Piano Safari

Piano Safari Piano Safari is an innovative, research-based piano method that is beloved by students, teachers, and parents around the world.

The holiday season is starting a little early this year. 🎄🎹We're thrilled to announce The Joy of Christmas 5, the newest...
09/02/2026

The holiday season is starting a little early this year. 🎄🎹

We're thrilled to announce The Joy of Christmas 5, the newest volume in our beloved holiday compilation series; arriving October 1st!

This edition features new arrangements from Christopher Fisher, Teodora Owens, Sean Parsons, Lydia Sander, and Chee-Hwa Tan, bringing fresh holiday repertoire to your studio.

Mark your calendars, and let us know your favorite pieces from the series. 👇

08/26/2026

Meet the Soaring Bird technique 🦜 — a step up from last week's Tree Frog technique.

Both are three-note gestures, but where Tree Frog uses one small arm bounce behind each finger, Soaring Bird uses a single arm motion to carry all three notes in one slur: down-and-up. Listen for the musical payoff, too: a "more-then-less" shape, with the sound settling as the wrist and forearm rises. This is a skill students will use constantly as they move forward into the intermediate and advanced repertoire.

This clip, demonstrated by Piano Safari's own Katherine Fisher, is from the 2026 Piano Safari Virtual Summer Institute.

Want to learn more about the seven Piano Safari Animal Techniques? Click here to read our Field Note on the topic:
https://www.pianosafari.com/field-notes/foundations-of-piano-technique

Improvising for beginners. 🎹In our Field Note on improvisation, Katherine Fisher shares her thoughts on the foundations ...
08/24/2026

Improvising for beginners. 🎹

In our Field Note on improvisation, Katherine Fisher shares her thoughts on the foundations of creativity in piano pedagogy, and how teachers can encourage students to improvise and compose. What matters isn't perfection; it's a student discovering they are a creator of music, not just an imitator of it.

Read the full Field Note here: https://www.pianosafari.com/field-notes/foundations-of-creativity-improvisation

08/22/2026

This week, we're bringing you the Tree Frog technique 🐸 which serves as an introduction to legato touch. Once hand shape, firm fingertips, and a relaxed forearm motion are established, students are ready to transfer arm weight from finger-to-finger instead of lifting between notes. A small “bounce” (or roll) from the forearm and wrist on each note keeps the mechanism relaxed, aligned, and helps students produce a rich, warm, and round tone.

This clip, demonstrated by Katherine Fisher, is from the 2026 Piano Safari Virtual Summer Institute.

Want to learn more about the seven Piano Safari Animal Techniques? Click here to read our Field Note on the topic:
https://www.pianosafari.com/field-notes/foundations-of-piano-technique

Piano teacher Jaclyn Mrozek was once asked what kind of "special magic" made her younger students sound so good. The ans...
08/21/2026

Piano teacher Jaclyn Mrozek was once asked what kind of "special magic" made her younger students sound so good. The answer? Teaching with the Piano Safari method. 🪄

Jaclyn introduced the method into her studio back in 2016, and the difference showed up fastest in her youngest players; confident and polished enough to wow a room at recital time.

Her advice to other teachers: “Experiment with it, have fun with it, and give yourself permission to approach beginning piano a little differently.”

Have you had a "special magic" moment with your own students? Tell us about it. 👇

Some passages may not necessarily need more repetition. Instead, they may require deeper listening and more brain juice....
08/17/2026

Some passages may not necessarily need more repetition. Instead, they may require deeper listening and more brain juice. 🧠✨

When a tricky spot in a piece trips up our students, the fix isn't always to "run it again." Sometimes it’s because they aren’t listening deeply enough or because of a lack of mental focus. Perhaps the solution is to squeeze out a little extra "brain juice."

This is just one of the playful yet powerful practice strategies from our latest Field Note on turning practice into progress for elementary students, along with tips on phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and more that build security and artistry in our students' playing.

📖 Read the full post here!: https://www.pianosafari.com/field-notes/turning-practice-into-progress-tips-for-elementary-level-piano-students

08/15/2026

Meet Zechariah Zebra 🦓 one of the foundational technical exercises taught in Piano Safari. This fast, repeated-note exercise develops students’ hand shape, firm nail joints, and coordination by concentrating on playing one finger at a time. A whole rest between each finger allows students to reset the hand shape.

This clip, demonstrated by Piano Safari's own Katherine Fisher, is from the 2026 Piano Safari Virtual Summer Institute.

Want to learn more about the seven Piano Safari Animal Techniques? Click here to read our Field Note on the topic:

https://www.pianosafari.com/field-notes/foundations-of-piano-technique

Before Juan Cabeza Hernández became one of our published composers, he was a Piano Safari teacher. He reached out years ...
08/13/2026

Before Juan Cabeza Hernández became one of our published composers, he was a Piano Safari teacher. He reached out years ago to tell us how the method had reshaped his teaching. That conversation eventually became Piano Train Trips and later the two Diversions books and Miniatures.

His compositions follow the same philosophy as his teaching: pattern-based pieces that build students' technical skills while sounding more impressive than they are difficult, helping them find their own artistic voice along the way.

See the complete collection of Juan's books published by Piano Safari here: https://shop.pianosafari.com/collections/juan-cabe

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