It’s that time of the year:
Gift-wrapping stations set up at the retail stores, “Gifts under $10” displayed by the pharmacy counter, and scouting for online deals during Thanksgiving weekend over a plate of leftover turkey and cranberry sauce.
What’s on your wishlist this year?
As music teachers, we always have a few things in mind, don’t we? That new folk song collection or a new rhythm instrument to add to our collection, a copy of that musician’s memoir to read over the break, or a subscription to that monthly membership.
What would you ask for if you were making a holiday wishlist for yourself as a teacher?
Today, I’m sharing a few ideas (and a few things that are on my teacher wishlist!) to help get you started. Enjoy!
*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Curriculum
Musikal Husky Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1
A progressive, step-by-step method for teaching musical rhythm and developing rhythmic-reading skills. Designed for all instruments and students of all ages, this series works well as an individual rhythm-reading curriculum or as a supplement for private lessons or group instruction.
Ethically produced and printed in the EU
Woman-owned business
Piano Detectives Club
A step-by-step beginning group piano curriculum with ready-to-use lesson plans, materials, and resources. Tailored to young children (ages 5-6) and designed for classes of up to six students, the Piano Detectives Club curriculum guides teachers through students’ first year of piano studies.
Women-owned business
Rhythm Menagerie, Book 1
This 96-page book is the first in a series of reproducible PDFs featuring creative, fun, and intriguing activities to explore new rhythmic concepts. Each unit contains: an introductory page, three levels of single-hand rhythms, three levels of 2-handed rhythms, and three “fun with sound” pages.
Reproducible
Woman-owned business
Sight-Reading Cards, Level 1
Piano Safari
A set of 80 sight-reading cards, color-coded to match each unit. Includes: pre-staff reading, 2nds on the staff beginning on landmark notes, 3rds on the staff beginning on landmark notes, 2nds and 3rds combined, and rhythm exercises.
These cards work as a supplement to any standard method and are appropriate for students of all ages.
Women-owned business
RCM Online Ear Training
Royal Conservatory of Music
A digital monthly subscription to over 5,000 ear-training exercises, Prep A through Level 10 (all ages and all instruments). Activities include:
Melody Playback
Rhythm Clapback
Triad Quality Identification
Scale and Interval Identification
Rhythm and Meter Identification
Chord Progression Identification
and more!
Books
The Success Factor in Piano Teaching: Making Practice Perfect
(Elvina Pearce/ed. Craig Sale)
This book is full of practical teaching tips, but it also includes decades of wisdom, inspirational thoughts, and recollections of “one of the greatest piano teachers of the last 50 years.”
Woman author
The Transposed Musician: Teaching Universal Skills to Improve Performance and Benefit Life
(Dylan Savage)
A new release in 2021, this book focuses on universal skills (like problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity) and how they can be applied to music. The author illustrates how these skills can be “transposed” to life, to music, and back again, building better musicianship and better-equipped citizens in the process.
Questions & Answers
(Frances Clark)
For over 26 years, Frances Clark—pianist, pedagogue, and teacher of teachers—wrote a column called “Questions and Answers” for Clavier magazine. Here, she includes some of her best advice for piano teachers. Topics include: lesson plans, rhythm, theory, ear training, memorizing, phrasing, group lessons, recitals, adult students, and transfer students.
Woman author
The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms
Christine Ammer
This small book is so helpful to have on hand when teaching. Look up one of 3,000 musical terms (in French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish) and get a quick, succinct definition.
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy
(Richard Chronister/ed. Edward Darling)
Richard Chronister was a piano pedagogue and teacher of teachers. He started the first university degree program in piano pedagogy, co-founded the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and served as founder and editor of Keyboard Companion magazine. He asked deep, reflective questions about the teaching process throughout his career, as documented in this collection of essays, articles, lectures, and addresses.
Speaking the Piano
(Susan Tomes)
Written by renowned pianist Susan Tomes, this book is about the teaching and learning process. Tomes reflects on how her experience as a learner—from listening to masterclasses to performances—and how that has informed her understanding and practice of teaching.
Woman author
Repertoire
A Collection of Florence Price’s Piano Teaching Music Vol. 1
(Florence Price/ed. Lia Jensen-Abbott)
This definitive collection of elementary piano music by African-American pianist and composer, Florence Price features short pieces written for the beginning pianist. Notes on pedagogy and teaching techniques are included in the Preface.
African-American composer
Woman composer
Chee-Hwa Tan Pack
(Chee-Hwa Tan)
A set of four books by pianist and pedagogue Chee-Hwa Tan featuring whimsical and creative elementary and intermediate compositions in a variety of musical styles and keys: whole-tone, Mixolydian, black-key pentatonic, Dorian, major, and minor. Includes performance notes.
Woman composer
Women-owned business
Portraits in Jazz
(Valerie Capers)
I purchased this collection this summer and am using it with a few of my intermediate students this year. We love the jazz sonorities and variety of styles present in this collection. Plus, the performance notes at the end are helpful for learning about the 12 jazz artists that inspired each piece.
African-American composer
Woman composer
Games
Race to the Top Card Game
In this game, students race to move game pieces from the low side to the high side of the keyboard. It’s a great way to review keyboard geography, note-naming, upward and downward direction, and intervals 2nd-5th. Race to the Top comes in three graded levels.
Women-owned business
E-Z Notes Scale & Triad Blocks
This set of magnetic wooden letter blocks features the diatonic notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) as well as sharp and flat versions (sharps are red, flats are blue). Help students learn major & minor scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic); the relationship between relative and parallel keys; major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads; chord inversions; and more.
See a video demonstration of this product here.
Woman-owned business
What about you?
What’s at the top of your teacher wishlist? I’d love to hear!
