A Tribute to traveling piano teachers

I'm lucky that for decades I've been a stationary piano teacher, home-based for Skype, but having two youngsters whom I teach at their house up in the El Cerrito Hills. Fortunately, I get chauffeured to and from the location so I don't have to schlep to Bart, or burn up gasoline in my non-existent car.…

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…

Piano Technique: When scale notes go off the radar screen

One of my Skype students is practicing the D Major scale in contrary motion. (Her thumbs at Middle D) We start slow triplets to 16ths, to 32nds (Legato/Staccato/Forte/piano) The snag occurs at the third and final octave out, where most students think the notes are off the radar--but in truth peripheral vision and/or rolling eyeballs…

Piano Lesson: What I learned from an adult student about Bach Invention 4 in D minor (VIDEOS)

Today was an ear-opener, though I admit to having had a set of preconceived ideas about this Bach composition. (in two-part counterpoint) Just from having studied it myself, parceling out each separate voice in a step-wise, layered approach, I could impart what I learned as a self-delivered lecture. But the ingredient, of adding a student…

Piano Mania! and the Bezerkeley arrival of Steinway 1098!

Pianomania! is an apt title for a documentary about Stefan Knupfer, Steinway piano technician, who gallops upstairs and downstairs in a premier "Vienna concert haus," trying to meet the needs of performing pianists, recording artists, et al. They demand the kind of perfection in voicing, tuning, aesthetics that's often beyond human capability. One classic example…

The C Major Scale universe: metric and muscle memory; shaping and tapering

The C Major scale is more than meets the "I," if you're the one practicing it!

No Skimming the surface in piano warm-ups and a Chopin exchange with a sixth-grader

Lucy started piano about four years ago in El Cerrito, a short Bart ride from Berkeley, my current residence. A transfer student, she'd been immersed in Bastien primers and hand-outs of various patriotic pieces. Note-reading skills were minimal. Over time, as our musical relationship unfolded, Lucy played scales, arpeggios, and through her patient efforts performed…

From Pop to Bach, A 9-yr old makes it over easy

Fritz, a sparkling kid who loves football, soccer, and video games especially where he's devising offensive field strategies, comes to the piano with bundles of energy. These can be channeled into a piece he's gung ho to learn, like "Hall of Fame" by Sheehan, O'Dononghue, Adams, and Barry. As it played out, Fritz's mom, downloaded…