Piano Lesson: Playing into “putty” to acquire a singing tone legato–An 8-year old gets deep in the keys (Video)

I decided to explore a variation of Irina Gorin's "jello" image to teach an 8-year old how to produce a deep, resonant singing tone. She'd been studying piano with me for two years and relished the opportunity to plunge her tiny fingers into a wad of putty that I had acquired at the Dollar store.…

Piano Technique: Producing a beautiful singing tone using jello as an image

The following teaching video produced by Irina Gorin, confirmed my belief that a singing tone springs from the imagination along with a consciousness about the physical means to achieve it. On both accounts, Gorin succeeded in the company of a six-year old piano student. The transformation of his C scale from a vertical, poked out…

Piano Instruction: Solfeggio and Transposing (Videos)

Solfeggio, or using Do, Re, Mi, etc. musical syllables is a valuable adjunct to naming notes with letter names. It improves sight-reading and transposing while it develops ear-training skills.

Piano Technique: Using a spring forward wrist, and arc motions for hand crossovers in Scarlatti Sonata in A, K. 113 (three videos)

Every so often I revisit a composition I've previously studied applying a different perspective. In Scarlatti's A Major Sonata, with its very demanding Allegrissimo tempo marking that makes the crossed hand sections seem impossibly difficult, I decided to parcel out pertinent measures in practice tempo. The goal was to inch up to a faster rendering…

Is there a short cut route to learning piano?

Promises abound on the Internet about playing piano in a flash. Short cut promoters claim thousands of dollars are wasted on "traditional" piano lessons. A teacher in the Southwest advertises software that speeds up note reading. Children as young as two are glued to a computer that's attached to an electronic keyboard with far fewer…

Rina, 4, has her 6th piano lesson: Learning about short and long sounds using black and white circles (“Tales of a Musical Journey”) 4 Videos

Rina reached another landmark, entering the universe of long and short sounds. She drew on a collection of black and white cardboard circles that came nicely packaged with Tales of a Musical Journey, and embarked upon a hands-on rhythm framed adventure. After floating through her "Harmony of the Angels" relaxation opener, she perched herself at…

A piano lesson over Skype: shaping and phrasing scales (Video)

I sometimes chuckle at the surreal nature of teaching to a computer screen, and as illustrated in a graphic videotaped sample, meeting up with an adult student mid-week. She has a real flesh and blood teacher on Mondays in the Bay area--ME. I'm otherwise located in the Central Valley where air pollutants practically choke me…

What pianists can learn from string players

Piano students have a lot to learn from string players who have direct contact with their sound source by strokes of a bow. As pianists, we are physically separated from the strings as hammers must be activated by our key depressions, but by listening to the swells of a violin, cello, or viola, hearing shades…

Piano Instruction: J.S. Bach Invention no. 8 in F, BWV 779, using a spring forward wrist and hand rotation, Two Videos

I introduced my tutorial by playing a snatch from Edna-Mae Burnam's Dozen a Day, Book 1, no. 3 "Hopping." It was the springboard for the wrist motion I use when playing Invention 8 in F Major. I also enlist a hand rotation for a stream of 16ths in descending sequence, measures 4-6, and wherever else…

Revisiting J.S. Bach’s Invention 1 in C, BWV 772 (Video)

Yesterday I had the novel experience of working on Bach's Invention 1 in C Major, via long distance transmission. Beamed to Sydney, Australia, by way of SKYPE, I found myself having gained new insights about a piece I had temporarily tabled. While I had always been aware that the Subject, or main idea, had been…