Practicing J.S. Bach Sarabande, BWV 816: In a Sea of Ornaments, first explore an unadorned melody

As I revisited J.S. Bach's memorable Sarabande movement from his French Suite No. 5, BWV 816, I stared at an Urtext score laden with ornaments of infinite variety --trills, mordents, parentheses showing upper and lower accents, loops on trills in opposite directions, etc. and to complicate matters, I was expected, by tradition, to improvise each…

The value of sending supplementary videos to Online students between piano lessons

Since I began teaching piano Online in 2011, well before it gained pandemic driven popularity, I'd always felt the need to fill in what seemed to be distance related gaps in the Internet teaching environment. Compensating for my guilt-ridden, tradition-breaking, cyber teaching excursions on Face Time, I'd made sure to give my students an extra…

Technology enhancements for Online Piano Lessons

Back in 2011, when music lessons by webcam were viewed as out of the mainstream, bucking the traditional face-to-face, in-person learning environment, I was nevertheless, lulled into cyberspace by an Australian subscriber to my You Tube channel. One day, he messaged me with a promise to send a Logitech webcam that would widen my teaching…

Music and Community Activism

During my many years of teaching piano, nurturing students along of diverse backgrounds and levels, I never imagined that I would find myself channeling music into a form of local activism. But it's happened here in Berkeley, California on Hopkins Street, with its lovely stretch of trees and quaint shops owned my merchants of many…

Arm Weight and Piano Playing

My personal arm weight journey began at age 13, when I enrolled at the NYC High School of Performing Arts. The preceding summer, I'd been a music camper at Merrywood in Lenox, Massachusetts where I'd met student cellist, Douglas Freundlich who regaled his aunt Lillian as an exceptional, Manhattan-based piano teacher. Such a name drop,…

Fostering a Healthy Interaction between piano student and teacher

With time-honored articles proliferated about emotionally abusive piano teachers and their negative impact on students, it's time to explore the ingredients of a positive, growth-affirming relationship between two parties striving toward the same goal of creative musical expression. Such a discussion that embodies week to week lessons, addresses an environment of nonjudgmental self-acceptance, patience, and…

Jeremy Denk, pianist, embraces a humanistic approach to music

A friend residing in California's Central Valley, e-mailed a link to a consciousness-raising interview with Jeremy Denk that aired on the City Arts and Lecture Series. (Location: Linda Ronstadt's home in San Francisco) It was a joyful, music-loving celebration, exploring so many dimensions of creativity at the piano that are rarely shared in the Classical…

Pianists can learn from Joyce DiDonato and the vocal model

The renowned mezzo soprano, Joyce DiDonato hosted three inspiring Masterclasses at Carnegie Hall's intimate recital venue this holiday season, and made "process" her resonating theme of creative musical growth. While a select group of young opera singers were by application, brought into a spotlight of "playing" with DiDonato, as she termed the mutual give and…

The value of revisiting past repertoire, while learning new pieces

For many piano teachers as well as their students, keeping repertoire (old and new) in balance supports musical growth. Yet with time constraints for students influenced by in-school academic demands and after school activities, preserving the growth of one piece, partnered with a technique regimen, is a mountain to climb. Teachers who learn side by…

Working with One Hand when a piano student has an injury to the other

I recall my piano teaching years in California's Central Valley where I easily counted 10 or more students (usually boys) who had sports injuries. Most often a mom would call about her son's fractured arm or wrist that was incurred on the playing field--soccer, baseball, or during any number of childhood activities. As a consequence,…