Tag: pentascales

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“Counting Correctly, but Playing Un-rhythmically”

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

“The habit of counting correctly but playing unrhythmically develops easily in the beginning and is too often overlooked.” – Richard Chronister (A Piano Teacher’s Legacy, Ed. Edward Darling) http://www.amazon.com/Teachers-Selected-Writings-Richard-Chronister/dp/0976116308 I love this quote, because many students count out beats quite methodically but without musical meaning. Their metrical repetitions serve little purpose if the goal of… Continue reading “Counting Correctly, but Playing Un-rhythmically”

arpeggios, Classical music blog, piano, piano blog, piano blogging, piano instruction, piano lessons, piano teaching, piano technique, scales, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten

Piano Technique: Self-created Scale and Arpeggio Prep

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Over months and years, I've devised various technique framed routines that happen to be bi-products of trial and error excursions over the keyboard. To the extent that I put myself under self-analysis following a stint of formal piano study, I was able to discard a lion's share of the factory-generated, Conservatory-based litany that encapsulated certain… Continue reading Piano Technique: Self-created Scale and Arpeggio Prep

Dozen a Day by Edna-Mae Burnam, pentascales, piano, piano blog, piano blogging, piano lessons, piano technique, Shirley Kirsten, Shirley Smith Kirsten

Piano Technique: Student/teacher echo exchanges stabilize rhythm and refine articulation

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Of my favorite teaching strategies is bouncing warm-ups back and forth with students. We echo short phrases in legato and staccato as a form of rhythmic rehab. The recordings of these interactions become valuable practicing aids between lessons. Yesterday, an adult pupil and I had fun sharing E Minor/Major penta-scales and five-finger position thirds from… Continue reading Piano Technique: Student/teacher echo exchanges stabilize rhythm and refine articulation

classissima.com, piano, piano technique, youtube.com

Piano Technique: balance and bearings on the black notes (Video)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

One of my adult students confided that her five-finger warm-up in F# Major made her feel shaky and insecure. "It's like I'm going to slip off the key when I play my 5th finger," (pinky)--C# (Notes in F# Major penta-scale position are F# G# A# B C#) Such a distress call like this one stimulates… Continue reading Piano Technique: balance and bearings on the black notes (Video)

classissima.com, Journal of a Piano Teacher from New York to California, piano blog, piano scales and arpeggios, piano warm-ups

Adult sneak peek piano technique

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

These lesson videos-in-progress reinforce practicing approaches to warm-ups, giving a student an additional angle of the teacher's hands. I. Crispy Cracker Staccato (D Major scale) Forearm generated at FORTE level followed by "lighter" finger strokes at "piano" dynamic. Forte=Big Projection, Piano=Soft FLASHBACK video, (A Major scale in Staccato) before my relocation to Berkeley--same student LIVE,… Continue reading Adult sneak peek piano technique

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Growing piano technique in baby steps: Rina, 5, advances to hands together five-finger positions (adding in 10ths)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

Rina may not know the words "pentascales" and "tenths," but she has the intelligence to notice when her fingers move up and down together, playing the same notes an "octave" apart. With a sound knowledge of the music alphabet in both directions, she has good cognitive reinforcement. (She also knows "running notes" or 8ths, "long… Continue reading Growing piano technique in baby steps: Rina, 5, advances to hands together five-finger positions (adding in 10ths)

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A Fourth Skyped Piano Lesson with an 8-yr. old (Excerpts on two videos: supple wrist warm-ups and Chopin Waltz)

arioso7: Shirley Kirsten

I set up two camcorders during today's piano lesson with the intention of capturing views from the teacher and student perspective. If I had more video-editing expertise I would have synchronized multiple tracks like ESPN does for its instant replays, etc. *** With modest video equipment, I recorded an 8-yr. old's 4th Skyped lesson of which… Continue reading A Fourth Skyped Piano Lesson with an 8-yr. old (Excerpts on two videos: supple wrist warm-ups and Chopin Waltz)