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

Teachers do not need patience when they have true understanding and are involved in the learning process. Find out what patience can teach us and our students in this episode.

It’s important to take stock and reflect once in a while so that your studio doesn’t take on a character you didn’t design. Find out what changes I’m making to my studio for next year and how I’m implementing them in this episode.

How do you maintain control of a lesson without becoming a strict and unpleasant teacher? For me, it’s all about understanding the difference between strictness and authority. The former is unnecessary, the latter is essential.

What’s the right approach to using technology and gadgets in your studio? Find out how you could be thinking about using iPads and other tech toys backwards and what a better approach is for music studios.

Do most of your students do exams as standard every year? I want to question that. Let’s think about what exams are good for and what they’re not good for and come to a more balanced view of where they should sit in our studios.

Let’s face it, playing a game with an adult is not as fun as playing with another kid your age...but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable and beneficial. Get my top tricks for making games work in private music lessons in this episode.

In this extra episode, we'll talk about how you can stay calm with everything that's going on and how to get help and support if you need it. 

Do you feel like you never have enough lesson time for all the things you want to do? It’s definitely challenging to stretch those minutes to everything we need to cover but in this episode,  I’ll give you some strategies to help you make the most of them.

How do you build boundaries in your business when you work from home? And when your students fill your brain every hour of every day? In this episode, we’ll try to get to the root of that question.

Recitals take a lot of work, but they don’t have to be overwhelming. In this episode, I’ll give you a mantra and a checklist, so you feel less stressed and scattered this recital season. We got this!

Do prospective piano parents ever tell you they just want their kid to “have fun”? Or that they don’t want him to be a concert pianist? I know why it gets on some teachers’ nerves. But in this episode, I want to unpack what they’re really saying there and how we can help them see things differently.

Do you have a studio website? Have you ever considered exactly who it’s for? Thinking about the purpose your music studio website is serving can make it so much more effective. In this episode, I’ll help you figure it out and put some best practices in place.

Do you do any dancing in your music lessons? This is a fantastic way to get students to understand different time signatures, feel the metre, and also just shake off some of the mid-lesson wiggles!

What does it mean to be “talented”? Let’s think about our word choices and how to develop more grit and hard work in our students instead of reliance on natural abilities.

Do you think about how you spend your time? When you run your own business, every minute matters. Join me as we discuss the different types of work we all do and how you can make more time for the important tasks on your to-do list.

Do you have students that don’t practice? Do you find it frustrating? In this show, I want to unpack the practice problem and why it requires some further investigation before dismissing these students.

Why? That’s the question I want to encourage you to ask more on today’s show. I think we should all resolve to investigate the why behind what we do and how we do it, and to encourage the same inquisitiveness in our students.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the options and ideas available to you as a music teacher? It helps to understand which elements are essential and how they relate so that we can piece the pieces together and create holistic musicians. Listen to this 7 part series of episodes where we’re exploring the essential music lesson ingredients and how to balance them.

Lyndel Kennedy is a truly inspirational teacher and her creative methods are sure to light a spark with you as you listen to this episode. This interview was done as part of my research for my new book Playful Preschool Piano Teaching. Pick up your copy at: playfulpreschoolpiano.com