Peter started piano lessons from scratch about 1 and 1/2 years ago, not reading a note of music at the time, but having gads of enthusiasm about his maiden musical journey. Readers will be reminded of his earliest efforts playing Faber Piano Adventure duets with me. (I chose the Primer edition because it moved slower… Continue reading When an adult piano student advances well beyond Primer preliminaries
The UNIVERSE of RECORDING ONLINE LESSONS IN PROGRESS SKYPE CALL RECORDER FACETIME CALL RECORDER *** My Newest Overhead Cam (72 inches high) Still another upgrade: My Piano Room has TWO Overhead webcams in addition to a side view cam that's mounted on a music stand. Overhead side view of Keyboard *** MY PRESENTATION coming up… Continue reading SKYPE CALL RECORDER Playback views for Online Piano Lessons
The flow of harmony in and out of pieces should be a big part of a piano lesson. Yet it's one thing to isolate chords in student a hand-out, but quite another to bring phrases to life with an infusion of harmonic rhythm awareness in the process of playing. In this video sample, a student… Continue reading Weaving Theory and Harmonic Rhythm into a piano lesson
Randall and Nancy Faber came through with flying colors by including J.C. Bach's Prelude in A minor in their Developing Artist Series Album, Early Intermediate Level. It's definitely a winner with ear-catching appeal! *** In a heart-melting opener to a more cognitive analysis of the composition, I play a series of sonorities that provide a… Continue reading A favorite Piano Prelude to play and teach
The J.C. Bach Prelude in A minor begs for a fluid "singing" tone through its progression of rolled out broken chords that have a melodic thread fleshed out by finger 5. Rounding out these uppermost destination notes is a challenge because it's easy to fall down hard on them with pencil point attacks instead of… Continue reading Playing the piano like a singer
Piano teachers may complain about students who hardly practice, or come to lessons with a truckload of excuses, but the times we savor are when everything seems to click. Tonight, I had a lesson with an adult student who announced immediately before playing a note that her piece "was in the doghouse." What a tension-relieving… Continue reading A Peak teaching and learning experience!
I sent a few questions to adult students and this is the first of many responses I will be posting. A video of a lesson in progress is a point of reference: The pupil is working on J.C. Bach's Prelude in A minor, second section, which contains a series of modulating chords or secondary dominants.… Continue reading CELEBRATING Adult piano students!
One of my adult pupils is deeply embedded in J.C. Bach's Prelude in A minor which is a soulful outpouring of broken chords with patterns and symmetries built into its harmonic fabric. Yet through a sequence of secondary dominants that heightens the composition's beauty, a melodic line is interwoven, and it needs to be fleshed… Continue reading A relevant sequence of pieces for an Intermediate piano student
Deep-layered learning should occur at all levels of piano study because it enriches the music-making experience. Taking shortcuts, and constantly reading through a composition, skimming the surface, deprive the player of being in touch with himself and the composer at the moment of creation. One particular masterwork, that draws so many pupils into its gorgeous… Continue reading Piano Study: Learning in deep layers and loving it
Yesterday, I was greeted by the following riveting e mail: "I'm so excited that I'm beginning to understand scale degrees. "Can't wait to be back at the piano to practice. Return late tonight." The adult student, into her 4th year of formal study with me, had decided to buckle down and integrate her theory knowledge… Continue reading An Adult Piano Student’s Epiphany
