Category: music performance

Entrepreneur, learning environment, music performance, piano performance, Uncategorized

🌷 March in the Studio

lizteachespiano


February has been a busy and stressful month, finished off with a week of bad cold. But March in the studio is here, and it feels like spring might finally be around the corner.

The days are stretching a little longer, there’s more light in the afternoons, and that sense of renewal is finding its way into lessons. Here are some lovely additions to my spring calendar:


🎹 Spring Student Concert


The Spring Student Concert is coming up, and the studio is officially in performance mode. Pieces are being refined, tricky passages are being gone over, and students are stepping into the focused, intentional work that performing requires.

Performing is not the goal for everyone who plays an instrument, but for me concerts are one of the biggest reasons I make music. I tell my students that playing piano is a mind game as well as learning notes, and a performance mindset is just part of how I teach.

Having a performance on the horizon shifts everything. Students begin to move beyond “playing the correct notes” and start thinking more musically and independently. You have to be mentally prepared for something not to go as planned.

Performance teaches resilience, preparation, problem-solving, and presence. It gives meaning to scales, slow practice, and repetition. When students sit down at the piano they won’t just be performing a piece — they’ll be demonstrating discipline, growth, and courage. Watching that transformation is one of the most meaningful parts of my work.

🎶 Orion Felt — Out Now on Bandcamp


I’m excited to share that my album, Orion Felt, is officially out now on Bandcamp!
This record serves as both the prequel and the final chapter of the concept album story I’ve built. It reaches back to where everything began while also bringing the narrative full circle — connecting themes, characters, and emotions from across the entire arc.


Orion Felt is reflective, cinematic, and deeply intentional — designed to be experienced as both a beginning and an ending.


If you’d like to support independent music directly, Bandcamp is the best place to stream, download, and share the album.

🎶 Live Concert


I’ll also be performing the album live at Omni on March 5th. Bringing this music into a shared space feels like the natural completion of the project. In many ways, the live performance is where the music becomes fully itself. My special events page holds where I’ll be playing next.


Thank you to everyone who has followed this journey. This chapter closes the story — and opens something new.


Listen now on Bandcamp.

Entrepreneur, Music Composition, music performance, music production, synthesizer, Uncategorized

🎶✨I believe in live music ✨🎶

lizteachespiano

As teachers, we pour a lot of creative energy into helping students grow.

But sometimes the best professional development comes from reconnecting with our own creativity. For me, that happens through being a music artist.

Being a musician keeps my mind flexible and reminds me and my students that I too am learning, trying new things, taking risks, and practicing patience. When I’m making music, I’m reminded that growth takes curiosity, bravery, and joy—exactly what I want to model for my students.

🎤 And so, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be doing a live stream music concert on YouTube 11th December!

To celebrate my album Solar Flower being on Bandcamp and available to buy, I’ll be performing some songs from the album… and maybe even some behind-the-scenes stories and an exclusive new song!

Streaming is a great way for me to keep performing even with a busy teaching schedule, and it lets people join from anywhere—no venue, this time no tickets, just music.

And for anyone who believes in music like I do, and is able and wants to support my creative work, I do have Ko-fi and Pay Pal available. (This is optional for this show, but always appreciated.)

📺 Come to a Live Youtube concert!

⭐Everyone Can Join

Students, colleagues, friends, and family can tune in no matter where they are.

⭐Builds a Creative Community

At the moment, for this first show I will most likely make it public and have the live chat open, so it feels like a shared experience even though we’re all in different places.

⭐Blends Teaching & Musicianship

It shows that educators can be artists too. Creativity isn’t something we only teach—it’s something I live.

⭐Low-Stress, High-Impact

No travel, no setup at a venue—just a chance to make music and connect with people.

Thanks for supporting both my teaching and my music. I can’t wait to share the livestream with you—head to my special events page for more information! 🎶✨

beginner tutorial, Entrepreneur, Music Composition, music performance, music production, Review, singing lessons, Singing teacher, synthesizer, Uncategorized

Eventide Space pedal: More Than Just Reverb?

lizteachespiano

I have never used a guitar pedal before, so I wasn’t even sure what to expect. I know pedals add effects like distortion or delay, but does it make a real difference? Pedals all seemed a bit like background stuff, or pedals are for people so proficient they know exactly what it will aid with. So when I managed to try out the Eventide Space pedal — this mysterious, brick with 11 knobs and names like “Blackhole” and “Mangled Verb” — I wondered what it would do.

What happened instead was more like falling to another dimension of live sound 🌠.

There isn’t just delays and distortion. Its texture, depth, movement — sounds I didn’t even know a guitar could make. As someone totally new to the world of pedals, the Eventide Space really inspired me in guitar playing and musical ideas.

If you’ve ever wondererd, “What would it sound like if my guitar was echoing inside a black hole?” —now you can wonder no more!

First Impressions:

Physically, the Eventide Space is built like a tank — solid, black, serious. It looks more like a piece of studio gear than a pedalboard buddy. There’s a screen, 11 knobs, multiple footswitches, and lots of buttons. I like how tactile it is.

If you’re coming from a basic Hall/Room pedal, your first reaction might be: “Wait… what do all these do?” If you take a minute or two to play around with sounds and then twist knobs the other way whilst playing sounds, you’ll figure it out quite quickly.

Yes, Space does hall, room, plate, and spring — and they sound good. But that’s not why people buy this thing.

People buy Space for the Blackhole, Shimmer, and MangledVerb algorithms — lush, sweeping, otherworldly sounds that feel more like film scores than guitar FX.

Put simply- it sounds really cool without having to try.

And the modulation. The delays. The reverse features. You start with reverb, but end up somewhere between Blade Runner and a sunrise on Mars.

Not Just for Guitar

One of the best-kept secrets about Space is that it works on vocals, synths, and even drums. I’ve yet to try this yet, but I will. In fact, some producers treat it more like an outboard effect than a pedal . Ambient musicians and post-rock bands would especially love it for its pad-like qualities.

Specifications

  • 100 presets (including 50 user slots)
  • Full MIDI control
  • Expression pedal inputs
  • tap tempo
  • A “HotSwitch” for instant changes

you can get incredible results by just tweaking three knobs: Mix, Size, and Decay.

This is actually a Drum and Bass song I wrote (which you can check out here with all my music), but I’m demonstrating how inspirational and diverse this pedal is.

Downsides?

Very few.

  • Price: Around 5000kr , so it’s not cheap.
  • Learning curve: If you don’t like menus, be prepared to spend time tweaking.
  • Mono input: It can limit how you use it with stereo rigs without extra routing.

These feel like small trade-offs for what you get in return.

Here is a link if you want to look at it further Eventide Space Pedal

 Who Is This For?

Bedroom guitarist chasing dreamy soundsYes, but expect to lose hours
Ambient musician layeringAbsolutely
Straight-ahead blues playerMaybe try a simpler cheaper pedal
Studio producer or synth wizardThis is gold!

The Eventide Space is the kind of pedal that makes you play differently. Think less about solos and more about soundscapes. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it’s deep. But if you want reverb that feels like actual space, this is the one🌌.

Thanks for reading!

learning environment, Music Lessons, music performance, piano lessons, piano performance, piano practice, piano teacher, singing lessons, Singing teacher, Uncategorized

From Practice to Performance

lizteachespiano

Over the past few weeks, one of my students (as well as learning scales, arpeggios and two other more traditional pieces) went from practice to performance, giving a gorgeous rendition of “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star on piano.

It started with the basics—practice getting comfortable with the chords , smoothing out transitions, and keeping a steady rhythm. Slowly but surely, the song performance began to take shape.

This post is about how that hard work paid off!

To help the student experience the feel of moving from practice to performance, I picked up a guitar and began to accompany them—singing the melody while playing a bit of an accompaniment .As the familiar chords rang out from the piano, supported by gentle strumming and vocals, everything clicked.

My student wasn’t just practicing anymore—they were playing music. 

From practice to performance

Hearing their part in context brought a new level of understanding and confidence. It was a real collaboration, and a reminder that even simple chords can create something powerful when shared.

Moments like this are what music lessons are all about: connection, creativity, and the joy of turning practice into performance.

Never underestimate a good teacher, an amazing student and a song.

beginner tutorial, Business, Entrepreneur, learning environment, Music Composition, music performance, music production, synthesizer, Uncategorized

Review: Polyend play + groovebox

lizteachespiano

I recently got to try the Polyend Play + groovebox by Polyend, and thought I could share some thoughts and review it—especially for those of you who are more of a beginner in music gear like me!

What Is It?

The Polyend Play + is a groovebox—basically a music-making machine that lets you:

  • Load sounds (called samples)
  • Sequence beats and melodies
  • Jam and experiment with music—no computer needed!

Think of it like a beat-making playground. You can try out some ideas and also use to enhance your live performances.

Who It’s For:

  • Producers wanting a hands-on groovebox with solid DAW sync and good sound design options.
  • People comfortable with importing samples and diving into menus.
  • If you want to add layers and beats to your live performances

 What I Liked:

✅ Super fun to use – You can start making beats right away. It comes with hundreds of built-in sounds, and the colourful grid makes it easy to build loops. It has a ‘Fill’ function which is great!
✅ Playful and creative – You don’t need to know music theory. It encourages happy accidents and experimenting.
✅ Looks amazing – The interface is clean, the lights are bright, and it’s just fun to look at and touch.

Polyend Play + groovebox review

Pros and Cons

👎

  • Menu diving for editing—knobs aren’t fully descriptive; deeper edits require interface navigation, so to change reverbs/delays/LFO etc you will need to go a bit deeper into menus and know what you want.
  • Squares everywhere– it helped me to think of bars in classical music, and then tracks in a DAW for each horizontal line of squares- but the layout does take a bit of time to get your head around.
  • User reports of bugs/crashes—I made a drum and bass beat, which another time suddenly glitched out and deleted. Luckily it wasn’t too hard to re create and it didnt do it again, but for some this could be very upsetting! Many fixes are firmware-based; results vary by unit.

👍

  • Impressive sound palette – synth engines sound rich, not thin or digital, and pair well with sample tracks- the control of sound and how much you can play with the sound is very professional.
  • Workflow + Perform mode = Once you have a basic idea of what the buttons do then you can create something very cool very quickly. Step repeater and Fill make jamming truly engaging You can get a loop going in no time at all.
  • DAW integration is smooth thanks to multichannel USB streaming.
  • I also really like it has Synthesizer function! These have so many sounds to choose from.

Ive linked a more technical/ spec heavy review here

Polyend Play+ is a powerful, fun, and creative groovebox with next-level synth engines and very flexible sequencing. Whether you are a studio composer or want to make beats live- if you value sound quality, technology and integration, it’s a compelling choice.

Let me know your thoughts if you’ve tried this or another groovebox! Thanks for reading!