137: Music Moves for Piano with Anne Katherine Davis
How a student learns to think in music, not just read it, shapes everything that follows in their playing. In this episode, I’m chatting with Anne Katherine Davis, an online piano teacher based in Mexico who built her teaching around Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory. We talk about audiation, the foundation of this research-based approach, how it shows up in lessons from toddlers to teens, and how Anne found her way into this method without formal certification. She also shares where curious teachers can start exploring it for themselves. Anne shared how she moved to Mexico in 2019, then went fully online in 2020. How Music Learning Theory shifts teaching from fixing mistakes to understanding each student. Why audiation, the ability to think in music, is the theory’s foundation. She described how toddlers can identify tonic, dominant, and subdominant through play. Anne recalled being an improviser whose childhood teachers discouraged her own musical ideas. Her first student was her younger sister, who later earned a piano performance degree, too. How she discovered the theory through Edwin Gordon’s book at the University of Missouri. Marilyn Lowe built Music Moves for Piano directly from Gordon’s research. Anne described keyboard games as the informal, movement-based entry point for young kids. The value of movement in bridging the gap between language and musical thought. She called “Keyboard Games” Marilyn Lowe’s magnum opus, useful for any age. Why she trained informally through years of conversations with Marilyn Lowe herself. Anne runs a Zoom read-aloud series to help teachers learn the theory for free. She recommended the Gordon Institute’s skill learning sequence as a next step. Anne encouraged teachers to explore the free previews on the method’s website. Links Mentioned Anne's Instagram page: @akdpiano Music Moves for Piano The Gordon Institute for Music Learning The Rote Repertoire Project Facebook Group Today’s Guest Anne Katherine Davis is a pianist and pedagogue living in Central Mexico, offering online instruction to students and colleagues around the world. She focuses on research-based learning applying the work of Dr. Edwin E. Gordon. Ms. Davis holds a B.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Missouri, an M.M. in Piano Performance and a G.P.D. from The Boston Conservatory. About Rachel Ehring Dr. Rachel Ehring is a pianist, teacher, music administrator, and lover of piano teaching gadgets. She holds a DMA in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado Boulder and a MM in Accompanying from the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Director at St. John’s Conservatory of the Arts in Orange County, CA. Previously, she held positions at Concordia University Irvine and Henderson State University. Rachel is passionate about empowering music teachers to create engaging and exciting lessons for students of all ages. When she isn’t playing the piano, you might find Rachel reading books with her son or walking her beagle Frieda. Visit her website at RachelEhring.com Visit her Instagram page: @rachelehring Visit her YouTube channel: @dreamlavendermusic6694 Visit her Etsy shop at Dream Lavender Music Thank you for tuning in! Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you. If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, which helps other teachers find our show. Stay updated by subscribing to this show , and get automatic delivery to your device every time a new episode goes live! We publish on Fridays weekly. TopMusicPro 14-Day Free Trial Heard about TopMusicPro Membership? As a valued podcast listener, I’d like to offer you a special chance to try our community free for 14 days. You can access a treasure trove of teaching resources, professional development courses, and creative lesson ideas. Click the link below to access your exclusive 14-day free trial for our Studio Membership. TOPMUSICPRO MEMBERSHIP 14-DAY FREE TRIAL