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 19 Lessons – Erin P
Hi everyone! <3 Hope everyone’s doing well and having fun! Thanks for your hard work.
Liam
Camel Caravan. The LH does the same thing for the entire piece so it’s super important it stays really steady like a playalong track. I would practice the RH alone for a couple days to get the rhythms and fingerings super solid. Embrace the “crunchy” sound that the F and E together creates, you’re playing it correctly!
Scales in D Major. Learning new scales with you today was so fun! This one uses the same fingering as C. RH = 123 12345. LH = 54321 321.
Composing exercise. Choose either the I chord or the V7 chord to place in each of the empty LH bars. There are no answers, just certain choices that are more expected. As long as you explain why you chose what you did, I’m happy!
Fiona
Lightly Row. Practice hands seperately until confident. The LH intervals have been written in for you at the start (interval is how far apart the notes are). Remember the down-up wrist movements in the RH, and how we connect the sound of the notes that are connected by legato lines.
Marita
Lunar Eclipse. Great reading once again! Focus your practice on the last half of the piece, to get it as smooth as the beginning.
Young Ludwig Exploring. Work out the first 4 bars. The hands imitate each other immediately after the other finishes. (example LH finishes on beat 1, RH starts on the “and of 1”.
Practice your minor triads. They are related to the major keys you already know. F Major shares all the same notes with its “neighbour that lives 3 doors down” = D minor. Same with G Major and E minor. And C Major and A minor. I’ll teach you the special minor scales next class :)
Sara
Sonatina 2nd Mvt. Nice work! Spend a bit more time at the top of the 2nd page to get comfy with it. Practicing like 1 beat at a time is awesome, and then adding the next beat, and the next – a good way to “get the notes under your fingers”. On page 1 you can start thinking about playing the melody louder than the RH triplets.
Harlequinade. Awesome! I would isolate the measures with lots of 16th notes in them and play them many times alone. Go slow and steady to ensure all the 16th notes are even.
Today we learnt the I-vi-IV-V chord progression. A super famous one! We learnt it in C and G today. Experiment and put it into 2 other keys this week. Remember whatever your I chord is – that’s the key signature and notes you’ve got to use. Have fun with it!
Sina
Page 1 of The Food Court. This piece is in G position and doesn’t move positions. Focus on connecting the sound of the RH melody in the legato part (no holes between the sound). Think of it like walking, one foot is always on the ground at any moment, that’s how your fingers should be on the keys.
C Major scale RH – 123 12345 fingering. The only tricky part of the fingering is the thumb tucking under the other fingers to play F. Practice doing it with minimal movement of the rest of your arm, like it’s a sleight of hand card trick. Great job *getting* this today!
Saturday December 10 Lessons – Erin P
Hi everyone! Thanks for your awesome practicing! <3 Keep it up :)
Isabella
You’re working on D-E-F March and Mister Bluebird. These are both songs that just use your RH but…… could you play them with your LH? Yes! Give it a try and use proper hand position. Today we discovered that the QR codes on each page give you play along tracks, super fun! Try them out with a tablet or your parent’s phone if possible..
We also learnt all of Rudolph except for the “then one foggy day” section, we’ll do that next week! If you need a reminder of how it goes, first use your ear, but then you could refer to this: GAGECAG, GAGAGCB, FGFDBAG, GAGAGAE
then repeat that all but for the last ending notes use a higher D and C instead.
We also did a fun finger independence excercise called “climbing the ladder”. Warmup with this – the RH goes 12131415. LH is 54535251.
Jadon
Keep working on O Holy Night. I would work from “fall on your knees” to the end to get it up to the level the rest of the piece is at. Great work with this one, your LH is very steady.
For He’s A Pirate, I kept working on it after you left and I agree with you that the Two LH notes at the same time as the RH chords is the way to go. Another option I discovered is doing Three LH notes at the same time as the RH plays, completely steady quarter notes – it’s a bit heavier though. When you get to the later part where the RH does play the same chord 3 times in a row, I would mirror this in the LH as well. A great technique I should’ve shown in class is tapping the two hands rhythms on your lap/a table. This really helps get the rhythms and coordination down without having to focus on the notes. This is a tricky song and I’m sorry I didn’t have more anecdotes in class, but I’ve never played this piece!
Fiddle around with learning the Rudolph melody if you can, the staff is faded but it is treble clef. I will help you with this next week, we can make a cool arrangement.
Grace
Missed you this week! Take care :)
Marco
Away in a Manger. Hands Together. Remember it is in 3/4 and count yourself in like 1,2,3,1,2 and then your first note is on beat 3. That is a “pickup”. Great job moving your hand to new positions so smoothly.
We Three Kings. We added the chorus part on this week so practice it all together. You can do hands together also! You definitely have the skill.
Today I showed you the C Major one octave scale’s proper fingering. RH is 123 12345. LH is 54321 321. Practice JUST the thumb under motion by hopping your thumb from C to F and back a bunch with as little movement as possible.
Daniel
Jingle Bells was awesome! Record it when you can, you should be proud!
Four Wheel Drive. This piece needs to be steady to achieve the desired effect of a piece of machinery. Take it slower and be precise with your counting as you add in the RH. I drew lines to draw your attention to when the hands line up and when they don’t. At measure 5, the LH note is still tied, and the RH plays on the offbeat so the hands do not align here at all. Lots of details to be aware of.
Great job with I Saw Three Ships – now work on it hands together. You did this in class with me today so be confident.
I’d like you to start practicing your broken and solid triads again. The keys required at this level are C, F and G Major and A, D and E minor.
Shelton
You’re working on Good King Wenceslas. The first LH note is “tied” which means you play it once, and then hold it down for the full two bars. Great job sightreading this today – you should be proud.
Keep doing your C Major one octave scales, and your C major broken triad (CEG).
We also did a fun finger independence excercise called “climbing the ladder”. Warmup with this – the RH goes 12131415. LH is 54535251.
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
