Teaching Approach

Interest leads the learning process. Lessons emphasize independent thinking about music. Students play with ease and fluency and comfortably share their music in a variety of social settings, including the studio’s annual Halloween Piano Party. In addition to composing, arranging, reading, and writing music notation, students improvise, play by ear, transpose, and harmonize. My goal is to develop the entire musician and build a lifetime of skills. While I teach students of all ages, I specialize in beginners between four and ten years of age. 

For students between four and seven years old, I use a method called Music Moves for Piano. It is currently the only research – based piano method that exists and builds on Orff, Kodaly, Suzuki, and Dalcroze. It also applies Music Learning Theory (MLT) to piano lessons. Students learn rhythm and melodic patterns first. They use these patterns to improvise, arrange, and learn pieces before being introduced to notation. This is similar to the way we learn language, and is the core of MLT. Lessons emphasize singing, chanting, and moving. 

For students seven and older, I use a variety of approaches. All students are welcome to participate in VTPA recitals, Massachusetts Music Teachers Association competitions, and Royal Conservatory Exams. 

Background

Dorothy Claire Glover received a Bachelor of Arts in Music, emphasis in Organ Performance, from Belhaven University. In 2018 she received two grants, NFMC’s Ouida Keck Award and MTNA’s Teacher Enrichment Grant, to attend a Golandsky Institute Symposium and study with a Taubman Certified teacher for a year. Through the help of two patient and knowledgeable teachers, Beth Grace and Amy McLelland, she overcame a playing related injury.  She has taught piano for twelve years and loves finding the best ways to help children learn music. She holds Level 1 Comprehensive Musicianship Certificate from the International Piano Teaching Foundation and is working towards completing a Level 1 Piano Certificate from the Gordon Institute of Music Learning.

She currently serves as the Director of Music at United Congregational Church in Holyoke and teaches piano from her studio in beautiful South Deerfield. She loves playing classical music and currently studies organ with Dr. Larry Shipull and piano with Julia Bady, a level two Taubman Certified teacher.

Contact

Dorothy Claire Glover
601-421-5032 (call/text)
gloverpianostudio@gmail.com
www.gloverpianostudio.com

Glover Piano Studio
265 Greenfield Road, Ste. 1
South Deerfield, MA 01373