The Vibrant Music Teaching Podcast | Proven and practical tips, strategies and ideas for music teachers

Do you get nervous for your recital welcome speech? This is many music teachers’ least favourite part of running a studio concert. Get step-by-step tips for planning out your speech in this episode and relieve your nerves!

Music history can be super fun and engaging if approached the right way and taught on a regular basis. And learning about music history can help your students connect to the music they’re playing in a new way. Get some ideas to make it easy to incorporate into your music lessons in this episode.

Do you need a simple and effective process for planning your group workshops? Take a listen to this episode to find out how I do it.

Group workshops can be a wonderful addition to your studio to help your students learn together, play theory games, improvise and socialise. Find out how to bring them into your studio in this episode.

Ensemble improvisation is one of my favourite activities to do at group workshops. In this episode, I’ll teach you how to do this with the 12 bar blues, no matter what instruments you have available!

Do your students get the opportunity to play duets often enough? Find out how to fit in more duet playing and teaching tips to set your students up for success with duets in this episode.

Are you apprehensive of getting started with improvisation in your piano teaching? In this episode, I’ll give you 3 super easy improvisation exercise to get you started and help you make your lessons more creative.

Improvisation can be so much more than just another thing to fit into your packed lessons. In this episode, I’ll share with you how I use improvisation as a tool to teach other concepts and allow students to experience new things before labelling them.

In this episode, I’ll share the activities I do at a first lesson with a new piano student including games and improvisation. Listen in to find out more! 

What type of lesson plans can you use as a music teacher? How did you get started with this stuff if you’ve never planned your lessons before? I’ll help you with all that and more in this show. 

How do you know what your music teaching curriculum should look like? That’s what I’ll help you decide in this week’s episode with some simple and actionable exercises.

What is a music teaching curriculum and why would you want one? I believe this is one of the most powerful things you can do in your studio and today I want to talk you through why it’s so important.

Learn 3 fantastic rhythm exercises that you can use with your students, taken from my brand new book, Rhythm in 5. These rhythm games are all really fun and take just a few minutes of lesson time – so what are you waiting for?

Have you ever had a student who just cannot seem to get the rhythm right in any of their pieces? Join me for today’s podcast and I’ll talk you through some strategies to help these struggling students.

Confused by all the different rhythm systems out there? Ta, ti, du and 1 2 3 4? Let me talk you through them in this episode so you can get them straight and figure out what might be best for your students.

So you’re on board with using solfa in your private music teaching studio...but how? All of the resources seem to be designed for classroom teachers!In this episode, I’ll share 5 simple exercises to get you going with solfa with minimal nervousness or planning on your part.

Are you a bit confused by Kodály and solfa? Can’t tell movable do from fixed do or Curwen hand signs from Kodály rhythm syllables?Tune in to this episode for a simple run-down on solfa and how you might use elements of Kodály methods in your studio.

Teachers are so giving, and they can sometimes be guilty of not taking time for themselves. Get my tips for disconnecting and recharging in this episode.

Goal setting is an important part of studying a music instrument. I believe goals should be set not just by the teacher, but by the student and teacher collaboratively too. Take a listen to find out how.

In this fantastic interview with Graham Fitch (first recorded in February 2018) we talked about practice strategies, and managing practice expectations with adult students.

What’s your biggest frustration as a music teacher? That’s a question I ask all readers of the Colourful Keys blog  and in this episode I want to help you with the most common one.

What takes a recital from alright to totally WOW? It’s the little things. Get inspiration and ideas for how to make your next recital sparkle in this episode.

There’s so much to do when prepping for a recital. What are the essentials that need to go on your checklist? And when does each thing need to be done?! I’ll talk you through it all in this episode.

Do you reschedule your music lessons or offer makeup lessons? I’m here to convince you that you need to rethink that. Join me for this podcast episode and reframe your makeup lesson mindset for good.

The first few months with a new student are vital for establishing the right relationships and practice routines. So what are the most important touch-points? What emails should we send and when?

There are so many ways to structure your lessons, it doesn’t have to be just 30 minutes one-on-one. Lynnette has tried quite a few of the possibilities and I’m delighted to have her on the show today to talk about innovative and interesting lesson formats.

You don’t want to be just another studio claiming lessons for “all ages and levels”. You don’t want to be thought of as just nice. Find your unique awesomeness in this episode. Make your marketing different, stand out and get noticed!

Whether you have a bunch of open spots or just need to add to your studio’s waiting list, you always need to be marketing your studio in some way. In this episode, I’ll talk you through the most common marketing methods for music teachers and which I have found to be most effective.

The circle of fifths is a very useful tool to bring all of the key signatures together and reveal their relationships to each other. But how can we help students to understand this? How can we allow them to feel the magic? That’s where improvising your way around the circle of fifths can be so useful. Find out how today.

In this episode, I’ll answer some great questions from members about improvisation, finger dexterity, concerts and note reading struggles.  

Using monthly themes in your studio can give you the clarity you need to really move your students’ learning forward in particular areas. Find out in this episode how this could work for you and get some ideas for monthly themes you could use.

Do your students think scales are fun? I promise you they can, it just takes a little know-how and some imagination on your part. But it’s so worth it!

Teaching keyboard geography is something that is often neglected by piano teachers, but do your students really know the piano keys? Could they find the correct key quickly and easily or do they work from C every time? Learn my tips for teaching this core skill thoroughly in this episode.

Transfer students are tricky because what they know so far won’t necessarily align with what we would have taught them. In this episode I’ll share strategies to catch them up, fill in the gaps and have success with your transfer students.

In this episode, I’ll answer some great questions from members about makeup lessons, pentascales, goals and choosing repertoire for students.

Transfer students can be tricky. We don’t know what they learned with their previous music teacher, never mind what they retained. Find out what you should do in the first lesson with a transfer student in this episode.

As private music teachers, it’s SO easy to feel overwhelmed. There are so many ideas that we could be trying, and so much to do in a day...what should we prioritise? How can we feel good about what we’re achieving?

As private music teachers, it’s SO easy to feel overwhelmed. There are so many ideas that we could be trying, and so much to do in a day...what should we prioritise? How can we feel good about what we’re achieving?

What types of lesson plans actually work for music teachers? How can we plan out our lessons but still be flexible? Find out how to plan your lessons and fit more into the same amount of time on this episode.

It’s so important to keep expectations and goals aligned so that parents are happy in our studio, sign up again next year, and their children have a great musical experience. What can we do to make sure parents are on the same page as us?

Next to make-up lessons, practice motivation is one of the top answers when you ask teachers what they’re struggling with. So how can we motivate our students to practise? What can we do when they just won’t? And how do we make practice more efficient and bring in strategies that our students will actually follow through on at home?

Are you ready for a new year of teaching? Follow along with my step-by-step process for putting everything in place and making sure that you don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed with everything we need to do at this time of year in our music teaching studios.

Take a listen to this introductory episode to find out why I'm starting this podcast and what to expect.