Do you sometimes wonder why you even bother to write lesson notes for your piano students? You can tell they haven’t been read each week… you can tell the binder hasn’t even been opened. And is it really that important anyway?
The answer is simple; yes, it’s very important and yes, there IS a way to make sure your lesson notes are noticed.
The “At Home” Hours Have to Count!
Our students spend 167.5 hours on their own each week. Most of their piano learning happens on their own. And this is not the norm when it comes to extra-curricular activities. Coaches aren’t sending gymnasts home and telling them to work on their vault on their own. Hockey players aren’t expected to put in hours of skating time outside of practice. Kids are typically supervised while they hone a skill.
Unless you play the piano. Then you are only “supervised” for 30-45 minutes a week… but you are expected to progress on your own time.
Lesson Notes Are Your Lifeline
If your lesson notes can be made effective then your “voice” will stay with your student during those 167.5 hours each week. The valuable reminders, the helpful pointers and the encouragement and wisdom you give during that short lesson time can extend into their home practice time.
And the result? Your piano kids will practice more efficiently, progress more quickly and play better. This results in happy students who feel successful, and happy parents who hear quality practice and can see results.
Appeal to Kids When Writing Lesson Notes
Your lesson notes need to appeal to kids. It’s very likely that your students don’t have a parent sitting down with them to practice at home. This means your notes need to somehow engage your students, be legible and easily understood… and (above all) be short and sweet and to the point.
An A-Maze-ing Piano Lesson Printable
Check out our second printable to help you achieve Lesson Note Awesomeness. Choose the top 3 things you want your student to take with them for the week. Write them in the space provided and watch your piano kids happily pay attention!
Teachers email us daily to tell us what a difference they’ve observed in their students after using Shhhh…Your Piano Teacher Thinks This is Practice and Pssst… Your Piano Teacher Thinks This is Theory. The 88 activities in each book act as your lesson notes… giving your piano students something concrete and memorable to work on at home. But… the activities are insanely fun and kids beg for them! Both books are reproducible forever within your studio, so you can have super duper lesson note activities for years to come!
Fred Siika says
Awesome post Andrea!
I’m a newbie when it comes to teaching since I’ve only done it for about a year so I usually follow all your advice to the “T.”
Because of all the value you provide I have been able to grow my studio to 25 students all because of the helpful advice you provide. I’m seriously looking to scale my business this year. I will definitely start using this for my students.
Thanks as always,
-Fred
Sandra Leibowitz says
Excited with this idea, but when I attempted to print out the maze it wasn’t there!
Sandra says
This is more for older students — but I randomly write, “Sign here if you have read this.” At least they will open their lesson notes.
I would write ‘done this’ instead of ‘read this’ but that might encourage lying.
Patricia Moore says
I set up my own assignment sheets carried in a binder and there was a place the students put down time practiced (at least that was the expectation) and the final thing they had to do was to have the parents sign the sheet. I thought this would at least get the binders open, and the parents could be involved in some small part by looking at what their child had to do.
That lasted about 6 months. I did have some parents that faithfully signed every week, but those were few and far between.
This is a subject that I could go on about, but I can tell you that I had students that had great memories because they kept what they had to do in their heads; they didn’t have to look at their book. lol