Favs

One of my favorite piano methods is Irina Gorin’s Tales of Musical Journey. The technique sequencing is conducive for natural, healthy playing in young beginners. Read my review here, and order directly from Irina’s website.

The RCM Celebration Series is a core part of my teaching approach. After a few years in a method book, I transition students into their series. My only wish is that they weren’t so pricey…otherwise, it is fabulous!

The Faber Piano Adventures is another favorite piano methods. The quality of the music is top notch — I think Nancy Faber is a brilliant pedagogical composer. The pieces sound great and students love them.

Music Moves For Piano is a method based on audiation (aural understanding) and Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT). Keyboard Games, Books A & B, are wonderful for young beginners. I’m still new to this method, but I’m learning much from it!

I’m always on the lookout for well-written pieces that make students sound great, especially for events like recitals and festivals! The Events series by Bernard Shaak are absolute treasures.

Other composers I particularly love:

• Elissa Milne
• Jon George
• Melody Bober
• Anne Crosby Gaudet

Intelligent Music Teaching, by Robert Duke is my all-time favorite book on music teaching. It offers research-based information about what good music teaching looks like while being a friendly, enjoyable read. Highly recommended!

The Ways Children Learn Music, by Eric Bluestine is a fascinating read, and a good primer into Gordon’s Music Learning Theory. This books asks more questions than it answers…but that’s not a bad thing! Good questions can get us thinking hard about what effective teaching is.

How Children Learn, by John Holt is a fascinating, enjoyable read that provides windows into understanding how children learn. These insights can inform the way we teach. Also check out: How Children Fail, by John Holt.

My friend Susan Hong introduced me to these. They are Frixion erasable felt-tipped markers, and my students and I love them for making marks in our sheet music!

I once saw another teacher using these pens, and I had to ask what they were. Now, these are my guilty pleasure. You can get these InkJoy Gel pens singly at OfficeMax or buy a whole pack.

My students and I use small Post-It sticky notes as bookmarks, marking the pages for pieces we are working on their books. No more guesswork! Even the littlest ones know what to practice.

I love using Bic mechanical pencils. They’re always sharp, so that’s what I keep on my piano. I recommend the thicker leads (0.7mm or 0.9mm) instead of 0.5mm, so they are less likely to break if students press hard. I love the smoothness of the thicker leads anyway!

I’ve been using these Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils in my teaching for years. Color always makes everything more fun, and these are especially awesome colored pencils because they are erasable!

My students and I enjoy using these translucent, colorful page markers to highlight certain areas of our sheet music. I like these as an alternative to highlighter tape, because they are essentially precut and it’s easy to keep lots of colors on hand. They are repositionable, and you can also write on them.

I love using Canva for creating graphics for my blog or piano studio. Use my referral link to join and create a design, you’ll earn a free Canva Credit to get a premium item for free.

I use Weebly for three of my websites: for my piano studio, online courses, and piano teacher retreat. I love it! Use my referral link to try it out, and if you decide to sign up for a plan you’ll get 10% off.

I use Teachery for hosting the content of my online courses. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the BEST course platform (and I’ve looked at lots)! And the folks behind Teachery are the best.

Of all tools I’ve used in my life, Notion has been the most impactful ever. It’s a note-taking / productivity app I use it for just about everything in my life. It’s easy-to-use, yet extremely powerful. Read my full blog post about it here, and thank me later!

I use Dropbox to save scans of my business expenses throughout the year, send large files to colleagues/students, and more. Use my link, and we’ll both get 500 MB of bonus space!

My husband and I love having Amazon Prime. Most often, we enjoy taking advantage of free two-day shipping and Amazon Prime TV shows.

I use Flodesk to send emails about my online courses and retreats. Features: A drag-and-drop email builder, beautiful templates, and Instagram embeds. Best of all, for one monthly price, you get unlimited subscribers! Use my link and you’ll get 50% off the first year of your Flodesk subscription.

I use Mailpoet to send out blog updates to my readers’ email inboxes. I like having an email newsletter solution that’s both automatic and built-in to WordPress!

My blog is built using WordPress and currently hosted by Flywheel. Their hosting is top-notch and allows my site to run quickly! But for many years (2009-2021), I used an affordable plan with Hawkhost and found their customer support always responsive and helpful.