Although I have taught piano for many a year and networked with plenty of teachers, I have never seen as amazing of a home studio as my good friend, Miss Becky’s studio.  Not only is she an amazing teacher, she has a studio that knocks your socks off.  She was kind enough to let me feature her studio and show off some of her hard work on getting the perfect set-up for a fun yet functional place for teaching music students.

A piano teacher’s supplies should include a well set-up piano station, supplemental instruments, teacher props, and ways to organize all of that in a studio.

Miss Becky has all of that here in this well functioning studio.  With how many lessons Miss Becky does a day and with how much she packs into each of her lessons, anyone else would be insane unless they had a studio, organized and chock full of excellent teacher supplies like hers does.

 

Piano Supplies for a Well Set-Up Piano Station 

 

 

Miss Becky has spent years collecting good quality electric pianos such as the one I recommend.  She has been lucky enough to find them used!  You must look for a piano that has weighted keys, is full sized, and will be at least quality enough to handle a little bit of abuse as it will be bumped around by kids.  Of course, you will need a piano stand and a piano bench as well.

But it takes more than a piano to get things ready for a lesson!

Take a look at how each of the pianos are so well set up.  The step stool and small rug underneath each piano is to help smaller student keep their feet flat so they can keep proper form.  It also helps keep the students stable so they aren’t knocking down the electric pianos!  The carpet is also to keep the stool in place.  The stools slide around on the hard ground otherwise.

Each piano has a pencil holder to keep a pencil, a marker (for marking their music and for doing activities), and a popsicle stick.  The pencil holder is velcroed on to help it not fall off the piano.  Miss Becky adds some fun with a glitter foam star sticker on one end of the popsicle stick.  They use the popsicle stick as a pointer in their music or worksheet.  This makes it easy for Miss Becky to quickly glance around the classroom and make sure the kids are in the right place, or she uses them to check understanding.

 

Supplemental Instruments to Supply the Studio

 

There are a few go-to instruments that Miss Becky pulls out for her studio.  They really add some fun and can be utilized for different activities and games.  They are more than just for decoration.  Have you ever noticed a kids excitement when you pull out a new instrument?  So fun!

This floor keyboard works fantastic for any age.  When you use your whole body, you are engaging multiple areas of the brain.  Miss Becky pulls out her floor keyboard when she is working on steps and skips on the keyboard.  Or when she wants the kids to make a chord.  They can walk from one key to the next to make a basic chord or an inversion.

In fact, this kind of manipulative such as the floor keyboard is fantastic for teaching and reinforcing the ideas of inversions.  Something so big and tactile can help the students understand them better.

These music bells are so awesome for kids, especially preschoolers.  While they are not yet able to have dexterity for some of the other instruments, even a 2 year old can play the bells.  The older kids can play the bells with any simple melody.  These bells are not the least expensive ones out there on the market, but the reason I prefer them is because they hold up to some long term use.  The carrying case is convenient, but it will break long before the bells will.  I wish the carrying case was more sturdy, but I won’t complain since it is a decent price for a high quality set of bells.

The drums that are on Miss Becky’s wall are fabulous!  They are not your annoying, tingy sounding drums.  Built to last, these will stand the test of time.  Miss Becky likes the larger drum so that she can place several students around them and drum out a beat.  Or keep a steady rhythm as they listen to a song.  Absolutely gorgeous instrument and one that is so fun to add to your teacher supply list.

Of course, an array of other individual percussion instruments are great to have.  These instruments are also for keeping a steady beat, teaching time signatures, and reinforcing rhythm.  Miss Becky uses these triangles which are higher quality.  They have a nice ring to them and the strings are better reinforced.

This travel piano is super cool, too!  Miss Becky lets her students borrow them when they are out of town so that they can continue to practice.  They roll up, right into a nice carrying pack to take with you anywhere!  They are not perfect — for instance, they aren’t perfectly in tune.  And you can’t play more than a few notes consecutively before it begins to sound “off”, but it works fantastic for the younger students who only play melodies.  These are a great item for any studio!  Miss Becky likes the colored key version because it matches the bells.  But there are also white keyed keyboards as well.

 

Piano Teaching Prop Supplies for Your Studio

 

Absolutely essential items for your piano studio should include a large manipulative of the staff.  Miss Becky simply bought a magnet board and placed black tape across it to represent the staff.  She has some notes that she has printed out and laminated that she can move around the staff for her lessons.  The students can also place the notes on the board as she does some teaching and assessment of understanding.  These magnetic boards are smaller so that she can bring them to the kids and place them wherever she wants in the room during her lessons.  She has more than one of these magnet boards hanging around: a couple of boards with just five lines and four spaces, and a couple of boards for treble and bass clef.

The large easel becomes another place to prop your magnet boards on, or to display other items.  The easel should be sturdy and should be able to be adjustable for your convenience as you use it for your items.

In addition to the portable magnet boards, she has a large white board hung on the wall that she has colored in the lines of the staff with black permanent marker.  In class, she can model how to write in the notes.  Or she can model how to draw a treble or bass clef or any other number of musical symbols or rhythmic notation.  This white board doesn’t move, but stays in this easy to see location.

 

Of course, to keep things running smoothly, it works best to have each student know exactly where to sit on the carpet.  Which is why Miss Becky utilizes these sit spots.  Each of the students just grab a spot to sit on in the carpet with the help of these sit spots.  These are velcro circles that velcro to the carpet, but are easily moved so you can adjust them for your different classes or lessons.

 

Supplies to Stay Organized In Your Studio

 

Notice how it is easy to navigate, its organized, and its ready to grab for supplies when its needed.  You know what this means for her students?  She can move through activities and lessons quickly and efficiently, and she is still sane.  With how many lessons she does a day and with how much she packs into each of her lessons, anyone else would be insane unless they had a studio, organized and chock full of excellent teacher supplies like hers does.

These wall file holders are right next to the teacher’s piano.  They are spacious, easy to store things in (even the puppet!), and easy to grab right in the moment of teaching.  These are for the items that you just need to have available at any given time in a lesson.  These are sturdy and have held up well for Miss Becky so far!

You can also check out the mini drawer plastic organizer sitting right atop the teacher’s piano.  This has more of your crayons, markers, scissors, sticky notes and other small items that may be needed quickly.

These large storage cabinets hold books, additional instruments, and other things that you won’t need on a daily basis.  Absolutely necessary for keeping things organized, but also helps in keeping the area clutter free.  Just to note, some things you don’t want kids to be staring at the whole time.  They just simply get distracted with your other supplies you have saved for other lessons.  Do yourself a favor and put these things safely behind doors and out of your students mind so they can focus on the lesson at hand.

 

In those cabinets, you will find an assortment of these storage bins that hold your prepared lessons with all the materials.

 

And since you still can’t have enough storage containers because you want to utilize every square inch of space, these 3 drawer plastic organizers (wheels removed) are placed on top of the storage cabinets.  Things like these storage bins are good for holding things like prizes.  That way when you pull them out, they are ready and open to view.  A lot of items don’t always fit in a drawer, so these kinds of bins work well.

I am sure you noticed Miss Becky’s beautiful assortment of instruments hung up on the wall with a guitar wall mount.  The mounts keep the instruments up where kids won’t be as likely to just grab them and start playing on them.  If you have a guitar or drum, you also realize just how much more likely it is that they could be damaged, unless they have a designated spot just for them, such as the wall space Miss Becky has designated for them.

I am sure you have seen these pocket chart organizers that Miss Becky uses for her preschool class.  Easy to grab their name when they walk through the door!  I have also seen the over the door shoe holders used for flashcards, or for papers that you want easily accessed.

 

One Thing at a Time

 

Looking at her studio can be a little overwhelming.  But Miss Becky is the first to tell you that it just takes one item at a time.  Little by little she has built up her studio to what it is today.  She is still on the look out for ways and things to improve her set-up.  But she has made full use of the years she has had it, buying just a few items at a time until she was well-stocked!

So don’t give up just because you can’t afford everything out there you want right now.  Just have a goal to get one thing for now, another thing for later.  The worst thing to do is to give up entirely and not “work” on your studio little by little.  Prioritize what is most important to you, and start with item #1.  Make a goal to be able to achieve each item on your list by a specified time.  Before you know it, you will have your studio just as fabulous as this one!

 

Check Out Miss Becky’s Studio

I am sure you are as impressed with Miss Becky’s studio as I am.  She is an absolutely fabulous teacher and her studio is certainly a reflection of that.  Check out her classes to see if your child can take part!  I highly recommend her!

A special thanks to Miss Becky for letting me feature her studio!