About 4 years ago, I told a young student that I was still taking piano lessons, and he was shocked to find out that his piano teacher “didn’t know everything about music”.
The fact is teachers must always strive to learn and grow, no matter how many years one as been teaching.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a week-long course offered by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra school of Music in downtown Vancouver. I’ll be learning the theory and techniques behind jazz music, focusing on the piano (there are other instruments also available).
I’m very excited because I didn’t learn jazz from my piano teachers, but this genre is of more and more interest to piano learners, so in order to keep up, I want to understand and learn how to play jazz piano!
Also, there is an fascinating class offered by Early Music Vancouver called Historical Dance Workshop. The teacher will be instructing beginners on how to dance old forms common in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, such as Bourrees, Menuets, Gavottes, Sarabandes, etc. This will be super useful in my piano lessons, as music from these time periods are an essential part of learning the piano, and I believe that learning how to dance these forms will make the music come alive and be more interesting (especially to young musicians who have no idea who Bach or Palestrina are).
I’ll try to update my blog regularly to let you know how the classes go!
See? Teachers also take summer school 🙂
Hannah's Piano Studio 