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This is a companion website to a series on improvisation for students, ranging from beginner to advanced. Has anyone ever used this series? I'm considering buying it to see what it has to offer.

A great group that covers a lot of contemporary songs, often creating mash ups with Western classical pieces. Don't be fooled! They play piano and cello and sometimes sing.

This is a great website that provides free sheet music for various instruments as well as music theory lessons. For private piano lessons, I search for classical and popular sheet music. There is sheet music for levels ranging from 1 (easy) to 5 (most advanced). The score arrangements appear to be suitable for beginners. The arrangements also make it an easy transition for when students are ready to learn to original scores.

This website has online piano lessons and suggestions for jazz listening.

A podcast interview with Jennifer Eklund, who has created her own beginner piano method for teenage beginners.

This site lists different activities that can be used to develop piano student's ears. These exercises develop the students' aural abilities.

This website provides valuable resources for piano teachers. It can be used as a group class or private teaching. It contains worksheets, games, sheet music (easy and intermediate level). It is suitable for early childhood and elementary students.

Apronus Piano is an online piano that works on both touchscreens and with piano keyboards. As opposed to some online keyboard that play C when you press the letter C, D when you press the letter D, it uses the keyboard as close to a piano as possible. The second row of keys corresponds to the white keys on the piano and the number row corresponds to the black keys as they occur (with one or two exceptions). The bottom two rows can be used to play chords. The range of the keyboard can be adjusted to hear different notes. This online piano can be used as extra practice for general music or piano students or as a substitution for a real piano if keyboards are not available but computers are available. It could also be used in conjunction with composition assignments or for choral students to practice vocal lines.

From the Top is a PBS series that features young performers on the Carnegie Hall stage. Each clip includes background and an interview with Christopher O'Riley (host and sometimes piano accompanist). There are representations of almost every major instrument in band and orchestra as well as vocalists, choral ensembles, pianists, and guitarists. The young performers have selected pieces in a variety of styles and some have amazing background stories, including an Olympic skater and one about the effects of Hurricane Katrina. The website also includes podcasts and a section for teachers that includes lesson plans to incorporate along with each episode. Clicking on From the Top at the bottom of the page gets you to more recent streaming videos from the show at fromthetop.org

This website offers many applications to help teach virtually anyone to play piano. These apps use the latest gaming software to help make learning the piano fun.

JoyTunes makes absolutely phenomenal piano learning apps, especially PianoMaestro, which I use with my second graders. They download the app on their iPads, and it guides them through the basics of piano playing, all the way through playing simple songs and melodies. It's definitely worth checking out!

A blog from the Harmony Road site which provides several tips for teaching a group piano course.

This website has many piano/keyboard resources that can be printed. It has great, colorful visuals for students to use that are decently explanatory on their own.

This website provides many resources pertaining to teaching piano. There are games, worksheets, improv help, and ear training resources to help teachers and students.

This resource provides piano teachers with tips about how to help students begin to improvise.

How Many Keys Are There On A Piano? is an interesting article about the history of the piano. It talks about the different varieties of pianos and the number of keys on them. It's a very interesting quick read through the development of the piano in history.

This website offers worksheets, games, and tutorial videos for teachers to use with their younger piano students (K-6 to) to enhance student engagement and understanding. Some basic theory is taught in the form of colorful dittos for students, and other theory or technique is taught by game-based worksheets. There are a number of resources to accommodate major holidays and calendar events as well. There are many link that branch off into different other sites to facilitate the sharing of ideas with other educators. Videos are also included to demonstrate how various games and lessons should be structured for maximum efficiency.

Yousician is a great resource for learning the guitar, bass, ukelele, or piano. Students can watch video tutorials and move up when they pass levels while playing songs with fun background music. The program/app provides instant feedback on pitch and rhythm. Teachers can use Yousician with a class on a Smart Board. In a group setting, Yousician cannot provide feedback, but it does provide lesson plans and even has a SongCreator. It is free to use with time limits on feedback, or can be upgraded to premium for $9.99/person with unlimited feedback. Students can sign up for their own account and teachers can track their progress through a Teacher account. It is fun, engaging, and provides a well rounded education in these instruments. There are knowledge tracks for each instrument which cover music theory and ear training.

Free podcasts available online, also on iTunes, to learn how to play jazz piano. There are a lot of episodes and it starts simple and easy before it gets a bit more advanced. There's an easy progression of increasing difficulty. These podcasts are a great resource for students and teachers for increasing their jazz piano abilities.

"Piano Keys Completed: 5 Errors: 1 Score: 83% Time: 25 sec Average time: 3.0 sec "

Looking for a blog? This website gives the top five blogs for music teachers!