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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Saturday March 23 Lessons – Erin P
Glad to hear you all had a great March break! Everyone is sounding great too, nice work!
NO LESSON NEXT WEEKEND. I AM AWAY FOR EASTER WEEKEND, ENJOY THE TIME WITH YOUR FAMILIES AND SEE YOU ON APRIL 6TH
Hakim
Dummy! – RH part in G minor as written.
*New* Raptors – up until star. This piece is in D minor position. Your LH finger 2 is going to reach above to play the Bb, and also will play the G# so that your thumb can stay on A. RH melody sounds like “in the hall of the mountain king”. Use fingers 2 and 4 as written for the changing notes with accidentals. Listen here.
Keep working on your C major triad patterns. See here.
Maria
Viva la Vida – fix “dead, long live the king” measure timing. Discuss with your vocalist if you are going to be doubling the melody or if you are just going to play the instrumental part.
*New* Fundoodle – Listen here. This piece uses a Ton of triad shapes and inversions. It mostly is all C, F and G with some accidentals thrown in for flair. The LH will be your steady rock that any syncopation can bounce off of.
Shakira
*New* Going Undercover – this piece is in C minor position. It uses 2 different 2-bar patterns that alternate to create the feeling of a soundtrack. At first the LH descends from C in whole and half notes, then later, the LH ascends from C in quarter notes. Focus on evenness and use rotation of the wrist to make the 3121 RH fingering easier. This is what it sounds like.
Bryson Tiller – We simplified the chords by taking out some notes. Play around with going between these freely.
Noreet
*New* A Mixed Up Song – this piece has different melodic ideas that repeat throughout the song. At first the part with lyrics is done by the RH, and later on, it is done by the LH, but it is still the same notes and tune, just in a different octave. Great job noticing which parts have staccato markings! Listen here.
C Major Contrary motion scale – these are sounding really great and consistent!
C Major triads – this is our big project to master these for the end of the year. See here.
Grace
Take care of your wrist! Rest it and don’t play through any pain.
Pieces from Journey – I think Apotheosis is a great starting place. Practice not just getting the accented groups of 2 notes in time, but landing on beat 1 of the next bar in time as well.
Satuday November 18 Lessons – Erin P
Hi everyone! Thanks for the hardwork this week! Maria and Noreet, get well soon! <3
Hakim
*New* Chant of the Monks – this is your first written piece with hands playing together in parallel motion. Giving the half notes (the hollow ones) 2 counts is very important. Count while you are playing. You know how to read the RH notes, not the LH yet, which is why they filled in the notes with letter names for you. This piece is made of two little phrases that each repeat. You can listen and play along here. Giving the half notes (the hollow ones) 2 counts is very important. Count while you are playing.
LH of Team Fortress 2 Theme – this piece is 8 bars that repeat. I have written out the LH groove. It is all 8th notes, so there will be 8 notes per measure. The first two bars repeat 3 times, and the last two measures are different. Practice it slow and steady by itself. We will add the RH in next week.
C Major scale – great work! Keep practicing hands seperate. As a bonus, challenge yourself to learn the G major scale. The fingering is identical, but it starts on G and has one black key = F#. The notes are G A B C D E F# G. RH is still 123 12345. LH is still 54321 321.
C, F and G chords – great job playing these solid! Experiment with playing the notes one at a time in different patterns now. A good starting point is bottom, middle, top, middle.
Shakira
Good King Wenceslas – your reading is improving so much! The LH notes in this piece are F, and a C power chord. MF means mezzo-forte/medium loud, P means piano/quiet, F means forte/loud. This piece will sound like a melody, and then an echo of it. Try to bring the paper back next week, and we’ll play the duet.
C Major scale – both hands, seperate – great work! RH is 123 12345, LH is 54321 321.
*New* Keep Doing What You’re Doing by Bryson Tiller – I wrote out the intro and then the chords as well. It is learnt from this video, which you can reference as well. These are super lush, awesome jazz chords. They have lots of notes, but that’s why they sound so great. The reward is definitely worth the hard work!
Jadon
Gravity Falls – sounding good! Try isolating the parts where the hands play together to get the walking up bassline.
Dozen a Day exercises as seen below as warmups:
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.
Piano Safari
