One Pianist’s Choice Not to Memorize
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
The traditional requirements of memorizing piano music for public performance have made nervous wrecks of many pianists. Fear of a memory slip can become an enormous specter overhanging each concert, reducing practice to campaigns solely focused on committing the scores safely and perfectly to memory....
Behind the Notes: Music Edited by Ignaz Friedman
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
When learning a new musical work, we trust that all the notes confronting us have been accurately deciphered from a manuscript or its earliest source. While this is a must, it only serves to get one’s footing, something quite hard in a time that has banished older...
Louis Nagel “The People’s Pianist”
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
From Juilliard to Jerusalem, Town Hall to Taichung, Washington to Warsaw, concert pianist Dr. Louis Nagel has graced stages on four continents for more than fifty years. Yet, this triple-degreed Juilliard alum will also perform and explain music in your living room. A longtime professor of...
Interpreting Jazz Accents
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
Accents are a fascinating thing. I mean the kind that keep Americans from understanding folks from across the pond and vice versa. I’ll never forget landing at the Edinburgh, Scotland, airport and hailing a cab to my hotel. The cabbie said something to me that...
An Unknown Pupil of Franz Liszt
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
Today we know only a few composers and performers from the past in contrast to the many who were active, and even well known during their lifetime. I recently read that more than 16,000 works titled “symphony” were composed between 1720 and 1810. Yet when...
Memorization in Adulthood
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
It really gets my dander up when I hear people say that adult amateur pianists aren’t “serious” about their piano study. Why underestimate the thousands of adults who are passionate about performing at the piano? You will find amateur pianists seeking out performance opportunities through...
How Do You Teach Memorization to Elementary and Intermediate-Level Students?
July 2013; Vol. 5, No. 4
How Do You Teach Memorization to Elementary and Intermediate-Level Students? Bruce Berr, Editor Last year I attended an excellent lecture that John Ford did on the teaching of memorization. I enjoyed his extensive summary of mainstream ideas on the subject, as well as several novel...
Does word-of-mouth advertising fall on deaf ears? Seven web essentials for marketing
November 2015; Vol. 7, No. 6
Word-of-mouth is often accurately touted as the best way to market piano lessons. But the concept of word-of-mouth has changed tremendously in the last ten years, both in how it works and what it really is.1 Consequently, word-of-mouth is starting to fall short in effectiveness and conversion...
November 2015: Questions and Answers
November 2015; Vol. 7, No. 6
Q: Would you please discuss the role of technology in piano teaching? How big a role do you think technology should play in weekly lessons? A: We should revisit this question often, since technology changes so fast. And, for one who has built much of his...
I Hope Tiffany Still Likes to Jump in the Mud
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
This issue’s column features the writing of Tiffany Pon, piano student of my longtime friend and colleague, Mona Rejino. Mona teaches at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas, and Tiffany has been her student from the time she was six years old until she graduated...
Mobile technology is the new normal
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Editor’s note: In the November/December 2014 issue, Clavier Companion launched a series of articles addressing the future of piano teaching. The following two articles are part of that series, which will continue in future issues. Think back to an earlier time in your life. Did...
The future of piano teaching – gamification in teaching
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
PRESS PLAY Jane McGonigal, The Future of Piano Teaching author of Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and other books, is a video game designer. In a TED talk from 2012,1 Jane tells her inspirational, emotional...
Piano Pentathlon and Piano Hullabaloo: Celebrating the piano
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Many music organizations host annual festivals for student pianists each year where students play in a master class atmosphere, are critiqued, and are given suggestions for improvement. These learning opportunities can be extremely valuable, especially for those preparing auditions and recitals. Yet, I have often...
How often should I raise tuition?
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
In the last article, we discussed how to determine a reasonable tuition and make sure that your studio is profitable. Once you’ve determined this and set your plan in motion, however, you can unknowingly sabotage your plan if you do not also plan to raise...
To use, or not to use?
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Peter Serkin uses it. So do Emmanuel Ax and Richard Goode. Sviatoslav Richter started using it. As a faculty member in 1980, Gilbert Kalish promoted a policy about it at Stony Brook University; it was ok to use it during degree recitals. Many top competitions prohibit...