Nick Ambrosino has two unique books about piano teaching, Coffee with Ray and Lessons with Matt. These are not your standard teaching textbooks, they’re presented as novels, with lots of teaching tips hidden inside.

Nick has some interesting perspectives and techniques when it comes to how to educate piano students. For instance, he believes we should see ourselves as facilitators, not teachers. We’re helping our piano students on their journey, but a lot of the progress they make (or don’t) is done when they’re on their own at home. If we start taking all of these successes and failures on, as if they are our own, we’ll burn out.

This is just one of the interesting distinctions that Nick explains on today’s podcast. Take a listen and you’re sure to think about some element of teaching in a new way!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why you should start thinking of yourself as a facilitator, not a teacher
• Using compliments wisely
• How to start each lesson right
• Why you should exchange buts for ands in your comments after a student’s performances
• How Nick applies “Goldilocks” to piano practice
• Why you should think about getting your students to write their own assignment notes
• How teaching piano is similar to sanding wood

Items mentioned in this podcast:

• Coffee with Ray
• Lessons with Matt
• How to Raise an Adult
• Nick’s website
• Nick’s facebook
• What I’ve learnt from asking more questions in music lessons

Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Being a full-time teacher myself, I know how busy teachers are and how much time, effort and passion we put into our students. Sometimes, the last thing we want to do in our time off is listen to more piano teaching stuff! So, well done for using this time for self-improvement.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run. Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons.

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Did anything today’s podcast make you see something in a new light?

Was there one of Nick’s ideas that made you think about piano teaching differently? What will you change in your teaching this week after listening to Nick today?