Patrice Hunt was our presenter today and shared some of the "nuggets" she has cleaned from presenters over the past several years.
She described the large black tote with bright yellow lid that has been a thorn in her piano room's side for the past couple of years. She finally pulled it out of the room, and refused to let it return. Upon opening the lid, she discovered some treasures: notes taken at different conferences since 2017 that had great impact on her piano teaching! She shared five of those with us today.
#1 - Dr. Jared Pearce's explanation of SIPS. Short Interval Practice Sessions. He gave out timers (as did Patrice!) to everyone present as he explained their use. Set the timer for one minute and practice one measure, or one line, depending on need. See how many times you can get it correct in one minute, even if it's played slowly. When that part is learned, move to the next section and play for a "SIP" until learned. Then add those two sections together, etc. SIPS really work, whether for a beginning student who is getting frustrated with learning, or an advanced student who is trying to learn a difficult piece.
#2 Beyond the Notes was a 4-week teacher training course offered by Shane Bowles at the UMTA Conference in 2025. Patrice signed up for it and loved it. There was a whole slew of stuff that was covered in the 4 weeks, but one of the things Patrice shared was the inversions taught. The handout had some great ways to practice inversions including root position (major and minor), 1st inversion (major and minor) and 2nd inversion (major and minor) with the left hand playing the root note in octave form.
