An Edvard Grieg Lyric piece stirs up High School memories

I never would have anticipated that my Dover bound collection of Grieg's Complete Lyric pieces for piano, would contain a tender morsel that hearkened back to a Spring Dance Concert presented at the New York City High School of Performing Arts. The school, known as FAME, immortalized by a long running TV series, and big…

A new partner Upright to my Steinway grand!

Shelter in Place has become tolerable by having two compatibly resonant musical sibs in my dwindling living room. The shrinking multi-purpose space holds my side-by-side pianos, webcams, tripods, Big Mac, and HP monitor. (not to mention a sequestered sleeper sofa) The latest instrumental addition, Knabe WKV-132MD, a space-saving upright that replaced my mid-size Baldwin grand,…

“Stay in Place” Online lessons, tutorials, and performances

We continue to lift our spirits in cyber, keeping our music exchanges alive and well under the veil of SIP. Ironically, in keeping with the times, many students have asked to study more somber works. Schumann's "First Sorrow, from the composer's Album for the Young, is a popular pick. Next is Chopin's mournful B minor…

Online Piano Lessons: Patience and Planning Amidst the Unexpected

Bundled into the universe of teaching piano Online, is the necessity to prepare for the unexpected. This means knowing what resources to dip into when there's a substantial video or audio freeze. Face Time and Skype, for example, might occasionally not deliver, and when it becomes apparent that lesson continuity is at a virtual standstill,…

Navigating those skinny black keys without fear!

Looking back to my earliest piano lessons in an early 20th century townhouse attic space in the Bronx, off Kingsbridge Road, I recall my happiest moments floating through all white key melodies. It was a Diller-Quaile par duo journey with Mrs. Vinagradov, a very warm and encouraging Russian teacher, who sang line by line lyrics…

Picking a second Chopin Waltz for an Intermediate level student

Coming back to a composition that has personal practicing phases, combined with teaching experiences assists in choosing sequences of pieces for students. In the cosmos of Chopin Waltzes, I discern a consecutive study relationship between the A minor Waltz, No. 19, Op. Posthumous and the B minor Waltz, Op. 69, no. 2. The B minor…

Learning how to Learn

It's always valuable to revisit a process of growing a composition to full potential, keeping in mind that self-imposed progress deadlines are in opposition to a non-judgmental, self-accepting learning environment. In this regard, it's not how long it takes to gain control of technical/expressive dimensions of a piece, but rather, the quality of the steps…

The Shallow pedal, Shaping lines, and links to Artur Schnabel, Tobias Matthay

This past week, shrinking degrees of musical separation led to an intersection of my own ideas about phrase shaping and pedaling with those of Schnabel, via his pupil, Eunice Norton. Norton's bio is capsulized at Graham Fitch's website, https://practisingthepiano.com/eunice-norton-schnabel-matthay/ "A student of both Schnabel and Matthay was American pianist Eunice Norton (1908 – 2005). She…

Technology in the Piano Studio

Since being launched into the cosmos of Online Teaching by an Australian inquiring about lessons, (2010), I have gone well beyond rudimentary Face Time and Skype transmissions. What has evolved from this student's bestowal of a gratis Logitech webcam, is a wider application of technology within the piano learning environment. Pupils (whether Online or in…

The Highs and Lows of a Hydraulic piano bench

I took a short walk to my student's place to check out his new Descattiati model 810 Hydraulic. It's not a sports car by any stretch of the imagination, but a piston-packed piano bench that has a vector design that gently nudges the player forward. Without doubt, it's the best reminder, absent the shadow of…