2011.08.17 02:17:40

Susan Capestro

My colleague, Kathleen Theisen, and I presented a session at The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Lombard, IL, at the end of July, entitled, Instructional Videos - featuring YOU! Then there was the follow up, and the posting of our handout, and the filling out of the survey...Then I rode a long bike ride, to raise money for cancer research and treatment...then there was the writing of all the thank you's...lots to do...I'm finally getting around to blogging now!

At NCKP, I always enjoy seeing other fellow keyboard teachers. My favorite session was David Karp's, on the piano music of Bernstein. In general, I slipped into the back of several sessions. Some sounded promising, yet hashed over the same materials of past conference sessions. I was happy to see George Litterst, Stella Sick, Shana Kirk and Mario Ajero present a session on streaming; though I had already done much of this research myself, it was very interesting to hear other perspectives. There was a session on increasing teaching effectiveness, which presented and reinforced some salient points that I learned in pedagogy class decades ago, that are still relevant now.

The session on writing business plans was particularly valuable for young teachers just starting out. It's alarming how little they learned in music school about how to run a business; they could really benefit from more business sessions addressing marketing, accounting, outreach, professional development, etc. It's so hard for music schools to teach those kind of business skills, however, they are needed, especially for independent studio teachers.

Lastly, Tony Caramia's jazz piano performance of Americana was really fun.

Were you at NCKP this year? What did you like?

conferences | inspiration | teaching