The Creative Piano Teacher Summer Workshop

We are all creative and I’m sure you all know that one of my missions with ComposeCreate.com is to empower you to both believe that you are creative, to be creative, and to learn how to bring out the musical creativity in your students. So, nothing excites me more than to hear about a summer workshop whose only purpose is to do just that!

Get Creative at the Keyboard (and teach it to your students too!)

To see if The Creative Piano Teacher Summer Institute is for you, as yourself these questions:

  • Am I searching for an experience that will ignite my creativity on and off the page?
  • Am I looking for an opportunity that will develop my innate ability to improvise and help my students do the same?
  • Do I need tech-savvy tips and resources that will re-ignite my teaching and connect with today’s young people?
  • Am I seeking fresh educational alternatives that are not only enlightening, but empowering?

I hope the answer to all these questions was yes! Join the amazing Forrest Kinney (author of Pattern Play), Bradley Sowash (jazz pedagogue), Leila Viss (author of iPad Piano Teacher and blogger), Sam Holland (I can’t say enough good about this forward thinking pedagogue), Mona nd Richard Rejino, and Kristin Yost (author of How I made $100,000 My First Year Teaching Piano) this summer at the SMU Institute for Piano Teachers.

Space is very limited in this workshop (48 teachers) because there will be amazing amounts of hands on experiences and you’ll have lots of opportunity to interact and learn from these amazing pedagogues. If I could create a “made to order” conference for myself, it would be this one!

But, I can imagine some of the questions you might have, so I asked Leila Viss a few questions to help:

1. Will this conference help me to be better at improvising or is it just for me to help me teach my students to improvise and create?

Thanks to a unique schedule and the digital piano lab at Southern Methodist University, attendees will have a chance to not only learn how to teach improvisation from master teachers Forrest Kinney and Bradley Sowash, but will experience hands-on opportunities to improve their personal skills. In fact, practice rooms will be available to work on suggested assignments given in the interactive sessions.

 2. What if I’m not very good at improvising or being creative? Will everybody there be much better than I am?

It is assumed that those who attend will bring with them a unique skill set that may vary. Both Forrest and Bradley are experts at providing multi-level instruction to suit individual needs and encourage progress regardless of improvisation experience.

3. Why do you think this conference will be so much different and impacting for me?

SMU Piano Lab waiting to be filled!
SMU Piano Lab waiting to be filled!

SMU-IPT recognizes that teachers of the 21st century are encountering students that expect customized, tech-savvy instruction beyond the printed page. Therefore, each day will include innovative hands-on sessions with a keyboard for each participant, interactive talks, teaching demonstrations, off-the-bench activities, tips on integrating the latest apps, flash talks given by fellow attendees, roundtable discussions, and more. In addition, there will be unstructured social time for attendees and faculty, a banquet, and unique concert performances by Bradley and Forrest. Attendees are in for a treat as special guest faculty members will lead sessions in movement and even a drum circle. This conference will be extremely different as there will be few head-behind-the-podium moments and piles of opportunities to dive into a dynamic experience.

4. What is the most important reason you think I should attend this conference?

It is difficult to limit my answer to one important reason as there are many. First, not only is SMU-IPT 2014 about teaching creativity, it is about teaching creatively. Successful teachers bring high levels of creativity into everything they do and the selected faculty will deliver plenty of inspiration. Next, SMU-IPT 2014 promises to engage, equip, enlighten and empower teachers like no other conference. Lastly, as the enrollment is limited to 48, each attendee seeking to enhance his/her creative-based instruction will have exclusive opportunities to interact and receive personal attention from Forrest, Bradley and the other faculty members.

5. It seems that SMU-IPT is geared towards more experienced teachers. Will this be beneficial for beginning teachers as well?

Leila with Jamal who will be leading the drum circle!

Novice teachers will benefit greatly by attending this conference. What is absorbed at SMU-IPT this summer will shape your teaching piano for years to come thanks to this year’s uniquely creative approach.

In addition, coming alongside teachers with more experience in this smaller, intimate setting is a huge benefit. All attendees are happy to welcome rookie teachers into the “fold” and share their wisdom and their challenges. Most would admit they still don’t have all the answers and that’s why they value and attend SMU-IPT and other conferences on a regular basis.

6. This year’s SMU-IPT conference seems dramatically different from years past. Will it be applicable to those who have a preferred style and method of teaching?

Yes, this year’s conference will gently nudge teachers out of the box and beyond the page which may be new to some. However, the scope of the conference will encourage experienced teachers to develop new approaches for interpreting standard repertoire, explaining theory, experiencing rhythm, etc. and overall embrace a broader perspective on teaching piano in the 21st century.

Here’s a short video invitation from one of the presenters, Bradley Sowash to tell you about just some of the things you can expect:

No longer valid.

Here are a few details from Leila Viss and also a thought or two from Forrest Kinney.

Here’s where you can learn more!

What do you think? Does this conference interest you? How do you feel about your own skills in improvising, creating and helping your students do the same?

If you aren’t getting the ComposeCreate email newsletter, be sure to sign up now! All the special offers (like that “March Music Madness” freebies) and news like this one come to newsletter subscribers (and are not always posted publicly). So be sure you join the community of teachers getting creative ideas delivered straight to your email!

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1 thought on “The Creative Piano Teacher Summer Workshop”

  1. Sounds wonderful ! Wish I could attend , but I run the Music Improv Camp USA in NY. We held it at Columbia for many years and am now offering it at various institutions. We teacf 6-12 graders how to improv in classical, Jazz, Rock, World Music and in ways that that would make John Cage smile.

    Good luck,

    Dr. Bert Konowitz

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