drawings (like stars or circles) on the beach ball. When a student picks it up, they should shout or wiggle the hand and finger number that’s closest to or covering the first sticker/drawing they see.

As kids jump around the bounce house, they should be picking up the beach balls and shouting the answer that corresponds to the ball they picked up. This activity is flexible to fill however much time you need, though in my experience, kids need reminders to stay on task rather than simply bouncing around.

Bounce to the Beat

Bounce houses are a great opportunity to explore tempo differences through full-body movement. Play music from your phone through a wireless speaker, or set up a digital keyboard outside, and have students jump to the beat! You can have them emphasize the downbeat with a big jump and do bounces on the other beats. Another option would be to study the Italian tempo terms and then review by bouncing to an Andante beat versus a Presto beat.

Buying the Bounce House

My criteria for a bounce house was that it should:

• Be large enough for 3-4 bouncers (including kids ages 6-12) at a time

• Have a small slide, but no other big additions (like a ball pit or climbing wall)

• Collapse and store easily

• Have great reviews

• Cost no more than $300

After researching several options, the winner was Bounceland’s 12×9×7ft bounce house available on Amazon. Its maximum total weight capacity is 250 lbs., with a max individual weight of 84 lbs., making it great for preschool and elementary-aged children alike. It met all the criteria, collapsed nicely with its blower in a bag, and included a simple hoop which could be used for basketball play. Best of all, it was under budget at $250! If you’d like a few other options that meet the same criteria, check out this one by Action Air or this one from Sibefiy. I’ve also seen bounce houses at Costco and Sam’s Club that meet the criteria.

Setup and Logistics

I was super impressed at the quality of the bounce house and how simple it was to set up, take down, and store. The setup is super easy: simply lay out the bounce house on the floor (I laid it directly on the grass), attach the tube that connects to the blower, switch the blower on, and wait a minute. Seriously, it took less than a minute to inflate completely! This bounce house included stakes to anchor it to the ground for safer jumping.

As far as actual bouncing logistics, I tried to keep it as simple as possible. Students were in outdoor stations so not everyone would be wanting to jump at the same time. Each station had a certain amount of time before we would rotate. At the beginning of each group’s bounce house station time, I asked kids to take off their shoes and jump either barefoot or in their socks. They had about five minutes to bounce and play the corresponding game to practice the musical concept. I gave them a one-minute warning and then we quickly switched stations. Though it was the favorite station, students didn’t have a problem rotating through once their turn was over.

Takedown of the bounce house was similar to the setup: turn off the blower, detach it, roll out the air, and store in the included storage bag. It was easy enough that I could set it up and take it down on my own, though it is nice to have another person helping.

The kids absolutely loved having the bounce house as the ending point to our summer piano camp days! It was a great way to get wiggles out while still reinforcing musical concepts through full-body movement. Having camp activities outside in a bounce house makes everything more exciting, and students left each day talking about how much they loved piano camp and the music bounce house.

Let me know in the comments how you would use a bounce house in your studio! Are there any other fun games or uses you can think of? Keep reading for policy wording regarding using the bounce house.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission to help support my writing at no additional cost to you.

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A few months ago, I wrote about two changes that have transformed my own piano studio:

• Semester scheduling with flat-rate monthly tuition (13 guaranteed lessons and a recital scheduled over a 4-month period).

• Asynchronous video lessons instead of live, scheduled makeup lessons.

Switching from scheduling and billing per-lesson to semester calendars with flat-rate tuition did wonders for my sanity and brought much-needed clarity for families. I noticed an increase in both practice quality and lesson attendance, and in my own happiness as a piano teacher now that I had clear piano-scheduling expectations. For missed lessons, instead of tacking extra makeup weeks onto the end of a term, they may submit a video of themselves playing their assignment(s) and receive a video with feedback from me. If a family chooses not to submit a video, they forfeit that week’s lesson, as tuition remains the same. It puts the choice in their hands without requirement additional scheduling.

As I’ve connected with teachers in this Substack community, several great questions have come up about implementing these systems in real life. Here are a few common scenarios and how I handle them in my studio!

Q: What happens if a student wants to enroll mid-semester?

Adopting a semester structure doesn’t mean locking your doors to new families who reach out in October or March! When a new student joins partway through a term, I pro-rate the lessons to give a fair tuition rate, and stay as close as I can to the regular payment schedule:

1. Calculate the single-lesson rate: Divide your total semester tuition by the total number of guaranteed lessons in the term. For example, if you charge $400 per 4-month semester of 13 lessons, the single-lesson rate would be $30.77.

2. Prorate the remaining weeks: Multiply that per-lesson rate by the number of active lessons left in the semester. Continuing the example above, if the student will attend 8 lessons for the duration of the term, their tuition would be $246.16.

3. Bill the partial balance up front: Charge that custom prorated amount as a one-time invoice to cover their initial starting month, and bill the remaining months the usual monthly-tuition rate. For the 8-lesson semester over the course of 2.5 months, the student would pay $46.16 as a one-time invoice. Then the following two months they would be billed the usual $100 monthly tuition rate.

After that initial partial payment, the student simply joins the rest of the studio on standard, flat-rate monthly tuition (perfect if you use autopay!) starting the following month.

Q: How do I build in flexibility for myself, like when I’m ill, without shortchanging students?

My semester schedule consists of 13 lessons spread over the course of four months, which tends to average a week or so off each month. My policies state that any teacher-canceled lesson will be rescheduled to a week without lessons. However, another way to approach your own unexpected missed-lessons would be to use floating teacher cancellation days. For example, if a 13-lesson semester would leave you with four weeks off, you can schedule two weeks off in your studio calendar. You would then still have an additional two lessons per student to take off to meet your 13-lesson total, which you can reserve those to cancel as-needed. If you don’t use them by the end of the semester, they would be taken at the end of the semester as a studio break, and students wouldn’t have lessons those weeks. I’ve included wording for the floating teacher cancellation days for your studio policies, and to explain to parents, in the paid subscriber content below.

Q: Do you have a limit on how many asynchronous lessons a student can do?

I don’t set a cap on asynchronous lessons. However, if a student doesn’t submit a video before their next scheduled lesson, they forfeit the missed lesson. If a student misses several lessons in a row without submitting videos, they’re essentially paying their tuition to hold their spot. Students commit to the full semester upon enrolling; if the students choose not to attend or send videos, that’s the family’s decision. I’ve had families miss a month or more of lessons over the summer. Some chose to discontinue lessons for the upcoming semester since they’ve become so busy, and others have continued their enrollment, happily having paid to hold their spot. Because I provide a consistent, accessible makeup option through video feedback, I haven’t received pushback on this policy.

Q: How do I explain to my students how to create videos for asynchronous lessons?

I provide my students and their families with an “Asynchronous Lesson Instructions” PDF. Paid subscribers can download the PDF below to use for their own studios. The instructions encourage students to:

1. Keep it brief: Ask for short clips (1–2 minutes each) of 1 or 2 assigned pieces, rather than a full, polished performance.

2. Check the camera angle: Remind them to position their phone or tablet so I can see their hands, wrists, and the keys clearly.

3. Ask questions: Encourage the student to speak directly to the camera at the start to mention any spots where they got stuck or have questions.

4. Submit before the deadline: Give them a clear window (for example, by 12:00 PM on their usual lesson day) to upload clips via your preferred method (email, studio portal, or a shared drive folder) so you can review them during their designated lesson block.

   

Below is the complete Asynchronous Lesson Guide for Students/Parents. You can copy, customize, and save the text in this PDF to send directly to your studio families whenever they need to submit an asynchronous lesson.

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While these questions might feel routine to us after years of teaching, to a parent looking into private music lessons for the first time, these are valid questions! As teachers, our answers set the entire tone for our relationship and onboarding process.

While I highly recommend having a piano studio website (a post about creating sites is in the works!), you could also have a PDF of Frequently Asked Questions ready to send to potential families. A good FAQ page should cover the basic details and set clear expectations in a warm tone, building excitement for lessons before they ever sit down at the piano. Ensuring that piano families understand your structure and expectations from the get-go can reduce stress about logistics at the time of registration.

Here is how I answer the most common prospective parent questions on my studio’s website. You are welcome to copy my wording or use it as a springboard for your own:

How long and frequent are piano lessons?

Piano students thrive with weekly lessons and home practice incorporating what was learned. From private lessons to group classes, each lesson at Newell Piano Studio is carefully planned to help our students achieve their musical goals and make consistent progress. Private lessons are 30 minutes and group lessons are 60 minutes. The lesson year at Newell Piano Studio is divided into three 13-week semesters to ensure steady progress: Spring (Jan-Apr), Summer (May-Aug), and Fall (Sep-Dec). Each semester ends with a recital opportunity for all students to showcase their hard work!

Where do lessons take place?

Lessons are held in person at my home studio in Dayton, Ohio on my Mason & Hamlin grand piano. I also have two digital pianos in the studio for group lessons/activities. Students who are waiting for a sibling during their private lesson are encouraged to practice with headphones on the digital piano while they wait.

How much do lessons cost?

Lessons are billed on a four-month semester basis containing 13 weeks of lessons. Tuition for the current semester is [$400] per student. Tuition is reviewed annually and is subject to increase in future years. Tuition will be paid in four monthly installments of [$100] using autopay via bank ACH or credit card via Stripe on the studio's Nova Music platform, with payments being deducted on the 1st of each month.

Do we need to have a piano at home?

A piano at home is essential for progress, but it doesn’t need to break the bank. An 88-key digital piano with weighted keys is perfect for beginners. The keyboard should also be placed on a stand at the correct height and with a piano bench or similar seating. You can read more about my tips to find a piano here.

What if we miss a lesson?

If the teacher cancels the lesson, a makeup class is scheduled for a week with no lessons. If a student cancels, asynchronous (video) lessons are provided for missed classes. If you’re running late, please still come and attend as much as you can! All attendance policy details are included in the welcome packet.

Below, paid subscribers receive examples and a PDF template of my responses to the 17 most common (and sticky!) questions prospective families ask. We'll cover several topics including practice expectations, boundary-setting around sports schedules, handling “taking a break”/quit threats gracefully, and how to talk about pricing and discounts without feeling awkward.

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Borrowing some plush sharks and fish from my children, the Shark Staff game was created! The premise is simple: the fish has to skip from line to line to avoid the sharks on the spaces. Keep scrolling to see a video of the shark skips in action!

I’ve included links to painters tape and ocean plushies above that would work perfectly for these games! Note: These are Amazon affiliate links, which give me a small percentage at no extra cost to you.

I didn’t measure the tape at all—I just eyeballed it and hoped nobody would care that the lines weren’t perfect (good news: no complaints!). My group students loved the game and had a blast skipping sharks.

But now that the tape was on the floor, I wanted to keep using it! All of my students in both private and group lessons this week had the floor staff implemented into their lessons, with great success! Because not everyone needed to review steps and skips, I improvised for different students based on their ages and levels. We tossed bean bags to practice naming notes, drew cards and spun spinners to get the letter names to match to the staff, and practiced naming the specific line/space in both treble and bass clef.

The Cardboard Hack (and a Few Other Tips)

If you aren't willing to put tape directly onto your flooring—or if your studio has carpet—you can still do this! You can use a long, flattened piece of cardboard (a disassembled Amazon box works perfectly), tape your five lines onto that, and just roll it out when you need it. If you are using tape on the floor, standard blue painter's tape peels right up from laminate without leaving a mess, even after a week of heavy use.

I spaced my lines about five inches apart so little feet could easily step on or between them. Because I wanted all six of my group students to be able to use the floor staff at the exact same time, I made the lines really long—but you can absolutely make yours shorter if you're tight on space.

As I went through the week with my floor staff, I came across a few issues: clefs and close calls.

• Don't overthink the clefs: I started out by printing a large treble and bass clef on normal printer paper, but they didn't match the scale of the giant floor staff at all. So, I ditched them! Instead, I just had the students imagine the clef. We oriented ourselves by finding the Treble G line or the Bass F line before we started, and they did completely fine without the visual. For the intermediate students, it was helpful to practice switching between the clefs without verbally orienting ourselves with landmark notes.

• Handling close calls: If a bean bag landed right on the edge of a tape line and it was a bit ambiguous, I just let the student decide whether it was a line or a space. Keep it simple and keep the game moving!

One Floor Staff, Endless Variations

Here is how I adapted those same five lines of tape for different levels this week:

• Pre-Reading: We identified line vs. space notes, and I had them "be the note" by standing directly on or between the tape. You can also have them toss a bean bag or stuffy and shout out if it lands on a line or space.

• Beginners on the Staff: We practiced steps and skips using sharks and fish, as explained earlier in the article. In addition to the activities above, we matched cards with note names (A, B, C, etc.) to notes on the floor. Keep scrolling for my printable cards that I used for this game!

• Intermediate Students: We did a bean bag toss to practice naming notes in both treble and bass clef, as well as shouting out notes for the student(s) to hop to. This is also a great interval-review opportunity, so we practiced physically standing at certain intervals. For example, one foot on C and one foot on F to make a fourth.

• Group Games: I used both the “Shark Staff Skip” and “Hop to the Note” games in my group classes, and afterwards had another idea for a game that I’ll try next time. Split the class into partnerships and shout out a note name like “Middle C!”. One student finds (hops, tosses a bean bag, etc.) the note on the staff while their partner plays it on the piano. See which partnership wins! This is a great game for a group theory class or summer camp because you can do it with several partnerships.

If you have a roll of tape and ten minutes, I highly recommend throwing a staff down on your floor this week!

To skip the prep time and unlock the video examples below, consider upgrading to a paid subscription. This article includes videos of the Shark Staff and Hop to the Note games in action during my lessons plus the printable colored alphabet cards.

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A few years ago, I had an 11-year-old transfer student start taking lessons with me. He had taken lessons from another teacher in the area for a few years prior and was excited to keep learning. At his first lesson, he played a couple of recent pieces he’d learned. I asked him to play a new piece of music to gauge his sight-reading ability. “Okay! But… where do I put my hands?” Common question, so I gently remind him to look for the note and finger number. “Okay! But… what note is that?” My friend, that’s middle C. 😅 Come to find out, despite being able to read rhythms and figure out music through directional reading, this student couldn’t name a single note on the staff. Starting from scratch wasn’t necessary—he had a solid grasp of many concepts—but he needed a way to learn to read notes without feeling like he was backtracking. Enter Note Rush.

Note Rush is an app that functions like digital flash cards, helping students connect the notes on the staff to their specific keys. Rather than clicking buttons on the screen, you play the note shown on your piano and the app listens (through your device microphone or MIDI) to determine if it was played correctly. Students race against the clock to name each note in the level as fast as they can, earning stars based on their speed. Available for a one-time purchase of $8.99 USD in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, it’s easy to access on your phone or tablet. You can read more about how Note Rush works, including finding answers to FAQs and more, on their site.

The student who couldn’t find middle C left his lesson having learned to find and play notes from bass F through treble G the first day, thanks to a quick explanation of landmark notes and a few levels of Note Rush. By his third lesson, he was confidently reading all of the notes on the grand staff! His mother told me how excited they were that he could now actually read the sheet music he was playing.

One of my favorite features about Note Rush is that you can use their pre-set levels or make your own custom levels, selecting the exact notes you’d like to drill. I use the preset levels for my more advanced students (such as the Grand Challenge that reviews everything from C2 to C6) and I create my own levels based on the notes they’ve been learning. More information on how I create my own levels below!

I asked a few people what they like about Note Rush, and they responded the following:

• A private-lesson student loves the different themes that you can choose from, including limited-edition themes for holidays and seasons.

• A group-lesson student loves ending the class playing Note Rush and seeing who can beat the high score.

• A piano parent loves that I can share the custom levels I’ve created (via text or QR code) so that her children can keep practicing the same levels at home on their Note Rush app during the week.

I recommended Note Rush during my local piano teachers group meeting earlier this year, and several have told me afterwards that they started using it and their students LOVE it! My friend Erin even mentioned it to me (coincidentally, as I was halfway through writing this article!) that it’s a hit in her studio! She loves how it’s helped her students become quicker at note naming, and that it works for other instruments (violin, flute, guitar, brass, etc.) and voice to help with learning the pitches.

Note Rush has truly become an essential tool in my studio and is so versatile in how it can be used for students of all levels—especially for beginners and intermediate students. It never replaces the teacher, but rather uses technology to turn a monotonous review task into a rewarding game that directly benefits music reading.

I use Note Rush daily in my studio in several different contexts. Below is content exclusive for paid subscribers giving ideas of how and when to implement Note Rush in your lessons and how I create my custom levels for my studio. Thank you for your support!

I begin each of my private lessons reviewing the previous lesson’s notes in my student’s notebook. While I do that, my beginner and intermediate students play a level of Note Rush and I record the level name and their time in their notebook. This gives them something productive to do while I review their notes and helps them switch their mindset from school or sports to piano right at the beginning of our lesson. We then continue onto scales and/or the first piece of music, as the Note Rush level usually takes no more than a minute. I’ve found it so helpful to start lessons this way, so that students know what to expect, and it can help them transition from whatever they were doing previously to the piano-focused mindset.

I design my custom levels two different ways based on the method books I teach from. You’re welcome to copy these ideas, or let me know in the comments if you would name them differently!

For Alfred Premier, I name the level after the lesson book piece in which those notes are introduced. For example, the piece “Green Tea” in Lesson Book 1B introduces A4. I created a custom level titled “Green Tea” that reviews all the notes the student has learned: C3 through A4. This makes it easy for me to quickly find the levels, and it helps parents easily tell the levels apart, too.

For WunderKeys, I chose to try a different method and name the levels by their notes—such as ABCDE for everything through the end of Primer 1 and VU Level D. You can also name them using ASPN (such as C3-C5), which I do for levels spanning more notes.

Regardless of how you choose to organize your levels and implement Note Rush in your lessons, I hope that you enjoy using it and that it benefits your students as much as it’s helped mine!

I already had this stacking flower set on hand, but it’s a popular toy that can easily be found in local stores or purchased online. (Note: If you use the Amazon affiliate link, I get a small percentage at no cost to you!). Here is how the Garden-Grown Keyboard game works:

• The Reference Card: Each key is assigned a specific flower piece (e.g., A = blue petals, C = stamens/centers, F = leaves). These are all clearly illustrated on a reference guide/card, so even pre-readers can easily match them up.

• The Task: Students get a keyboard card showing three keys marked with flowers. They identify the keys, check the reference card to see which flower parts those keys represent, and collect their pieces.

• The Goal: Build as many beautiful flowers as possible!

If you want to add an element of a race, try the ‘Hurried Customer’ variation. You play the role of a rushed client walking into a flower shop, and your student is the florist who has to complete as many floral orders as possible before the timer runs out. You can also do a ‘Bouquet Trade’ variation where you both build a flower and then swap your flower and card with each other to make sure they were built correctly. I love to do activities like this where I make a purposeful mistake and the student needs to catch it—and they think it’s the funniest thing to show their teacher how to do it correctly!

One of my favorite elements of this game is its flexibility. I tested the “Garden-Grown Keyboard” game on my piano camp students, who loved it so much that I started using it with my regular students. Even students who confidently knew their white keys enjoyed building some flowers as a hands-on activity during the lesson. It can be used in private lessons, small groups, or even larger groups (as long as you have enough cards and flowers!). Because it was such a hit, I plan to make more cards with notes on the staff, chords, and inversions! Keep an eye out for expansion packs in future newsletters.

If you want to skip the DIY design phase and jump straight to playing, the print-ready PDF is downloadable below for paid subscribers. If you choose to upgrade, it unlocks this download instantly and gives you access to all past paid content.

As always, thank you so much for being here and sharing this teaching journey with me! Let me know if you use the Garden-Grown Keyboards in your studio!

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Students, who are excited for piano lessons to start, love having something to channel that excitement into from the very beginning. What better way to get them to understand the expectation that they need to come to piano lessons prepared than to give them an assignment prior to even walking through the door? This questionnaire is all about them, so it’s easy to do without teaching anything prior to the lesson. For my preschool students I encourage them to draw a picture or have the parent write the answers. For my elementary schoolers, this is a great handwriting practice and opportunity for independence in completing assignments.

I ask students the following questions on the paper, and then we talk about them together as the first item of business in our very first lesson.

• Some things that make me happy are…

• My favorite books and movies are…

• My favorite animal is…

• My favorite treats are…

• My favorite color is…

• I want to play the piano because…

These questions can easily lead into conversations to get to know them, such as asking if they have any pets when you talk about favorite animals. I like to file this knowledge away for object lessons. For example, when you know their favorite animal, you can teach them to create a round hand-shape by asking: “Make your hand into a little house for a [bunny] to live in.” That simple switch alone makes the concept much more personal and fun for the student!

In the past I’ve tried a variety of delivery methods: email the worksheet to the parent upon signing up for lessons, stopping by their house to drop off a printed copy, or (my favorite) sending it in a letter in the mail addressed to them. What child doesn’t LOVE to receive mail? Instant points for “coolest piano teacher ever”! The first family I sent my “All About Me” worksheet to in the mail lived on “Harmony Lane”; how serendipitous! You can choose which delivery option works best for you, or you can include the PDF or ask which option families prefer as part of the registration for lessons in your studio.

Implementing the “All About Me” discussion into the first minutes of my lesson has been wonderful to help ease my students into their first piano lesson. I’ve also used this in my group lessons to help the kids get to know each other. You could do a guessing game where you read one of the questions and answers and they need to guess who wrote it. Another option would be to ask “Raise your hand if” followed by one of the answers (e.g. “Raise your hand if your favorite color is blue!”). Of course, not all students may enjoy chit-chatting at the bench, so you can gauge their interest in the activity and adapt as necessary. However, I highly recommend giving it a try with any new students to start the first lesson off on a fun note and then launch right into teaching music. Let me know in the comments if you give it a try!

If you’d like to skip the prep work and have the worksheet ready to go, click the download button below (for paid subscribers) for your “All About Me” PDF that’s ready to print or send to new students.

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Each cupcake has two sections: the frosting with the note symbol and the base/wrapper with the note name, number of beats (assuming 4/4 time), and a birthday-themed word or phrase. Each word/phrase has the number of syllables that matches the beats of the note—for example, “Happy birthday” has four beats and can be used to count a whole note instead of counting “one two three four” or “Ta-a-a-a”. Quarter notes say “Yay”, half notes get “Par-ty”, and dotted half notes say “Birth-day cake.”

This activity is very versatile and can be used in many different ways, both in private lessons and group activities. I had my students color and cut out their cupcakes, making sure to label each piece with their initials so they didn’t get mixed up with another student’s. We then played several games, including some of the following:

• Find your match: I mixed up the cupcake halves and handed one to each student. When I said “GO!” they raced to find the other half of their cupcake.

• Write a rhythm: Shuffle and set all the cupcake pieces face-down. Have the student(s) flip one over at a time and write the note to create a rhythm to say/tap/play!

• Memory: Lay all the cupcakes shuffled and face-down. Take turns flipping two pieces over at a time to make a match.

• Sort a rhythm: Shuffle the cupcakes and put them in a line to create a rhythm. For example: Quarter note frosting, half note wrapper, quarter note wrapper, whole note frosting, etc. Then go through and say/tap/play your rhythm together, for example “Yay, par-ty, yay, ha-ppy-birth-day!”

• Race to the note: Have the student(s) put the four cupcake wrappers in different parts of the room. Return to the middle, hand the student a frosting, and have them race to match it to the correct wrapper.

Click below to download your cupcake rhythm PDF! I’d love to hear in the comments if you have any other ideas of ways to use this freebie in your lessons!

Rhythm Cupcakes

118KB ∙ PDF file

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How I Prepare as the Teacher

There are SO many different ways to host a music recital, from elegant venues to casual in-studio recitals. There’s no one-right way to do it, and I personally think that adding variety keeps things fresh and exciting for you and your students (click here for a past article on that topic)! Regardless of what your setup looks like, you’re suddenly juggling a massive mental load: reserving the venue, finalizing the program order, printing programs, managing the reception, and staging the awards. I recommend talking yourself through your recital several days in advance and going detail by detail, writing yourself a checklist of things to bring and do. Make notes of what you wish you’d had for a future recital, and keep this checklist for your events going forward, too.

One important thing to remember as you prepare your programs is that there are many ways to organize the performers, and it’s not a one size fits all. There are so many philosophies out there for organizing the performance order—randomly assigning the students, grouping by age, clustering by genre or key, you name it. Truly, it is whatever works for you for that particular recital! That said, I always recommend bookending your program with students who are rock-solid on their pieces, regardless of their age or level. Starting and ending with a student who is completely secure ensures the recital opens with great energy and wraps up on a confident, celebratory note.

During the recital itself, I like to give brief opening and closing remarks, but once the first performer steps up, I stay out of the way. I don’t make announcements between pieces; instead, I provide programs (digital or printed) so the audience can follow along naturally. To make this work, my students introduce themselves. They practice speaking loudly and clearly to share their name, the title of their piece, and the composer. It’s a fantastic way to incorporate a little public speaking practice into their music education, and it gives them more ownership over their moment at the piano. Of course, if a student freezes up or gets stage fright, you can absolutely step in. At my most recent recital, one of my students completely refused to speak once she walked up, so I simply gave her a warm introduction from the side, and she played beautifully.

Logistically, it can help to have the students sit together in the front row, or to set up a designated “on-deck” chair in the front row. I always encourage my students to keep an eye out for the performer right before them. During our preparation lesson, I’ll show them a picture of that student or play a snippet of their piece so they know exactly what cue to listen for.

I do not require memorization to perform at our studio recitals, though I certainly encourage it for all of my students. Not everyone is a natural memorizer, and that is completely okay! The last thing I want is for a student to walk away feeling like they failed simply because they used their sheet music, or worse, didn’t have it in front of them when they needed it and their performance flopped. While there are specific times and places where memorization is a must (like the NFMC Festival), I want my studio recitals to lean much more toward excitement and community than high-stakes stress. I encourage students to memorize their recital pieces, but it’s never a dealbreaker for performing.

Preparing our Studio Families

A smooth, stress-free recital day relies heavily on our studio families knowing exactly what to expect. When parents feel informed and know what is expected of them and their children, their calm energy is felt by their children who will be performing.

At the very beginning of the semester, I make sure the date is listed on our official studio calendar and I send out a digital “save the date” graphic. This is just a quick visual with the name of the event, date, time, and venue address. It’s perfect for families to text over to grandparents and for me to share on social media.

In addition to the flyer, I like to send out a comprehensive, detailed information letter a few weeks before the event. It minimizes the last-minute text messages, keeps the schedule on track, and ensures everyone understands the etiquette of a live musical performance.

When writing your recital letter, there are a few key logistical details you’ll want to address:

• The “Arrive By” Buffer: Don’t just give the event start time. Be explicit about arrival times, warm-up windows, and exactly when doors open. If you want a prompt 4:00 PM start, tell families to be there by 3:45 PM.

• Seating and Transition Flow: Spell out exactly where the kids belong. I’ve experimented with several variations, including having students stay with their parents the whole time, or seating them all together in the front row and letting them return to their families after they play. Every setup has its pros and cons depending on the venue and on the performers. If you choose to keep them up front, just remind parents to save an empty seat next to them for later in the program.

  

• Prepare for Pictures: We all want parents to get that perfect shot, but a sea of phones or standing audience members blocking the view can be a major distraction. Setting up a dedicated “Paparazzi Zone” near the stage for one parent at a time keeps things orderly and respectful. I implemented the paparazzi zone at my Spring recital and the parents LOVED it!

  

• The At-Home Dress Rehearsal: Remind parents to have their kids practice in their recital outfit and shoes at least once. Tight sleeves can restrict arm movement, and a sudden shift from sneakers to stiff dress shoes can completely throw off a student’s pedal control.

• Mindset and Mission: Remind families of the “why” behind the performance. It’s not about perfection; it’s a gift of music shared with a supportive community.

Below, for paid subscribers, I’ve shared my own template that I modify to send to studio families. It explains the logistics while maintaining an encouraging tone to prepare for the big day. Feel free to copy, paste, and edit it for your upcoming recital!

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Here are a few of the wonderful ideas shared by teachers (each one used here with permission) in response to the post:

• Michael Clark shared: One of our favorites is to have a kid playing the piano while the others get in line and take turns tossing a stuffy to him/her. The player has to stop, catch the stuffy, toss it back, and resume playing from right where they left off.

• Amy Riggs shared: I came up with Play it Again Cards for my studio and we use these a lot during recital season, especially with the littles for repetition. They give kids creative ways to replay the piece using their imagination or musical skill set.

• Jessee Altazan shared: I have a game of cornhole that I bring in. Students get 2 bean bags each. It’s a 1 vs 1 game. For recitals, my students each play 2 pieces. One simple piece and one that is challenging. Opponents play rock, paper, scissors to see who shoots first. For whoever is tossing the bean bags first, if the student misses both shots, they have to play both pieces once. If they make one, they only have to play one of their pieces (their opponent picks which). And if they make both shots, they win that round and don’t have to play either piece. It’s how I get my students to do some repetition on their pieces without it feeling like repetition!

• Lois Putt (author of 4Square Piano, a free online method book) shared: I’ve had 2 kids having a dance off to see if they could distract their friend from her recital run through! If they’re using music, I like to stick post it notes in random places to see if they can remember bits. You could also have them do some star jumps & get them all hyped up to simulate nerves. I’ve seen a Muso academy video where kids are asked to spell words and answer questions while playing their pieces. Enjoy your class, should be fun!

In addition to these great ideas, I like to use recital resources available from the creators of WunderKeys books as well, all found as free printables on their site. My students love the four-week prep papers!

Imaginary Dress Rehearsal

In my own studio, I use a few different tactics to help students conquer the stage. For my private lessons, I love doing a complete Imaginary Dress Rehearsal

We start by standing up and walking to the studio door. I’ll say, “Pretend this is your door at home. What do you need to bring? What are you going to wear?” We talk about bringing their music (if it’s not securely memorized), and making sure to practice at home in the exact shoes they’ll wear to the recital so they know how the pedal feels.

Then, we walk through the entire process chronologically, moving to different spots in the room to represent specific locations: the car, where they go once they get to the venue, waiting for their turn to play, sitting with family, and what happens after the recital ends.

To take the mystery out of the day, I show them the program draft so they see exactly who goes before and after them, including showing them a photo if they don’t know those students. Then, we physically practice the entire sequence:

The Recital Sequence Checklist

1. The Cue: Standing up the moment the previous performer bows and walks away, don’t wait for a sign from me.

2. The Intro: Walking to the piano and confidently introducing themselves and their piece (“My name is Jane Smith and I will be playing Super Snake by Andrea Dow.”).

3. The Setup: Sitting down, adjusting the bench, and taking a deep breath before hands touch the keys.

4. The Outro: Finishing the piece, cleanly releasing the hands and pedal, standing up, bowing, and returning to their seat.

For new students, we do this whole sequence several times. Of course, things don’t always go perfectly during practice, and if a student hits a major snag or freezes during our run-through, we use it as a teaching moment. We practice their “jump ahead” spots right then and there, reminding them that they can recover gracefully without starting the whole piece over.

I ask what lingering questions they have, show pictures of the venue if I have them, and reassure them that they are fully prepared. Walking through the physical logistics takes away the fear of the unknown, and it has made a tremendous difference in how my students handle recital nerves!

Group Lesson Prep: Building Great Performers and Great Audiences

For group lessons, we do a condensed version of the imaginary dress rehearsal, but we also practice playing in performance order. This can be done as a rehearsal for groups of students outside of lesson-time if you don’t teach group lessons, or modified however works best for your teaching situation!

During these run-throughs, the students take turns playing while the rest of the class fills out a compliment worksheet. Giving the waiting students a specific, active job keeps them completely engaged and focused on the music, rather than fidgeting or losing focus while they wait for their turn.

To avoid generic "good job" feedback, we brainstorm helpful, specific compliments beforehand. I guide them with questions like:

• “What dynamics did you hear?”

• “Did they keep a steady beat?”

• “Did they remember to adjust the bench and take a deep breath?”

• “Did they smile when they bowed?”

We also talk a lot about the imagery of the music and how each piece sets a different mood from the one before it. Recently, one student played a fun piece in a minor key, and her classmates were absolutely thrilled, exclaiming, “It sounded like a haunted piano!” Even if these comments aren’t reflected on the worksheet they fill out (because despite my best efforts, many still simply write “Good job!”), the discussion we have as a group always focuses on the qualities of the music and specific performance details.

Doing this activity does double duty: it prepares students to perform in front of an audience, but it also teaches them how to be active, supportive listeners that truly enjoy the music. They leave the session not just ready to play, but genuinely excited to hear their peers.

How do you tackle recital prep in your studio? Do you lean toward high-energy distraction games, or structured walkthroughs? Let’s brainstorm in the comments!

Coming up next week: Getting parents recital-ready can be half the battle. Next week, I’ll be sharing how I help families prepare for recitals, including sharing the exact reminder email template I send to to keep logistics seamless!

Inside the Break Room Extras (Paid Subscribers Only)

To help you implement these ideas in your studio without any extra prep, I’ve put together a few ready-to-print resources for our paid community members.

Behind the paywall below, subscribers can download:

• The Group Lesson Compliment Worksheet (“Ready for my Recital”): The printable I use in my studio to keep students engaged, listening critically, and practicing positive peer feedback.

• The Imaginary Dress Rehearsal Checklist: A step-by-step PDF you can keep right at your piano to ensure you’re hitting every single chronological point in your walk-through, from the front door to the final bow.

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I believe that musical independence doesn’t start after a student has reached a certain level or spent years taking lessons; it starts from day one. From the very first lesson with each of my students, I give them ownership of their music-making by asking: “What do you need to focus on as you practice at home to get your piece performance-ready?”

Rather than lessons simply being a matter of students doing what the teacher says, we’re brainstorming together how they can achieve their goals. Our time together revolves around answering that question, ensuring they are comfortable implementing those practice techniques at home, and incrementally adding different tools to their skill sets as musicians.

The Logical Order of Learning

When tackling a new piece, we talk extensively about the logical order of learning. We focus on getting the correct notes, rhythm, and technique secure first—working in small sections (also a great opportunity to teach about phrases and motives!) and at a slow tempo.

Because many of my students love to play at lightning speed, I’ve found it incredibly helpful to ask them to switch note-values. For example: “Can you play that scale again, but make each note a half note?” This is so much more effective in getting them to actually decrease their tempo, since pleas to “SLOW DOWN!” always seem to fall on deaf ears.

Once that foundation is solid, we layer in elements like dynamics and a focus on articulation to add musical interest. Speed is always the last thing we worry about, and when we do increase the tempo, we do so gradually.

As we work through these elements, I ask them what I should write down in their notebooks. It helps my students feel confident that they know what and how to practice at home. By walking through the process together, I’m not just telling my students what to play, but rather guiding them along the path to effectively learning a piece on their own.

Teaching How to Practice

Rather than launching into sight-reading by playing a piece right out of the gate, I get my students in the habit of carefully looking through the piece and talking me through what they see. “Where do our hands go? What’s the key signature and does it change? What common rhythms and patterns do you see?” I begin with the question: “Can you show me how you’d practice this at home? Talk me through your process.”

Of course, the way I approach this looks different for young children than it does for older teens. For the youngest pianists, we turn our hands into binoculars to look closely at the music, or we play a quick game of “I Spy” (“I spy a dynamic marking...” or “I spy my right hand finger number one on... which note?”).

When a student asks, “Where do my hands go?” I always respond with, “Where do you think?” We then walk step-by-step through finding their placement: deciding on the hand, the starting finger number, and the exact note and octave. I have them raise the corresponding hand, wiggle the designated finger, and then “fly and land” it onto the starting note.

If they are struggling to identify the note on the staff, we talk about how to find it using landmark notes: “Do you see the hidden-letter G in the treble clef? It looks like this note is just one step above it. What would that be?”

I had an eight-year-old transfer student start in my studio in January of this year who had been taking lessons elsewhere for a few years. When I asked her to play her most recent recital piece, she looked at the keys and asked, “Okay! Where’s middle C?”...

We worked hard over the following weeks to help her gain confidence in keyboard geography. Just as importantly, I had to gently manage expectations with her and her parents on why we were hitting the pause button on harder repertoire to fix these foundational gaps. It was a journey, but building confidence in her keyboard geography and turning the beginning of playing a piece into a three-step routine—1. Right or left hand, 2. Wiggle the finger, and 3. Land on the note—has helped my younger students tremendously. They learn to figure out their placement independently rather than expecting it to be spoon-fed to them, and getting started correctly is often the biggest hurdle in beginning to play the piece.

Shifting the Notebook Ownership

After the first few months of lessons, a major shift happens in our lesson-note routine. I stop deciding what goes into their assignment notebooks. Instead, I tell them, “I’m just the scribe today. You’re in charge! Tell me what to write.”

Of course, the first time you try this, you will probably get a blank stare or a generic, unhelpful answer like, "I need to practice the song." That is completely normal! It takes a few weeks of heavy, patient prompting before they realize you aren't going to bail them out and they actually begin tracking their own missteps.

I'm always there to guide them and offer suggestions if they get stuck and make sure they’re incorporating the essential elements they need to practice, but for the most part, their notebooks become a verbatim record of what they identified as their own areas for improvement. I ask them exactly what I should write down, and they dictate it to me.

This simple shift has made a massive impact on my students’ practice habits at home. I’ve noticed that when students have genuine ownership over their goals, they leave the studio feeling confident because they know exactly what to do. Even if they don't look at their notebooks once during the week (we’ve all been there, right?), they still know what the assignment is and how to practice it at home because they were the ones who formulated it in the first place.

When we step back and let our students become the problem-solvers, we aren’t just teaching them how to play an instrument. We’re creating self-reflective, independent musicians who actually know how to practice.

Keep reading for an example video of how one of my students and I talked through what to write in her notebook for a piece she started working on, as well as examples of prompts to get students thinking of what they should incorporate as they practice!

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A few years ago, when my son was three, he started begging to do piano lessons just like my piano students. At that point, I had already taught him basic concepts like forte vs. piano, white keys vs. black keys, and some basic keyboard geography. However, I wanted a structured method book for more consistent results and to help keep him motivated. My quest to find the best piano book for preschoolers began!

I tested out several different series with him, including the Alfred Premier books (which I use and love for my grade-school students), the popular My First Piano Adventure (MFPA), and more. The problem was either the pacing, the unnecessary cheesiness, or the lack of off-bench games and activities. My son was getting bored with too much text and not enough action.

That’s when I came across Andrea and Trevor Dow’s series: WunderKeys Piano for Preschoolers. There are multiple WunderKeys series which I have since started using in my studio, such as the Primer series for kids ages 5-10 and the Older Beginner series for teens and adults (reviews on those series to come in the future!). WunderKeys for Preschoolers was my first foray into the WunderKeys world and it was exactly what I was looking for.

Shifting My Perspective

Right off the bat, my son loved the colorful books and the cute animal characters. They were fun and targeted to children without being obnoxiously cute. To be completely honest, I was a little hesitant to commit to the method at first. It moved so much slower than what I was used to, and it refers to fingers as characters (called Wunderbies) rather than numbers. It was super weird to call finger number two “Pointer Panda” at first.

But after putting it into practice and reading up on the pedagogical reasoning behind it, I’ve come to deeply appreciate how these books were written. They are truly designed with the learning abilities of our youngest students in mind. Rather than navigating counting 123 for both fingers and rhythms, fingers are given characters—perfect for the imagination stage. My littlest students (one of whom declared today that she’s “a bunny fire truck”) absolutely love imagining that their fingers are cute animals!

These characters give your preschoolers the ability to begin to learn to see their fingers as independent entities and to build coordination and strength by using them independently. They also capture your students’ imaginations, enable preschoolers to begin to read early musical notation, and they inspire an atmosphere of “play” at the piano. (Dow)

Instead of just being a simplified or stretched-out version of a traditional piano primer, WunderKeys was created specifically for preschoolers and their unique attention spans. The curriculum consists of three books that perfectly prepare students to advance to the primer level, whether you stay with WunderKeys or transition to another method series.

What’s In the Books?

Each book is made up of several units that build upon each other. Units begin with a “rhythm rhyme welcome” poem to practice keeping a steady beat and echoing simple rhythms. After the poem, a new concept is introduced through three activities that engage students through movement and play. These activities shift between being at the piano and off the bench, but are always relevant to the concept being taught. Books two and three also include pages to help students connect skills from preschool, such as writing numbers 1-9 and pattern recognition. Each unit has an adorable duet where the student takes turns playing with the teacher, rather than needing to keep time together. This prepares students for duets while giving them a low-pressure setting to try them out! Every other unit also contains a board game playable with simple materials (cups, coins/buttons, paper, etc.) that require little to no preparation. Students can play these games at home—which I always encourage them to do!

The proof has been on my bench. All of my young students—including a few 5 and 6-year-olds who were previously struggling with standard primers—have absolutely thrived since switching to this preschool method. They love the games, the songs, the activities, and the comfortable pace. I’ve been using these books for three years now and my students who progressed through the entire curriculum moved flawlessly into the WunderKeys primer series and are confident note-readers. They have built a solid foundation that piano is fun and that they can make music through play!

Studio-Tested Resources

One of my absolute favorite things about WunderKeys is how attentive and helpful the creators are. Andrea and Trevor put so much time and care into creating additional content to supplement the books—and so much of it is free!

If you sign up for their weekly email freebies, you get access to an entire library of past resources ready to download and print—including extra sheet music, lesson activities, and studio materials. Several teachers shared in the Brainstorm survey that one of their favorite piano life-hacks is using the WunderKeys resources, and I couldn’t agree more!

If you're thinking about adding this series to your studio, I highly recommend downloading their free Teacher's FAQ to WunderKeys for Preschoolers. A few other supplemental resources my students love are the Trading Card Sets, the Popsicle Puzzles, and the Welcome Postcards.

(And if you're teaching littles, another great studio resource to look into is a pedal extender. It completely solves the problem of dangling feet and allows them to maintain correct posture right from the start. My students love it!)

I am so grateful I started using these books in my studio. My students love them, I love them, and the parents love them. I believe that anyone who wants to learn to play the piano, regardless of age, should have the opportunity to do so and these books enable our youngest students to learn in a style that fits their developmental needs and interests. I cannot recommend them enough!

If you are interested in learning more about how I assess learning through Can-Do statements for my preschoolers, keep reading! Paid subscribers have access to my Preschool Piano Can-Do PDF, which is perfect for assessment and explaining to parents the skills their children are gaining in preschool piano lessons. While these were written by me for the WunderKeys for Preschoolers books, they can be applied to other method series.

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Researchers who have investigated expert and novice performance have uncovered important distinctions between deliberate practice and other activities, such as play or repetition. Deliberate practice is not the same as rote repetition. Rote repetition — simply repeating a task — will not by itself improve performance. Deliberate practice involves attention, rehearsal and repetition and leads to new knowledge or skills that can later be developed into more complex knowledge and skills (Brabeck & Jeffrey, 2015).

When we are intentional and strategic in our use of repetitive practice, we can help our students truly learn to play correctly rather force rote repetition

I’ve found that the best way to bypass the “Play it AGAIN?!” eye-roll is to shift the focus from the clock to a concrete, visual goal. Gamification is a huge element of my teaching style, and it works well for all ages and levels. If we can turn a technical hurdle into a game, the repetition happens almost by accident. From a pedagogical standpoint, this works because it reduces the cognitive load. When a student is overwhelmed by a difficult passage, their brain struggles to track notes, rhythm, and physical technique all at once. By turning the repetition into a game with external markers, we provide a dopamine reward for their effort, keeping them engaged long enough for muscle memory to actually take hold. Below are explanations for six of my most popular games for repeating sections of music.

The Tally Game

For my teenagers, I like to use a bit of healthy competition against their own past selves in a game I learned at the 2024 Creative Teaching Conference: the Tally Game. The trick here is to keep the section small, usually no more than a few measures. If you let them play a whole page, they’ll end up with twenty tallies and a total meltdown. We’re going for a low score (think golf).

As they play, I keep a silent tally (either on a paper or holding up fingers) of every slip-up: a missed accidental, a collapsed finger, or an incorrect rhythm. They play the section three or four times, trying to beat their previous score. It turns “be careful” into a challenge, and suddenly they are hyper-aware of their own physical movements in a way that nagging never quite achieves. This is particularly effective for refining micro-skills because it forces the student to self-monitor their proprioception rather than just passively reading the page.

Animals at the Zoo

For my younger students, I keep a container of tiny plastic animals on the piano. If we decide a phrase needs five perfect repetitions, the student picks five animals and lines them up on a table or top of the piano. Each successful pass allows one animal to “go back to the zoo”: the container or my Piano Zoo printout (PDF at the end of the article).

The beauty of this is the flexibility. I’ll often tell them that the lion is very picky—he feels very strongly about dynamics and won’t go back into his cage unless the piano is actually soft or the half note gets exactly two beats. Or, if a student is getting a bit too comfortable, an animal might “escape,” requiring one extra repetition to catch it.

I’ve found that the “escape” mechanic is a great way to teach resilience. It isn't a punishment; it’s a random event that mimics the unpredictability of a live performance. It helps kids learn to shrug off a setback and get back to work. It’s a simple visual cue that makes the workload feel finite and manageable. Even my older students occasionally enjoy the silliness of moving a tiny giraffe as we polish tricky sections of music.

I’m a big believer that we shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every Monday morning. If you want to see how I handle the “I’m too cool for games” students and get a copy of the printable kit I keep at my own piano, consider becoming a paid subscriber. It’s a small way to support the work I do here in the Brainstorm Breakroom, and it might just save your sanity during a long day of back-to-back lessons.

The Tower of Power

If you have a student in the preschool or early elementary stage, lean into their natural desire to build. I keep a set of toy blocks (but you can also use stacking cups or cubes) near the bench for this specific purpose.

For every successful repetition of a short motive (even just three notes), the student gets to add a block to the tower. The goal isn't to get rid of the blocks, but to see how high we can build the “Tower of Power” before the end of the segment.

This game utilizes tactile reinforcement. For very young children, the concept of “doing it again” is abstract. Building a tower is concrete. It also allows us to address quality over quantity. If the hand shape isn't correct, the block doesn't get added. They learn that only careful practice builds a stable tower.

The Stages of Polish

Older students and adults often find games a bit patronizing, but they usually respond well to the idea of mastery tiers. This is essentially Varied Practice Theory in action: changing the goal of each repetition to deepen the neural pathways. I like to take a difficult passage and designate three “Stages of Polish”:

1. Stage 1: The Blueprint. Focus is strictly on the technical foundation—notes, rhythms, and fingering.

2. Stage 2: The Character. We layer in the intent—dynamics, phrasing, and articulation.

3. Stage 3: The Spotlight. This is for performance readiness. They play while I intentionally try to distract them (walking around the piano, asking a random question, or even opening a window).

They can’t move to the next stage until they’ve passed the current one three times in a row. This teaches them that knowing the notes is merely the baseline, not the finish line.

Beat the Clock

For students who tend to rush or prefer more analytical approaches, I pull out a stopwatch. We’ll play a section three times. The goal isn't to play it as fast as possible, but to play it with temporal consistency.

If their three takes are within two seconds of each other, they win. It forces them to internalize a steady pulse and prevents that common habit of blurring through the hard parts or rushing the easy ones. It turns the metronome’s job into a personal challenge.

Bid and Buyback

This game is great for competitive older students because it introduces an element of risk management and strategic betting on their own consistency. Give the student 10 small tokens (like poker chips, buttons, or coins) to place on a nearby surface. After isolating a tricky section, the student looks at their music to evaluate their readiness and bid a number of tokens that they feel confident risking on their next attempt at playing the section. If they succeed in playing it perfectly, they keep the tokens. If they make a mistake, those tokens go to the teacher. The game ends when the section has been practiced for a set amount of time (such as five minutes). The student’s goal is to end with as many tokens as possible. You can also incorporate the buyback element where if they lose tokens, they can immediately choose to do three consecutive perfect repetitions of the exact same section to buy back one lost token from the teacher.

This game gives students control over the difficulty. They can make low-risk bets of one token while they’re struggling or high-risk bets of four tokens when they feel ready. Before they even begin playing, it makes them look at the music and honestly evaluate their own readiness. The buyback mechanic leverages the exact type of rapid repetition to fix errors, but it frames it as strategic recovery rather than a punishment.

Troubleshooting: When the Game Stalls

Sometimes, a game can backfire. If a student gets frustrated by the Tally Game, I immediately pivot the goal. Instead of “beat your score,” the goal becomes “find the one tally that matters most.” We narrow the focus until they achieve a win. The goal of gamification isn't to add stress; it's to provide a structure for success. Giving students the option to do a game or simply play it X amount of times also can help—sometimes they just don’t want to play games. I also like to give the next step after the game so it doesn’t just feel like we’re playing a game for the sake of a game. For example, “This section is coming along nicely, but I’m still noticing a few mistakes with the rhythms in measures 11-13. I’m going to put up five animals so we can keep track of the number of times we’ve played it correctly. For each time you play those measures with an accurate rhythm, we’ll put an animal back in the box. Once they’re all back, we will move on to the following section.”

Resources for Your Bench

To make this easier for your studio, I’ve created a few “Print and Play” resources, just click on the name of each one to access the PDF:

• Printable Piano Zoo: A sheet of animal tokens and habitats you can cut out and use if you don't have physical figurines handy.

Piano Zoo

7.91MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

• The Practice Game Menu: A one-page reference guide of these games (with simplified explanations and materials listed) that you can keep in your lesson binder for quick inspiration.

Practice Game Menu

38.8KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Repetition doesn't have to be a grind. When we give students a way to track their progress that isn't just a ticking timer, we give them a sense of agency over their own improvement. Whether it’s moving a paper zebra or building a block skyscraper, the goal is the same: getting those fingers to remember the path until they can’t get it wrong.

Works Cited:

Brabeck, M., & Jeffrey, J. (2015, March 9). Practice for knowledge acquisition (not drill and kill). American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/practice-acquisition

Why We Need a Performance Spectrum

If we want our students to be confident, well-rounded musicians, we have to treat performance as a skill set rather than a single destination. While the traditional recital is a great starting place for performances, it is just the beginning of what we can offer our students.

Diversifying where and how our students perform isn’t lowering the bar or giving them ‘easy performance opportunities.’ It gives them a chance to figure out who they are as musicians in different situations. I remember when I was 15 years old, my aunt asked me if I would be willing to play the piano at a formal holiday party she was hosting for friends. Of course, I accepted- I mean, the promise of $50 in exchange for playing Christmas music for a few hours, which I enjoyed doing anyway? It was a no-brainer! However, I quickly realized when I started to practice at home that I had no idea how I was going to fill all that time. ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Silent Night’ on loop weren’t going to cut it. I went to my piano lesson that week panicking that I’d have to tell my aunt I couldn’t do it, but hoping that my teacher had some ideas to save the day- and of course she did! We spent my lesson preparing: she lent me a few books of holiday music at a level that I could confidently sightread, we discussed ways to create variation by adding repeats in different octaves, and she helped me draft a playlist that repeated pieces in a way that worked perfectly for the event. My first paid gig was a huge success and gave me something priceless: the knowledge that I could perform in more than just traditional recitals.

Now that I’m a piano teacher, I look back with gratitude for what my teacher did for me in helping me prepare for my first gig and seek ways that I can help my students gain similar skills. Rather than holding typical holiday recitals in December, my studio has ‘Winter Piano Parties’ where students play to fill time rather than perform a certain number of pieces. My beginners play to fill three minutes, intermediate students have eight-minute spots, and my more advanced and teenage students play for up to fifteen minutes. We practice the same skills (and more!) that my teacher taught me as I prepared for my holiday gig. My students have proudly told me after realizing they actually can perform for a solid chunk of time: “That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!”

Benefits of Non-Traditional Recitals

There are so many benefits that students gain from performing in front of an audience. Recitals provide unique opportunities for growing musicians- from chances to practice public speaking as they introduce themselves to perseverance when they make a mistake while playing. In addition to these benefits, non-traditional recital venues and formats offer other skills for our students:

• Navigating Different Environments: Playing a polished piece in a quiet library in front of an audience requires a completely different mindset than providing background music while people are mingling. Both are essential skills for a working musician and can be learned at an early level.

• Reframing Nerves: When the setting changes, it can help the pressure drop. Removing the high-stakes formal environment makes performance feel more approachable, especially for beginners. Even just adding ‘mini-recitals’ or ‘dress rehearsals’ to your studio calendar for beginners before a formal recital can make a huge difference in their confidence level! A few years ago I had a huge turnover in my studio roster, so I held a rehearsal at the recital venue the day before the recital for those unfamiliar with the venue. Students could come at any time during an hour window to play on the piano they’d perform on. This helped ease nerves tremendously!

• Making Room for Creativity: Giving students an outlet to share original compositions, play duets, or show off creative challenges builds real ownership over their musical journey. My 2025 summer recital showcased student compositions: every single student performed an original composition that they’d worked on that semester! Pictured below are my students, each holding their original composition that debuted at the recital. They were so proud of their work! Since then, students have asked to perform compositions at other recitals and are excited to show off their own creations.

Breaking the Annual Loop

You don’t need to overhaul your entire calendar overnight to see a shift, and there’s no need to ditch the traditional formal recital. However, I challenge you to start finding ways to mix in different types of performance opportunities, which could take the place of traditional recitals or be an addition to them. If you’re feeling a bit stuck in the recital loop, take a look at your calendar and think about how to mix up the location and focus.

My studio does three different full-studio recitals a year at the end of each semester (read about my semester setup here!), in addition to other performance events:

• Spring Recital at our local library (our traditional formal recital)

• Summer Piano Park Picnic showcasing student duets or compositions at a local park pavilion

• Winter Holiday Party Recitals playing background music while families mingle at the studio in small groups

So Many Recital Venues!

The options are limitless for recital themes and venues! Local piano dealerships, churches of many denominations, and music schools often rent out rooms. You can go to a neighborhood park and use a shelter or gazebo (bringing your own digital piano, of course). Many local library branches have meeting spaces or small auditoriums available to rent or use for free- that’s where I held my most recent studio recital! They are often quiet, accessible, and provide a built-in community atmosphere.

If you teach online or just want to change things up, digital recitals are a perfect opportunity. Record each student performing their piece(s) and compile into a playlist for a digital and asynchronous recital. Even if you’re not confident in your video editing skills, you can easily record students from your phone and upload them to a studio YouTube channel in a recital playlist.

To help you get started, I’ve put together a list of 20 performance opportunity ideas and venues, ranging from casual community spots to creative settings, that you can mix and match to fit your studio’s vibe. Let me know in the comments which of these you’ve done and which you’d like to try out!

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Before implementing my ‘no scheduled makeup lessons’ policy, I spent way too much of my personal time trying to shove missed lessons into nonexistent gaps in my calendar. It was taking over my family time and I was sacrificing my own evenings and weekends just so I didn’t lose out on a payment, or because I felt guilty that a student might fall behind. It was exhausting, especially when students bailed on their rescheduled lesson, and it didn’t actually lead to better progress. It just led to a burnt-out teacher.

I finally realized that if I didn’t value my time, I couldn’t expect my piano families to value it either. So, I stopped offering makeup lessons on my own time.

The No-Stress Makeup Lesson Options

I put the responsibility back on the families. If they can’t make it to the studio, no pressure! Life happens! To keep their momentum going and get their money’s worth, they have two options during their already scheduled lesson time:

• Virtual Lessons: We hop on a video call. This is perfect for the “I can’t get a ride” or “I have a slight cold” situations.

• Asynchronous Lessons: The student sends me videos of their pieces before their lesson time. I use their scheduled slot to watch them, record my feedback, and send over new assignments. This is the ultimate ‘get out of jail free’ card for travel or sudden sickness.

The Power of ‘The Ball is in Their Court’

What I noticed is that when I drew this line, my families actually respected me more. In fact, I had multiple parents tell me once I implemented the change that they were so grateful that I gave them makeup lesson opportunities, especially amazing options like the asynchronous lesson that was flexible for their scheduling. Parents don’t feel like they’re losing money because the opportunity for the lesson is still there, but the responsibility is just on them to make it happen.

If a parent decides they’re too busy to deal with creating and sending a recording or they just need a week off, that’s completely up to them. It doesn’t affect my income (thank you, flat-rate tuition!), and it doesn’t eat into my Saturday mornings. I understand that sometimes ‘doing nothing’ is the easiest option for a busy family, and we just catch up next week. Regardless of why they missed, the ball is no longer in my court to fix the situation. And let me tell you, that shift alone has been such a massive stress relief. I’m not the bad guy; I’m just a teacher with a schedule that finally works for everyone.

Of course, studio policies can be flexible as you see fit to best address the situation’s needs. On occasion, I’ve bent the rules and accepted asynchronous videos after the lesson time in situations where the student suddenly becomes ill and wasn’t able to send a video prior to the lesson. Even though I am technically working outside of their scheduled lesson time, this still works for me in emergency situations and parents are grateful for the exception. I can choose when in my schedule to send the video response and I can keep it shorter if necessary, while still giving the student feedback to prepare for their next lesson.

What Happens When I’m the One Who Can’t Attend Lessons?

Going back to my semester lesson model, I always make sure to give myself about four weeks off per semester, which works very well with 13 lessons across a four-month span. If I need to cancel a lesson, whether it be for sickness, travel, or other reasons, I use my built in no-lesson weeks. For example, if I wake up on a Tuesday feeling sick and need to cancel my students for that day, I will offer them the options of an asynchronous lesson or rescheduling to an off-week on a Tuesday in the calendar where it is scheduled as not having lessons. This keeps their exact same lesson date and time so we don’t need to juggle schedules and still gives the asynchronous makeup lesson option if students can’t attend the lesson on the new date set.

Do Students Still Make Progress With Asynchronous Makeups?

I’ve been asked this question before, and from my personal experience I’ve found that asynchronous lessons are no worse than a lesson where a student comes in saying “I didn’t really get a chance to practice this week…”. In fact, the occasional asynchronous lesson can be better than a regular in-person lesson because it is a fantastic opportunity for students the chance to record themselves and watch themselves play. Many times I’ve receive videos with comments like “I had to record this several times to get it just right!” which is a great win for personal practice! Asynchronous lessons actually force the student to listen to themselves, which is something many struggle to do during a live lesson. It turns a missed lesson into a recording masterclass!

Ready to Never Schedule a Makeup Lesson Again?

Recently, I was talking to my music-teacher friend who started implementing asynchronous makeup lessons in her studio after having heard me gush about how much I love them. She was amazed at the difference it made! Students weren’t trying to cram in two weeks work of practice into a week with two lessons and they weren’t thrown off their routine because their lesson was a different day/time. They were just able to send no-pressure recordings showing off what they’d practiced and receive feedback from their teacher on specific action-items to address in their practice throughout the coming week. This makeup lesson model is an absolute game-changer, and I hope it benefits you and your students just as much as it’s helped mine!

I spent months testing different video-lesson platforms and drafting emails that didn't sound ‘mean’ to parents explaining how asynchronous lessons work and how to phrase it in my policies. To save you that trial-and-error, I’ve put Copy-Paste scripts behind the paywall below, as well as additional resources including how to structure an asynchronous lesson, actual scenarios of my students missing a lesson with the full asynchronous-lesson videos I’ve sent for both private and beginner group lessons, how to incorporate off-the-bench games in asynchronous lessons, and more. I hope that these materials are helpful for you as you make the switch to asynchronous makeup lessons only- truly that transition has been such a wonderful addition to my studio policies and saved me so much time and stress!

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While talking to a member of my MTNA district, I shared my scheduling frustration and asked what he did. He explained how his studio taught in three semesters over the course of the year and it was like a lightbulb went off in my brain. That was brilliant! I decided to give it a try and moved to a flat-rate, semester-based tuition model. I broke the year into four-month chunks (January-April, May-August, September-December) with 13 lessons and a recital for each semester, and it immediately changed the culture of my studio. Immediately! Students began to practice more, parents weren’t confused about how much to pay each month, and everyone knew what to expect from piano lessons.

Students practicing more was an unexpected bonus, but it made sense. When parents see a clear four-month commitment that they’re paying for, they treat that time with more respect. It also provides a natural rhythm: students know they are “in” for that block of time, and if they ever need to stop, there’s a built-in stopping point. That was the case for a few of my students whose families started piano during the summer, but became too overwhelmed with back-to-school in the fall. Before the semester switch, they just let me know “Oh, we’re going to stop piano next month, sorry!”. After the switch, it’s been so much easier to find out if students plan to stop lessons and plan accordingly.

Let’s look at a specific example of how tuition is calculated with semester scheduling. If I charge $400 per student per semester of 13 lessons, it would equate $30.76 per lesson and would be paid in monthly payments of $100 per month, regardless of how many lessons were in each month. I have approached payments two different ways: upfront/monthly and only monthly using autopay. When I first made the change, I allowed students to pay in full upfront prior to the semester beginning for a 5% discount and then anyone who wanted monthly payments could pay the full price split into four (so $100 per month using the example above). Recently, I made the switch for my entire studio to move to autopay on Nova Music and discontinued the upfront discount option. More information about my switch to Nova and autopay to come in a future post!

Since making the switch, student attendance and practice have skyrocketed. One student in particular went from “Oh sorry I forgot to practice because my cousins were visiting” (or worse, a canceled lesson) to “My cousins were visiting so they listened to me practice piano! Can I show you what I played for them?”. I no longer have those casual skip weeks because a soccer game popped up. Piano moved up on the priority list because the commitment was clear from day one.

When I decided to implement this semester-switch in my studio, I was so nervous that parents would push back and that it taking so many off days (about four to five weeks per semester) would cause problems. However, I didn’t receive a single complaint! If anything, I got compliments from parents about how much they appreciated the clear lesson calendars and flat rate to budget for. My makeup lesson policy that I rolled out with the semester scheduling was also a huge success for both my piano families and for me. More information about how I don’t offer scheduled makeup lessons and what I do instead coming in my next post!

I announced the change via email about two months before I implemented the change. My updated lesson policies and the semester lesson calendar were included in that email, easy to reference if parents had any questions. If you’d like specific examples of policy wording, announcement email templates, sample semester calendars, and more you can click on the subscribe button to access the additional content! I have been so grateful for how changing my studio scheduling has simplified my life and made my teaching more enjoyable; I hope it does the same for you!

The following resources, including my exact policy wording and semester calendars, are available for subscribers.

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