CPTP078: 5 Tips for Planning a Piano Teaching Curriculum

Properly planning a piano teaching curriculum is not as simple as just following an exam syllabus or a method book series. It requires careful thought and consideration to put together the curriculum for your studio and your students.

Many teachers tell me that they don't have time to fit everything into the lesson time. Others ask me how they can plan for exams alongside creative activities. Making a plan can help with both of these issues.

You're the route planner for your students musical journey. Where are you going to lead them?

Don't let yourself be pulled in different directions of things you should be doing. Listen to episode 78 and start proactively planning your curriculum.

Transcript

If you'd like to download a PDF transcript of this episode, please click below.

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In this episode, you’ll learn

• The pitfalls of "segmenting" a piano lesson
• How I define a curriculum vs a syllabus
• Why we need a flexible system for planning
• How to start planning a piano teaching curriculum
• How to lesson plan, and then go with the flow
• Why I don't use a method book at all for the first 10 weeks
• Ideas for beginner, intermediate and advanced lesson planning

Links Mentioned

• 6 Mistakes I Made When I Started Teaching Piano
• All About ABRSM Piano Exams with Tim Arnold
• Piano Safari podcast with Dr. Julie Knerr and Katherine Fisher
• Piano Safari
• Piano Pronto
• Accelerated Piano Adventures
• Way Cool Keyboarding
• Tonara

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Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run.

Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons!

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Do you follow a piano teaching curriculum?

Did you design your own curriculum? Or do you follow a particular method book?

How much lesson planning do you do and how much do you teach on-the-fly?