Earlier this week, I hosted my summer piano teacher retreat, Retreat at Piano Manor, at a historic home in Manchester Michigan with about a dozen fellow piano teachers. It was such a treat!
This year’s theme was…
EXPLORING IMPROVISATION AND COMPOSITION IN PIANO LESSONS
Together, let’s expand the role of creativity in the piano lessons we teach. During this retreat, we’ll explore ways to guide young pianists to compose their own pieces, make their own improvisational changes to existing pieces, and create new music using what they know. During group discussion and activities with fellow piano teachers, we will engage in important conversations about creativity and MLT (Music Learning Theory), discover composition/improvisation resources your students will enjoy, and experience the joy of creativity in a variety of forms for yourself!
I arrived at the house mid-day on Monday to set up the space. As teachers arrived, they got themselves settled in the beautiful rooms upstairs. (To see a photo tour of the house, check out this post on Facebook or Instagram. If you like historic houses as I do, you’re in for a treat.)
This is the room where we held our large group discussions and activities.
I brought a large variety of teaching resources relating to improvisation/composition for us to look at. At various points during the retreat, we broke out into groups of 1-3 to look at the teaching resources. Then, we came back together as a large group to share our thoughts and observations about each teaching resource.
Here are a couple of teachers enjoying the sun room.
We brought in a few digital pianos so we’d be able to try out the teaching resources at the keyboard.
Here we are sharing observations on the teaching resources we explored.
We also looked at books and articles relating to creativity in general, beyond music.
The patio by the pool was a popular place to eat and socialize.
Our breakfast and lunch meals were absolutely delicious, thanks to the catering magic of my pal, Amy Chaplin of PianoPantry.com.
Here’s a group of us enjoying lunch in the dining room.
Here’s a photo from breakfast on day 2.
We enjoyed the pool and patio in the evenings as well, after eating out at a restaurant.
We also enjoyed late-night conversation in the sun room.
On Tuesday, I brought in some young students (including my daughter, Aria) for a teaching demo.
We stepped outside to take a group photo.
…and had a bit of fun while doing so. 🙂
It was such a blast to spend three days with fellow piano teachers and think about the role creativity plays in our lives and teaching.
Hope you enjoyed these photo highlights from this year’s retreat! If you’d like to consider attending a future retreat, please join my retreat email list here. This is a separate list from my usual blog updates, used only for sending out a few retreat information.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re enjoying a summer full of fun, rest, and maybe an adventure or two!
