064 – Eight YouTube Channels Piano Teachers Should Follow

Eight YouTube channels piano teachers could benefit from following. Included in this list are those with high-quality theory videos, reliable performances of student repertoire, “how-to-teach” repertoire advice, and more. You’ll even get two bonus highlights with my go-to tech guru and favorite exercise channel.

Transcript:

You’re listening to episode 64 of The Piano Pantry Podcast. Last week, in episode 63, Carly Walton and I discussed various digital tools for managing our businesses, from studio management software to browser extensions, apps, and more. Since I had digital tools on my mind, there was one more aspect I wanted to share with you in today’s episode, and that’s YouTube channels.

You might not initially think of YouTube as a digital tool in the way you might apps or software, but YouTube plays a huge role in much of our daily lives today. I wanted to make sure that you knew about some really great channels that, as a piano teacher, you could benefit from following.

In this episode, you’ll hear about eight of my favorites, including those with high-quality theory videos, performances of student repertoire, “how-to-teach” repertoire advice, and more. You’ll even get two bonus highlights with my go-to tech guru and favorite exercise channel.

I’m Amy Chaplin, creator of the Piano Pantry blog and this podcast. Welcome! Let’s get started.

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Here we are in early to mid-spring when many of your local and state music associations discuss plans for the next school year. You’ll have festival dates to nail down, bylaws to update, and programming to plan.

As you look forward to the next school year, I just wanted you to know I have several sessions available. They range from tidying tips and digital organization to marketing and Music Learning Theory fundamentals. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing with teachers nationwide for years, including teachers in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, my home state of Indiana, and more.

I hope you’ll consider me when looking for fresh programming for the upcoming year. Visit the link in the show notes for session descriptions.

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The first two YouTube channels I wanted to highlight for you today are included in my list because they have some really good Music Theory videos that can be used with your students in a variety of ways. You could use them as part of a music lab time, in a flipped-learning environment where they learn first from the video, or as an individual assignment to reinforce what you did in a lesson.

The first is Anne Crosby Gaudet Music. I’ve followed Anne for years back. These days she does a lot more for harp, I think, than piano, but I love all of her music theory videos. In fact, a lot of them are included in the large compilation of music theory videos I have on the piano pantry website. I will, of course, include a link to that in the show notes as well as all of the channels I highlight today.

The second channel with many great theory videos that are also part of my theory video compilation is Nicola Cantan’s Colourful Keys. Besides the theory videos, Nicola has all kinds of videos on teaching and running a business on her channel as part of what she does through her Vibrant Music Teaching membership site.

The third channel I wanted to mention today also does a lot of teacher support videos like Nicola, and that’s Jennifer Foxx’s Music Educator Resources. I especially wanted to point out Jennifer’s Music Teacher Tip video series, which currently has 35 videos. The most recent one is Tips on Teaching Students with Selective Mutism. Since I had a student with selective mutism five or so years ago, that particular video topic really stood out to me.

So as far as theory and general teaching go, the first three again were Anne Crosby Gaudet Music, Colourful Keys, and Music Educator Resources.

The next two channels I want to highlight produce quality performance videos of a large range of piano repertoire. The first is a newer one, and that’s Creative Piano Teacher, which is also a blog by Davis Dorrough and Olivia Ellis.

The second was the first to pioneer a project like this: the University of Iowa’s Piano Pedagogy Project. On YouTube you’ll see it as UIPianoPed. I remember when Drs. Alan Huckleberry and Jason Sifford announced this project back in something like 2011, I think. They currently have 3,000 videos. The reason channels like this are so important is there is nothing more disheartening to a teenager learning to play Minuet in G than to have to watch a video of a 6-year-old playing it. Thanks to channels like this, teachers can find performances they can trust are of good quality, which will also be enjoyable for their students to see as an example.

So, go subscribe to Creative Piano Teacher and UIPianoPed.

That’s 5 so far. The next two are channels that speak to teaching directly.

First up is Irina Gorin’s Tales of a Musical Journey channel. While this channel is specifically related to teaching using Irina’s Tales method, I include it because whether or not you use her method, there is much to be learned from her approach to teaching technique to young beginners. I’ve learned a lot by watching her teach myself.

The second teaching site is my friend Janna Willamson’s channel named as her name. Janna’s passionate about helping teachers learn how to teach intermediate repertoire and does videos focused on individual pieces. If you missed it, Janna was a guest host on this podcast back in episode 038 – Janna Williamson: Ingredients for Effective Intermediate Teaching.

I know you will learn a lot from both Irina and Janna.

Last but certainly not least YouTube channel I think my teacher friends will benefit from following is The Piano Prof Kate Boyd. While Dr. Boyd’s channel is geared toward pre-college, college, university, and adult amateur piano students who want to bring their playing to the next level, I find her topics on improving piano technique and enhancing your musicianship something we can all use refreshers on. Like Janna, Dr. Boyed also hosted an episode of this podcast for me in the fall of 2022. You can find her in episode 039 – Dr. Kate Boyd: Preparing Students for College Auditions

Before I give you my two bonus channel recommendations, here’s a quick recap of the eight YouTube channels I think my piano teacher colleagues should consider following (don’t worry, they’re all linked for you in the show notes).

1. Anne Crosby Gaudet Music
2. Colourful Keys
3. Music Educator Resources
4. Creative Piano Teacher
5. UIPianoPed
6. Irina Gorin’s Tales of a Musical Journey
7. Janna Williamson and
8. The Piano Piano Prof Kate Boyd

Now, for a couple of fun recommendations. I absolutely love the energy and information from technology guru Steve Dotto on the Dottotech channel. I’ve gleaned tons of great tips from him on anything from Google Photos to Google Maps, Google Drive, Gmail, Email signatures, and more.

For my final recommendation, I have to give kuddos to Leila Viss because it was from her podcast episode #61 These Are a Few of My Favorite Things that I heard about Heather Robertson’s workout channel. Love it. She doesn’t talk, she just plays music. The videos are great quality, there’s tons of variety and lengths to choose from.

That’s all, folks; I hope you gleaned at least one new great idea from this list of favorites. Now, go kill some time watching YouTube just for fun.

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Today’s tiny tip is tied to our topic of the day. You know, as small business owners and professionals, our email Inboxes are not the only digital tool that needs a little TLC once in a while. It’s so easy to just hit “subscribe” or “follow” on all our social accounts, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or others.

The next thing you know, you are following hundreds if not thousands of channels, accounts, and groups. The problem, then, is, are you really seeing what you actually want to see? It’s so easy for all of these subscriptions to bombard our accounts that you may never notice when some of your favorite YouTube channels have something new.

My tip for you today is to just be a little more proactive. It doesn’t have to feel like a “thing,” but maybe once or twice a year, scroll through all of your YouTube subscriptions and take a second to reconsider what you actually want to follow.

Pay attention also to the notifications that pop up. Do you really need notification when every account you follow posts something new? My advice is to turn off ALL the notifications except your top half dozen channels – especially if you’re allowing YouTube notifications to push to your device.

I’ll even make this really easy for you – In the show notes, I’ll post the exact link where you can easily view all of your YouTube subscriptions in one place.

Happy YouTubing – I’ll see you next week!