Combining LIVE and SKYPED Piano Lessons

A FACEBOOK forum contributor at the Art of Piano Pedagogy, urged me to blog about the hybrid piano instructor who inhabits the dual universe of LIVE and web-transmitted lessons. So having unplugged three web cams last night to make room for a flesh and blood student, I can expand upon my own multifaceted instructional encounters.…

Simone Dinnerstein at Dewing Recital Hall: A Crusade for a better piano

https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/simone-dinnerstein-at-dewing-recital-hall-a-crusade-for-a-better-piano/ Simone Dinnerstein, Pianist Friday, Jan.31, 2014 DEWING RECITAL HALL Mills College Oakland, California *** It's sad that what's most memorable about a concert is a piano not performing satisfactorily for a gifted, invited performer. Simone Dinnerstein, known for her self-funded Goldberg Variations CD that catapulted her into the media spotlight, leading to IMG Artists…

Multi-cam views during Skype or Face Time piano lessons

  I rely on  Logitech webcams with a long range panoramic capability and various angled keyboard views, including a DIRECT KEYBOARD overhead as below.   These views are just a mouse tap away. For trill and ornament demonstrations, I can highlight the second or third HD PRO cam option listed on my SKYPE (or FACE…

Husband and wife pianists I have known and their legacy

This week's practicing and You Tubing hearkened back to my student days in New York City. Lillian Lefkofsky Freundlich was my Rosina Lhevinne. She, like her Russian counterpart, was married to a high profile husband, Irwin Freundlich who doubled as her 4-hand piano partner. When Irwin passed away in his late 60s quite suddenly, as…

Piano Technique: Arpeggios!

I love these romps through broken chords (around the CIRCLE of FIFTHS) and my adult students "work out" weekly. (The challenge is to have smooth shifts between octaves, a seamless playing in legato minus thumb CLUNKS, and in staccato to play crisp and evenly. Arpeggios (root, third, fifth patterns) can be practiced in parallel motion…

Piano Lessons: The Raw adult beginner

I use the term "raw" to describe adult piano students who don't read music or play by ear. They often come to their first lesson oozing with enthusiasm, but harboring fears associated with success and failure themes. It's the usual environmental humdrum we all know about that puts the business paradigm squarely at odds with…

Honoring my “neighborhood” piano teacher amidst melting degrees of separation

The Back Story: After having spent about 30 years in hometown New York City, I emigrated to the agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley, California, planting myself and family in Fresno. This seemed to be a God forsaken place with excruciating heat (though dry). With its relentless air pollution; bad water from contaminated wells, and high incidence…

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…

Piano Lessons: “My kids don’t practice so what can I do about it?”

The latest piano forum quandary surrounds daily practicing. Parents are wringing their hands as teachers impart the latest advice of the week. Even adult students are plagued by "shoulds" and perfect routes to success, planted in their psyche in early childhood. They'll cancel their own lessons if they didn't get to the piano every day.…

Rolling wrist motions, “Circle Dance,” and adult “elementary” students

A few of my adult students who have returned to the piano after a long hiatus, are pleased to re-orient themselves to the instrument via five-finger position pieces. These cannot be dismissed handily as play by finger number journeys. In fact, the larger pedagogical value of selected repertoire is substantial. In "Circle Dance" by Ferdinand…