While there is a great deal of scholarly inquiry focusing on student teaching experiences in the field of classroom education, there are few resources devoted to student teaching in the context of the applied music lesson. In this article, a teacher educator in the field of piano pedagogy uses self-study to combine reflection on personal experience with academic research. This results in recommendations for best practices in developing successful applied music student teaching experiences, as well as in models to aid in evaluation of this teaching. The conclusions of this self-study not only aid applied music teacher educators in developing an artistic, effective pedagogy of applied music instruction, but also expand the limited academic writing about student teaching in the piano pedagogy curriculum. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)