Promoting interest in your class or studio
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
We all have heard a teacher exclaim, “I can’t make my students do anything. They have to want to do it on their own.” The teacher’s belief presumes music students are a set of individuals innately eager and curious to study music. I believe some students...
Beyond major and minor: A composer’s understanding of chords and scales
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Major and minor. Together these form a basic polarity in Western music. Major scales and chords are usually characterized as “happy,” while minor ones are saddled with the label “sad.” After composing, improvising, arranging, and teaching for more than forty years with these musical materials,...
Pencil Practice 101
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Recognizing chord symbols is one of the biggest obstacles faced by beginning improvisers learning to play from lead sheets. Just as foreign language students write conjugations to become better speakers, pianists can improve their chord fluency with pencil practice away from the piano. Writing chords...
Wael Farouk and the Rachmaninoff piano oeuvre
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Wael Farouk was born with extremely short hand ligaments. He can’t make a fist, open a jar, or button his shirt, but he can play the complete solo piano works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, who is known for complex and demanding music. At thirty-two years...
How do you avoid assigning repertoire that is too difficult too soon?
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Each spring, I adjudicate festivals and write comments, review auditions for a summer program that I co-direct, and judge precollegiate competitions. Sitting with other pianists on these panels, the conversation is often something like: “Wasn’t it wonderful the way Student X played repertoire at his or...
Impressionism for intermediates
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
Helen Boykin’s 1947 impressionistic gem, Seafoam (Schirmer/Hal Leonard), has remained a student favorite for almost seventy years. I’ve taught this intermediate piece many times, but it is also a solo that profoundly motivated me when I was a young student. The majority of the piece...
Piano Talk
September 2015; Vol. 7, No. 5
For quite some time, I’ve found myself noting the vocabulary we use to describe our peculiar life-enterprise as pianists. We steal from everywhere, and each theft seems to convey some facet of our identity. Some of those identities might best be discarded; others serve to remind...
How do you know when a student is ready to perform a piece?
May 2015; Vol. 7, No. 3
One of my studio recitals just ended. As I write this, I am eating a leftover brownie and may snarf down a couple more. Would wine be better? Probably, but it is only four in the afternoon. The recital went well. For one thing, everyone showed up....
The value of music
May 2015; Vol. 7, No. 3
Piano teachers have great jobs, and I think most of us are thankful that we get to spend our days sharing something we love with our students. It is immensely gratifying to see our students grow as musicians and watch music become an important part...
May 2015: Questions and Answers
May 2015; Vol. 7, No. 3
Q: Piano teachers have more resources available to them than ever before. With all of the blogs, list-serves, and social media available free of charge, and low-cost online conferences proliferating, why should I expend the time, energy, and money to attend a live conference such...
May 2015: Poetry Corner
May 2015; Vol. 7, No. 3
Brahms: Waltz [Op. 39, No. 15] As the departing soul looks down upon the earth and its gaze sweeps the grass, takes in the house where time still lingers among tasks left undone: so the hands hover once more over the keys, and the melody,...
May 2015: Closer Look: Pieces for warm weather
May 2015; Vol. 7, No. 3
(S2) Bumblebee Rumble, by Jennifer Linn. This spunky solo is a toe-tapping audience pleaser. A humorous recurring bumblebee motif alternates with jazzy broken chords and syncopated rhythms to create a very visual and dancelike aural story. Students move quickly around the piano, exploring ever-changing textures...
Respect and love for the music: A conversation with Martha Argerich
November 2015; Vol. 7, No. 6
I had the privilege of meeting Martha Argerich, for many the greatest living pianist, when she performed Schumann’s concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall earlier this year. It was a stunning performance, and the audience enthusiastically cheered her return to the...
Should we fear the future?
November 2015; Vol. 7, No. 6
“What is the future of piano teaching?” is an important question, but it may tend to strike a bit of fear into each of us. Almost implicit in the question is another, more ominous question: “Will there be a future for piano teaching?” With the...
The teaching legacy of Rosina Lhévinne
November 2015; Vol. 7, No. 6
Rosina Lhévinne found herself in an awkward position in the late 1940s. Later famous as the teacher of Van Cliburn and John Browning, among others, and as an outstanding pianist who made her debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1963 at the age of...