Customer Reviews

Practical Piano Pedagogy: The Definitive Text for Piano Teachers and Pedagogy Students

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Dr. Jordan has really presented a well written reference book for piano teachers who are just creating a group piano studio or the experienced teacher who would like to convert to a group piano studio. She has covered many aspects of group teaching and included many examples of practical piano pedagogy forms. Dr. Jordan discusses everything from the business aspect of running a home studio, interviews with parents and students, how to evaluate transfer students, teaching tips from technic to master class, how to set practice goals, methods and materials, etc. just to name a few. Every piano studio should have a copy of this book as a reference.

For a teacher with a collection of pedagogy texts, this book is a welcome addition. If you are looking for a single book to purchase, consider James Bastien's "How to Teach Piano Successfully" instead. This book assumes that teachers already know what the various approaches are, such as the intervalic approach, the multikey approach, etc. Thus, it is not a good starting point for someone new to pedagogy. The book comes with a CD of various forms and policies. THe CD is a gold mine for that purpose.

The book includes an overview of piano courses currently in use, although the book did not include any of the courses I personally use. The reviews do not really get at the heart of the differences in the various methods. Her recommended coordination of books is often not in harmony with what the authors intend, especially with Schaum and Pace. I would love to meet the budding genius who can complete two levels of Pace in a year. Robert Pace intended each level to last a full year, and states so in the teacher's manual.

There is an interesting section on learning psychology, but I wouldn't take it too seriously. I wouldn't recommend making curriculum decisions on the basis of which animal you believe yourself to be!

Overall, it's a decent book, but there are better.

Baker-Jordan covers a plethora of topics that are all important to teaching, ranging from the business aspects to the practical teaching aspects. Most useful is her information on being a "planning" teacher and examples she provides using major piano curricula. The book also contains many useful forms and worksheets -- most in .doc format on the accompanying CDROM.
Although she encourages readers to seek beyond the text about learning styles, I am a bit concerned that she hasn't employed nor discussed more learning styles that cover some other issues regarding how students best learn. Also the chapter on technical tips was lacking, covering only tips for early students and also giving vague details about how to these techniques work and function. The section would be very helpful if it were boosted and given more attention. These shortcomings are minor, however, and do not detract from the usefulness of the text.

This book is very practical and the CD-ROM with modifiable forms is great, but this text lacks background information. There is little substantive information on learning theories or history of piano pedagogy. With regard to pedagogy, the book focuses on average age beginner methods to the exclusion of all else. Recommended with reservations. Much supplementing needs to be done from other sources.

This book has a wealth of information regarding the art of teaching and what it takes to run a studio. The book is divided into three parts. The first deals with the studio end of things, such as setting up a studio, starting a business, tuition, and marketing yourself. The second section talks about the practical part of teaching such as learning styles and teaching styles, technique, methods, getting your students to practice, technology in the studio, how to deal with transfer students, and what every teacher "forgets to teach"--lead sheets, chords, and improvisation. The last section is a "Grab Bag" of ideas from what to do if your student is struggling in a particular area, to group piano practices, to jazz techniques.
There does not seem to be a single aspect of teaching or the studio that Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan does not address. She makes an attempt to cover all the basic principles of a studio and teaching while adding in her years of experience in the field discussing the things that are often overlooked in traditional piano teaching. A number of examples and anecdotes are used to get her ideas across.
Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan also discusses the important things about studios and teaching that may be intimidating to some teachers in a non-threatening manner. Setting up a studio or attempting to teach about jazz and lead sheets do not have to be as difficult as they appear. Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan's detailed approach is simple to understand and easily applicable for any teacher.

Practical Piano Pedagogy
This book gives a good introduction of piano studio management. Some of the sample business forms are especially useful for the beginner teacher who is wondering where should I start. The description of the beginner piano method books are excellent and practical summaries. There are some wonderful pictures of hand position and of preparation exercise for two-notes slurs. I would like to see more preparatory exercises for piano technics. For the learning styles, I would prefer to see the actual well-known teaching theory names, such as Piaget, Skinner, audio, visual, multi-intellgence and so on, instead of using fable animal names that are hard to follow and distracts the content of the theory. I enjoy the discussion on group teaching and jazz teaching. In my opinion, this book is a good resource book.

Since I have had NO training in HOW to be a piano teacher and the business side of things, this book has been a tremendous help. I only wish that I had taken some of Dr. Baker-Jordan's classes as a collegian to receive more of her wisdom and experience!