Every winter holiday season most music teachers are asked by parents to devote at least a few weeks to the absorption of Christmas and related celebratory selections. In the traditional musical cosmos, "Silent Night," "Deck the Halls," "Hark the Herald Angels" and "Jingle Bells," are popular learning requests. This year, my 9-year old student who… Continue reading Piano Lessons during the holidays: Inserting a creative composing dimension to chord exploration
The flow of harmony in and out of pieces should be a big part of a piano lesson. Yet it's one thing to isolate chords in student a hand-out, but quite another to bring phrases to life with an infusion of harmonic rhythm awareness in the process of playing. In this video sample, a student… Continue reading Weaving Theory and Harmonic Rhythm into a piano lesson
A thoughtful journey through 4-note (double root) C Major Chords in INVERSIONS was a lesson preliminary to unraveling them with shape and contour. As a start, an adult student imagined the sound intended, breathed through a string of sonorities, and became aware of sensory and muscle memory dimensions of practicing. These fed nicely into the… Continue reading Piano Technique: Breathing through inverted chords and 4-note arpeggios
Master teacher, Irina Morozova infuses her piano lessons with an expressive music-making approach that applies to technique and repertoire. Scales, arpeggios, chords, Czerny etudes, etc. are not compartmentalized as pedantic exercises bundled in torturous repetitions. To the contrary, they're the substance of a musical craft that she honors with specific, singing-tone framed demonstrations of kinetic… Continue reading Teaching piano technique with artistry at the Special Music School/Kaufman Center
Phase one of lessons is a lively romp over the 88s. It sets the geography of the piano through a host of keys. Establishing a "feel" for the instrument with a supportive knowledge of key signatures, framed in buoyant rhythm, kicks things off. Here are few examples from Claudia's lesson. At age 11, she's advanced… Continue reading Piano Technique: Nifty warm-up routines (Videos)
This ten year old student has been studying piano with me from age six. She is currently working on Bach Inventions 4, 8, and 13 along with the complete Mozart Sonata in C, K. 545 in C. In this video she is practicing the first movement of the Mozart composition behind tempo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EODtPfT_ygQ The student… Continue reading Piano Lesson: My 10 year old student plays Mozart Sonata in C, K. 545 (Video)
Videos on Piano Technique: https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/why-play-scales/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/piano-instruction-five-finger-warm-ups-in-major-and-minor-video/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/scales-and-arpeggios-with-videotaped-replay/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/piano-instruction-learning-the-f-minor-scale-video/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/the-most-reviled-scale-for-piano-players/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/playing-scales-from-legato-to-staccato-think-ping-pong-balls/ Blocking four-note chords before unblocking them as arpeggios in a sequence of inversions as prep to play the Moonlight Sonata, last movement, Presto agitato. https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/from-chords-to-gym-and-back-you-tube-video/ Playing a C Major scale in contrary motion: https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/playing-scales-in-contrary-motion-video/ Chunking a B Major scale: https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/sports-and-piano-technique-how-about-chunking-on-you-tube/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/piano-gym-routines-with-my-10-year-old-student/ https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/piano-instruction-playing-diminished-7th-chords-and-arpeggios-video/ Mozart Sonata, K.… Continue reading Piano Technique related videos
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