My last video on performance mindset got some amazing feedback, probably more than anything else I've posted online. Multiple people told me their perfectionism and fear of performance ruined their ability to play music, even for fun.

I felt I wanted to response to some of these commenters, to give them an extra step in their path to reconnecting with their musical ability. So I sat down and recorded a few videos sharing some of the lessons I’d learned that helped me overcome my perfectionism, in case it could help them. Here’s one of those lessons in case it can help you, too.

Do you stress out when you think about preparing for a musical performance? If so, chances are that you’re worrying about being good enough to play for other people.

There’s a way around performance anxiety that works especially well for sensitive, heart-led people. Building a healthy music performance mindset can start with the small step of considering your own general intention when you practice. When you’re preparing for your performance, do you focus on showing off (for your audience) or showing up (for your music)?

People would be surprised how much time I spend as a piano teacher helping people drop back down into their bodies.

By this I mean putting a pause on their rational brains and help them seek out the emotions that their bodies are trying to surface during the learning experience.

I got a comment on my last video on naming landmark notes where a person shared the way that they learned notes in the treble and bass clefs, using the popular sayings like “All Cows Eat Grass”, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”, and so on. This made me realize that perhaps some of you wonder, do I use those sayings at all?

The answer is basically no! I don’t really like using those sayings in teaching people how to read music and I find I don’t even really need to! Here’s why.

Today’s post is for anyone who signed up for piano lessons or a keyboarding in college at the beginning of September and are now finding themselves at the end of September wondering what on earth they signed up for!

We’ve talked about landmark notes a bunch on this site lately because they’re my favourite way to teach my students how to feel comfortable around the musical staff. First I showed you how to find middle C. Then I showed you two really valuable landmark notes on each staff — treble G and bass F.

Today I’d like to show you two more landmark notes that will expand your ability to read music near the middle of the treble and bass staff - high C and low C!

Are you having a hard time remembering your piano pieces? If so, here’s a tip I use to help my students accelerate their memorization skills.

Commit to using the same fingering every time you play the song.

Here’s why that works.

I studied Philosophy in university, and I love to dig into the deeper meanings and hidden assumptions in things we tend to take for granted. As September rolled around and I started to ramp up my marketing for the new school year, I started to notice that I’d taken for granted some approaches to piano lesson marketing that didn’t actually align with my personal values as a heart-centred piano teacher.

In my last post, I introduced a passion project that I worked on recently — designing my own beginner piano book! I took the day off work to dedicate myself to dreaming big and taking my first playful steps envisioning what this dream could look like in reality.

Here’s an update on what I was able to accomplish in an afternoon!