Piano Instruction: Mozart Minuet in F, K. 2

Play Through http://youtu.be/9s0QiDNd24o Such delightful music sprang from an inspired little Mozart who at age 6, composed this Minuet in F. His father, Leopold, "notated his son's pieces in a notebook recording the exact date of almost every composition." (K. 2 was born in 1762) A musical gem that's intrinsically vocal, requires the player to…

East Coast/West Coast (East Bay) culture shock

Recently, I made a trip back East to New York City and the experience instantly hit "home!" A child of the Bronx and Manhattan, my emigration to Fresno, California three decades ago came with a blast of culture shock, but my most recent relocation to the East Bay (Berkeley aka "Bezerkeley") fleshed out extreme bi-coastal…

Piano Instruction: Learning a Mozart Minuet is never simple (K. 6 in C Major)

The charming Mozart Minuet in C Major, K. 6, requires a baby-step, layered learning approach. What makes it challenging are the variety of shapes within phrases---groupings of two notes, then longer ones, and a sloping effect in some places, and a tapering in others. To play Mozart with beauty is to sing the separate lines…

Physical fitness routines that aid piano playing

Being physically fit, bottom line, is always helpful to piano playing. That's why I frequent the gym every day. But I've found specific activities that more directly improve my endurance, and increase forearm and upper arm strength. (specifically my tube stretch routines that I demonstrate on video) The Gravitron is also one of my favorite…

Mozart Rondo Alla Turca, K. 331 updated, with instruction

https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/piano-instruction-part-1-w-a-mozart-rondo-alla-turca-allegretto-from-sonata-k-331-video/

Ear Training and Transposing are intrinsic to piano lessons (examples from an Adult lesson in progress)

It's not easy to plan a one hour piano lesson to include ear training, solfege and transposing. (They belong together, bundled with Theory, and enrich the learning environment) At the Oberlin Conservatory, Theory, Keyboard Harmony, and Eurhythmics were taught separately. Our piano teachers (applied study) adhered to their rigid routine, rarely fitting solfege, sight-reading, improvising,…

Spot practicing Chopin’s Waltz in C# minor with an adult student

This pupil demonstrates patient, behind tempo practicing: http://youtu.be/xQzGrSCfBLU My play through (with flexible forward wrist motions to help sculpt phrases) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbzKAmz2r_A LINK: https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/piano-warm-up-routines-with-an-adult-student/

Piano warm-up routines with an adult student

This pupil is working on the Chopin Waltz in C# minor Op. 64 alongside Mozart's K. 545 Sonata in C. (I'll have snatches of her spot practicing in another post) She's made considerable progress because of her conscientious step-by-step, layered approach to learning. (We spend substantial time playing separate hands, under tempo, and we don't…

Piano practicing and blocking techniques

I was originally enlightened about the value of blocking out intricate and tricky passages when I attended a rehearsal of Rudolf Serkin and the New York Philharmonic. He was about to play the Beethoven "Emperor" Concerto No. 5 with its majestic opener of broken chords (arpeggios) and as a warm-up, he silently blocked out a…

Revisiting Beethoven’s “Pathetique” Sonata, Op. 13 GRAVE

It's nostalgia time for me, reconnecting with the Pathetique that I butchered as a teenager before I landed in the good hands of mentor, Lillian Freundlich. The teacher before, lived about 4 blocks away, but was miles off the mark in her teaching. She had me studying the Chopin Scherzo in Bb minor before I…