A North Carolina ONLINE piano student comes to Berkeley, California for a LIVE lesson right before the Super Bowl!
Category: piano playing and the singing tone
Revisiting an old piano piece learned years earlier
I find my current musical journey down memory lane to be joyful and challenging--especially as I cut and paste the Mozart Rondo: Allegro, K. 311 pages to fit comfortably on the piano rack. (Deja Vu, Haydn C Major Hoboken XVI35--Haydn pinned and unpinned) I wrote to a musician friend during the height of my frustration.… Continue reading Revisiting an old piano piece learned years earlier
Teaching piano to Rina, 5, with a supplementary video for mom that outlines our lesson plan and goals
Rina's mother attends her daughter's lessons, takes notes, and receives a follow-up assignment. Today, I sent her a video that summarized what we had accomplished yesterday along with a goal-setting outline. *** The child has been working on her legato which is a new and enticing musical universe. For the better part of 6 months… Continue reading Teaching piano to Rina, 5, with a supplementary video for mom that outlines our lesson plan and goals
Piano Lesson: Analyzing/playing Bach Invention in D minor, No. 4, BWV 775 in slow tempo (Videos)
In J.S. Bach's Two-part Inventions both voices overlap and imitate each other creating counterpoint. The SUBJECT of no. 4 contains a d-minor Harmonic form scale whose 6th note, B flat does NOT continue in an upward motion to the leading tone, C# or 7th note, but instead, the C# is displaced down to the lower… Continue reading Piano Lesson: Analyzing/playing Bach Invention in D minor, No. 4, BWV 775 in slow tempo (Videos)
Irina Gorin, creator of Tales of a Musical Journey, shares her thoughts about braving a new piano teaching universe
From Irina Gorin: “An expert is a person who makes all mistakes possible in a very specific field and learns from those mistakes. So I could probably consider myself getting close to being an expert in teaching children. But I hope there are many more mistakes and learning experiences ahead." This riveting quote set in… Continue reading Irina Gorin, creator of Tales of a Musical Journey, shares her thoughts about braving a new piano teaching universe
Piano Instruction: How to practice Variation 2, Mozart Sonata No. 11 in A, K. 331 (Videos)
The biggest challenge in this particular variation is the fast-paced tempo and ornament execution--not to mention the fleeting 4 against 3 relationship of treble 32nds above 16ths in the bass. But the latter, should not be a big concern considering how quickly everything spins by. In the video instruction I suggest a step-wise practicing routine… Continue reading Piano Instruction: How to practice Variation 2, Mozart Sonata No. 11 in A, K. 331 (Videos)
Irina Morozova’s inspiring words flow through a lesson with an adult student (Beethoven’s Fur Elise-in-progress) Video
"From watching great pianists it is obvious that they incorporate quite different movements to achieve the same goals, because people do not play piano with fingers but rather with the mind and the ear. Again, it is the clear image of what kind of sound one wants to achieve, combined with the knowledge of how… Continue reading Irina Morozova’s inspiring words flow through a lesson with an adult student (Beethoven’s Fur Elise-in-progress) Video
Piano Lesson: The challenge of playing a slow movement
I chose Muzio Clementi's popular Sonatina in C, Op. 36, No. 1 to flesh out the contrasting middle movement designated ANDANTE by the composer. It's definitely a challenge to play just 6 lines of music with beauty and finesse. As a start, the player is exposed to realizing rolling triplet 8th-notes in the left hand… Continue reading Piano Lesson: The challenge of playing a slow movement
Lesson planning for a 5-year old piano student–(Video)
Rina who's into her sixth month of study, is ready to learn dotted-half notes. Up to now, she's been saturated with black and white cardboard circles included within a packet along with Irina Gorin's Tales of a Musical Journey instruction. The black notes (quarters) are known as "short" sounds, and the white ones (Half-notes), "long-sounds"… Continue reading Lesson planning for a 5-year old piano student–(Video)
More and more “piano” students are going Digital. Is it a good idea?
It's sad but true that a glut of former piano buyers who would have considered piano lessons for their children at age 7 or so, have made the choice to invest in a DIGITAL. (known as a DP) Of further testimony to the culture's relatively new fixation on electronic piano technology, are the 35,000 plus… Continue reading More and more “piano” students are going Digital. Is it a good idea?