Piano Technique: Trills and the vocal model

Joyce Di Donato, "lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano," is my model for trilling. In an embedded you tube video, the opera singer emphasizes the undulating character of a beautifully executed trill that leans on the upper note. (Too often pianists deliver a robotic stream of alternating notes that's shapeless and out of breath, ignoring an internal flow and…

“Counting Correctly, but Playing Un-rhythmically”

“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…

Judy, Seymour, and Ludwig

It was no surprise that Judy, one of my adult piano students came to her lesson yesterday gushing about Seymour: An Introduction. And naturally, in the nick of time, I grabbed my super-charged, helium packed iPhone and added the latest film rave to my growing collection. Need I say more?... or is it SEE MORE?..…

Piano Technique: When an adult student is in the Zone!

It's always valuable to snatch a lesson segment when a student gets it just right and has the equivalent of a runner's high at the keyboard. It's certainly instructive for both teacher and pupil to observe what conditions predisposed a pupil to a level of ONEness of body, mind and spirit. Last night, Jocel displayed…

Me, My Neighbors and J.S. Bach

I spent two full nights with J.S.B., recording at ungodly hours, deleting a lion's share of playings, worrying about my neighbors' patience threshold. With a "runner's high," equivalent of being in the zone, I just couldn't let go of the momentum, as tenants beside me were trying to get some sleep. The LAYOUT Four adjacent…

The universe of piano study: Too Little or Too Long on a piece

Not a bullet-proof analysis, but based on decades of teaching piano, I've come to a set of conclusions about why students give up on pieces too soon, or in reverse, prolong their agony, through time-warped months of static practicing. In truth, giving up too soon, or dragging a piece through months of inertia, both result…

Adult Piano Instruction: Exploring weight transfer and supple wrist motions for improved phrase shaping

A new adult student is working on Beethoven's Sonatina in F, one of the composer's less played works, but nevertheless quite a musical gem. While the composition has a Mozartean flavor, the abrupt shift in dynamics in the opening theme, for example, offers a glimpse into Beethoven's later development of his larger Sonata form, where…

Piano Technique: A styled staccato with a dipping wrist

I find that adding supple wrist dips to staccato within any dynamic range helps to style and shape lines, phrases, etc. Here's it's first executed within a scale framework. A cat cameo appearance is the opener. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXKU2qKdaMw Now a sample of shaped staccato in the soft range, played after a nicely contoured legato. (just snip…

A beginning adult piano student has an awakening about musical expression

I have to thank Sam, a Berkeley, California transplant to the UK, for imparting pearly words of wisdom via Skype. He shared an epiphany about music-making that got me thinking. As he observed a London chamber music Masterclass, Sam mentioned how the teacher planted a convincing thought that musicians are "actors,"---how they must capture mood…

Playing A Children’s “Game” while learning the piano (Videos)

Kabalevsky bundled important aspects of piano technique into his Op. 39 Pieces for Children.