Category Archives: piano technique

Into the Hills with the Sound of Music –a Baldwin Acrosonic “acoustic” sings

Posted on March 5, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

The video attached to this writing validates the beauty of music-making on a well-maintained, though 1940s vintage era acoustic piano. Baldwin Acrosonics were the Cadillacs of the spinet and console variety pianos. They had a noticeable innovation compared to their … Continue reading →

Posted in Baldwin Acrosonic piano, Chopin, Chopin pedaling, Chopin Waltz in A minor no. 19, classissima, classissima.com, El Cerrito California, pedaling at the piano, phrasing at the piano, piano addict, piano blogging, piano blogs, piano instrruction, piano instruction, piano lesson, piano lessons, piano lessons in Berkeley California, piano lessons in El Cerrito California, piano studio, piano studio in El Cerrito, piano teachers, piano technique, piano technique and breathing, Piano World, piano world-wide, pianoaddict.com, pianoworld, pianoworld.com, playing piano, shirley kirsten pianist, shirley s kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, shirley smith kirsten blog, Shirley Smth Kirsten, slow mindful practicing, slow piano practicing, studying piano, The art of phrasing at the piano, the art of piano pedaling, The El Cerrito Hills, whole body listening, whole body music listening, word press, word press.com, wordpress, wordpress.com, you tube video, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged acoustic piano, Baldwin Acrosonic spinet piano, Berkeley piano studio, Chopin, Chopin Waltz no. 19 in A minor, classissima, classissima.com, El Cerrito California, El Cerrito piano studio, Frederic Chopin, piano, piano addict, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano street, Piano World, playing piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, The El Cerrito Hills, Word Press, wordpress.com, You Tube, you tube.com | 4 Comments

Piano Technique: Are arpeggios “boring?” I don’t think so!

Posted on February 22, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Arpeggios don’t deserve a bad rap! Continue reading →

Posted in Chopin, Chopin Waltz in A minor no. 19, classissima, classissima.com, Frederic Chopin, piano addict, piano technique, practicing arpeggios, you tube.com | Tagged arpeggios, Chopin, chopin Waltz in A minor No. 19, classissima, classsissima.com, piano, piano addict, piano instruction, piano lessons by Skype, piano street, piano teaching, piano technique, Piano World, piano worldwide, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, teaching arpeggios, Wordpress, wordpress.com, You Tube, youtube.com | Leave a comment

Revisiting an old piano piece learned years earlier

Posted on February 13, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

I find my current musical journey down memory lane to be joyful and challenging–especially as I cut and paste the Mozart Rondo: Allegro, K. 311 pages to fit comfortably on the piano rack. (Deja Vu, Haydn C Major Hoboken XVI35–Haydn … Continue reading →

Posted in Emanuel Ax, Lillian Freundlich, mindful piano practicing, Mozart, Mozart Sonata no. 9 in D K. 311, ornaments, phrasing at the piano, pianist, pianists, piano, piano addict, piano addict.com, piano blog, piano blogging, piano blogs, piano instruction, piano instructor, piano lesson, piano lessons, piano lessons by Skype, piano lessons for adults, piano lessons in Berkeley California, piano lessons in El Cerrito California, piano pedagogy, piano playing, piano playing and the singing tone, piano practicing, piano teachers, piano teaching, piano teaching philosophy, piano teaching repertoire, piano technique, Shirley Smith Kirsten, shirley smith kirsten blog, Shirley Smth Kirsten, the undulating wrist, the undulating wrist in piano playing, trills, whole body listening, whole body music listening, word press, word press.com, wordpress, wordpress.com, you tube, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Andante con espressione Mozart Sonata in D Major K. 311, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, Mozart, Mozart Sonata no. 9 in D Major k. 311, piano, piano addict, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano street, Piano World, piano worldwide, playing piano, re-learning a piano piece, revisiting an old piece of music, Rondo Mozart Sonata K 311, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, W.A. Mozart, Wordpress, wordpress.com, You Tube, you tube.com | Leave a comment

The C Major Scale universe: metric and muscle memory; shaping and tapering

Posted on January 25, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

The C Major scale is more than meets the “I,” if you’re the one practicing it! Continue reading →

Posted in C Major Scale, C major scale at the piano, classissima, classissima.com, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano instruction, piano instruction by Skype, piano lessons, piano lessons for adults, piano lessons in Berkeley California, piano lessons in El Cerrito California, piano teachers, piano teaching, piano technique, Piano World, pianoaddict.com, playing staccato at the piano, playing the piano, playing the piano with a singing tone, POWHOW, POWHOW instruction, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Kirsten blog, shirley s kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, shirley smith kirsten blog, skype piano lesson, Skype piano lessons, skyped piano lessons, Skyping piano lessons, teaching piano online, teaching piano to adults, the breath and phrasing in piano playing, whole body listening, whole body music listening, word press, word press.com, wordpress, wordpress.com, you tube, you tube video, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Berkeley piano studio, classissima, classissima.com, El Cerrito piano studio, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, metric memory at the piano, muscle memory at the piano, online webcam piano lessons, pianist, piano, piano addict, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano lessons by Skype, piano street, piano teaching, piano technique, Piano World, practicing a C Major scale at the piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, skyping piano lessons | Leave a comment

Two Adult Piano Students explore an undulating wrist motion (Videos)

Posted on January 22, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

In the first video, I introduce C Major, 4-note arpeggios rolling through positions or “inversions” in preparation for my lesson with an adult student in El Cerrito, California. C E G C—E G C E—G C E G– C E … Continue reading →

Posted in C Major arpeggio, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano technique, The supple wrist in piano playing, the undulating wrist, whole body listening, whole body music listening, word press, word press.com, wordpress, wordpress.com, you tube, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Berkeley piano studio, C Major arpeggio, classissima, classissima.com, El Cerrito piano studio, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano addict, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano teaching, piano technique, Piano World, playing 4 note arpeggios at the piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, the supple wrist in piano playing, the undulating wrist, Word Press, wordpress.com, You Tube, you tube.com | Leave a comment

Piano Technique: Sports analogies weave in and out of Five-Finger positions (Videos)

Posted on January 20, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Piano warm-ups are filled with vibrant, athletic energy! Continue reading →

Posted in classissima, classissima.com, five-finger warm-ups at the piano, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano instruction, piano technique, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, word press.com, wordpress, wordpress.com, you tube, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Berkeley piano studio, classissima, classissima.com, El Cerrito piano studio, five-finger warm-ups at the piano, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano addict, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano lessons by Skype, Piano lessons by Skype with Shirley Kirsten, piano street, piano technique, Piano World, piano worldwide, playing five-finger positions in legato, playing staccato at the piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, You Tube, youtube.com | Leave a comment

Piano Workout Plus: Left Hand development tips, and how to produce a “Woodpecker” staccato (Videos)

Posted on January 6, 2013 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Any neighbor watching me doing my upper body push-ups using the keyboard as leverage would think I was a bit spacey. But I’m quite down to earth in my daily workout routines at the piano. They include applications of weight … Continue reading →

Posted in Berkeley piano studio, developing the Left Hand in piano playing, El Cerrito piano studio, piano instruction, piano technique, Uncategorized, word press, word press.com, wordpress, you tube video, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Bach Prelude BWV 938, Berkeley piano studio, El Cerrito piano studio, improving the left hand for piano playing, J.S. Bach, J.S. Bach Little Preludes, Journal or a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano, piano techique, playing legato at the piano, playing piano, playing staccato at the piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten | Leave a comment

Piano Technique: Perfecting Staccato–playing basketball and ping pong ball (Video)

Posted on October 18, 2012 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

A piano student in Greece uses mental imagery to improve his staccato playing Continue reading →

Posted in finger staccato, forearm staccato, piano, piano lessons, piano technique, playing piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, Skype, skype piano lesson, Skype piano lesson to Greece, sports metaphors in piano teaching, staccato, word press, word press.com, wordpress.com, you tube video, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Berkeley piano studio, El Cerrito piano studio, finger staccato, forearm staccato, pianist, piano, piano lesson, piano technique, playing piano, playing staccato at the piano, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, Skype, Skype piano lesson, skype piano lesson to Greece, skype piano lessons, sports metaphors in piano teaching | Leave a comment

Old World piano playing (1949) with a pronounced wrist break

Posted on September 29, 2012 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

The supple wrist amounts to a “wrist break” that is discouraged among partisans of the Taubman approach. In the main, they adhere to a forearm-driven piano technique along with rotation, and relaxation . The videos embedded, however, contradict such rigid thinking about the wrist, as demonstrated by the performance of a Polish pianist (1949) A Chopin Mazurka is energized by redundant wrist breaks without incurred injury. As one colleague related in reference to Taubman/Golandsky, “how could decades of Russian teaching so easily be tossed aside.” Continue reading →

Posted in Chopin, Chopin Mazurka, Chopin Mazurka Op. 63 No.3, Chopin Mazurka Op. 68 No. 2, classissima, classissima.com, Frederic Chopin, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Irina Morozova, piano playing, piano technique, Romantic era music, supple wrist in piano playing, you tube, you tube video, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged Bella Davidovitch, Chopin, Chopin Mazurka Op. 63 No. 3, Chopin Mazurka Op. 68 No. 2, classissima, classissima.com, Frederic Chopin, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Irina Morozova, piano technique, Romantic era music, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, supple wrist in piano playing, Word Press, You Tube, you tube.com | Leave a comment

Technique is creatively woven into the piano learning environment from the very beginning of study

Posted on August 21, 2012 by arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

A discussion is intensifying on Facebook’s “The Art of Piano Pedagogy” about teaching technique as a separate sphere of learning, versus an inseparable part of the total music-making process. I tend to embrace a style of teaching that fuses all … Continue reading →

Posted in Circle Dance by Beyer, piano, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano technique, playing piano | Tagged Circle Dance by Beyer, classissima, classissima.com, Facebook, Facebook pages, Irina Gorin, piano, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano teaching, piano technique, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, the art of piano pedagogy, Word Press, wordpress.com, You Tube, you tube.com | Leave a comment

Category Archives: piano technique

Into the Hills with the Sound of Music –a Baldwin Acrosonic “acoustic” sings

Piano Technique: Are arpeggios “boring?” I don’t think so!

Revisiting an old piano piece learned years earlier

The C Major Scale universe: metric and muscle memory; shaping and tapering

Two Adult Piano Students explore an undulating wrist motion (Videos)

Piano Technique: Sports analogies weave in and out of Five-Finger positions (Videos)

Piano Workout Plus: Left Hand development tips, and how to produce a “Woodpecker” staccato (Videos)

Piano Technique: Perfecting Staccato–playing basketball and ping pong ball (Video)

Old World piano playing (1949) with a pronounced wrist break

Technique is creatively woven into the piano learning environment from the very beginning of study

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