Category: self-analysis

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Bach to basics, Bach to nature, and Bach forever! (Videos)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

When it comes right down to it, I'm always drawn back to Bach for solace, counsel, wisdom, insight, and more. He was the Father of our Western music in all its infinite forms. In the composer's ingenious 2 volume, Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach explored all keys around the Circle of Fifths in impeccable counterpoint. It's the… Continue reading Bach to basics, Bach to nature, and Bach forever! (Videos)

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Ethereal piano playing: Another Irina, with an i in the middle, brings heaven to earth

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

This is the special month of Irina, Irena, and still another Irina. The latest messenger of beauty via You Tube is Irina Morozova. And as fate would have it, one of my readers, owner of a Knight piano treasure, e-mailed me a sample of her Bach-Siloti, which sent me feverishly finger-tapping the search window for… Continue reading Ethereal piano playing: Another Irina, with an i in the middle, brings heaven to earth

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Piano Technique: “Butterfly” by Grieg, a revisit (playing and exploring the rolling, rotational motion) videos

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

I can see the butterfly in my mind's eye in its flight of fancy. But I wish it were as easy to play, as to imagine. Relaxation is the key word here, but not to the point that the 16th-notes become like glissandi--a faint gloss over the keys. First in slow practice tempo you would… Continue reading Piano Technique: “Butterfly” by Grieg, a revisit (playing and exploring the rolling, rotational motion) videos

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Piano practicing, performance, and gym routines: Always Reach Beyond! (Video, Bach Invention 8 in F)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

http://youtu.be/7no8U9pV_SI I take my inspiration from the two Irina/Irena-s, each pronouncing their names slightly differently. Irina Gorin is the ingenious piano teacher from Carmel, Indiana via the Ukraine, and Irena Orlov is from Washington D.C.'s Levine School of Music via Leningrad. They both inspire students to explore and draw out their deepest creative expression. That's… Continue reading Piano practicing, performance, and gym routines: Always Reach Beyond! (Video, Bach Invention 8 in F)

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Piano Technique: Braving the slippery slope of black keys, practicing the F# Major Arpeggio (VIDEO)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Why all the prejudice against black notes? I, for one, avoided them like the plague for years. And my teachers were enablers, keeping me and other students contentedly in C Major to avoid widespread unrest. Their benign neglect of the blacks, in the the end, came at great cost. We teetered on the edge when… Continue reading Piano Technique: Braving the slippery slope of black keys, practicing the F# Major Arpeggio (VIDEO)

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Piano Technique: Boosting the Left Hand (Video)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

I'm always in awe of pianists whose left hand is equal to the right hand in dexterity, expression, power and reliability. It's the switch hitter thing that's mind-boggling as it also applies to sports. Creaming a ball and sending it into the bleachers from either side of the plate is no small wonder. Mickey Mantle… Continue reading Piano Technique: Boosting the Left Hand (Video)

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Piano Technique: “Hopping” in thirds (staccato)–excerpts from two lessons (Video)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Ilyana, 8 and her sister Albertina, 12, explored "hopping" in consecutive thirds at their lessons. (Dozen a Day, Book I, no. 3) They enlisted a spring forward wrist, and tapered the end of a phrase with a swing out elbow motion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM3d3RYlUk8

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Piano Lesson: Playing into “putty” to acquire a singing tone legato–An 8-year old gets deep in the keys (Video)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

I decided to explore a variation of Irina Gorin's "jello" image to teach an 8-year old how to produce a deep, resonant singing tone. She'd been studying piano with me for two years and relished the opportunity to plunge her tiny fingers into a wad of putty that I had acquired at the Dollar store.… Continue reading Piano Lesson: Playing into “putty” to acquire a singing tone legato–An 8-year old gets deep in the keys (Video)

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Domenico Scarlatti Toccata in D Minor, K. 141: How to play rapid repeated notes, and make hand cross-overs easier (Videos)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

I always return to a composition that never quite ripened into a desired tempo when I first learned it, with the intention of devising new strategies to improve my technique the second time around. In this endeavor I'll often study videos of world class performers to ascertain physical movements that might work for me which… Continue reading Domenico Scarlatti Toccata in D Minor, K. 141: How to play rapid repeated notes, and make hand cross-overs easier (Videos)

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Piano Instruction: Part Two Debussy Arabesque, No. 1, Teacher, Shirley Kirsten (Video #2)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Part two transitions to A Major. (The composition is in E Major) and has a different character though motifs and ideas from the opening section intersperse this portion of the Arabesque. A very noteworthy change that occurs with the modulation to A Major, is a prevalence of chords, some of which move homophonically (in the… Continue reading Piano Instruction: Part Two Debussy Arabesque, No. 1, Teacher, Shirley Kirsten (Video #2)