Sykes Piano Teacher Training

Sykes Piano Teacher Training creates teachers who are

powerful, successful, inspiring, motivating;

that create students who are

passionateabout playing piano,

extremely capablemusicians with

a loveof piano that lasts forever

choose your starting point

Who is Julia Sykes?

Julia Sykes began learning piano when she was 6 years old, began teaching at age 14, and went on to study a Bachelor of Music Education at the University of Western Australia.

In 2003 she began to develop the Sykes Piano Program and since then, been training teachers, developed many Sykes Music student books and teacher training manuals and videos. 

Why was Sykes Piano created?

Julia began developing the Sykes Piano Program because she was not satisfied with any of the other methods that existed. She was passionate about developing wellrounded, flexible and capable musicians with a lasting love of music that would continue throughout their lives. There just were not any programs that ticked all of her boxes. Some had strengths in some areas but were weak in others. She also wanted a program that was enjoyable, well- structured, thorough and capable of preparing students for a successful professional career in music if they so desired.
 

The philosophy of Sykes Music is that students learn to become musicians as well as good performers of the piano. Julia would often hear stories such as, “I learnt piano up to 6th grade and have never played piano again,” or “I learnt the piano for 7 years and don’t know how to improvise or play by ear.”

Julia learned piano through the traditional approach. By the completion of 10 years of piano lessons, she could play the piano well, read music and understand the theory of music but was severely lacking in other areas. She had no idea how to play music with others, how to improvise, even how to make three arrangements of Happy Birthday. Her aural skills were very undeveloped - something she realised once enrolled in music at university. She also had very little knowledge of any music other than classical music, and even that knowledge was very limited. This was the main motivator for Julia. She did not want students to turn into herself!

The main philosophical error in many piano methods is that students are developed into piano technicians and not musicians. Music should be about enjoyment, creativity and entertainment. Somehow students are being robbed of the real pleasure and purpose of music.

Sykes Piano for teachers

An enjoyable experience

The beautiful thing about the Sykes Piano method, is that it is everything that you need to teacher your students, all in the one program. You do not need to create your program from picking bits and pieces from many different  sources. You longer need to spend thousands of  dollars buying teaching resources nor do you need to spend hours looking for material and preparing for lessons. With the Sykes Piano Program everything is provided for you. Teachers do not need to try to figure out ‘what’ to teach their students, ‘when’ to teach things to their students, or ‘how’ to teach these things. Teachers do not need to worry that they are neglecting an area of their student’s learning. There is no experimental stage of "learning on the job", because once teachers are trained, they teach with knowledge and skills, efficiently and powerfully. Students are no longer guinea pigs for teachers to use to learn how to teach. There is no trial and error.  

With the Sykes Piano Program, a complete developmental program is at the disposal of piano teachers.

It can take students from being complete novices to advanced musicians and not only that, it is done very efficiently and the entire experience is enjoyable for everyone – the student, the teacher and everyone else involved. 

Sykes Music is not a franchised or licensed system. Sykes Music teachers do not pay a percentage of their lessons to Sykes Music. Also Sykes Music teachers receive all student referrals free of charge.

what makes a piano program great

There are many aspects of music that need to be incorporated into a music program
to ensure that it is comprehensive and well balanced. The Sykes Piano Program
incorporates many aspects of music. Each of these aspects is included in each Level
of the Program:

the comprehensive aspects of music

the comprehensive
styles of music

The Levels and Grades

The standard Sykes Piano Program begins with Levels 1 - 4. Each of these Levels are carefully designed to take the average student 10 weeks to complete. This ensures that these Levels are short- term and achievable goals. Students, parents and teachers also enjoy the satisfaction of the student progressing from Level to Level. In other methods, or usually if students are learning through an exam-based program, the goals normally take students around a year to complete. These are too long and drawn out. The student, teacher, and parent do not feel the same satisfaction of progress even if the student is progressing. Having short 10 week Levels motivates the student to practise and complete the Level so that they can progress to the next Level.

Following Levels 1 - 4 comes Preliminary Grade, then Grade 1, Grade 2 etc. Each of these Grades is of the same standard as examination Grades such as AMEB, though students learn between 15 - 20 pieces per Grade. All of the Grades have been designed into 3 Levels. For example Preliminary A Level, Preliminary B Level and Preliminary C Level. Each of these Levels are designed to take students 13 weeks to complete. The two main reasons for this division of the Grades into 3 Levels are so that the large goal of a Grade is divided into smaller, more attainable goals.

Each Level incorporates all of the aspects of the Sykes Program listed in the previous paragraph “The Comprehensive Aspects of Music,” ensuring students are always learning through a well-balanced Program. At the completion of all of the Levels, students sit a Theory and a Practical Test.

The Sykes Little Maestro Program is a Piano Program for 4 - 6 year olds. It is an unique and effective method for teaching piano to very young children. It is enjoyable and sees young students become quite competent pianists in a very short amount of time.

The Sykes Little Maestro Program includes approximately 50 pieces and exercises specially chosen for this age group. Students first of all learn to play the piano without any reading of music, and then music reading is introduced towards the later part of the Little Maestro Program. Included in the Sykes Little Maestro Program are all of the pieces and exercises of the Sykes Level 1.

Once students have completed the Sykes Little Maestro Program, they move onto Level 2 of the Sykes Piano Program and then continue through the Sykes Levels. It takes students between 6 - 12 months to complete the Little Maestro program. Therefore it is quite common for students that learn through this Program to be in Preliminary Grade by the time they are 6 years of age. One of the aspects of the Sykes Little Maestro Teacher Training focuses on specific, effective teaching techniques for 4 - 6 year olds.

first play,
then read

The reading of music when learning the piano in traditional methods, often restricts the progress of students. It is difficult and slow. Many students give up before they make it through this slow process. Also, many methods only approach learning the piano through reading music. The method used in the Sykes Program is based on the idea that first play, then read. Therefore in Level 1 students do not read any music, reading is introduced in Level 2. This means that students can enjoy playing great sounding pieces on the piano straight away and fall in love with playing the piano. By beginning to read in Level 2, the reading music process is not delayed too much. In Level 2, students follow two streams: one is they learn to play pieces of music and exercises through not reading music, and concurrently they are learning the principles of music reading through interval writing and reading exercises and the introduction of the written form of High C and Low C. Therefore when these two streams meet in Level 2, Level 3 and beyond, students are able to read music that uses both hands and notes all over the piano, including leger lines at a surprisingly advanced level of difficulty. In fact the first piece of music that they read in Level 2 uses both hands, chords and a jazzy rhythm.

Sykes Music also teaches the reading of music in a way that is much

easier and more efficient than the traditional approach to reading.

​

It is an interval based method that uses the ‘Cs’ as reference points. Letter names are used to a minimum in the early Levels. Students can read all notes on the piano by Level 4 (in one year of lessons for an average student) and they become very competent and independent sight readers. Because the students are such independent readers they are able to learn the notes of their pieces at home. This means that lesson time can be spent teaching rather than helping students work out how to play the notes. It also frees up more lesson time for other activities such as aural, improvisation and music appreciation.

Integration

The Sykes Piano Program uses an integrated approach with theory, technique, performance, music appreciation, improvisation, composition and aural. For example students will learn about the duration of notes and the names of note values, then learn how to perform rhythms using these notes, then as part of aural they will have these rhythms in their rhythmic dictation and also apply this rhythm knowledge into the performance of their pieces.

Students Progress Quickly

Sykes Piano students progress very quickly. The average student begins Preliminary Grade after just one year of lessons practising only 15 minutes 5 times a week. Then in Preliminary Grade they learn approximately 20 pieces in one year with 20 minutes practise 5 times a week. There are many reasons why Sykes students progress quickly:

20 TOP REASONS TO BECOME A SYKES PIANO TEACHER

1. You would like your students to progress quickly

2. You would like your students to continue to a high level of playing

3. You would like some students to pursue a career in music

4. You would like your students to continue playing piano for the rest of their lives

5. You would like to give your students a holistic music education

6. You would like more students

7. You want to be part of a group of like-minded teachers

8. You want ongoing support and advice to help with your teaching

9. You would like to teach your students how to improvise

10. You would like to teach your students how to learn music without sheet music

11. You would like to teach your students how to arrange music

12. You would like to teach your students how to compose

13. You would like your students to be great sight readers

14. You would like your students to love learning

15. You would like your students to continue to learn with you for years

16. You would like to not have to create a program of learning for your students

17. You have not taught much piano before and would like to learn how to be a good teacher

18. You would like to use a Program that includes sheet music, theory books, CDs, DVDs and online video and audio files

19. You would like to improve the way that you teach piano

20. You would like to teach your students a diverse range of fantastic music

The Training

Training is necessary to deliver the Sykes Piano Program as effectively as possible. The Sykes Piano Teacher Training shows piano teachers how to teach the Sykes Piano Program and become very effective and successful teachers.

The training consists of nine modules. The first three are available completely online, learning independently. However, the following modules can be conducted in person or through online sessions with your trainer.

Sykes Piano Teacher Training Modules

1. An Introduction to Sykes Music and Teaching Piano
2. The Sykes Little Maestro Program and Level 1
3. Sykes Piano Program Levels 2 - 4
4. Sykes Piano Program Preliminary Grade
5. Sykes Piano Program Grade 1
6. Sykes Piano Program Grade 2
7. Sykes Piano Program Grade 3
8. Sykes Piano Program Grade 4
9. Sykes Piano Program Grade 5

begin your training

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WHAT PEOPLE SAY

Prerequisites for training

For the piano learning experience to be successful, there are three essential elements:

1. The student is required to put in time and dedication
2. The program needs to be excellent
3. The teacher teaching the Program needs to be an excellent teacher

​

It is necessary for teachers to have a suitable level of knowledge in music and skills in playing the piano to be an effective and powerful teacher, therefore Sykes Music has prerequisites for teachers to enrol in training. These prerequisites are very reasonable.

Training Level

Module 1 - Introduction training

Module 2 - 4 Little Maestro to Preliminary training

Module 5 - Grade 1 training

Module 6 - Grade 2 training

Module 7 - Grade 3 training

Module 8 - Grade 4 training

Module 9 - Grade 5 training

Prerequisites

None

Grade 3 Piano | Grade 1 Theory

Grade 4 Piano | Grade 2 Theory

Grade 5 Piano | Grade 3 Theory

Grade 6 Piano | Grade 3 Theory

Grade 7 Piano | Grade 4 Theory

Grade 8 Piano | Grade 5 Theory

Don't have a formal qualification?

Audition

If you do not have formal qualifications, then an audition can be arranged for you.

The audition consists of two parts, a video call and a theory test:
1. You perform 2 pieces of contrasting pieces of music on the piano
2. A sight reading exercise
3. A couple of aural exercises
4. A few theory questions

At the completion of your audition, you will receive a report outlining what Level of training you will be able to complete at your current level of piano playing and music knowledge.