ARCT • Teachers’ Diploma (RCM) in-progress
Trained Music Together Teacher
Erin Plank (they/he) is a passionate young piano teacher. For their professional development, Erin received the highest exam scores in all of Canada last year for “Teaching Elementary Piano” with the RCM.
Erin’s main goal is to turn students into lifelong music lovers, not just pianists. I seek to provide them with the tools to practice efficiently at home, sight read a song at their friend’s piano, learn the melody to a song off the radio by ear, and nurture a technical foundation that lasts a lifetime so it’s “just like riding a bike” to play the piano. And even better, they’ll want to.
Get to know Erin…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Piano, weightlifting, playing with my cat, and hanging out with friends
Musical influences: Ben Folds, Brad Mehldau, Edvard Grieg
Favourite food: Fried chicken sandwich
Least favourite food: snap peas, because I ate too many as a kid one time and threw up and now I dislike the smell
Favourite music: Romantic era piano music, Beach Boys and similar era music, math rock
Favourite song: “How Dare You Want More” by Bleachers
Favourite movie: Sing Street
Favouirite movie music: main theme for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” or anything Star Wars
Favourite musical theatre/opera: Wozzeck
Best quote from your teacher: “Don’t show the audience you messed up, they won’t know! Keep going!”
Favourite quote: “That’s what life is, Happy Sad”
Favourite book: Recursion by Blake Crouch
Best thing about teaching at ABC: Getting to reach and connect with so many lovely people!
Latest Homework from Erin
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Thursday May 23 Lessons – Erin P
Hi everyone! Exam folks, now would be a good time to be listening to videos on youtube performed by teachers and seeing if you can play along with the recordings, or just comparing your performance to theirs and emulating parts you want to improve.
Great channels include Piano with Beth, Lisa Tahara, Da Capo Academy of Music, and Amy’s Piano Studio 2.
Liam
Use your 4 star sightreading book and ask your parents to watch you play after you’ve looked it over silently so they can give feedback. This is only necessary if you are unaware if you’re getting it right – do not expect yourself to get everything 100% correct! Just try and get as many things correct as you can. Rhythm and generalllllll shape are most important.
Fingering charts for scales found here
Katarina
Wunderkeys “Hide and Seek” unit – all 4 pieces.
Zum Gali Gali
Warmup with your C and G major scales, both hands seperately. Then do your C major triads, both hands seperately.
Marita
Sunset in San Pedro
Zum Gali Gali
Sara
Entertainer sounds great. Notice what chords the LH is playing and when they repeat, or how they change slightly in different sections.
Air in Bb – Nice job! You fixed any memory issues and I like your dynamics. Check with the metronome.
Sonatina in C – Nice dynamic variation on the repeat! Don’t rush and lose control.
Nighttime – I’ll hear next week.
Cloud Dance – I’ll hear next week. Listen to her shaping and phrasing.
Ballade – I’ll hear next week.
Technique is great and right on tempo.
Remember intervals are only worth 2 marks, DON’T SWEAT!
https://www.rhythmrandomizer.com?s=34020608403010205060d0e10
Sightread from your old books.
Marco
Minuet – Quarter notes vs 8th notes was great today! Good job! Keep working to eliminate any hesitation at the ends of phrases. Listen here. Memory.
The Snake – Be sure the hands are overlapping when necessary and you’re not adding any pauses in between phrases. Memory.
Song of the Dark Woods – Lovely job! Still work to lightly release the LH final note, and not let it be staccato. Memory.
Morning Fanfare – Your tempo is bang on. However, we’d rather a clean and controlled performance at any tempo, then a rushed one. Hold the fermata note that ends the intro longer, like the trumpet is echoing off the hills. You can use the book for this one. Listen to it and try and play along.
Technique – Great tempos. EVERY scale you have uses the same fingering, except for RH F major. Your mom will show you fingering charts. Remember natural means plain old notes borrowed from major scale, harmonic means raised 7th note (the snake sound).
Sightreading has really improved. Remember don’t stop for anything, even mistakes! Who cares, push onwards, do your best! Here’s more resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK_f5m8vxKY&list=PLBjX9Vsck-AB6Fqg0-rIyWAWL7LfVs7di&ab_channel=ClassicalSqueak
Daniel
Periwinkle – Beauty. Ensure you have the quarter rest in the final measure. Memory.
Breezy – Great! Even bigger dynamics. Notice the accent on the first note of each phrase. Memory.
Entree – When reaching the end, go back to the beginning and play until the “fine” so your muscle memory learns that. It will be like playing the song 1.5 times and that’s how you will do it in the exam. It doesn’t have to be that fast. Your RH and the trill is not the “problem”, it’s the LH reaching down to the octave for beat 4. Easy fix. The metronome clicks every half note for this piece, so two clicks per measure. Play with the recording even. Memory.
The Wind – Nice tempo! I think you can linger longer on the fermatas to create more drama. Remember the ending goes from ppp to fff so go crazy with it. You can use the book for this one.
Technique – nice consistent fingering. Everytime you play a minor scale, think “what’s its relative major? who does it steal its notes from?” Eminor = Gmaj. Dmin = Fmaj. Gmin = Bb major. Harmonic is just raised 7th, melodic has raised 6th and 7th going up (like a major scale) and then lowered 6th and 7th going down (like a plain old minor scale.)
Sightreading – Remember don’t stop for anything, even mistakes! Who cares, push onwards, do your best! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKwIBNc23Lk&list=PLBjX9Vsck-ADCQngA9YdL4fFaaI3h0mSZ&ab_channel=ClassicalSqueak
Greta
CALL THE RCM TO GET YOUR EXAM CANCELLED AND VOUCHER PROVIDED :) Sorry for the inconvenience :(
*New* Mist – LH is entirely triads which we labelled. RH is quite high up, notice the 8va marking that means to play that same note one octave higher than written. When the dotted line goes away, it is back to normal. Notice the 3/4 time, and the clef changes. Listen to it here.
*New, bonus* – This Guy’s Disguised – first line only. Notice the Bb in the key signature. Listen to it here.
Think of any song requests you have!
Saturday May 25 Lessons – Erin P
Hakim
Bee. – Great job on the intro and chords! Take them slow enough that you can change between them with no hesitation. To start, just get the 1st to 2nd chord smooth, then 2nd to 3rd, then all 3 together etc.
This week work on the RH melody by itself. Watch the Bbs from the key signature. The “mini” notes are called grace notes and they happen just slightly before the main note and smush together in a jazzy way. This is the key of the actual piece, so you can always slow down the real recording and play along.
F Major scale – this has Bb. LH standard fingering (you’ve got this already), but RH goes 1234 1234 which is weird for multiple reasons. Play it until you’re used to it.
Maria
Golden Hour – this is your home project, add on some vocal parts. We are using this arrangement so you can always make the computer play it to you.
Today we focused on ear training, we did minor/major 3rds, perfect 4ths, perfect 5ths, and octaves. You can do this at home too!
We also did improv using the “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish chord progression of D-Bm-Em-A.
Shakira
Theme from Swan Lake – this piece is in A minor. Both hands share the melody, and solid 3rds are used as an accompaniment. You did a great job at this today!!
*New scale* A minor, natural and harmonic. Today we learnt about relative major and minors and how they share notes. C major and A minor are relative and share notes. So a natural A minor scale is just white notes beginning on A. Harmonic minor means to raise the 7th, so A B C D E F G# A. All same fingering as your other scales.
We played our triad patterns in A minor as well.
Preferred Books for Erin Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
BOOK TITLE
COMING SOON
Faber Piano Adventures
The 2nd Edition Level 1 Lesson Book introduces all the notes of the grand staff, elementary chord playing, and the concept of tonic and dominant notes. Students play in varied positions, reinforcing reading skills and recognizing intervals through the 5th. Musicianship is built with the introduction of legato and staccato touches. This level continues the interval orientation to reading across the full range of the Grand Staff. The 5-finger approach is presented here in a fresh, musically appealing way.
Piano Safari
