ARCT • Teachers’ Diploma (RCM) in-progress
Trained Music Together Teacher
Erin Plank (they/he) is a passionate young piano teacher. For their professional development, Erin received the highest exam scores in all of Canada last year for “Teaching Elementary Piano” with the RCM.
Erin’s main goal is to turn students into lifelong music lovers, not just pianists. I seek to provide them with the tools to practice efficiently at home, sight read a song at their friend’s piano, learn the melody to a song off the radio by ear, and nurture a technical foundation that lasts a lifetime so it’s “just like riding a bike” to play the piano. And even better, they’ll want to.
Get to know Erin…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Piano, weightlifting, playing with my cat, and hanging out with friends
Musical influences: Ben Folds, Brad Mehldau, Edvard Grieg
Favourite food: Fried chicken sandwich
Least favourite food: snap peas, because I ate too many as a kid one time and threw up and now I dislike the smell
Favourite music: Romantic era piano music, Beach Boys and similar era music, math rock
Favourite song: “How Dare You Want More” by Bleachers
Favourite movie: Sing Street
Favouirite movie music: main theme for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” or anything Star Wars
Favourite musical theatre/opera: Wozzeck
Best quote from your teacher: “Don’t show the audience you messed up, they won’t know! Keep going!”
Favourite quote: “That’s what life is, Happy Sad”
Favourite book: Recursion by Blake Crouch
Best thing about teaching at ABC: Getting to reach and connect with so many lovely people!
Latest Homework from Erin
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Thursday April 18 Lessons – Erin P
Sounds like you all had a great, productive time with Emmett! Here are *his* notes for the week:
Liam
technical requirements are slowing down! Talked about relative minor, C major, Am hands together 2 octaves, G maj 2 octaves. Started to slow down for the end of scales, keeping consistent and EVEN on the way down. Focus on evenness. Dmin natural Mel and harm. Hands separate and then together. Working in visualizing scales before we play them to avoid playing wrong notes the first time.
Witches and wizards – memorized, take it slow, emphasis on control! Talked about pedal control and when to pedal! Slow practise emphizes the mistakes and you can highlight them. Work on time slowly. Memorize dynamics and keep the Piece interesting, lightweight dynamic more!
Walk the talk, good sense of time! Trying not to slow!
Marita
C. Major both hands, 2 octaves! Key signature? G major, breaking hands apart and then putting back together for fingering! Remembering left hand fingering coming down.
Learned the chords and melody with rhythm to Havana (Camila Cabelo)
Katarina
Learned chord terminology!! Went over chord pattern of C-Am-F-G. Did Perpetual motioning C and G! Watching left hand fingering! Focusing on fingering!
Learned the chords for Over the Rainbow.
Sara
G major, hands together, evenness and tempo! E min, harm, B maj, G min, nat, mel, harm,
Arp, C major, Eb major, right hand,
Chromatic scale!
Ballade – Good dynamics! Take fermatas longer, transitions smoother! Overall lovely phrasing and dynamics! Metronome,
Cloud dance – pedalling! Note pedal. Swells and slurs not want to hear the pedal.
Air in B flat – Nice tempo, a little ghost notes at times. Soaring through notes! No speeding up.
Sonatina in C major – bring out the melody, no speeding up, slow practise on hard sections!
Nightime in the city – Nice swing feel, slow it down for accuracy.
Take the A train – Had a lovely chat about jazz
Marco
Morning fanfare – good use of dynamics! Staccatos and slurs! Focus on accuracy and slowing don to catch all the articulations. Fermata, practised motion for left hand staccatos while the right is not! Don’t rush the 16th notes.
Minuet in C – 3/4 waltz feel, work on your tempo while playing slowly to not speed up. Watch your ties! Dont play the note twice! Keep your eyes up to not lose your place!
Song of the dark woods – dynamics, slower to remain in control! Watch you ties again, don’t just trust your ear. Look up at the music as you go. Dont try and muscle through at a fast tempo.
Daniel
Formula patterns, C major, left hand fingering. G major, A minor, slow because its new, same pattern as C.
The wind – Pedalling, watch the time switches, take it at a reasonable tempo. Good sense of pianissimo. Working on pedalling. Practise good fingering for parts that need to have a smooth connected feeling.
Entree in A minor – take it slow and connected to understand it fully, watch the octave you play the right hand in, dynamics. Wrist position higher to let the fingers move less, it’s less punchy by a long shot.
Periwinkle twinkle – Watch for rests in the right hand, slow down and get accurate. Staccato last note! Dynamics!
Breezy – watch the eighth note lines. Find the hard parts and then play the whole thing that tempo! Consistency!
Saturday April 20 Lessons – Erin P
Hi everyone! Report cards went home this week and they announce our first post-pandemic recital! It will be Sunday May 5th and we have two “shows” available to register for: 12:30 and 1:30 I believe. Look at your schedules and see if you’re available!
Hakim
Lost Woods – great job with the RH! I love the articulation you’re using. Next add in the LH, slow and steady wins the race here. You’re teaching your body how to coordinate together, and eventually it can be sped up.
*New* Raiders in the Night page 1. This piece is in A minor and the time signature is 6/8 (there are 6 8th notes per measure, but we feel two Big beats). Build up your finger independence by not moving your thumb out of the A minor 5 finger position, and instead using all the fingers for the RH melodies.
Maria
Viva la Vida – dynamics and tempo. You’re going to do great at your talent show!!! I’m very proud of your collaboration with your friend and the arrangement you’ve created.
*New* Somersault King – Count carefully and enjoy the happy mood of this piece! LH is mostly all recognizable triad shapes.
I will have prepped some of Golden Hour for next week.
Shakira
Saturn by SZA – In C major. This piece is actually in Db major on the recording, but we transposed it down a half step so it can be played using white keys. It uses the C Major 7th chord notes (C E G B) plus the higher C and an occasional D. Today we worked out a fingering plan that demands the least position changes of the hand, and instead uses a “radar” wrist that pivots to allow you to stretch from thumb to pinky without too much stretching, instead just pivoting.
Preferred Books for Erin Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
BOOK TITLE
COMING SOON
Faber Piano Adventures
The 2nd Edition Level 1 Lesson Book introduces all the notes of the grand staff, elementary chord playing, and the concept of tonic and dominant notes. Students play in varied positions, reinforcing reading skills and recognizing intervals through the 5th. Musicianship is built with the introduction of legato and staccato touches. This level continues the interval orientation to reading across the full range of the Grand Staff. The 5-finger approach is presented here in a fresh, musically appealing way.