TopMusic Piano Podcast

The right method book can shape a student's entire first year at the piano. Today, I'm chatting with Phoenix Vera, known as The Tattooed Piano Teacher on YouTube. We compare popular beginner methods, from Piano Adventures and Piano Safari to Piano Pronto and Wonder Keys. Phoenix also shares how she chooses books for new students and a creative way to bring beginner technique to life.Phoenix shared why she mixes method books instead of following one series.Why Piano Adventures remains a balanced, moderately paced framework.The value of choosing a go-to book for each beginner age group.She tries a different method each lesson before settling on a final set.How Alfred's Premier moves faster than Piano Adventures with a classical lean.Why she prefers Alfred's Premier over the older Alfred Basic series.She described Piano Safari's rote pieces and pattern-based reading.The importance of teacher training when adopting Piano Safari.How Piano Pronto teaches through familiar tunes, best for ages 10 and up.WunderKeys hooks kids with comics but needs theory and technique supplements.Why she favors mixing books over all-in-one methods.The approach behind Chord First, which pairs lead sheets with traditional pedagogy.Chord First began as a simple printable and grew into three books.The value of teaching technique through imagery, like a left-hand cello.She outlined which older beginner method fits which type of student.Links MentionedFind out more about the Spotlight Session here.The Tattooed Piano Teacher YouTube ChannelThe Tattooed Piano Teacher ShopPiano Skill Set Method BooksFacebook page:Phoenix Vera (The Tattooed Piano Teacher)Instagram page:@thetattooedpianoteacherToday’s Guest Phoenix Vera is a pianist, composer, and piano teacher with more than 20 years of experience teaching students of all ages and levels. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and has run her own private piano studio for over a decade, developing creative approaches to theory, composition, and beginning piano instruction. Known as The Tattooed Piano Teacher on YouTube, Phoenix shares teaching ideas, piano method book reviews, and creative resources for piano teachers. She also composes original piano music and is the author of the Piano Skill Set series, which teaches skills through fun activities, and Chord First, a lead-sheet-based method for teens and adults.About Rachel EhringDr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda.Visit her website at RachelEhring.comVisit her Instagram page: @rachelehringVisit her YouTube channel: @dreamlavendermusic6694Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender MusicThank you for tuning in!Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you. If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps other teachers find our show. Stay updated by subscribing to this show, and get automatic delivery to your device every time a new episode goes live! We publish on Fridays weekly.TopMusicPro 14-Day Free TrialHeard about TopMusicPro Membership? As a valued podcast listener, I’d like to offer you a special chance to try our community free for 14 days. You can access a treasure trove of teaching resources, professional development courses, and creative lesson ideas. Click the link below to access your exclusive 14-day free trial for our Studio Membership.TOPMUSICPRO MEMBERSHIP 14-DAY FREE TRIAL

A single bad memory from a recital can shape how a student feels about performing for years. Today, I'm chatting with Elizabeth Zajac, a Utah piano teacher known for her elaborate recital themes and hand-painted pianos. We talk about the recital that changed her whole approach, how she restores and repairs the old pianos she paints, and the creative touches that make her recitals memorable for the right reasons. Elizabeth also shares how she helps hesitant students ease back into performing at their own pace. Elizabeth shared how a post-COVID recital changed her whole approach to performances.How her painted piano idea started small, with solid colors, before going rainbow.The rainbow recital had students dress in color for rainbow-themed pieces.Why she buys cheap, used pianos from Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.She keeps the paint job a surprise from the piano's original owner.The value of swapping damaged ivory keys for new plastic tops.Why she lets each recital piano settle on-site for a few days first.The importance of offering low-pressure mini recitals for hesitant students.The value of asking fun interview questions, printed in the program, for each performer.Elizabeth encouraged teachers to keep recitals fun and pressure-free. Links Mentioned Elizabeth's Instagram page:@summit.music.coFind out more about the Spotlight Session here. Today’s Guest Elizabeth Zajac is an Utah piano teacher and the director of Summit Music Company. She studied piano and orchestral directing at BYU-Idaho and has spent the past 15 years teaching music both privately and with bands and orchestras throughout Utah. She currently serves as President-Elect of the Timpanogos chapter of the Utah Music Teachers Association and is passionate about creating positive, memorable performance opportunities for her students. Her studio is especially known for its elaborate recital themes and painted pianos. Elizabeth is also a wife and mother of six children, ages 10 to 2, and shares her creative studio projects and painted pianos on Instagram at @summit.music.co. About Rachel Ehring Dr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda. Visit her website at RachelEhring.comVisit her Instagram page: @rachelehringVisit her YouTube channel: @dreamlavendermusic6694Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender Music Thank you for tuning in! Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you. If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps other teachers find our show. Stay updated by subscribing to this show, and get automatic delivery to your device every time a new episode goes live! We publish on Fridays weekly. TopMusicPro 14-Day Free Trial Heard about TopMusicPro Membership? As a valued podcast listener, I’d like to offer you a special chance to try our community free for 14 days. You can access a treasure trove of teaching resources, professional development courses, and creative lesson ideas. Click the link below to access your exclusive 14-day free trial for our Studio Membership. TOPMUSICPRO MEMBERSHIP 14-DAY FREE TRIAL

The way we're taught to learn music shapes how freely we play it for the rest of our lives. In this episode, I'm chatting with Giana Nguyen, owner of Dancing Keys Music Studio in Irvine, about how she went from a classically trained, page-dependent pianist to a devoted teacher of the playing-based Simply Music method. We talk about her own skepticism turning into 13 years of belief in the program, how she structures group lessons, and her approach to practice and memory retention. Giana also shares advice that applies to any piano teacher, whether or not Simply Music is part of their studio. Giana shared how she and Rachel first met at a TopMusic Local meetup.How a chance radio performance led her to discover Simply Music.She described being skeptical of the playing-based method at first.Why Simply Music delays sheet reading in favor of hands-on, immersive learning.Founder Neal Moore created the method while teaching a blind student.Simply Music now reaches over 700 instructors across 126 countries.Giana described teaching in weekly "streams," covering reading, improv, and composition.The value of Simply Music's training program for teachers at every level.How her Practice Lab concept was built around same-day memory retention.Why she reminds students that practice makes progress, not perfection.She explained intervallic reading, which teaches note relationships over individual letters.Giana encouraged teachers to explore playing-based methods without fully committing.The importance of giving yourself grace as a teacher, on good days and bad. Exclusive Offer to Podcast Listeners Neil Moore of Simply Music is offering teachers a free copy of two of his books:Music on Mars, and Music and The Art of Playing-Based Education. Feel free to send Neil an email directly, [email protected], and he will immediately reply with links for you to download both books. Links Mentioned TopCast 477: Lowering the Bar, Widening the Door: Playing-Based Teaching with Neil MooreGiana's website: Dancing Keys Music StudioGiana's Facebook page:Dancing Keys Music StudioGiana's Instagram page:@dancingkeysmusicstudioSimply Music Website Today’s Guest Born in Vietnam and raised in Orange County, California, Giana Nguyen is a professional musician and member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Since 2011, Giana has released 16 studio recordings of original songs and covers including her latest single “Magic.” She has performed in various venues as a solo acoustic artist or in collaboration with other musicians, and has sung the national anthem for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Anaheim Ducks. Giana is the owner of Dancing Keys Music Studio in Irvine, California, where she is an advanced Simply Music piano instructor. With over 25 years of experience as an instructor and being a lifelong musician, Giana strives to nurture creative musical expression in all of her students. About Rachel Ehring Dr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda. Visit her website at RachelEhring.comVisit her Instagram page: @rachelehringVisit her YouTube channel: @dreamlavendermusic6694Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender Music Thank you for tuning in! Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you. If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps other teachers find our show. Stay updated by subscribing to this show, and get automatic delivery to your device every time a new episode goes live! We publish on Fridays weekly. TopMusicPro 14-Day Free Trial Heard about TopMusicPro Membership? As a valued podcast listener, I’d like to offer you a special chance to try our community free for 14 days. You can access a treasure trove of teaching resources, professional development courses, and creative lesson ideas. Click the link below to access your exclusive 14-day free trial for our Studio Membership. TOPMUSICPRO MEMBERSHIP 14-DAY FREE TRIAL  

Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs in a career come from the moments we never planned for. Today, I'm chatting with Lisa Spector, a Juilliard-trained pianist whose career has taken her from concert stages to composing calming music for anxious dogs to building a global membership for adult pianists. We talk about her journey from over-practicer to practice strategist, the hand injury that changed how she thinks about music, and what she's learned about building a membership from scratch. Lisa also shares some surprisingly simple tips for helping nervous students perform with more confidence. Lisa shared how her mother's piano playing first drew her to the keys.How Earl Wild's minimal-movement technique shaped her practice tricks.Lisa admitted spending years as a classic over-practicer at Juilliard.Why most practice struggles come from undoing bad habits, not building new ones.She described the Piano Ninja Tricks system, running from mindset to technique.How her Quick Reflex Motion technique trains direct movement instead of wide arcs.How a 2017 hand injury led doctors to tell her she'd never play again.Lisa shared how left-hand-only music reshaped her view of where music comes from.How a calming puppy at her music school launched her dog music company.Why steady, slow, predictable music calms dogs' nervous systems.Lisa noted that over 70% of dogs experience some form of anxiety.The importance of finding your teaching niche before building a membership.She recommended a "messy" launch to start a membership before content exists. Links Mentioned Lisa's website:lisaspector.comLisa's Instagram page:@lisaspectorpianoLisa's YouTube channel:www.youtube.com/@LisaSpectorLisa's free resources for podcast listeners here:lisaspector.com/topmusic Today’s Guest Lisa Spector is a Juilliard alum who once performed two concerts for 18,000 people each in China, where she also had (and needed) a bodyguard. In 2017, an accident shattered her right hand. Multiple surgeries followed. When she was told by a medical professional that she'd never play piano again, she started learning music for left hand only. It changed how she thinks about music. Turns out it doesn't come from the hands. It comes from the heart. Today she performs concerts with one and two hands. In 2021, Lisa founded the Piano Ninja Tricksters Club, a global membership where she helps advanced adult pianists learn twice as much in half the time. She's spoken at Juilliard's Entrepreneurship Symposium, delivered the keynote at Stanford's Women in Entrepreneurship Summit and presented on music memberships at the 2025 Music Teachers National Association Virtual Conference. She's also the first classical pianist to top the Billboard Classical charts... with music written for anxious dogs. About Rachel Ehring Dr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda. Visit her website at RachelEhring.comVisit her Instagram page: @rachelehringVisit her YouTube channel: @dreamlavendermusic6694Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender Music Thank you for tuning in! Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you. If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps other teachers find our show. Stay updated by subscribing to this show, and get automatic delivery to your device every time a new episode goes live! We publish on Fridays weekly. TopMusicPro 14-Day Free Trial Heard about TopMusicPro Membership? As a valued podcast listener, I’d like to offer you a special chance to try our community free for 14 days. You can access a treasure trove of teaching resources, professional development courses, and creative lesson ideas. Click the link below to access your exclusive 14-day free trial for our Studio Membership. TOPMUSICPRO MEMBERSHIP 14-DAY FREE TRIAL

Every student is motivated by something different, and figuring out what makes each one tick can transform how they engage with lessons. Today, I'm chatting with Dr. Christina Liu, Associate Professor of Music at Bethel College, about Bartle's Taxonomy, a framework for player personality types she discovered through her love of gamification. We talk about the four types Bartle identified, how Christina uses them to quietly tailor her teaching, and the personal stories that shaped her own piano journey. She also shares how these ideas carry into training the next generation of piano teachers. Christina teaches piano, theory, aural skills, and pedagogy at Bethel College.How her research into gamification led her to Bartle's Taxonomy.She noted rising student anxiety since the pandemic around getting things right.Why she started using board games in class to build community with students.How Richard Bartle developed the taxonomy from a late-1980s survey of his players.The taxonomy sorts players into achievers, explorers, socializers, and killers.Christina described achievers as driven by points, levels, and visible success.She explained how explorers are motivated by narrative and self-discovery.Socializers, she noted, use games mainly to build relationships.Killers, though rare, want to dominate and outshine other players.She shared how she gamified her own piano learning around competitions.Christina avoids formal quizzes, worried students will cling to a fixed label.Her own teacher connected with her through jazz before classical repertoire.A Debussy piece sparked her own "explorer" phase as a student.She teaches future piano teachers about personality frameworks like the Enneagram. Links Mentioned Christina's LinkedIn Page:www.linkedin.com/in/ctinaliu Today’s Guest Dr. Christina Liu,, is Associate Professor of Music and Music Department Chair at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. She teaches music theory and aural skills, history, piano, and pedagogy, and is an active presenter, adjudicator, and advocate for music education. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music, she currently serves as President of the Kansas State Music Teachers Association. A passionate educator, Dr. Liu is also active as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and internationally. About Rachel Ehring Dr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda. Visit her website at RachelEhring.comVisit her Instagram page: @rachelehringVisit her YouTube channel: @dreamlavendermusic6694Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender Music Thank you for tuning in! Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you. If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps other teachers find our show. Stay updated by subscribing to this show, and get automatic delivery to your device every time a new episode goes live! We publish on Fridays weekly. TopMusicPro 14-Day Free Trial Heard about TopMusicPro Membership? As a valued podcast listener, I’d like to offer you a special chance to try our community free for 14 days. You can access a treasure trove of teaching resources, professional development courses, and creative lesson ideas. Click the link below to access your exclusive 14-day free trial for our Studio Membership. TOPMUSICPRO MEMBERSHIP 14-DAY FREE TRIAL