In this episode, Samantha Coates discusses teaching by rote. Topics discussed include the definition of rote teaching, the common criticisms it receives, its relationship to teaching by ear, the overlap between learning music and language acquisition, what makes a great rote piece, how her BlitzBooks series integrates rote teaching with reading teaching, and strategies for teaching rote pieces effectively.

Samantha's rote pieces are available at BlitzBooks Rote Repertoire, and all listeners can receive 20% off anything at the site with the coupon code BEN20. She has also written several blog posts about the topic of rote teaching.

This episode is sponsored by TopMusic, the global hub for piano teachers looking to connect, learn and grow, and be challenged in both their teaching and studio businesses. Listeners who wish to join the TopMusicPro community can enjoy 25% off their membership with the coupon code "benpodcast".

In this episode, Tonya Lawson discusses options of additional income streams for piano teachers beyond teaching income. Topics discussed include why it's advantageous to have multiple income streams as a piano teacher, even if you're in a situation where you currently live comfortably from your teaching income alone. Then we went through various topics related to income streams: website optimization and SEO, hybrid lessons, running ads, affiliate marketing, and creating courses.

Links to resources mentioned

Ad Management: Ezoic, Mediavine, AdThrive
Affiliate Marketing: Amazon Affiliate Program, Sheet Music Plus Affiliate Program
Tonya's Courses: Passive Income Academy, Zero to Waitlist, Free Training

Anyone who enters the code allkeyedup10 at checkout can save 10% off of both of Tonya's courses as well as her coaching services.

This episode is sponsored by TopMusic, the global hub for piano teachers looking to connect, learn and grow, and be challenged in both their teaching and studio businesses. Listeners who wish to join the TopMusicPro community can enjoy 25% off their membership with the coupon code "benpodcast".

In a solo episode, Ben Kapilow lists 15 piano teaching mistakes he made earlier in his teaching career, which he was inspired to correct as a result of interviewing various piano teaching experts for “All Keyed Up.” He explains which guest sparked each change in his teaching.

Josh Wright, Billboard #1 Artist and digital course creator, talks about entrepreneurialism and how it overlaps with teaching piano. Topics discussed include Josh's online courses, the influences he's had from listening to business podcasts and reading business books, branding, marketing, ways to think about target audiences, and the value of being innovative and finding a niche. Listeners of All Keyed Up can receive 20% off of Josh's digital courses by entering promo code "podcast".

Rami Bar-Niv discusses phrasing and melodic shaping. He outlines the guidelines of interpretation used in his memoir Blood Sweat and Tours, illustrating these guidelines with numerous musical examples.

Janna Williamson offers advice and guidance for teaching intermediate students. In the first part of the interview, she discusses big-picture topics such as defining intermediate, why intermediate students are sometimes ignored, and what makes a great teacher of intermediate students. In the second part, she addresses several specific topics as they apply to intermediate students, such as encouraging creativity, repertoire, theory and musical analysis, technique, practice stamina, and creating performance opportunities. Many of the resources mentioned in the interview can be found here.

Edna Golandsky, founder of the Golandsky Institute, gives a deep dive into piano technique through the lens of the Taubman approach. Topics discussed include the use of the forearm, playing quietly, rotation, in and out motion, the problem with telling students to relax, and tone production.

Emile Pandolfi, one of America's most popular piano artists with over 750 million streams across all platforms, discusses his new book, Play It Like You Mean It!: Supercharge Your Playing and Let Your Piano Work For You. Topics discussed include incorporating emotional expression into technical exercises, the technique involved in playing forte, practice strategies, how to create your own piano arrangements, combating stage fright, and building a performance career while still maintaining a private studio.

Jane Magrath, internationally renowned author, clinician, pianist and Professor Emeritus of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma, speaks about repertoire selection. Topics discussed include her books The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature and the upcoming Piano Literature for Teaching and Performance, helping students appreciate the sequential nature of learning, technical challenges, method books versus standard classical repertoire, and how teachers can make repertoire come alive in their studios.

John Patrick Murphy, Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma, discusses the four stages of the Orff Schulwerk process of teaching music and their application in the context of piano lessons: imitation, exploration, labeling, and creation. Topics addressed include play, movement and vocal activities, experiencing concepts before labeling, the pedagogical value of incorporating percussion instruments into piano lessons, games, rote teaching, and group lessons.

Benjamin Steinhardt discusses ways that piano teachers can incorporate off-the-piano movement activities into their lessons. Topics discussed include the pedagogical benefit of incorporating, Edwin Gordon and audiation, the limitations of rhythm clapping, Rudolf Laban, idiosyncratic ways to use a metronome, and using movement activities and games to show weight, the space between notes, phrasing, and meter.

Christopher Oill discusses teaching songwriting in the context of piano lessons. Topics discussed include the benefits of teaching songwriting, teaching students about pop song form, writing music vs. lyrics first, creating accompaniment patterns, composing singable melodies, and writing effective lyrics.

In this solo episode, Ben Kapilow offers 10 strategies for working with students who never or rarely practice. This list includes a combination of strategies he has arrived at through trial and error as a piano teacher, as well as strategies learned from the guests who have appeared on All Keyed Up.

Artina McCain discusses the overlap of being a concert pianist and a piano teacher. Topics discussed include demonstrating for students, selecting repertoire as a means of self-expression, Artina's African American Folk Songs Collection, physical wellness and muscle activation techniques, working with college students, and how to build a performance career while working as a teacher.

Erin Parkes, Founder and Executive Director of the Lotus Centre for Special Music Education and the Lotus Centre Institute, speaks about teaching piano to students with ADHD. Topics discussed include defining ADHD, executive functions, movement activities, floor pianos, putty, metronomes, multi-sensory learning, empathetic versus punitive reactions to disruptive behaviors, lesson planning, encouraging productive practicing, undiagnosed students, and adults with ADHD.

Takenya Battle discusses studio management. In the first 10 minutes of the interview, we spoke about Takenya's amazing life story! The remainder of the interview is focused on Takenya's recommendations for using digital smart tools to make their studio management and teaching more efficient. Topics discussed include alternatives to Zoom such as muzie.live, musico.io, digital library programs such as OnSong and Symphony Pro, streamlining payment collection with programs such as MyMusicStaff and Fons, the drawbacks of makeup lessons, website/social media optimization tips, and her group coaching program Key of Easy.

Daniel McFarlane discusses some of the core features of his method book series, Supersonics: melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements that help make songs catchy, pop music influences, composition activities, and the upcoming Primer series. Daniel also offers advice for anyone interested in creating their own method book.

Tony Parlapiano, creator of popMATICS, offers his thoughts on a successful approach to teaching pop music in piano lessons. Topics discussed include sequences leading up to teaching chords, identifying chords by numbers as opposed to letters, chord diagrams, how to adapt to student requests, methods of teaching pop songs by ear, and pencil and paper writing vs. digital notation programs.

Yukimi Song, Eric Hunter, and Clara Zhang, members of The Piano Pod Podcast, discuss the future of piano teaching, a topic heavily addressed on their podcast. Topics discussed include Twitch, Youtube, social media networking, multi-style and interdisciplinary teaching approaches, learning by rote, and neurodiversity.

Niloufar Nourbakhsh discusses her multifaceted career, which spans the gamut from being an internationally renowned composer, pianist, and teacher to wide-ranging advocacy for social change. Topics discussed include the connections between politics and music, the Zohra Orchestra (Afghanistan's first all-female orchestra), teaching composition vs. teaching piano, the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers Program, music education in Iran, and the Iranian Female Composers Association. In the interview, Niloufar recommends several Iranian women composers who write fantastic piano music: Aftab Darvishi, Negin Zomorodi, Nina Barzegar, Homa Samiei, and Anoush Moazzeni.

Christopher Norton, internationally renowned composer, reflects on his compositional style. He discusses composing melodies, rhythmic groove, writing across styles while still maintaining a compositional identify, and approaches to articulation. He also offers advice for teachers who use his pieces in their studios and gives us some sneak peaks of currently unpublished works. Sheet music excerpts and publication information for the music presented on this episode can be found here.

Katie Wardrobe, Melbourne-based music technology trainer and founder of Midnight Music, discusses some of her recommendations of great tech programs for piano piano teachers. Many of the resources discussed are included in her 2021/2022 Free Music Tech Resource Guide. Some specific resources mentioned in the interview include Groovepizza, forScore, Ecamm, Canva for Education, Google Slides, and the Arkon mount/tripod.

Brenden Lowe, Founder of Jazz Piano School and host of the Jazz Piano School podcast, discusses jazz piano pedagogy and theory. Topics discussed include teaching chord voicings, approaches to soloing, chord extensions, chord-scale theory, rhythmic feel and groove, and Brenden's current business consultation offerings.

Heidi Begay, Jaime Slutzky, and Ben Kapilow discuss how and why to start a music teaching podcast. Topics discussed include the advantages of starting your own podcast, from what equipment you need, how to create an RSS feed, coming up with a concept, finding your niche, marketing, and monetization.

Melissa Martiros, Dean of Music at Anna Maria College and Founding Director of OpporTUNEity, discusses her community outreach work. She speaks about her organization, which strengthens the ties between post-secondary music programs and their local communities while promoting the use of music as a means to engage undergraduate students in educational programs that emphasize social change. She also speaks more broadly about the topic of community outreach.

Dennis Alexander, one of North America's most prolific and popular composers of educational piano music for students at all levels, discusses composing pedagogical piano music. He discusses his own compositions and offers some thoughts on the field of pedagogical piano music in general, as well as advice for aspiring composers.

Nicola Cantan, creator of Vibrant Music Teaching, speaks about teaching composition to piano students. She addresses the topic generally while also highlighting some specific composition resources offered by Vibrant Music Teaching. Topics discussed include the pedagogical benefits of composition, creative vs. non-creative approaches, integrating composition and improvisation with other elements of piano teaching, micro-compositions, long-term sequencing of composition curriculums, and teaching lyric-writing to students of all skill levels.

Leila Viss, author of The iPad Piano Studio, editor for the American Music Teacher Magazine, and host of the Key Ideas podcast, discusses some of the characteristic features of dynamic piano studios. Topics discussed include apps, backing tracks, varied repertoire, playing piano in bands, improvisation, the Effective Practice Tracker, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation.

Christina Whitlock, independent studio owner, professor, pianist, adjudicator, and host of the Beyond Measure Podcast, comes on to join in a pep talk for piano teachers. The goal of this episode is to help make piano teachers feel great about the work that they do! Christina discusses some optimistic ways of reframing our thinking around some elements of piano teaching that may pose challenges, and she also discusses some positive elements of piano teaching that may go unnoticed that could perhaps become more of a focus.

Dr. Mario Ajero, internationally recognized authority in incorporating technology in piano pedagogy, speaks about some ways that piano teachers can broaden the focus of their lessons to teach without an over-reliance on note-reading. He also addresses some ways that technology can help to that effect. Topics discussed include learning by video, rote teaching, playing by ear, Piano Maestro, pop music pedagogy, and Home Concert Xtreme.

Dr. Scott Price, internationally renowned expert on music and autism, offers some advice for piano teachers on how to most productively and successfully work with students with autism. Topics discussed include person vs. identity first language, defining autism, avoiding abstractions, lesson planning strategies, technique, and visual learning.

Dr. Leah Claiborne discusses her scholarship on pedagogical piano music by black composers and more broadly speaks about the process of how piano teachers can diversify their repertoire and students. If listeners are interested in learning more about Leah, she has many webinars and articles at Clavier Companion.

In this episode, she discusses many resources that piano teachers might consider investigating in their attempts to diversity their studios:

- Teaching Pieces by Florence Price
- Portraits in Jazz by Valerie Capers
- Anthologies of Black Women Composers by Hildegard Publishing
- Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora by William Chapman Nyaho

Julie Knerr Hague and Katherine Fisher, the authors of Piano Safari, discuss the pedagogical thinking behind this very popular method book series. Topics discussed include sequencing, mapping real world experiences onto musical concepts, the value of learning pieces that de-emphasize note reading in favor of other skills, landmark note reading, building strong fingertips, and general advice for teachers to maximize the use of Piano Safari in their studios.

Geraldine Anello, Broadway music director and pianist, speaks about her transition from a formal classical training to playing shows in a variety of styles. She compares her current teaching philosophy with the one in which she was brought up, and she talks about some stylistic differences between classical and Broadway piano playing that she picked up over the years. Topics discussed include groove and rhythmic emphasis across different styles, effectively playing bass lines, the importance of practicing with recordings, phrasing, and technology. She is also a published poet, having recently released a poetry collection called Naked (Truth).

Noa Kageyama, performance psychologist and faculty at the Juilliard School, offers thoughts on stage fright and performance anxiety. Topics discussed include the relationship between stage fright and performance quality, the advantages children receive from working through stage fright, how to prepare to combat stage fright in the weeks leading up to a performance, what to do at the moment of the performance, and the relationship between anxiety and excitement and how teachers can use this relationship to their advantage."

Barbara Fast, Director of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma and co-author of iPractice: Technology in the 21st Century Music Practice Room, offers guidance to teachers in working with their students on developing an efficient practice routine. Topics discussed include finding motivation to practice, practice journals, combatting a negativity bias, interleaved vs. blocked practice, and Hardest First Practice.

Tim Topham, internationally renowned music educator, piano teacher, writer, podcast host, and founder of TopMusic, discusses effective communication, both as a podcast host and as a piano teacher. Topics discussed include bringing out the best in others, being prepared while also staying present, building a brand, saying “um,” and vulnerability.

Clinton Pratt, owner of Piano Sensei, speaks about stress-free studio management. Topics discussed include the benefits of flat fee billing, invoices, group lessons, advertising, student acquisition, and student retention. Clinton offers many resources to help teachers manage their studios, available here.

Marvin Blickenstaff, world-renowned piano teacher, discusses his thoughts on some of the central aspects of piano pedagogy. Topics discussed include lesson planning, technical exercises, teaching rhythms, identifying notes through landmark reading and interval recognition, score study, emotional expression, and the lifelong project of continually improving as a piano teacher.

Shelly Davis, host of the Piano Parent Podcast, speaks about effective communication with piano parents. Topics mentioned include in-person versus written correspondence, parents sitting in on lessons, using parents as allies to encourage a productive practice schedule, and the show Supernanny! Shelly has created a page dedicated to "All Keyed Up" which outlines some of the episodes and resources discussed in the interview.

Selena Pistoresi, founder of Notable Music Teaching, discusses her work in helping piano teachers work with students with special needs. Topics mentioned include the DSM-V, creating a sensory friendly environment, stimming, the limitations of overuse of aural teaching, teaching technique to students with motor difficulties, and presuming competence.

Marcantonio Barone speaks about the importance of Bach’s music in his studio. Topics discussed include preparatory work leading up to the first Bach piece, developing hand independence, working with students on articulation choices and motivic analysis, teaching music history, and playing Bach with musicality.

Eleonor Bindman speaks about Bach's output and her easy piano arrangements and transcriptions of his works.

Ashley Frith speaks about her work as a composer and Director of Racial Equity and Belonging at Community MusicWorks. Topics mentioned include the connection between her compositions and her social justice activism, color blindness, stereotyping, approaches to scholarship and outreach, selecting repertoire, and the challenge of true self-reflection.

In this episode, Darryl Harper, jazz musician and Associate Professor of Music at Amherst College, speaks about his scholarship on improvisation. He discusses improvisation through many lenses, including history, culture, education, and neuroscience.

Jonny May, pianist and educator with over 250,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 10,000 students currently taking his online piano classes, discusses strategies for teaching improvisation to piano students. He also talks about the entrepreneurial thinking behind his digital content and offers advice for other teachers who want to reach larger audiences with their resources.

Dorla Aparicio speaks about the nuts and bolts of running a thriving group lesson program in a piano studio. She speaks about determining appropriate rates, marketing strategies, piano camps, finding repertoire, and the benefits students receive from group instruction. She offers a variety of resources to help piano teachers with structuring their group lessons, from freebies to teacher training workshops to sheet music, all of which are available at her website.

Jerald Simon speaks about motivating students to feel passionate about music theory concepts. In this interview, Jerald speaks about many of the resources he offers to help to this effect. These resources are available at his website and at Amazon.

Courtney Crappell speaks about some of the specific topics associated with teaching students of today's generation, sometimes referred to as Generation Z. He discusses student vs. teacher-centered learning, goal-oriented versus process-oriented approaches, how the presence of free Youtube piano tutorials affects piano teaching, and, paradoxically, some of the risks of overgeneralizing based on age and ignoring other aspects of identity and individual variation among students.

Becki Laurent speaks about her work at JoyTunes and the educational value of the Piano Maestro app. She also offers tips for teachers to maximize their use of Piano Maestro in their studios.