How Do You Use Improvisation to Motivate Your Students?
Improvisation, in the sense of the simultaneous composition and performance of music, or in the sense of using available musical materials to fulfill an immediate need, has been a part of keyboard music making for centuries. Yet, many current piano students have not had the opportunity to explore...
What Do You Do When Adults Are Determined to Play Repertoire They Can’t Possibly Play Well? Part 1: Shift to Alternative Choices
The question for this issue should have a familiar ring to it. It’s certainly asked often enough when teachers get together. Are there any adults upwards of thirty alive today who don’t want to play Für Elise and the Moonlight Sonata before they are technically ready? I’m convinced that...
How Do You Use New Technology in Teaching Improvisation?
Everyone reading this magazine- teachers, students, parents- is a product of the 20th-century. That means that we are, in varying degrees, modern, progressive, and up-to-date in our attitudes, teaching, and expectations. Or does it? How many of you enjoy improvising? Do you regularly teach or...
How Did You Choose a Summer Music Camp?
Keyboard Companion Spring 1995; Vol. 6, No. 1
Moscow, Russia Dione Biondi Knowles lives in Tacoma, Washington, but she’s traveled the world to find a good summer piano program. At 14, she studied at the Ecole Normal de Musique in Paris. Then last year, she moved into a dorm near Red Square to take...
What Are the Signs of Talent?
Keyboard Companion Spring 1995; Vol. 6, No. 1
Many a parent whose child begins piano lessons wonders, “Does my child have any talent?” The question itself seems to spawn several others: How can a parent find an accurate answer? Once answered, what should the parent do with the information? Even more to the...
What Have You Learned From Your Own Practice That Has Affected What and How You Teach Your Students About Practice?
Keyboard Companion Spring 1995; Vol. 6, No. 1
Most of what I’ve learned about practice, I’ve learned from teaching. However, there are a few things that I learned as a student that I still strongly believe in and pass along to my students. Here’s part of my “lecture” on practice that occurs during each...
Partners in Time: You and Your Piano
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
Madeleine Crouch has been in love with the piano since a piano teacher moved next door when she was eight years old. Music continues to be a part of her professional life. She has taught piano, worked as a music retailer, and is now an...
From the Inside Out: Motivation
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
Joyce Cameron, Assistant Professor of Music at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, teaches piano performance, piano pedagogy, and functional keyboard skills. For over 25 years, she has searched for answers to two questions: “How can I help piano students become independent learners?” and “How can I help students cultivate the creative...
The Heart of the Matter: Rhythm
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
Marvin Blickenstaff is Professor of Music at Goshen College (Indiana) where he teaches applied piano and courses in piano pedagogy and music literature. With Louise Bianchi and Lynn Freeman Olson, he co-authored the series Music Pathways (Carl Fischer Publishing Co.). What Kind of Counting Do You Use...
It’s Never Too Late: Adult Piano Study
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
Brenda Dillon is on the faculty of Brookhaven College in Dallas, Project Administrator for the National Piano Foundation, co-author of Acquiring Music Fundamentals, Design for Music Reading, Group Piano Study Guide, and Essential Steps and Piano Patterns, and Past Chairman of the Texas Group Piano Association and National Group Piano Symposium . How...
The Other Teacher: Home Practice
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
Elvina Truman Pearce is nationally recognized as a pianist, teacher, lecturer, author, and composer. She studied piano with Isabelle Vengerova and pedagogy with Frances Clark. She is currently an instructor in piano pedagogy and director of the Preparatory Division at Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois. by Elvina Pearce In this issue, our Home Practice department deals with memorizing. For openers, I don’t...
How Do You Ensure Good Posture at the Piano, Especially in Home Practice?
Keyboard Companion Spring 1991; Vol. 2, No. 1
From the series Let’s Get Physical: Technique Steven H. Roberson teaches Piano Pedagogy at Butler University in Indianapolis where he is acting chairman of the Music Education Department. The author of more than twenty-five articles on piano teaching in leading national and international music journals, he has...
How do you help your students achieve rhythmic continuity in slow pieces without sounding mechanical?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2004; Vol. 15, No. 3
from the series: The Heart of the Matter: Rhythm The music must proceed forward at all times, and in an inevitable and seemingly uniform way. My most memorable musical moment at the 2003 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy was during one of the short student recitals...
Can we teach piano technique without physically touching the student?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2004; Vol. 15, No. 3
from the series: Issues and Ideas: Perspectives in Pedagogy Kathleen Murray, Editor Those of us who teach a physical skill have to try to balance a number of issues. This question was not at or near the top of my list of worries as I began my piano teaching...
What motivates adults to continue piano lessons?
Keyboard Companion Autumn 2004; Vol. 15, No. 3
from the series: It’s Never Too Late: Adult Piano Study Brenda Dillon, Editor A walk down memory lane … It has been said that inside the body of every seventy-year-old is a thirty-five-year-old saying, “What happened to me?” When one of the writers for this issue...