The Biggest Challenge for Adult Piano Students (Video)

While I underscore the adult student population in this discussion, it's not meant to omit students of any age who study piano. Almost universally, those coming back to the piano after a significant hiatus, or those just beginning lessons in adulthood, have big expectations to "succeed" and progress at an imagined rate of "speed." Such…

An adult piano student’s musical journey began in Holland

Marie, a pupil of long-standing, bestowed a heartwarming narrative about her piano study and its European roots. Uncannily, when I'd posted a beautiful rendering of Chopin's Db Nocturne in one of my blogs, she commented that pictures imported through the soundtrack were places she had known as a child, so her memoir flows from these…

An adult piano student teaches her grandson!

As I continue this series, "Celebrating Adult Piano Students," I couldn't help but snatch a narrative from Lisa, a very dear friend, who is not my pupil, but shares a passion for learning the great masterworks, and channels her deepest emotions into every musical phrase. Her grandson, Collin, is particularly fortunate, not only to have…

Starting lessons with a new adult piano student

Just this past week, I had an ice-breaking LIVE lesson with a new adult student. Naturally, the introductory inquiry sent by email turned out to be an invaluable opener, since the prospective pupil imparted a generous serving of his musical history. As counterpoint, I responded with a few additional questions to fill in minor gaps.…

Celebrating Adult Piano Students, Part 2

This student lives in the UK and takes piano lessons by Skype. Her answers to my inquiries are below: 1) What drew you back to the piano in adulthood? Bundled into that question: What were your early experiences taking piano lessons? (positives, negatives, mixed bag, whatever) I started as a complete adult beginner about five…

CELEBRATING Adult piano students!

I sent a few questions to adult students and this is the first of many responses I will be posting. A video of a lesson in progress is a point of reference: The pupil is working on J.C. Bach's Prelude in A minor, second section, which contains a series of modulating chords or secondary dominants.…

A Heart-wrenching blend of Music and Memoir

A one-woman show playing at the Berkeley Rep (adapted and directed by Hershey Felder) is so emotionally riveting that it must reach Broadway and beyond. In The Pianist of Willesden Lane, Mona Golabek weaves a dramatic wartime story in music and words, producing a unique theatrical experience. With the expressive framing of the Grieg Piano…

Shaping a melodic line through chord blocking (Schumann Little Etude no. 14)

To block out sonorities that spring from spun out, undulating broken chords, can provide a peak learning experience. In a baby-step advance, especially, where finding a melodic thread, may consist of a one-hand alone approach at first, the pleasure to follow, comes with cushions of harmony. One of my adult students, just launched her journey…

A fusion of art and music in The Magic Link: Piano Albums by Schumann and Tchaikovsky

Rada Bukhman, pianist, teacher, and fine artist, brings a wealth of talent to her latest undertaking. Her "infinite love affair between music and fine art" is the springboard for a journey through the related compositions of Robert Schumann and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Both composers produced colorful albums for the young that have a remarkable affinity…