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FMT BLOG

FMT BLOG

Teaching Little Fingers to play

Online video piano lessons for Adult Learners

The Covid Pandemic which started in 2021 has been going on and on for months on end now. It is now September. Some countries in the world are still grappling with how to cope with the pandemic, just when lcountries are encouraging their population to get themselves vaccinated, new strains of the virus emerged and…

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The Steep Learning Curve of Teaching Piano Online

Teaching online has been a learning curve for me. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. As of today, the worldwide pandemic has taken 30,000 lifes. In Singapore alone, we have 879 cases of people infected with the Coronavirus. The figures continue to climb and explode. To curb the further spread of the virus, Singapore has…

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OnLine Piano Lessons

From the start of the Coronavirus Outbreak near Chinese New Year 2020, there has been growing tension as we watch the number of deaths climb. When the Covid-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), I wake up each day to catch up on the latest news on the Covid-19 global…

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The Role of Parents in their child’s Music Education

When do I begin piano lessons for my child?The ideal should be when they can hold a pencil, sit still for 10 minutes, take simple instructions, count 1 to 10, know their alphabets from A-G, basic writing skills, and be toilet trained.Will starting earlier mean they get to finish earlier?A child’s developmental growth happens in…

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Teaching Young Children Music Notation

Some teachers teach reading music notation to young children, but do not check if the student has understood. Or if the child is able to independently read music notes. When new beginner level music is taught to the student, sometimes the pieces do come back well played after a week of practice, but teachers need…

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The importance of scale fingerings and getting them right

I get a lot of transfer students who come to me at grade 6 to 8. I usually audition these students before I take them on. And one of the items in the audition is scales.  Playing scales at an audition is sort of like the ‘handshake’ that you give your interviewer when you enter…

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All About Aural Training

I teach piano teachers and one common lament I get from them is that there are components in the Aural test where their previous teachers never fully explained to them the strategy behind ‘how’ to arrive at the answer. What should they be listening to? How to work out the answer? If one does not…

Learning on a Grand Piano

Some people think that a piano is just a piano. It does not make a difference on which piano you are learning from. I once encouraged a parent to buy an acoustic piano for his child who is starting to learn piano. But the parent said that an electric piano will do the job as…

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My Piano Studio is NOT your playground

It is my custom to interview new and potential students before they sign on with me for piano lessons. At the interview, the parents will be invited to accompany the student to my studio. My intention is for the kid to see me, their potential piano-teacher-to-be, in the safety zone of their parents by their…

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You Cannot Fail….

My mother says “You cannot fail your piano exams”.When I processed this statement through my head long after the student has finished the piano lesson with me, my heart weighs heavily. This is so wrong. When a child looks to the adult closest to them for support and hears this kind of a threat, what…

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