Piano Teacher

How can one teach music without following an assigned pedagogy?

Skills

Education

Music

Leadership

Software

MuseScore3

My Role

Founder

At age 12, I started teaching piano at a studio. After one year, I left and opened my own studio to handle clients, teach without using a standard curriculum, and work at home.

Mission and Values

Kate's Piano Studio was designed to teach piano to beginner and intermediate students.

Inclusivity: Students from all skill levels and backgrounds should be provided a music education.

Education: I hosted half-hour weekly music lessons to teach students about piano, music theory, and composition.

Joy: In order to foster a love of music, I tailored the curriculum and focus around the student's interests.

Process

After taking on a new student, I held conversations with them and their families to determine their skill level, experience with music, purpose in learning piano, and favorite music.

Within several lessons, I gauged their learning style to determine whether learning through games, competing, memorization, composition, or fun music was best to fit their needs.

This helped me determine whether to follow a more traditional curriculum like the Royal Conservatory and Hanon or help them learn modern music from their favorite bands or movies.

Lessons Learned

• Fostering a safe environment is important. Providing students empathy towards their life struggles is important since learning a new skill is daunting for many.

• Your passion is not everybody else's passion. Every business wants its customers to love their product, but sometimes people have other priorities, and that's ok.

• Communicate clearly with students and families. Make goals well-known with a timeline to achieve them.

• Children will always learn better if you let them choose how to learn.