Showing posts with label Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theory. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk - Reading Together - Chapters 3 and 4


In chapters 3 and 4 of Every Good Boy Does Fine, Jeremy Denk navigates his adolescence, trading standard childhood pastimes for rigorous piano lessons. Denk dissects the emotional friction between disciplined drill and artistic impulse, examining how foundational repertoire, such as J.S. Bach’s two-part inventions and early classical sonatinas, shapes technical fluency and musical perception. Balancing witty teenage self-consciousness with profound musical analysis, these chapters explore the grueling mechanics of practice, the early awakening of architectural listening, and the complex, often fraught mentorship that transforms raw enthusiasm into serious musicianship.

If you want to delve into more music theory with your students, here are some resources to do that.

- J.S. Bach's Two-Part Inventions, BWV 772–786: Denk highlights learning Bach’s two-part inventions as a turning point in training both hands to sing independently. This public-domain archive provides historic editions, urtexts, and fingering variants suitable for analyzing voice-leading with intermediate students.
- The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy: Piano Magazine Archives: Chapters 3 and 4 dwell on the psychological tug-of-war between adolescent rebellion and the demands of deliberate practice. The Frances Clark Center publishes peer-reviewed articles, lesson strategies, and repertoire tracks designed to keep intermediate teenagers engaged through technical plateaus.
- Performance Today – Piano Puzzlers & Educational Archive: A core theme in these chapters is Denk learning to hear harmony and architectural structure rather than just isolated notes. Performance Today offers accessible listening guides, interviews with concert pianists, and harmonic breakdowns that instructors can assign to develop analytical listening habits.
- The Bulletproof Musician: Chapters 3 and 4 highlight the psychological grind of daily practice, the struggle to focus through repetitive technical work, and the emotional friction between student and teacher. Created by Juilliard performance psychologist and violinist Dr. Noa Kageyama, this resource translates sport psychology and cognitive research into actionable strategies for music studios. Teachers can use its guides to help intermediate students build deliberate practice habits, navigate perfectionism, and self-regulate during challenging technical development.

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I've published five piano music books and one guitar music book. Get them here. Sign up here for my free monthly newsletter! Connect with me on Instagram and Pinterest.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk - Reading Together - Chapters 1 and 2


Welcome to the first post discussing Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk. In the opening chapters, Denk intertwines candid memoir with accessible music theory. Chapter 1 introduces his restless childhood in New Jersey, where early piano lessons offered a sanctuary to channel his energy amid clumsy fingerings and early technical hurdles. In Chapter 2, he deconstructs the mystery of harmony, moving from basic intervals to the emotional architecture of the triad. Blending humor with insight, he illuminates how chords express tension, longing, and release, showing how foundational keyboard rituals and raw emotional grammar converge to shape a young musician’s understanding of art and sound.

If you want to delve into more music theory with your students, here are some resources to do that.

- Teoria Music Theory: Interactive ear training and harmonic construction that is perfect for reinforcing the concepts in "Harmony, Lesson One." It offers customizable exercises for building and identifying intervals, triads, and inversions by eye and ear, without requiring student logins.
- Music Theory: Animated theory lessons and rapid-fire identification drills that feature clean, interactive visual demonstrations of how chords and scale degrees interact. Teachers can use the Lesson Builder or assign custom-generated practice codes for triad recognition.
- Piano Inspires: Piano pedagogy research, lesson strategies, and repertoire curation from the premier hub for keyboard educators. It regularly addresses early-childhood technical habits, creative ways to teach note reading beyond mnemonics, and reviews of pedagogical literature like Denk's memoir.
- Hooktheory: Visual chord function and harmonic analysis that illustrates harmony using intuitive relative-pitch color blocks rather than strictly traditional notation. It helps beginner and intermediate students see and hear how chords build tension and resolution across familiar melodies.

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I've published five piano music books and one guitar music book. Get them here. Sign up here for my free monthly newsletter! Connect with me on Instagram and Pinterest.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

More Valentine’s Day Resources

Looking for some Valentine’s activities for your music studio?
Celebrate Valentine's Day with These Fun, Creative Music Games
Valentine Fun
Valentine’s Day Activities for Elementary Music Class
Valentine’s Day Music Activities You’ll Love
Valentine’s Day Resources

Looking for some Valentine’s-themed sheet music?
Check out the pieces below.
Sheet Music - My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose (for beginner piano)
Sheet Music - When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (for beginner piano)
Sheet Music - Pachelbel's Canon for Guitar (intermediate)

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I've published five piano music books and one guitar music book. Get them here.
Sign up here for my free monthly newsletter! Connect with me on Instagram and Pinterest.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Solfege


Here are some resources to use with your students to help them learn solfege.
- Solfege Videos
- Interactive Solfege Song: Do Re Mi
- Solfege Music Lesson Plan
- My Favorite Lesson for Teaching Mi / Sol / La

Need more ideas? Check out this post as well.


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Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Best of Laura's Music Studio 2020

Here are the most popular posts posted here in 2020. A few posts you may have missed, so check them out.

- Valentine Fun

- Musical Miscellany - Set 3

- Lesson Resources on Camille Saint-Saëns

- Lesson Resources on Aaron Copland

- Music Lesson Plans Inspired by Water


Happy New Year, dear readers!

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