Piano Technique: Executing Tremolos as occur in Beethoven’s Sonata “Pathetique”

I've picked up various ideas about practicing tremolos from the piano forums as applies to the Alla Breve section of the "Pathetique" Sonata No. 8 (movement 1) and extracted a valuable tutorial from a colleague who posted it to you tube. At first I concurred with pianist/teacher Benjamin Steinhardt that rolling the C broken octave…

Seymour Bernstein: From Maine with Love

When Seymour packs his bags for the summer, escaping Manhattan's stifling heat, he takes along his soulful music and fistfuls of almonds. The maestro, known for his beloved book, With Your Own Two Hands retreats to an awesome, cabin-like sanctuary that sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean. (It's his daily source of inspiration.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeQ2tJ90OMs…

Pianist, Christyna Kaczynski-Kozel, a local “classic” with an International profile

Christyna Kaczynski-Kozel is a credit to many nations. She's spun around Canada and the Continent, savoring ties to great music mentors, one of whom was a towering figure in the conducting world. In a thread of scintillating and informative conversation, Christyna paid tribute yesterday to her most influential teacher, Sergiu Celibidache. About the conductor: (WIKI)…

A common chorus among adult piano students

As decades pass, and each adult piano student on his personal journey chimes in with a greeting at the start of a lesson, I've noticed a synchronized choir of commonly expressed thoughts. The riveting idée fixe that resonates LIVE and through SKYPE channels, is like the redundant motif of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. "I really want…

Piano Technique: Wrist flexibility and relaxed arms

Livia Rev, Hungarian born pianist, who's 98, demonstrates in her playing how flexible wrists and relaxed arms spin beautiful phrases in legato and staccato. In a romp through Czerny studies, we observe her conspicuous, elastic wrist motions. http://youtu.be/LWjnPeQmrKA In a separate video posted to you tube, Rev, literally takes a student's hands and dips the…

Adult Piano Instruction: Sight-reading, Solfeggio, and Transposition

I reserve the last 10-15 minutes of my lessons with a few adult students for sight-reading, sight-singing with solfeggio, and transposition activity. While I begin with short pieces in five-finger positions, the requirement to transpose these in a Circle of Fifth progression (playing Major and Relative minors) is a valuable ear-training experience. In the following…

Exploring a Chopin Nocturne with a theoretical awareness

This week I mass-emailed a note to my brood about the need to take a reputable theory course side-by-side with private piano lessons. Because the teaching hour is packed with technique, new repertoire, review, memorization, a need to deepen knowledge in the universe of theory/harmony and ear-training is a must. By example, I tried my…

Playing the piano like a singer

The J.C. Bach Prelude in A minor begs for a fluid "singing" tone through its progression of rolled out broken chords that have a melodic thread fleshed out by finger 5. Rounding out these uppermost destination notes is a challenge because it's easy to fall down hard on them with pencil point attacks instead of…

A Blissful Hauskonzert through a Meet-up Connection

Well, it finally came to pass, and technology reigned, bridging the distance between player and audience. I was naturally present in body and spirit, but my face with its register of emotions was plainly blocked by my piano rack. About 12 hours before the event, I had posted a video revealing the seating arrangement. It…

Piano Technique: Contrary motion scales without side-to-side head tracking

Most piano students insist on playing contrary motion scales like they're watching a tennis match: heads rolling to either side of the net with well orchestrated rows of synched sports aficionados. When applied to the piano, however, this capo paced hyperactivity will most likely impede fluidity and encourage note errors. One of my adult students,…