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

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…

Piano Technique: Sports analogies weave in and out of Five-Finger positions (Videos)

Piano warm-ups are filled with vibrant, athletic energy!

Piano Workout Plus: Left Hand development tips, and how to produce a “Woodpecker” staccato (Videos)

Any neighbor watching me doing my upper body push-ups using the keyboard as leverage would think I was a bit spacey. But I'm quite down to earth in my daily workout routines at the piano. They include applications of weight transfer into the keys; zoned in left hand practice through scale work (and arpeggios) in…

Piano Technique: Perfecting Staccato–playing basketball and ping pong ball (Video)

A piano student in Greece uses mental imagery to improve his staccato playing

From Legato to Staccato: staying connected at the piano (Video)

The universal chant among my adult students is, “I can’t play those darn staccato scales and arpeggios. They’re impossible!” And the reason for all the moans and groans is, they feel DISCONNECTED, and not safely secure in the keys. It’s in part PSYCHOLOGICAL. If students can pull off a nice, swinging, well-shaped LEGATO, all they…