The empty nest: “Haddy” will sing in another home

I will have one less piano in about two weeks. "Haddy" Haddorff, the singing nightingale will nest in a new place starting September 16th. Not to worry, she's on temporary loan to a local piano teacher who will keep her in tune, and vocalizing regularly. I'm Berkeley bound and my new apartment can only accommodate…

Rina, 5, practices “The Hunting Call” by Gurlitt

Rina grabbed an opportunity to sit at the "big" piano yesterday afternoon to practice Gurlitt's "The Hunting Call." A sparkling little piece, Gurlitt's gem is the third in a sequence that I pulled from Faber's Developing Artist series, Preparatory Piano Literature. The others have included Reinagle's G Major "Minuet," and Turk's "Little March" that primed…

Technique is creatively woven into the piano learning environment from the very beginning of study

A discussion is intensifying on Facebook's "The Art of Piano Pedagogy" about teaching technique as a separate sphere of learning, versus an inseparable part of the total music-making process. I tend to embrace a style of teaching that fuses all ingredients together. This bias does not rule out quality time I assign students to practice…

A Purr-fect sedative for a Cat

"Harmony of the Angels" has a soporific effect on Aiden cat while it provided a relaxing prelude to Rina's earliest piano lessons. Students, young and old, love its thread of sonorities.

Piano Technique: The Spongy Wrist is a great shock absorber and singing tone supporter

Rina, age 5, and Emily, 13, both learned about the supple wrist and how it nurtures a beautiful singing tone at the piano.

Keeping up with a fast turnover of repertoire and reclaiming an old piece from the Classical era (Videos)

I always make it a point to advise students of all levels, to stay with a piece long enough to feel at one with it--to experience a fluidity of motion that comes from baby-step, layered learning. Despite my admonitions, some pupils choose to remain in the fast lane, whizzing through one selection after another without…

A piano student kicks back over the summer playing a Disney selection while I rekindle old musical memories (Videos)

It's not a big deal when a student forgets her scale, arpeggio, and total assignment, then drifts into a casual reading of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio. Albertina, 13, had brought a coffee-table size anthology of popular tunes to her last lesson. It was indexed by Movies Themes, Broadway Show hits like…

Piano Instruction: Clementi Sonatina in C, Op. 36 No. 3 (parts 1 and 2) and a Skyped lesson-in-progress recorded by camcorder

Supplements to Skyped lessons come in two forms. I will either send an unlisted mid-week video to a long-distance learner as a brush-up, or I'll upload public videos that can be universally shared. Both help me crystallize how I will phrase a composition and teach it. The student, in an interactive role, feeds me ideas…

Harmonic Rhythm, melodic twists, and emotional shifts in Chopin’s B Minor Waltz, Op. 69, No. 2 (Video)

The harmonic flow of a piece is one ingredient of phrase shaping, along with melodic contouring that springs from the human voice and its natural breath. All have emotional consequence as music pours out of the heart and soul of a performer. So getting below the surface of a piece of music, means delving into…

Pianos, Old Age, and Cosmetic Imperfection

I wish I could order an instant make-over for gorgeous-sounding pianos that suffer rejection because of imperfect exteriors. By example, one of my students who'd grown attached to her respectable-looking, 70′s era, walnut console piano, was devastated when her family whisked it away during a move to a bigger house. Apparently, the instrument's wood grain…