Tag: online piano teachers

Training Piano Teachers

Posted on by Teresa Wong

Lately I have been preoccupied with training piano teachers on my online teaching platform and one-to-one private consultation basis.

I find it very fulfilling and satisfying to train piano teachers (and music teachers) to become successful in their teaching career. After years of my own training and teaching students in the area of piano performance, I realized how important it was to help piano teachers to become better in the way they understand and teach music/piano. I personally can only teach that many students privately; but if I could train others to teach well, we would have a lot more wonderful piano teachers out there to educate, inspire and encourage students to learn, enjoy and flourish in their music journey.

The first thing I want to get piano teachers understand is that they need to get themselves “out there”, especially when they are new in their teaching career. What that means is that they need to find their own channels to promote their teaching. It can be a blog, a Facebook page, or a YouTube channel. It is important for the teachers to share their thoughts, knowledge and experience on piano teaching and performing. It is a great way for the teachers to not only let new students know about their availability, but also to educate and connect with current students outside their lessons.

Another thing about training new teachers is to show them that there is a huge difference between learning to play piano and learning to teach piano. Surely there are some similarities between the two, but knowing how to play doesn’t mean one knows how to teach. There certainly is a lot to learn when it comes to the art of teaching. Other than all the music books I have studied throughout the years, I have also educated myself by reading a lot of books on communication and psychology. Learning how to communicate with students (and parents), encourage them and inspire them to learn and succeed, and above all, understand each student’s personality and their strength and take advantage of that knowledge in one’s teaching are all very powerful tools for a successful piano teacher.

Before I teach my piano teachers anything, I always ask them this question, “why do you teach?”. I want them to really think and feel deeply, and understand the reason they want to start their teaching career. For me, I was inspired by a couple of the most amazing piano teachers during my formative years: their passion in piano, their expertise in teaching, as well as their compassion for students (which I truly cherish till this day). They showed me how a real teacher could dramatically change a life for the better.

A real teacher is inspiring, caring, and respectable. I hope I am one and I can train many more in years to come.

Teresa Wong

Online Music Program Special Promotion

Posted on by Teresa Wong

Special Promotion for March 2019

Piano Teacher Training Course (Level I) (Cantonese)

Course Information

Enroll for the course

Successful Music Teaching Course (Cantonese)

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Enroll for the course

ABRSM Grade 8 Aural Training Course (English)

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Enroll for the course

ABRSM Grade 8 Aural Training Course (Cantonese

Course Information
Enroll for the course

How to memorise a piece effectively

Posted on by Teresa Wong

I get a lot of enquiries about playing by memory. Here are a few useful tips:

1. Mark out the sections and phrases
It’s important to know where a section / a phrase starts and ends – this practice is not only important for memorisation but also in practice and knowing the music more deeply and securely

2. Repeat in small doses
It’s a very useful tool to memorise a piece in small doses first especially if you are new to the practice. Start with one phrase and then two, gradually working up to a whole section. Then work on two sections and more eventually leading up to the whole movement/piece.

For example:
Repeat each phrase 5-10 times. Then two phrases 5-10 times. Then three phrases 5-10 times and so on.

3. Memorise from different parts of a piece
It’s also great to try starting in the middle of a piece – a lot of times when performers have a slip of memory it’s never at the beginning of a piece or not even the beginning of a section/phrase. I encourage my students to start playing /memorising in the middle of the music to see if they can start and continue from there – I call them “safety stops”. It’s like taking a train: it starts and ends at big terminals, but it also travels through and pauses by many small stations / stops in between the whole journey to pick up and drop off passengers. So throughout the whole music journey (the music piece you are playing and memorising), you also need some musical stops to know where you are at currently. It helps you keep track of where you have been, where you are at, and where you are going, until the end.

For me I even memorised from the end back to the beginning just to test my memory of the piece. Most important of all, try to be creative about your memorisation process and think/practice outside of the box – remember, there is no one way to do it right for you, and often, those “weird” ways of doing one thing are THE ways to get you closer and faster towards your goal!

Until next time,

Teresa Wong

网上钢琴课程

Posted on by Teresa Wong

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教授：专业美国印第安纳大学音乐学院毕业、钢琴演奏硕士、黄颖妍音乐学校创办人黄颖妍老师

出版书籍包括: Technique Transformation Piano Exercise Book / 钢琴技巧改造练习书册，Piano Freedom（暂定: 钢琴真自由)，Music on Wings Piano Beginner Course Book 钢琴初阶课程。

网上课程内容：钢琴技巧改造训练，英国皇家音乐学院级别及文凭演奏考试训练，英国圣三日音乐学院文凭演奏考试训练，美国音乐学院面试预备训练，音乐历史、音乐乐理、听力、视唱、键盘技巧、钢琴即兴和伴奏、音乐创作、钢琴演奏等训练，以及音乐学术文章写作。

黄老师的學生遍佈全球各地，包括香港，澳門，中国大陸，新加坡，馬來西亞，印度，斯理蘭卡，澳洲，美國，英國，法國等等。

有兴趣跟黄老师上课的话，请直接联络我们。电邮是twsomusic@gmail.com. 

课程可以以广东话、国语、或英語上课。

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My Music Experience: Italy (I)

Posted on by Teresa Wong

A few years back I was invited to Italy to work as a piano accompanist in a music festival. Back then I was still studying at the graduate school. That was the second time I went to Italy because of music (the first time was when I went there with the school choir). I loved everything about this country: its language, its culture, even its cuisine. Before I went there again, I also revised my rusted Italian a bit so that I could communicate better with the locals.


I left the States for Italy during my summer break from study. There were a few layovers in three to four European cities during my flight to Italy (as I was trying to get the best deal for the air ticket). In fact, I loved flying alone for some unknown reason so there was no problem about stopping and going. I still clearly recalled that in the airport at Brussels, Belgium where I discovered this “ski-style” toilet (just use your imagination to think how that works). After this long flight, I finally arrived in Bologna, Italy, where I met up with other participants, and took a coach bus to the smaller town in which we were going to stay for the next three weeks.


In Italy that year, the weather in June was very hot and dry already. I was absolutely thrilled to be there in my favorite country. The place we stayed was an “albergo”, which means hotel in Italian. But to me it was more simple like a motel.


In the following three weeks my daily schedule was almost identical: every morning I had Italian class for three hours, then we had vocal coaching classes for the whole afternoon after lunch break. I was responsible for the piano accompanying work mainly with my voice professor. After dinner, we would sat around at the patio of the only ristorante at our hotel.


Teresa Wong