Category Archives: whole body listening

Piano lesson: Chopin B minor Waltz, Op. 69, no 2. (bouncing phrases back and forth)

Posted on March 14, 2013 by

Teaching affords the greatest opportunity to listen objectively to students serving up their menu of pieces. It allows ideas to spring forward and bounce back. Today, my Greek student resurrected his Chopin B Minor Waltz in preparation for a forthcoming … Continue reading →

Posted in Chopin Waltz in B minor Op. 69 No. 2, Frederic Chopin, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano blog, piano instruction, piano lesson, piano lesson by Skype, Shirley Kirsten, whole body listening, whole body music listening, word press.com, wordpress, wordpress.com, you tube video, you tube.com, yout tube, youtube.com | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hand-switching and Chopin (making a piano duet out of a solo)

Posted on March 7, 2013 by

I did a double take watching footage of yesterday’s lesson in the El Cerrito Hills. Seeing two arms, one half-sleeved, and the other firmly wrapped in olive green, made me wonder if an alien from Mars had landed squarely at … Continue reading →

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

Posted on March 5, 2013 by

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The piano learning process at all levels of study

Posted on March 2, 2013 by

In spite of my having studied piano for decades, each learning experience is filled with challenges that I must approach with a glut of patience. A new composition has its own form, architecture, harmonic rhythm, fingering that requires a big … Continue reading →

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Piano Instruction: Can we over-analyze a Bach fugue?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by

Little Bach Fugue in C, BWV 952 required insights into its organized structure so I could better teach it. But how much analysis was required and could it be trusted? Continue reading →

Posted in Bach, Bach Little Fugue in C major BWV 952, Baroque form fugue, classissima, classissima.com, Elaine Comparone, fugue form analysis, J.S. Bach BWV 952 in C Major, J.S. Bach Fugue form, Jan Karman, Lance Walton, piano instruction, piano lessons, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, Theory, Theory and piano lessons, 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Piano Lesson: What I learned from an adult student about Bach Invention 4 in D minor (VIDEOS)

Posted on February 22, 2013 by

Today was an ear-opener, though I admit to having had a set of preconceived ideas about this Bach composition. (in two-part counterpoint) Just from having studied it myself, parceling out each separate voice in a step-wise, layered approach, I could … Continue reading →

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Revisiting an old piano piece learned years earlier

Posted on February 13, 2013 by

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 →

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Two musical Eulogies for Newtown’s fallen

Posted on January 28, 2013 by

Two musical offerings are grief-filled expressions of enduring loss in Newtown, Connecticut. Continue reading →

Posted in classical era music, Franz Joseph Haydn, Kreisleriana no. 6 by Robert Schumann, Newton Connecticut, piano, piano addict, Robert Schumann, Romantic era music, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten, tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary school, 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on January 25, 2013 by

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

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

Posted on January 22, 2013 by

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment