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 13 Lessons – Erin P
Holy hot weather Batman! Spring is here :D
Liam
*New* The Matador – the A section is more bouncy, and the B section contrasts that by being legato and song-like. Play the melody louder than the rest.
Begin getting Star Wars polished again for music party (May 6th or 7th), fill out performance worksheet once you’ve got it playable. If you don’t fill out the sheet that’s okay, but start thinking about your answers to the questions throughout the week.
Focus on solid triad patterns this week with focus on note accuracy.
Excellent work getting that Microjazz song down! Great counting. I’ll find another cool one for you :)
Marita
*New* Angelfish – this week let’s tackle the first 8 bars. The most important thing is evenness. Since this piece is a constant stream of 8th notes, it’ll be really noticeable if they’re not even. Playing at a steady tempo with strong fingers is a sure way to play even.
Microjazz 1 – Awesome job on the rhythm! Since this piece just repeats that melody in different contexts, you can play the entire piece now!
Heavenly Blue – You play this better than you think! With some concentrated practice on measures 13-16, you’ll have a lovely complete piece. Practice in small chunks this week and focus on improving each chunk each time.
Sara
Three + Two Blues – Great counting! Keep plugging away on it :) Great work.
Technique – For broken triads, try accenting the 2nd or 3rd triplet of each group. This will strengthen the fingers equally and ensure evenness. For solid triads you can “tip in” your wrists a bit each chord and use this motion to propel yourself upwards to the next inversion.
In the Spirit – M.10 rhythm: ensure beat 2 is filled with silence and the 8th notes begin on the “and of 2.” Otherwise, great steady tempo.
For your repertoire: Create many little random checkpoints (either by numbers or symbols) on the page (at least 10 in the Sonatina) and practice playing beginning from them until it’s easy. Then memorize beginning from them (they shouldn’t be just the beginning of phrases, put them random random places). In lesson, I will spot check your memory by asking you to play from different spots, creating a foolproof memory plan where even if your memory slips up, you just go to the next checkpoint and you’re good!
Feel better soon :) Next week we will discuss physical approach to pain free playing, remind me.
Sina
Movin’ On. Use the finger numbers and notes to find your starting position. This one the left hand starts in G position, goes to C and then back again. Great reading of the sharps and flats!
*New* Minuet – a Minuet is a type of Baroque dance. Baroque is a time period aroud the 1600s. Show the down-up-up feeling that is common in these 3/4 dances by doing a proper down-up wrist movement where the phrase marking shows (like beat 1-2 in measure 2).
Warmup with your C, G and D major scales because you know them all and they have the same fingering.
Saturday March 4 Lessons – Erin P
Happy snow day everyone! Enjoy the sunshine nonetheless :)
Jadon
Here’s the lead sheet we played today. Now you have multiple lead sheets to practice playing hands together with.
Some ideas we explored for Avatar today were: drumming the rhythms HT to get the coordination of which beats go together, playing only the notes that land together and then filling in the other RH ones after that’s secure, playing the beat before the hands change positions to practice changing keys and positions seamlessly.
Grace
Nice work reading through Alone in a Crowd and Moon River. Keep playing around with them, I think rubato would be appropriate for both so feel free to bend the tempo a bit.
Cowherd’s Flute sounded great! If you wish to slow it down, go through it hands seperate keeping your eyes on the page as much as you can and try and learn it in such a way you don’t only rely on muscle memory.
Marco
*New Piece* Mission Impossible. This week you are learning the LH pattern that plays for almost the whole piece in G minor. Notice the key signature of Bb and Eb (G minor). Use consistent fingering for this pattern. You’re also learning the RH measures 6-9, the 8th notes of Bb and G stay the same and the lower note changes each repetition – use your thumb for the lowest notes.
Keep working on the Rhythm worksheet of dotted quarter notes and we’ll jam out together on them next week in real life :)
Daniel
Nice work completing level 1 of the RCM curriculum! Here is my assessment of your playing today :) Woohoo! Remember it is an assessment of your playing specifically today, and not of your playing as a whole.
*New Piece* from level 2: Periwinkle Twinkle. ***DOWNLOAD HERE*** Explore as much of this as you can this week. This piece begins in a sort of jazzy C/Cminor sound, then goes to F/Fminor, with some G jazziness later on. We know all those chords! I, IV, V! The LH fingering is very well done and useful, use it. Have fun with the jazzy rhythms, you read them well in class so I’m confident in you! Have fun with it!
Have fun with Stranger Things Kids and let me know what difficulties came up this week next lesson, as well as the composing activity.
Julian
Great work on Spring! This week practice it hands together as well as add in the loud start, and the quiet echo later on. I love your articulation and attention to detail on this one.
*New Piece* page 1 of Pirate of the North Sea. This piece is another D Major piece. Both hands are in D Major position. Keep your wrist nice and bouncy for the staccato chords, like knocking on a door. Pay attention to the 3 legato notes, and then the staccato notes following in the “I’m brawny and strong” section. You played it correctly articulated in class today :)
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
