Video supplements for piano students assist practicing

Whether giving piano lessons LIVE or by SKYPE, sending students video excerpts of their lessons-in-progress, or creating a short film that zeroes in on a particular technical challenge, is always helpful. In the old days when I studied with Lillian Freundlich in NYC, a reel-to-reel tape recorder was the standard for memorializing lessons. No tripod…

Navigating a robust Beethoven Sonatina (not the one everybody plays)

I borrowed a few hours from my Haydn immersion to review a Beethoven Sonatina that is absolutely charming but very challenging. One would think that such a work labeled -mini, by its "-ina" suffix spelled an easier passage to the final cadence by comparison to a composition in SONATA form. Not so. For example, many…

When bad news arrives by E-mail that a student is dropping piano

There's a hot discussion brewing on a Facebook forum about how piano teachers should handle e-mailed lesson terminations. Some in our profession take the position that it's no big deal. After all, anyone should be able to quit at any time with the tap of a mouse. Many insist that it doesn't even matter if…

The Adult Piano Student Rhythmic Quagmire

It's practically a universal problem area for adult students in the beginner to intermediate range. Keeping a steady pulse in scale playing, and then making transitions to double speed, as from 16ths to 32nds is a big challenge for them. Most pupils can handle 32nds alone, and play them evenly. (I set a quarter note…

Piano Instruction, Don’t wake the “Sleeping Child,” Schumann Kinderszenen, Op. 15 No. 12

Often contemplative, lyrical pieces like lullabies, are bigger challenges to play than lightning bolt fast and furious etudes, final sonata movements etc. "Sleeping Child" is its own poster child for fostering relaxed breaths, flowing musical poetry, and bigger energies beyond the fingers. It's essentially a task not to wake the baby, with obtrusive, unwanted accents.…

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…

Piano performance: The moment of creation can be deceiving and how we can learn from video playbacks

I was telling a musical friend about the discrepancy between what we think we're hearing during our own performances and what bears out in a review of our self-made recordings. This is why teaching and learning opportunities abound in comparing one reading to another by way of video/audio replays. It's not only our own playing…

Into the Hills with the Sound of Music –a Baldwin Acrosonic “acoustic” sings

The video attached to this writing validates the beauty of music-making on a well-maintained, though 1940s vintage era acoustic piano. Baldwin Acrosonics were the Cadillacs of the spinet and console variety pianos. They had a noticeable innovation compared to their sister-size instruments. (A deeper sound chamber, especially noted in the consoles that measured 40" or…

The piano learning process at all levels of study

In spite of my having studied piano for decades, each learning experience is filled with challenges that I must approach with a glut of patience. A new composition has its own form, architecture, harmonic rhythm, fingering that requires a big reserve of self-acceptance in a deadline-free frame. To the contrary, many of my students, who…