A Philosophy of Piano Pedagogy
May 2013; Vol. 5, No. 3
Editor’s note: In this issue’s column we present the first half of one of Frances Clark’s popular lectures from the 1970s—”A Philosophy of Piano Pedagogy.” Have you ever attempted the impossible? Well, that’s what I’m about to do—discuss a philosophy of piano pedagogy in thirty...
All’s well that ends well
May 2013; Vol. 5, No. 3
Jazz pianists face innumerable decisions when playing a song from the American Songbook. Every time we perform a song by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, or Duke Ellington, we address questions about key (we are not obliged to play the tune in its original key); tempo...
How Do You Teach the Dotted-Quarter Eighth Note Rhythm?
May 2013; Vol. 5, No. 3
In this issue, we address the teaching of a basic, but often challenging, skill—the dotted-quarter eighth note rhythm. We wanted to take a different approach and survey several teachers to assemble a wider collection of ideas for you, the reader, to consider. Nine teachers of...
Healthy Technique for Beginning Students
May 2013; Vol. 5, No. 3
Technique is such a broad term— thousands of pianists with different physical approaches to the instrument play well and (hopefully!) without injuries. But often when we discuss injury-free techniques, we are talking about advanced pianists playing extremely demanding repertoire. Very few of us, however, will...
Let’s Get Physical: Technique – Bodywork for Pianists
May 2013; Vol. 5, No. 3
What is good piano technique? Is it the ability to play fast scales? loud chords? hard pieces, that go on for a long time? Yes. All of these things. But they are part of a bigger whole. It’s healthy, efficient, and pain-free movement at the...
Simply Genius: An interview with Evgeny Kissin
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
Kissin, performing in Moscow, 1984. At the age of eleven months, Evgeny Kissin was singing the theme from a Bach fugue that his sister, Alla, was playing on the piano. At two years old, he began to play piano himself, and at age six he...
Clavier Companion Teacher Profile: Madame Olga Samaroff
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
Madame Olga Samaroff left an indelible mark on the world of music and every one of her students. In the 1930s, she launched the careers of Eugene List and Rosalyn Tureck, and her best-known pupil, William Kapell. Other notable students included Joseph Battista, Stewart Gordon, Natalie...
Samaroff Student: Eugene List (1918-1985)
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
At age ten, Eugene List played the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto in his first public concert, performing it one year later with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Soon after, he was awarded a scholarship for Madame Olga Samaroff’s class at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Mrs....
Samaroff Student: Maurice Hinson
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
How were you able to study with Madame Samaroff? I grew up in a musical family, playing tunes by ear. I took the Sherwood Music School Correspondence Course, which included a summer session in Chicago. For three summers (when I was 13-15) I studied with...
Teaching Two-Octave Scales
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
I’m coming up on my fiftieth anniversary of teaching, and I’ve learned some painful lessons. Here’s one: playing two-octave scales isn’t twice as hard as playing scales in one octave; it’s ten times more difficult. Here’s another: you can never assume students grasp a concept, no...
Purposeful Transcription and Music Analysis
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
As a high school student, my piano teacher assigned me the task of hand-copying a portion of Clementi’s Sonata in B-flat Major. The task, given in preparation for the upcoming spring recital, was both meticulous and tedious; at the time, it seemed like busywork. What...
Steps to Learning a Lead Sheet
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
Lead sheets are a simplified form of music notation designed to present the essentials of a tune, while still leaving room for creative interpretation. Lead sheets consist of two main parts: Written melody Chord symbols Interpreting lead sheets works best if you and your students...
Repertoire: Grieg “Sailor’s Song”
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
I didn’t begin my piano studies until I was eleven. As a result, I can recall my first reactions to every piece I studied—yes, every piece! (Not just how the piece sounded to me, but also how it felt under my fingers, what confused me,...
Breakin’ it down: The art of modifying orchestral reductions at the piano
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
Many college and pre-college level pianists have not experienced the complexities of working with orchestral reductions.This is an essential skill for pianists to cultivate, since singers frequently perform works from the genres of opera and oratorio, and instrumentalists play concerti and other works originally written...
Practice Techniques For Expressive Performances
November 2013; Vol. 5, No. 6
Mary Leaf’s Fantasy in A Minor (FJH) is a successful Pupil Saver in my studio. This romantic- style intermediate piece is popular with students because it sounds harder than it is, contains patterns that enable the student to learn it quickly, and utilizes the entire...