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
Is Erin Your Teacher?
Sign up now to get your weekly assignments delivered, and never lose your homework sheet again!
Thursday September 7 Lessons – Erin P
WELCOME BACK! I’M SO EXCITED YOU’RE ALL HERE! IT’S GOING TO BE AN AMAZING YEAR :)
Grace
To A Wild Rose – Focus on bringing out the melody notes over the rest of the sound. Regarding the repetitive LH notes, a little more wrist movement like knocking on a door will help. Stay loose!
Chopin Prelude – Experiment with flatten your fingers a bit so the fleshy part of your finger is playing the keys, rather than the direct fingertip. This can be used to create a smoother softer texture in the piano.
Liam
River Dance m1-8 in Randall book – Great reading today! Be very picky about the tied notes timing to create the dancey mood.
You can begin dusting off your major scales as a warmup, so we can learn some more minor scales and other technical skills together! We will also return to your Bastien books next week, but not the pop book that Star Wars is in.
Jadon
Katarina
*NOTE TO PARENTS* Over the summer when I was preparing for lessons, I had planned to use this book by Wunderkeys with Katarina, because it has a lot of variety of activites and parental guidance to use at home. I would like you to take a look through this PDF sample and we can talk about this next lesson (I have a physical copy of it). I didn’t know she was taking summer lessons and you guys already bought the level 1 Piano Adventures book! I am happy to teach out of that book because I have lots of experience with it, and you’ve already bought it, but please share your thoughts about what you think might work best for her :)
Sara
*New* Victress Sessions piece by Carreno Venise – explore as much as you can this week. Be picky with timing and which notes line up with which.
Air in Bb Major – Nice tempo! Be very precise with what notes are legato and what are detached. Remember this would’ve been played on a harpsichord or clavichord and sounded more detached
Sonatina in F Major – Great! Fix the timing on the 8th notes after the big 16th note run on the 2nd page. On page 1 when the RH becomes staccato, the LH doesn’t, it stays legato to contrast.
Nighttime in the City – Awesome! Fix the timing on the RH 8th notes in the very middle of the piece. Great groove.
Marco
What Lies Ahead m1-8 – You did a great job reading the LH today! Spend a day or two HS and then put it hands together. I would like to hear these 8 bars hands together next week no matter how slow the tempo is:)
Since you stated you would like to learn more triads this year, can you review your C major triads (and any other ones you know) and show me you can do the broken triad pattern?
Daniel
*New* Zum Gali Gali – this is a famous Israeli folk song that is used often because of its fun rhythms and minor mood. Be very precise with your counting and prioritize an even tempo.
Jump by Van Halen – https://musescore.com/user/11983571/scores/2581141
Back in the USSR – play around with the chords in your *LH*. Start in root position first, and then see if you can figure out how to “voice lead” – like using a different inversion of some of the chords so you don’t have to move your hand around so far.
Something to think about, programs like Audacity (computer) and Anytune (app) can slow down music without warping the pitch. This would be a nice tool to use for playing along with recordings like the AC/DC tune you’re working on.
Marita
Atacama Dessert REPERTOIRE – A Section – This piece uses one note being repeateed (or held, in the LH’s case) well other notes change around it. The changing notes are what we really want to hear, not the repetitive notes.
*New* The Wind ETUDE– don’t worry about speed right off the start, focus on a consistent tempo. Shoot for an even sound with no specific notes sticking out to create a moody windy sound. Great reading today on this one!
Saturday June 10 Lessons – Erin P
Jadon
*NEW* O Canada. The phrases that I circled are when the melody gets passed to the LH, you’ll need to play the LH louder in these parts so the listener can hear the melody. Trust your reading skills and go slow and steady.
– Canon is sounding great! Practice the LH fingering for the B chord a bit on its own just to get the 121 fingering nice and smooth (it’s tricky putting thumbs on black keys).
Grace
– Moment Musicale. Decide on the best fingering for you and write it in to stay consistent. LH is all staccato, be very particular about the different articulations.
Marco
– Indiana Jones with two half notes in the LH per bar. You can do it!! Push through the challenge and reap the rewards!
*NEW* Mist. I wrote in the names of the chords in the LH since they are all triads, it is good pattern recognition to connect how the notes look and the name of the chord. Notice the 8va section, you will play the written notes but one octave higher. Begin hands separate at a comfortable tempo, counting 1-2-3 aloud.
– Last half of Going Undercover. We talked about how the hands play together on the downbeats and that means that the RH Cs are always alone/in between.
Daniel
– Melodic Minor scales. The only scales that are different both directions!! Going up they have the 6th and 7th notes that would be found in the major scale (so “raised”) and descending they have the 6th and 7th from the plain minor scale (so “lowered”). E minor melodic would be played EF#GABC#D# and then going back down would be EF#GABCD.
– On the Right Lines. I drew in phrase markings to draw your attention to the patterns repeating. The LH motive says in G for 4 bars before moving to C for 2 and then back to G. Kudos to you for counting slowly and getting the syncopated notes accurately placed. Continue this method of practice, but perhaps loop 4 bars at a time to make quicker progress of the groove as a whole.
– Crocodile Teeth. We fixed the opening rhythm, how’s its notated can be misleading, but I wrote counts in below the quarter notes, ensure they receive their full value. We also wrote in a few note names that were being played incorrect. Great evenness and general mood!
Julian
– Lead Sheet in book HT. During the 4th beat of each bar, move your LH to its new chord so that you are ready to play beat 1 perfectly on time. Go slow enough that you can find success playing this song hands together.
*NEW* Take Me Out To The Ball Game. This is a nice simple arrangement of the melody. Make sure to count in 3. Once you’ve got this down we can add our own flair and make a cool arrangement!
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
