A Feast of pianist, Richard Goode’s Artistry and a walk down memory lane

I hand-selected a particular recital for an outing with my adult student, Jocel. While he'd suggested a Yuja Wang foray at Davies Concert Hall in San Francisco, I prodded him to first experience the sublime artistry of Richard Goode. (Location: Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, CA, CAL PERFORMANCES series) We were not disappointed. http://youtu.be/Dh4I_b9KipQ The last…

The Chopin Waltz No. 19 in A minor is Poetry in Motion

Adult piano students who aspire to play the Op. Posthumous A minor Waltz must immerse themselves in a poetic musical framing, floating notes with supple wrists and relaxed arms. In the bass, support for a horizontally spun melody should prevail, with after beats (chords) unobtrusively humming along. Fluidly played ornaments have their unique breath, artfully…

Teaching piano technique with artistry at the Special Music School/Kaufman Center

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…

A six-year old child is awakened to the singing tone and how to produce it

The earliest exposure to the piano in the primary lesson learning environment comes with an opportunity to teach the singing tone-- to sensitize young ears to the instrument's capacity to resonate with beauty. It's not just an ear-training experience. The exploration of physical/musical expression, with imagination intertwined, can fill a very young child's lesson with…

Irina Morozova, pianist, waxes poetic about phrasing Chopin’s music in words

Irina Morozova on the faculties of the Special Music School in Manhattan, and the Mannes College of Music, imparts inspired "words" about phrasing Chopin's music.

Piano Technique: Studying/Mapping out the F# minor scale and arpeggio (Video)

Exploring the two octave model is a good start with a separate hand approach to clarify fingering. I prefer making an adjustment for the opening F#, G#, A in the Right Hand (2, 3, 1) instead of 3, 4, 1 When considering a fast tempo, 2, 3, 1 is less awkward than passing a thumb…

When big hands and fingers play unwanted notes

After 6'4" Big Mike sits snugly in front of my Baldwin grand--his knees crushing in on him, he's thoroughly prepared to avoid a set of land mines that trigger a wrong note implosion. Normally when his mega-sized third finger depresses a G, wedged between framing black notes, he's at HUGE risk to strike TWO notes…

A Walk Down Memory Lane with Two pint-sized Piano Students

As I foraged through a closet filled with old picture frames, entangled extension cords, discarded lamp shades and pencil sharpeners, I stumbled upon an ancient Digital 8 camcorder that was my original You Tube movie messenger. With its mega-size cassettes and whooshing audio, it still managed to capture my earliest piano lessons with Rina, age…

Piano Technique: Split-Screen, rolling 4-note arpeggios (C# minor; B minor)

I love to work with students on 4-note arpeggios through inversions, prompting them to ROLL into horizontal, curvaceous groups of notes to avoid up and down finger poking. The elements of visualization ("imagining" motion SHAPES); kinesthetic translation (counterclockwise arm motions) attentive listening, CENTERING, and relaxed, natural breathing, all work in harmony to produce a smooth,…

Piano Teacher Stories from the War Zone! (Part One)

So many of us in the field of teaching can hearken back to our earliest piano student years and flesh out a particular individual who was the "worst" teacher to ever come our way. In my case, it was my second teacher who earned the distinction of being the most inept mentor on record, though…