What Technology Do You Have at Home and How Do You Use It?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1992; Vol. 3, No. 3
During the past decade many students have been exposed to technology-at school, in their piano lessons, at retail stores, arcades, MTV, etc. As a result, many families have purchased some technology for home use. What did they buy, why did they buy it, and how are they...
What Musical Games Do Students Enjoy Most?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1993; Vol. 4, No. 3
from the series: The Magic Triangle: Teacher/Student/Parent For this issue, we went directly to the students to ask – What musical games do you enjoy the most? I think you will find their answers interesting, surprising, educational, delightful, and humorous. I only wish that you could see all...
What Have You Learned From Listening to Your Own Children’s Practice?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1993; Vol. 4, No. 3
from the series: The Other Teacher: Home Practice As a piano teacher with no children of my own, I have sometimes wondered how, as a parent, I might have handled music lessons for my child. Would I (should I) have insisted that the child take piano lessons?...
How Do You Teach Students to Read Who Already Play by Ear?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1993; Vol. 4, No. 3
from the series: Independence Day: Music Reading We’ve all heard, countless times, “Would you play it for me?” after a student has spent a week with a new piece without satisfactory success. If we know the student well, our response will be based on knowing why...
What Do We Mean by Technique, Anyway?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 1993; Vol. 4, No. 3
from the series: Let’s Get Physical: Technique There was a time when keyboard technique seemed a comparatively simple affair. There’s nothing remarkable about it, a gruff J. S. Bach told his friend J. F. Kohler. Hit the right notes at the right time and the instrument...
Spring 2020: Pupil Saver: Caribbean Blue by Lynn Freeman Olson
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
I teach in a piano camp every summer—it is the highlight of my summer and I so look forward to working with students in this setting. I have just listened to the audition of my prospective student for the camp: a boy in middle school...
Spring 2020: Book Review: Teaching Piano Pedagogy: A Guidebook for Training Effective Teachers
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
In the introduction to his revolutionary Teaching Piano Pedagogy: A Guidebook for Training Effective Teachers, Courtney Crappell states that the “book is not about teaching piano; it is a book about how pedagogy students become teachers.”1 Why revolutionary? Despite the current availability of many other pedagogy...
A Tribute to Marvin Blickenstaff and his Pedagogical Legacy
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Marvin Blickenstaff has been a pillar of the North American piano community for more than five decades. His dedication to outstanding teaching, learning, and performing has been honed through his work with innumerable students and their teachers. Anyone who has witnessed Marvin working with young pianists understands why his work is so powerful. He demands excellence from his students and colleagues,...
Don’t Make Me Use My Teacher Voice: How to Get Results Without Getting Frustrated
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
I recently assigned a Bossa Nova to my sixteen-year-old intermediate piano student. Even though the style was new to him, he enjoyed the sound of the piece and was excited to learn it. In preparation, we watched performances on YouTube so he could hear a...
Slow Looking: Applications of Shari Tishman’s Observational Strategies in Piano Study
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
One of the most difficult aspects of teaching music and art is the ambiguous and subjective transmission of abstract concepts to the learner. Teachers often fail to communicate the concept of musical interpretation effectively, due to the subjectivity of language and delivery. How can one...
Accomodating Student Needs and Learning Styles
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
All teachers understand that students come to us with different interests, learning styles, and learning needs. We work with all of our students to achieve the goals of learning how to play the piano and study music. However, teachers who work with students who have...
Appropriate Arrangements
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
We are flooded today with a wide variety of musical arrangements. Through the years, I have heard Bach’s Toccata in D Minor used as a video game accompaniment, Mozart’s “Turkish March” in a toy cell phone, Poulton’s “Aura Lee” (a.k.a. “Love Me Tender”) played in...
Incorporating Metacognition into the Group Piano Curriculum
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
My interest in metacognition grew out of a rather simple and straightforward question (or at least so I thought!) that I posed to a third semester piano class for music majors at my university. My question was this, “What do you do when you look at a piece...
Decatastrophizing the Memory Lapse
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
The practice of memorizing music is relatively new. In the 1988 film by John Schlesinger, Madame Sousatzka,1 there is a haunting scene that still fills many a pianist with an uncomfortable sense of apprehension. The young madame is performing Beethoven’s Appassionata to a packed concert hall, when suddenly the...
With or Without Your Music
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Around ten years ago, a detailed study was made by neurosurgeons and seasoned performers to determine the chief cause or causes of stage fright. Opinions were conclusive: it was ascertained that eighty percent of performance anxiety is caused by a fear of memory slips. If this is...