TTTV034: Building a piano community that students love with Laura Kahar

building piano community students laura kahar

building piano community students laura kahar

Piano can be a lonely activity. The opportunities for ensemble and group playing tend to be less common than with other instruments, and it can leave students feeling…all alone. This is why building a sense of community within the piano studio is so important. Piano can be fun and social too!

That’s where the piano community comes in!

Laura Kahar runs a thriving piano studio in Sydney. Alongside regular private lessons, students also attend eight group lessons a year. These group classes are organised by age, and give students an opportunity to play for each other and learn as a team. Challenges and competitions are also run between students in each group, encouraging effective practice and progress.

laura bio (Small)

Laura Kahar

The consistent group lessons throughout the year allow Laura’s students to see they’re not alone in their musical journey. Laura believes that being part of a wider community not only makes piano learning more fun, but can also help with teen retention rates. Teenagers are social creatures, and when piano means hanging out with friends, they’re more likely to keep taking lessons.

You won’t want to miss this podcast with Laura today, not only does she have fantastic ideas, but her positivity is positively infectious!

group piano teaching

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How Laura fosters a sense of community in her studio
  • Studio wide incentive and challenge ideas
  • How to organise and schedule groups
  • How Laura stays ahead of the planning required for group lessons
  • Some of the activities Laura uses in her group classes
  • How a sense of competition drives students forward
  • Why themes make everything more fun and easier to plan
  • How to make your older students “piano mentors” for your youngest students

LAURA STUDIO 3 (Small)

Today’s Sponsor

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How would you like to access step-by-step instructions and resources for running group classes? Are you ready to try adding some group teaching to your studio or trying a summer camp this year? How cool would it be to hear first-hand from people already ‘in the trenches’ and grab all their best ideas?!

It this sounds cool, then you MUST check out the latest webinar series from Tracy Selle andSara Campbell called Group Teaching 101.

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Items mentioned in this podcast:

LAURA STUDIO 1 (Small)

Laura’s Favourite Links for Inspiration:

Thank you for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.

Being a full-time teacher myself, I know how busy teachers are and how much time, effort and passion we put into our students. Sometimes, the last thing we want to do in our time off is listen to more piano teaching stuff! So, well done for using this time for self-improvement.

Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run. Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons.

If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons on the left of the page.

Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes. Reviews are extremely helpful when it comes to show’s ranking and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally.

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live.

How do you build your piano community?

Are group lessons part of your studio package? Do your students know each other? Did today’s podcast inspire you to finally give group lessons a try?

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