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 December 7 Lessons – Erin P
Liam
Walk the Talk – measures 1-12 HS. Learn the LH bass line comfortably with the written fingering. When playing the RH, look at the page to notice details.
Rage over a Lost Penny – HT. Only push the tempo to what you can do cleanly with both hands. Work on balance between the hands so the melody is heard over the thick accompaniment.
Silent Night – Nice work! The notes and rhythms were all correct today and will improve with repetition.
Up on the Housetop lead sheet- Remember to voice lead the LH to make it smoother and easier. Learn both hands seperately and then combine.
Jadon
Rudolph – refer to the video to learn the intro. Here is how the bass aligns with the melody in this arrangement: The solid 3rds are always played on beats 2 and 4. The root and 5th are always played on beats 1 and 3. The extra note added to make it sound more jazzy is on the “and of 2”.
Katarina
Winter Wonderland – all the Bs and Es are flat.
BOOK Practice on the Pathway – 3 exercises. Play them at the dynamic (volume) that’s written.
BOOK Catch the Catfish – this is the first little piece on the 2 pages with many pieces.
C major scale – RH fingering 123 12345. You CRUSHED this today!!
(If you can complete the worksheets from last week, that would be amazing…)
Sara
Holly and the Ivy lead sheet – Remember to voice lead the LH to make it smoother and easier. For the Dm to C chords, they go by to quickly, I would just play the root notes there. Learn hands seperately.
Somersault King – some staccatos to add and one note to fix. Great work and awesome clarity on the final line!
Sonatina in C – nice work asking about the rhythm of the trills. Keep doing what you’re doing, great attention to detail.
Maple Leaf Rag – heck yeah!!! You’re crushing this!!
Marco
Up on the Housetop lead sheet – Remember to voice lead the LH to make it smoother and easier. Learn both hands seperately and then combine.
Joy to the World – This arrangement begins in C and then goes to G major halfway through. You can just play the first part that’s in C this week.
By My Side – Today you played the first page hands together which is awesome. Remember that the RH should be louder than the LH because it is the melody. Keep up the good work!
Daniel
Waltz that Floated Away – Remember that there are many tied notes in this piece, many of which go over the bar line. The first half of this piece is the more tricky section, so you’re getting the hard work out of the way. This should be your focus this week.
Winterstorm – Great! Love when you play with dynamics, it brings it to life! There are a few notes that you didn’t fully notice so I have circled them to fix.
O Christmas Tree lead sheet – Remember to voice lead the LH to make it smoother and easier. Learn both hands seperately and then combine. Next week we can play this with a jazzy backing track.
Marita
Bird in the Bebop – first page. The circled parts are the tricky spots that need extra spot practice, but this week play the rest too. It only gets easier!
Prelude V – first 8 bars. There is a lot of dotted quarter note rhythms used here which creates the mood. The LH is entirely 5ths.
O Christmas Tree lead sheet – Remember to voice lead the LH to make it smoother and easier. Learn both hands seperately and then combine.
Greta
Lunar Eclipse – the A section of this piece relies heavily on a C minor triad. Listen here.
Up on the Housetop lead sheet – Remember to voice lead the LH to make it smoother and easier. Learn both hands seperately and then combine. You choose the rhythm of the LH accompaniment.
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
