16- From Solo Project To Partnership: Chat with Elizabeth and Tara

Big shifts are brewing at Creative Piano Pedagogy, and we’re inviting you behind the scenes! After five years of building resources solo, we’re leveling up into a true partnership that pairs big-picture creativity with sharp systems and operations. That means better courses, clearer communications, and a brand-new website designed to make it easier to find the tools you need to teach with confidence. Expect offerings that blend evidence-based strategies with simple, practical steps you can use in lessons right away.

To keep things human, we also loosen up with rapid-fire questions: what we listen to when we’re not teaching, the coffee orders that fuel us, and the composers we love to play but hesitate to teach. 

If you’re a piano teacher looking for inspired ideas grounded in solid research, you’ll feel at home here. Tap play, meet the team, and help shape what comes next by sharing your studio challenges and wish list. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a colleague who’s ready for fresh energy in their teaching.

Links:

Check out the new Etsy shop!

Jingle Bells- Elizabeth's favorite 4-hand arrangement by Robert Vandall (or get the single sheet music here)

Browse our favorite Christmas ensemble collections

Check out our favorite Christmas solo music (beginner-advanced)

Listen to Tara's first episode on the podcast

We are partners with Amazon's Affiliate Program to earn a small commission from purchases made through our links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the podcast and mission of CPP!

Chapters

• 0:00 Warm Return And Catching Up
• 3:24 New Website Reveal
• 5:34 Partnership Announcement
• 8:28 Roles, Strengths, And Operations
• 13:16 Vision: Courses, Store, And Curriculum
• 16:45 Rapid-Fire Get-To-Know Questions

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 1:15

Well, hello, Tara. Good afternoon, Elizabeth. I am so excited that we are finally back for episode 16 of the Creative Piano Pedagogy podcast. I have really missed doing this the last few weeks.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34

You've been busy moving from one state to another. Bless your heart. In the true Southern good intention way of saying that phrase, bless your heart.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

It really does apply. I am still looking for life necessities amidst piles of boxes that really have me questioning all of my life choices. Um, what is all this stuff? When did I get it? And do I even need it? And can we just throw it away and start over?

SPEAKER_00: 2:04

Yeah, I always thought it was amazing that I had the biggest desire to purge after we moved. Like would have been helpful if that came up before we moved, but you know. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15

But thank you to everyone who has sent messages saying, I've missed listening to your podcast the last few weeks. I that's actually very nice to hear. And we're so sorry for the little hiatus there. But we are back, and it is now November when we're recording this, and we have some very exciting things to share today, don't we, Tara? You might notice that um Tara is back for another episode with me today. She is no longer a stranger because she's been on a few episodes on the podcast, and the flow of today's episode is gonna be a little more laid back than our typical intensive pedagogy focus, but we have a really good reason for that. So I think you'll enjoy what we have to share.

SPEAKER_00: 3:11

Looking forward to it. I've got my hot tea. I'm kicked back in my rocking office chair because you have to have an office chair that rocks and swivels. Oh, yes. Oh, we have to.

SPEAKER_01: 3:23

And I'm joining you with some coffee. So we are beveraged up and ready to go. So one of the very exciting things we have to share today is that we have a new website that is launching very, very soon. And Tara and I have been working very hard behind the scenes, especially Tara, because she is truly a website guru. So I think I think we're excited to share it. How do you feel about it, Tara?

SPEAKER_00: 3:53

A little nervous, but excited. Uh, I'm I'm learning all about this new uh platform, getting to know Wix. And um yeah, not sure I'm a guru guru, but there's so many people who are so good at it out there. But um, I've always liked learning new things and getting in there and figuring it out. So it's been fun.

SPEAKER_01: 4:15

I'm so excited to share that with everyone next week. And you'll notice I've been saying we on this podcast, and the very, very, very exciting announcement that I have to share today is the past five years, creative piano pedagogy has been a solo venture. It started as a hobby, a side hobby, a way for me to share teaching ideas and teaching resources. And it was a long time coming, actually. I really wanted to start a blog, and now it's evolved into courses and podcasts and retreats and book clubs and other things, but it's no longer an I, it's a we because Tara is officially joining me as a partner in the creative piano pedagogy business. And Tara, I just want to say, wow, I feel so lucky and blessed and fortunate to get to work with you. And I think the fun is just getting started.

SPEAKER_00: 5:20

Oh goodness, we've had fun already. But I'm I'm so excited um just to be able to be creative and help other teachers and you know, just kind of move into a new stage of my career and do it with somebody that um, you know, we just think alike in this way, but we also have some differences we've learned. Um, but I am I am super, super excited about this. It's been hard to like keep it on the down low for a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 5:53

I feel like I've almost let the proverbial cat out of the bag a few times because I'm just so excited. But I have been doing all the behind-the-scenes everything the past five years, and to be able to partner with someone who not only excels at things that I am very much a beginner at, but also has other gifts and is excited to grow this venture with me. The sky is the limit. And I'm gonna let her share a bit more about what she's specifically gonna be doing. But Tara, I am just absolutely delighted. And I know we we've introduced you here before. So if you're like, wait a minute, who is this Tara person? Um, I'll link her other episodes that she's been on the podcast with me in the description so you can go back and re-remember who she is and all of that. But would you like to share what you're gonna be doing and why you're excited to join Creative Piano Pedagogy?

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

So I gosh, um what I will be doing is more, I am I am more detail oriented, and Elizabeth, you are so wonderfully big picture oriented with fantastic ideas, and um I like to focus on the details and organization, systems, and processes and things like that. We both like to be creative. Um so things that are life-giving for me are life-sucking for you, and vice versa. And that has been so fun to discover as we've worked through the details of this um partnership. So I'll be kind of overseeing communications, um, you know, providing editing, um, maybe taking Elizabeth's big ideas and kind of fleshing things out, systems and processes to make it all flow a little bit easier. And um we have so many good ideas. I've got ideas jotted everywhere. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01: 7:57

When I shared, I started sharing um my Evernote files with Tara, I think she got a tiny glimpse of just how much I've been thinking about this the last five years. Maybe I've been thinking about it too much. But to be able to work and co-write courses together with someone, like she said, who can take the ideas I have and the outlines and help me develop them in a much better format. And the website is going to be a huge testament to just the a tiny portion of what she is going to bring. But um, as my partner and operations director, she is full of talents and gifts and things that I am not great at or don't enjoy. And we work together so well. So you're gonna be seeing a lot more of Tara around here. And um you might be getting emails from her, you might be getting Instagram messages from her, but Tara is not only a wonderfully organized person, but she is just a teacher at heart. I truly think that uh we've shared about that together as talking about musician life and how we just both feel like we're teachers at heart.

SPEAKER_00: 9:12

Yeah, we're lucky to get to do what we do. Whether it's you know, performing, doing gigs here and there, teaching, coming, just being creative and coming up with um different products. So maybe now you can tell people what exactly, now that you get to siphon off this stuff that is life-sucking for you, what are the things in our partnership that are life-giving for you? What do you love doing?

SPEAKER_01: 9:38

Oh, I absolutely love writing. I have learned that about myself, that I love writing courses and blogs, and I love doing research to hone in on new pedagogy approaches or new research out there to give the very best and accurate information to teachers who are looking for information. So I love the research and the writing. I love connecting with teachers and doing presentations and webinars and developing courses and curriculum. So I will be doing kind of big picture things like that, um, and lots of writing, I believe. And we're just gonna see how this takes shape. It's kind of fun to be at this stage of things where it started as you know, a bi-weekly blog with a video here and there. And now we're talking about curriculum development and content and you know, our plans for the future and an Etsy shop and an online store with curriculum and resources and courses. So I am truly very, very excited to see what happens next.

SPEAKER_00: 10:50

Oh, me too. It's gonna be a lot of fun. So, next, I would love to do something fun. And you and I haven't done this on the podcast before. I'm not sure you've even done this in your other podcast, but we're just gonna kind of go off topic a little bit. Oh, I love it. And um ask some random questions. Oh, we're gonna get to know each other. We're gonna get to know each other. Are you ready? I love it. I am. You go first. Okay. First question. What music do you listen to when you are not teaching?

SPEAKER_01: 11:23

Oh, okay. I love instrumental music. I listen to um a lot of playlists on Spotify. I don't really listen to a lot of classical. I lean more towards like cinematic theme, uh like film music or um orchestral. I really love um instrumental bluegrass kind of music or like Celtic. Um I listen to a lot of that and I don't get tired of it. If I find a good playlist, I will listen to it ad nauseum for months. Um, to the point where I can just predict what song is coming next and I just love it. Um, so that's that's something kind of quirky about me. Um all right, I have a question for you. Okay. What is your favorite drink to get at a coffee shop?

SPEAKER_00: 12:17

Oh, anybody that knows me knows knows this. We haven't been in person a lot together, but I always usually get a chai latte, a hot chai latte, but with less chai. So, like if you're at Starbucks, two pumps instead of four. If it's pumpkin season, like two pumps of chai, two pumps of pumpkin. Okay. If I am driving anywhere, I will get an iced caramel coffee with cream because I will fall asleep when I drive. So I will I will do that. But that is that is that's kind of your standard order. That is my standard order, yeah. I love it. Yep. Okay. Another one for you. You ready? Yes. What is your least favorite, or who is your least favorite composer to teach?

SPEAKER_01: 13:11

Oh dear. Um okay, so this is my can my favorite composer to play, but I really don't like teaching their music because it's my favorite composer to play. Um, it would be Chopin because I have played and performed so much Chopin. Um, my master's lecture recital was on the Chopin Nocturne. So I performed so many of them, and I've done the Ballads, the Scherzos, the Waltzes, you know, you you name it. I've played the Chopin. I don't love teaching it because I I'm always like, oh, this is gonna be a painful process. So that's probably my least favorite composer to teach, I'll be honest. Even though it's my favorite composer to play, I don't like teaching it.

SPEAKER_00: 14:02

I love that. I love that answer. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01: 14:05

Let me ask you that same question. Your least favorite composer here.

SPEAKER_00: 14:11

Um yeah, I'm gonna go around the roundabout way to answer. I love teaching like modern music, or when I was in um college and graduate school, like the um 20th century composers. I just I love that. My favorite piece ever to perform is Takata for Piano by um Emma Lou Diemer. You get to mess with the inside of the piano, it's it's so much fun. Um, and I like teaching it that the kids, you know, they get to explore. So my least favorite, probably revealing a good weakness here, is and just like you, I like playing Bach, but I do struggle to teach it.

SPEAKER_01: 14:53

That's probably not you're not the only person to think that, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_00: 14:58

Yeah, I like playing Bach if I need to get my brain calmed down, organized. You know, it um it's just world music is very um predictably rhythmic, like very even.

SPEAKER_01: 15:13

So it's a very calming thing to listen to as well, I find.

SPEAKER_00: 15:18

Yeah, I love it. And I do, I agree with you. I find Chopin a little difficult to teach. Um this is where I like to connect with my if I have teenage students who might be a little angsty. Well, let's just do the C minor prelude.

SPEAKER_01: 15:32

Oh, that that has been a gateway for some deep conversations in my studio and the E the E minor prelude. That's so mournful. Um yeah, I I have some some pretty awkwardly hilarious memories of that one. I'll have to share some.

SPEAKER_00: 15:51

All right, I'd have got another uh another question for you. Uh let's see. Name three pet peeves, not related, or can be if you want to, but just general in-life pet peeves. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 16:08

Um I do not like itchy clothing or anything itchy. I cannot handle it like a scarf, it has to be very soft. Jackets cannot be itchy. I cannot handle itchy. It just is very distracting to me because I'm thinking about what's itching rather than what I need to be thinking about. So anything that's itchy, I don't I don't like it. Um another pet peeve is when people do not use their turn signal in front of me, but they quickly put on their brakes and turn that greatly annoys my spirit, like deep within my soul. I'm very annoyed by that. Um and then, oh, this is a kind of funny one, but one of my biggest pet peeves is if James and I go out to eat and I order food that's supposed to be hot and I don't get it when it's very, very hot. I I like to receive it just right out of the oven. Just literally throw it from the oven straight onto my plate and then ship it over to me, piping hot. I will wait for it to cool down myself. But if I get food that somebody else has waited to like for it to cool and then brought to me, it just is so sad. Like there's nothing more depressing than a plate of mushy, moderately warm French fries or waffle fries. So those are really quirky things, but it's the little things that matter.

SPEAKER_00: 17:41

It really is, it really is. My number one pet peeve in life, number one, hands down, is if I'm walking somewhere on a sidewalk, a park, maybe an amusement park, although I don't, I really don't like to go to those anymore. And somebody, I'm trying to find the proper word for this, and somebody expectorates on the sidewalk. Oh, that's disgusting. I can't, I I just can't. Like I literally have to control myself from saying something. It's just nasty. And then somebody's gonna walk in it and it's gonna walk every it's gonna go everywhere. Thank you. No, thank you. Keep that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:25

That's that is that is disgusting.

SPEAKER_00: 18:28

Yeah, yeah. Trying to think the driving thing. Um, Raleigh tends to have some um aggressive drivers. They do, they do. Um, so I it's it's terrifying to drive anymore because you'll likely get cut off multiple times. And um yeah, I don't know. I've I've got some, but I'm trying to be nice.

SPEAKER_01: 18:52

Oh, I am I'm actually enjoying hearing your pet peeves. It makes me feel not quite so bad about having my own. And you know, it's just part of being human.

SPEAKER_00: 19:02

Last question. And as we head into the Christmas season, I know I have my answer for this. What piece do you never want to teach again?

SPEAKER_01: 19:14

Oh, holiday or just in general? In general. Oh boy. Okay. Um I have two answers. Jolly old St. Nicholas. I never ever want to teach again because it is an every beginner piano holiday series. Four, four, four, four, three, three, three. And it turns into the most mournful, depressingly weird dirge that's kind of an homage to Jolly Old St. Nicholas, but is not Jolly at all. So that's that's probably my number one piece. I don't ever want to teach again. And a close second, um close second might be the petzold Bach minuet and G. Not a not a huge fan of that one.

SPEAKER_00: 20:05

Okay. Been there, done that.

SPEAKER_01: 20:07

What about you?

SPEAKER_00: 20:09

Um, and I know we we talked about this question the other day, so I've been trying to change my perspective, but I I feel the same about jingle bells. And so I've been trying to think a little more creatively, like, how can I fall back in love with this? Because I I am going to hear it multiple times a year, every year. And it's in, like Jolly Old St. Nicholas, it's in every book. Um, sometimes with a different title, so it's not Christmas, but um yeah, jingle bells. So I'm trying to change it up and yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 20:43

Well, maybe you haven't found an arrangement you love yet.

SPEAKER_00: 20:46

There we go. But I've got bells in my percussion drawer. Oh. And we know we have the little things we can do on the high notes there. So it's true. I might use this as a um improvisation, improvisatory exercise with students this year. Um I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:06

If you don't have sleigh bells, I highly encourage sleigh bells. It changed my mood on jingle bells, just having students. I also just love the sound of big bells. I really do. Um it's just so fun. But I love I love the sleigh bells to use those with jingle bells because it's not an annoying like tinny bell sound. It's like a it's a bell. I don't know how to explain it. It's so much more joyful sounding than a tinny. But that's a good, this would be a great blog post series as well. Good arrangements of music that we all might be a little tired of.

SPEAKER_00: 21:49

Oh, yes, that would be really, really good. What are our favorite arrangements of it?

SPEAKER_01: 21:52

Oh, maybe there's some duet arrangements or it is my all-time favorite jingle bells, probably is the Robert Van Daal because it changes meter so frequently that it is like a jingle bell rhapsody, like a rhapsody on jingle bells, and it is so fun that you have to hang on to your bench. And you can't if you can't get bored, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 22:16

I have to look for this now. I'm making a note.

SPEAKER_01: 22:18

It's really fun. I'll see if I can remember which book it's in, and I'll also link it in the description because maybe somebody else is looking for a fun arrangement of jingle bells. It is that season, it is, it is, and I hope y'all have enjoyed this more casual episode today. Tara and I thought it would just be so fun to ask each other some random questions because yes, we are serious, intentional teachers that think a lot about big topics like teaching neurodivergent students and all of those very serious leaning things. But we're also just two friends and colleagues who love having fun and love sharing the the normalities of teaching life. So that's what this episode has been a little a little reprieve from our typical style today.

SPEAKER_00: 23:11

Yeah, I have a question for you. Yes. Well, or for both of us, let's tell everyone how we met and how our friendship developed. I remember when I first interacted with you.

SPEAKER_01: 23:23

What do you I do? It was about the um adaptive piano pedagogy 101 course, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 23:30

It was before that. Oh no. It was on Instagram. Um, because you were speaking at the Raleigh Piano Teachers Association, and I couldn't attend, but I was so excited.

SPEAKER_01: 23:44

And then I actually reached out to you to ask if you would have room in your studio for a couple of my students.

SPEAKER_00: 23:49

Yes, yeah. Um, and then I had followed you since then. We exchanged a couple of messages, and then you did the adaptive piano pedagogy course, the first iteration of it. Um, and I jumped on immediately. Um, and then I mean, of course, you're obviously been the real deal, but in you know, in that sense, when I took the course, I was like, uh, she knows she knows what she's talking about. This is solid research compared to misinformation, because my experience as a mom uh told me that. And so from there, um, I don't know, I think we learn from each other because I I absolutely you have to put words in your mouth.

SPEAKER_01: 24:31

No, and I that's another thing that made me so glad to get to know you because anytime I can connect with a parent that has kids who learn differently, like I kind of want to check my own research. Like, hey, is this on brand? Is this accurate? And so to hear from all the parents I've talked to, the teachers who are parent parents, but you know, parents of my former students, and then to connect with you on piano teaching and neurodiversity and hear, yes, and now we get to partner together. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 25:07

Watch out world.

SPEAKER_01: 25:08

Here we come. Watch out world. Oh my goodness, what a delightfully fun episode this has been. And if you're listening and you have uh an answer to one of our questions that we asked each other, drop it in a comment on one of our social media platforms on the Facebook or Instagram, wherever you see this podcast episode being talked about. I would love to know what your pet peeve is, or what your favorite drink is at a coffee shop, or what piece you're really tired of teaching, or what composer you don't like teaching. So I think that would be really fun to get to know other teachers who might comment.

SPEAKER_00: 25:46

I do too. I love it. We'll have to throw this clip on Instagram and and get some get some responses there too.

SPEAKER_01: 25:53

Absolutely. Well, Tara, thank you for not only joining me today, but for being willing and excited to partner with me in creative piano pedagogy. And I think we have some really fun days ahead. We do. I can't wait. Thank you all for listening, and we will be back next week with another episode on piano teaching.