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 January 26 Lessons – Erin P
Hi everyone! Happy slush day :D Stay safe on the roads out there.
Liam
*New Piece* Ocean Waves. This piece features A and D natural minor scales. Focus on beginning the scales on the “and of 1” and keeping them nice and even. Add some shaping however you like to bring the “wave” to life.
*New Piece* Going Undercover. Focus on evenness of 8th notes with this one. The LH notes are what gives the pattern harmony, so bring them out loudly. Do not allow your RH arm/wrist to tighten up, stay loose and pretend this is the easiest thing in the world. I circled the notes that break the pattern.
Gb Major Scale. The only white keys in this one are Cb (B) and F. RH fingering is 234 123 12. LH is 4321 321 2(or 4 if you’re going to do more octaves).
Fiona
Lightly Row. Practice this hands together this week, you did it really well in lesson! When the hands are playing together, they both have the same articulation (staccato). Keep up the great down-up motion of the wrist in the two-note slurs. Believe in yourself! This is within your capabilities!
G Major one octave hands seperate scale. This uses the same fingering as your C Major scale in both hands, except it starts on G and then has one black key (F#, right before the top G). Warm up with this.
Marita
Lunar Eclipse. Nice!! Build up your confidence in the ending section a little more, and add some dynamics in so it’s quieter and more mysterious than the musical “high point” just before.
Young Ludwig Exploring. Work on all 8 bars of this this week. Until the ending of G B CCCCCCC it is solely the hands copying each other. Beware of how accidentals like flats affect the entire measure. Have fun with this one!
*New Piece* Minuet in C. Work on as much as you can of this hands seperate. I believe the whole LH is achievable this week, and some of the RH. Keep a nice steady pulse, and remember to count yourself in in 3. The LH notes are detached unless otherwise marked (great job circling the text mentioning that, great habit!).
Sara
*New Piece* Chinese Kites. Have fun with this black key piece! Focus on discovering and bringing out the melody. Make it beautiful.
Sonatina mvt 2. Add in the dynamics like the dramatic forte and suddenly pianos. Fix the legato broken thirds on page 2. Ghost the LH triads at the start to make them quieter than the melody. Great work!
Harlequinade. Make the opening RH Gs more detached and staccato. Fix the evenness of the 8th – 2 16th notes rhythm I circled. Really big improvement on this one this week!
Interval worksheet and daily sightreading practice.
Sina
Shadows. Beware of E flats and A flats. All the notes are staccato and bouncy. Make sure you’re doing the written fingering for the LH pattern, of crossing the finger 2 over to play A flat. Great work reading today!
Warm up with your C Major scales one octave. RH is 123 1234 5. LH is 54321 321. You’ve got this!!!
Saturday December 17 Lessons – Erin P
Congrats on your final lesson of 2022! I’m very proud of all your growth this year. In the folders I sent home with you there’s a BINGO sheet of fun piano activites to apply to any piece of music you want. Get 5 in a row (or a blackout!!) and bring the sheet in to show me at our first lesson of 2023 and you’ll receive a small prize :D Happy Holidays!
Isabella
You’re working on Dance Band and Frogs on Logs. Frogs on Logs requires you to “hop” your hand up the piano each time a circled finger number appears above the music. This piece uses fingers 2, 3, 4. As always, I encourage you to play along with the recordings by scanning the QR code with a tablet/phone if you can!
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I am so impressed with how steady you play this! Great work. If you need the notes for the sections you already know, please refer to last week’s homework, but your starting note is G.
The new section we learnt today: “then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say” goes like this:
AACAGEG FAGFE DEGABBB CCBAGFD
The pieces I gave you in your binder are Pop Goes the Weasel and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Pop! is easier and shorter. Super is very fun and a little longer – watch a YouTube video to see the clip from the 1964 Mary Poppins movie, it’s so fun! Enjoy :)
Jadon
In your binder I gave you the End Credits piece from Interstellar and Arrival to Earth from Transformers. Try to challenge yourself to read them off the page rather than learning off YouTube – it will only get easier by doing it :)
Next year we will begin a new book: Alfred’s Basic Adult All in One Book 2 or Faber’s Adult Piano Adventures All in One Book 2.
They both will continue your skills.
Marco
Great job with your christmas pieces! Keep working on putting We Three Kings hands together right up to Christmas:)
For Never Gonna Give You Up, it is not difficult note wise, the rhythms look more complex – but because you know the song so well your ear can fill in the rhythms! When there are triads, try to figure out what they are and right them in. Since this is a pop song the chord progression will repeat and get easier to expect as it repeats.
Mission Impossible. The trickiest part of this will be reading the low notes. Use the landmark notes you do know to figure them out. This piece is in 5/4, which means there are 5 quarter notes per measure. Sing the melody and clap each quarter note and you will quickly figure this out. Emphasize beat 1 to make it easier on yourself.
Have fun and don’t feel pressured by these! Even isolating a few bars and playing them is awesome and we can build on it in the future!
Daniel
You are now encouraged to play Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer :)
I Saw Three Ships – Ideas to make the pulse consistent hands together: Play LH while singing RH, play RH while tapping the LH/or reverse, record one hand to a click track to play along with etc. Keep in mind that with a click track, you’ll want to hear 2 clicks per bar as this is in 6/8. It’ll be, click 2 3 click 5 6.
Four Wheel Drive – quarter notes need to be really steady and on the beat. Notice how there are lots of ties over the bar line? To help us be able to perform those we must have the notes that ARE on the beat, really accurate. I encourage you play along to this video, there is full speed and then a slow version at 0:52.
Shelton
Boogie and Starlit. Boogie is all skips (line to line or space to space on the staff) except for the two spots we circled. These skips will be white notes that aren’t beside each other.
For Starlit, only play up until the star I drew. These two musical phrases are like two sentences. Keep everything that is connected by the curved line connected on the piano too. This means there should be no “holes” in the sound. We do this by using our fingers like when we walk – there is always one foot/finger touching the ground.
The pieces I gave you in your binder are things we can grow into. You know the notes for the RH of the Imperial March, and I can teach you the other ones in the new year! For Bahay Kubo, the opening note is G and then you can use a combination of using G to figure out the other notes and using your ear to determine the melody. Have fun with it! No pressure:)
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
