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.
Saturday March 2nd Lessons – Erin P
Happy March everyone! <3 I appreciate you all so much!
Hakim
B Major scale – in preparation for the Zelda piece. This scale only has two white keys, which makes the standard fingering seem very logical. B C# D# E F# G# A# B. RH fingering is same as always 123 12345. LH will start finger 4! It will go 4321 4321. Hands seperate this week.
*New* Steampunk – first 3 lines. Watch your tied notes. In the 3rd phrase, you play D with finger 5 and then switch to finger 2 so you can reach higher notes, be picky with this. First two phrases I expect HT next week, but the 3rd phrase hands seperate is fine.
Maria
Viva La Vida – There are a few spots where you switch to the 3rd chord too late so I’ve written “change” there. Also for the chorus where the RH is up on high F, be sure to not wait until beat 1 to change the chords, and instead come in before the beat so the rhythm stays syncopated.
Noreet
*New* This Is Not Jingle Bells – We are now at the stage in the book where we are calling steps = 2nds and skips = 3rds. Numbers like that are called intervals and describe how many letter names are between the notes. In the opening line of this piece your RH plays C and E which are a 3rd apart. C 1, D 2, E 3! During this piece the LH has to change positions twice.
C Major Contrary motion scale as warmup.
C Major triads – Here is a video to remind you. Don’t worry about tempo right now, just correct notes and fingers. Always uses 1 and 5 for the outside notes, and 2 or 3 for the middle note. Imagine notes C E and G are holding hands and spinning around playing ring around the rosie, they are always in a different arrangement but they are still the same notes. CEG then EGC then GCE then CEG again.
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.