Sounds & Friends Piano Studio

08/13/2026

Lessons start back next week! I've been working on the studio move all week... so close to finished!

(Thank you to PIANO LOCAL for a great piano move! They came on the weekend to make sure the piano was moved asap even though they'd been swamped all last week due to the storms.)

Also, time to plan everyone's repertoire😁

02/18/2026

I decided to make a grand finale practice chart for the end of our first unit. Look how much the students can do after just 7 classes!

02/02/2026

JANUARY CELEBRATIONS!

After just 4 classes in 2026, there’s already so much to celebrate!🎉

🎹 Real-life music skills: Every student is playing together in duets—with each other, not just with me.

🥁Rhythm wins: Two students combined their pieces into one performance. One even transformed her piece from a march-style feel into a waltz so they worked better together.

✨Creative bonuses: Students are improvising by
- making medleys (stringing songs together into something new)

- adding extra notes so a one-hand song becomes a two-hand song

- experimenting with faster or slower speeds

🤯 Next-level coordination: One student played TWO different pieces at the same time—one in each hand!

❄️Snowstorm win: Thanks to easy rescheduling, everyone stayed safe and still got piano class.

💖Special teacher moment: I finally met a student in person who’s been taking lessons online for 5 years. It was so wonderful to see her—and now that we’re in person, her practice motivation has taken off!

I’m really enjoying these students and I’m so excited to see where they go!

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01/30/2026

I just restarted the studio this month after moving from Arizona to Virginia last summer. I'm now teaching out of my home and have gotten to indulge...in capybara decor. 😂

I have 3 (stuffed) capybaras of various sizes in my studio as well as a capybara wall calendar (a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law!). So, my students know I love capybaras!

I've designated one of the stuffed capybaras as "the Resting Tone Capybara (who thinks he's an owl)." Students learn to musically orient themselves by helping the Resting Tone Capybara sing the resting tone or "home note" of different songs.

(This is similar to learning a new city by navigating to each new place from your home. You could just drive from the grocery store to the post office to the gas station, but it's not going to do you much good until you know how to reliably get to at least one of those places from your house!)

The Resting Tone Capybara has been a huge hit. Yesterday one of my students gave me this fantastic drawing - and I LOVE IT!

06/28/2024

For incoming ASU vocal majors!

Submit the interest form here: https://forms.gle/xQuQcpyCDj6aQX6K6

06/07/2024

We had our first Sounds & Friends Studio Showcase on May 18!

This was NOT a traditional piano recital.

Students not only played solos, but also…
- Improvised on the spot (according to audience requests)
- Created variations on existing pieces
- Combined songs to fit a story they created
- Taught audience members
- Composed parts to play alongside audience members
- etc.

It was so much fun! The students not only played well, but courageously interacted with many different audience members (there were shy 7 year old students guiding adult audience members on what to play)!

10/18/2023

Sometimes trying to relate to students goes way off...

*with 6 year-olds in the midst of making a musical, virtual holiday/birthday/gift card*

Me: I remember when I was your age that sometimes it was hard to give people presents because I didn't have money.

Student: What?! They didn't have money in the 80s?!
.......