Meredith Duncan, January, organize and create piano curriculum

Hello all, my name is Meredith Duncan. I live in West Jordan, Utah in Nora's old neighborhood. I have four children; Makaylee (10), Noah (7), Morgan (4), and Luke (1), and a wonderful husband Matt. I am a stay at home mom and I love it!! I hate cooking but I do it because I am a stay at home mom. I love music, shopping, running, eating, and hanging with my fam.

The Duncan Clan

I met Nora about 5 years ago when I was walking my oldest daughter to Kindergarten. I actually had met her once before briefly at church. We met real quickly in passing for about two seconds but apparently that warranted a friendship because as I was walking my daughter to school I heard someone come up behind me on her bike (kids in pull) and say "hello friend".  A couple weeks later she invited me to come to a fireside with her. On our way home she was telling me that she once was a counselor at Oakcrest Girls Camp and then she proceeded to sing the "Chicken" song complete with leg kicking actions all while she was driving. It was then that I knew I wanted to be friends with this crazy, fun-loving chick. We started running together and then she convinced me that Triathlons are fun. So we trained one Spring together. A couple years later we trained and ran the Ogden Half Marathon. I miss our "confessional" early morning runs. P.S. it was on one of our early morning runs that she told me all about this "Projects Connect" idea that she wanted to construct. What a great idea! So glad she followed through. :)


My goal for January was to organize, compile and come up with some type of set curriculum for my growing piano studio. I started teaching piano a little over a year ago when my neighbor down the street asked me to teach her son. At first I was a little apprehensive because it had been years, really decades, since I considered myself a good piano player. Although I took piano lessons for 12 years, other things in my life (work, husband, kids) had taken a front seat to sitting down and actually practicing playing. It was my calling as Primary Chorister three years ago that reminded me of my great love for music. This calling also gave me a new found love for teaching music. So when my friend asked me to teach piano I thought "sure, why not". As I started teaching I soon realized, "hey, I know this stuff, I can do this." So I brushed up on a few terms and concepts, blew the dust off some of my old pieces and started playing again. I actually love, love, love, teaching. I love playing the piano so I guess it is no surprise that I love to teach it as well. Needless to say, now I have 14 students and I am so excited!! I love 3:00 in the afternoon because I know students are coming and I get to spend the next hour involved in piano (and get paid for it).

A cherished gift from my wonderful Husband for Mother's Day

This month my goal was to organize my studio (I love that word, it sounds so official) a little more. The first thing I knew that I wanted to set up and start doing was a group lesson once a month. So I organized and held my first lesson the last week of January. In this group lesson we began with each student playing a piece for everyone else. Then the rest of the hour we spent going over note reading and playing two games that gave us all note recognition practice. I must say this was really fun and I thought it was very successful. I hope my students all felt the same way. I have so many more fun ideas for these group lessons.

First Group Lesson (don't they look like they are having fun)

Next I knew that I wanted to schedule a recital.  Boom, done. June 19th, 2014 5:00, Daynes Music Recital Hall.You are all invited to come. Now the fun part is picking out pieces and helping the students get ready.

The last thing and the hardest thing I wanted to do was set up a curriculum for finger exercises and theory work.  90% of my students have had one or more teachers prior to me. They all came from different lesson modules and levels. For the most part, we have been able to pick up from where they left off and try to fill in or concentrate on what they did not know. But because there are a few different systems going on, and me being a planner and a little of a control freak, I wanted to bring it all together and have some type of system or plan. I am not sure if I want to follow one specific series (Faber, Alfred, etc.) or create one of my own incorporating everything. I really like the "A Dozen A Day" finger exercises but I know I need more. Anyways, this part of my goal is still a work in progress. I thought I would be able to create one in a month but it looks as if it might take longer. I know that a lot of you are piano teachers or piano players, so please any feed back from you is greatly appreciated. What works best for you?

My next month's goal is to paint and remodel, to a small degree, the children's bathroom. Whew, better get started.