Piano Inspires Podcast: An Interview with Connor Chee



To celebrate the latest episode of Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Connor Chee we are sharing an excerpted transcript of his conversation with Craig Sale. Want to learn more about Chee? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Chee on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!

Connor Chee, Ann DuHamel, Leah Claiborne, and Sara Davis Buechner after their NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference PEDx presentations.

Craig Sale: Which brings me to a project, which I’m familiar with. It is an exciting one with the Frances Clark Center. You are, along with Renata Yazzie, leading a project of commissioned works by Indigenous composers for young piano students or for elementary students. We’ve been working on the project together, but one thing we haven’t talked about is what does this project mean to you? What do you hope to achieve by it, but, also on a more personal level, what meaning does that hold for you?

Connor Chee: I think it’s important on so many levels. I think the first is the level of communication, because music is a great way to communicate and to foster curiosity. That’s something that with my music I tried to do and I’m always surprised at the conversations that open up with other cultures and things that I learned about other people because they found something in the music that relates to Diné culture that also relates to some aspect of their unique background. Those are the conversations that are so important to really be able to celebrate the diversity and what makes everybody unique and what they can bring to the table. Specifically in the Indigenous communities, I think it’s important because it shows possibility. They’re seeing things that are placed in front of them that they can say, “Hey, maybe I want to do this someday. Maybe I want to be a composer. Maybe I want to play piano.” You know, these are things that are—there’s a place for us, and it’s important for students to see that that there is a place for them if they want to pursue music or whatever avenue it is. That wasn’t the case because in the past, you know, the representation was so flawed, and it wasn’t really a represent quotation that was more of a mockery, yeah, that had, you know, a negative impact.

CS: Representation that’s not a cartoon.

CC: Right?

CS: Something that they can actually relate to.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with Connor Chee on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!

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5 Things to Know about Piano Inspires Kids Composition Contest



Attention budding composers! Piano Inspires Kids invites students to submit a piano solo for our first composition contest! Winning compositions will be featured in the Summer 2024 issue and on our website, kids.pianoinspires.com. Read below for all the details!

1. The composition must be a fanfare.

A fanfare is a short and usually brilliant piece used to announce the arrival of an important person or the beginning of an important event. Movies and TV shows often begin with a title theme, the national anthem signals the start of sporting events, and celebratory sounds fill the air as a newly wedded couple turns to walk down the aisle together. 

The Summer 2024 issue will explore music and the Summer Olympic Games. Write a fanfare that could be used as the athletes walk into the stadium!

2. Need ideas? Get started with our downloadable Rhythm Creator!

Go to https://kids.pianoinspires.com/explore/activities/ to start building the rhythm for your composition. 

3. The contest is open to students aged 7-18, divided into four age groups: 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18.

There is no limit to the number of compositions a student can submit. The student composer may receive assistance notating their work, but we want the ideas to be all student generated!

4. Give your composition a title, dynamics, articulations, and other musical markings.

Show us all of your creative and expressive ideas so others can play your work with style!

5. The contest deadline is April 15, 2024 at 11:59 PM Pacific.

Submit compositions on our student submission page: kids.pianoinspires.com/submit.

We can’t wait to hear your fanfares!

Want to learn more about Piano Inspires Kids? Watch our webinar, “Inside Piano Inspires Kids: A New Publication of the Frances Clark Center” with Co-Editors-in-Chiefs Sara Ernst and Andrea McAlister: click here.


How to Write an Effective Conference Proposal: 5 Tips for Success



We are delighted to share top tips from Dr. Sara Ernst on writing successful conference proposals. Are you a student interested in sharing your research and projects with the piano pedagogy community? On Friday, April 26th at 11am ET, the Frances Clark Center is hosting “Collegiate Connections,” an event to celebrate collegiate groups and their innovative projects. Learn more and submit a proposal here.

1. Propose a topic that inspires you and aligns with the conference call

A strong conference proposal will be formed from a topic that is ideal for the specific conference, considering both its audience and specific theme or goals. Your topic certainly should grow from your interests and expertise while being relevant to the community at hand. Remember that the review committee will have hundreds of proposals to read, and often, the way to distinguish yours is by demonstrating the significance, relevance, and need for your presentation. Furthermore, convey that you have thoroughly explored and researched the topic, and that you have developed unique and vital ideas, ready to be shared.

2. Clearly state the objectives and organization of your presentation

Within the proposal abstract, give the reader a clear understanding of what will be accomplished during the presentation. Questions to address include: What are your specific goals and outcomes? What ideas and resources will be explored? How will the topic be organized? What examples and visuals will facilitate the flow of ideas? The proposal should demonstrate that the presentation will add depth of content to the conference program and will be effective in its delivery. 

3. Identify how the topic is suitable for the proposed time length and format 

The various presentation formats and durations each have unique characteristics. For example, a panel presentation has a theme that will benefit from the sharing of multiple, individual perspectives, whereas a keyboard lab has to demonstrate purposeful use of the group keyboard format. The 50-minute presentation has a scope and level of detail that necessitates the longest time frame. Alternatively, the 5-minute lightning talk needs to be narrow in its scope, while remaining of interest to the audience. The proposal can therefore clearly reflect and support the choices of format and time length.

4. Write effective prose, in a style that matches the topic

A formal research presentation and an interactive workshop have different styles of communication that are inherent to each format. The proposal can reflect this, ensuring that academic style is utilized where appropriate. A more personal, yet always professional, style can be used in other cases, in alignment with the topic and format. It is recommended that you ask a trusted colleague to review your writing prior to submission. All text—including the title, abstract, short description, and bio—need to be thoroughly edited to facilitate the review and potential programming of your work.

5. Follow the guidelines

Last, but certainly not least, take time to thoroughly review the requirements of the proposal, before the deadline. Note the formats possible, additional requested items (like CVs and headshots), the word count limits, and any additional materials needed (such as recordings). Read the policies and requirements, noting important details like ensuring that the text is suitable for blind review, and that all co-presenters are in agreement with the proposal. If you are including links, double check that these are viewable by others. To avoid last-minute issues, enter your proposal before the deadline, carefully reviewing each item before clicking the “submit” button. After submitting, verify the email confirmation to ensure that your proposal was correctly received.

Do you have research you want to share with the piano pedagogy community? Submit a manuscript to the Journal of Piano Research by clicking here.

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Collegiate Essay Winner: Emerging Adulthood and Undergraduate Group Piano



We would like to thank Melody Morrison, who was named the winner of the 2023 Collegiate Writing Contest, for this insightful article on adulthood and collegiate group piano. Are you a collegiate student interested in submitting your writing to the Piano Magazine? We encourage all collegiate students to enter the 2024 Collegiate Writing Contest! Materials are due on May 1, 2024. To learn more and submit an article, click here.

Typical college students find themselves in a phase of life that has been identified as “emerging adulthood”— a time when characteristics of both children and adults are present in individuals who are in their late teens to early twenties.1 Collegiate group piano classes consist of mostly first- and second-year students (likely seventeen to twenty years old) and are in the beginning stages of emerging adulthood.2 Because the students who are in undergraduate group piano classes exhibit traits of children and adults, elements from both pedagogical and andragogical teaching approaches should be applied. It is therefore beneficial for a teacher to understand the teaching methodologies which highlight the adjustment of one’s teaching style according to the age of the student.3

This discussion will synthesize the research literature related to the differences between pedagogy and andragogy, and undergraduate class piano. In conclusion, implications and suggestions for teaching undergraduate class piano and this age population will be presented.

Pedagogy and Andragogy: History, Characteristics, and Differences

Pedagogy has often been used to encompass learning in all stages of life. However, the word “pedagogy” is derived from the Greek words paidos and agogus which translate to “child” and “leader of” respectively.4 Pedagogy, therefore, can be defined as the art and science of teaching children.5 European monks between the seventh and twelfth centuries began to observe how children learn and developed the first pedagogical concepts. Ideas from this era were eventually seen in schools throughout Europe and North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and educational psychologists continued to study and develop the pedagogical model.6

A new focus on effective adult learning within the United States in the 1920s demonstrated that pedagogical concepts did not appear to work with the same success rate in adult students. Different teaching methods for adults began to develop throughout the twentieth century, and in the 1960s American educator Malcolm Knowles popularized the term andragogy. Andragogy originates from the Greek words aner whose stem andra means “man,” not “boy,” and agogue which means “leader of.” Knowles emphasized that andragogy was different from pedagogy, the latter referring to the education of children.7

The differences between pedagogy and andragogy can be summarized in six “assumptions” found in Figure 1.8 One of the noticeable differences between children and adult learners is that children often willingly receive instructions from a teacher if the directions are clear, while an adult learner will want to know the importance of a concept before they take the time to study it. Adult learners also carry with them many life experiences which will affect numerous areas of their learning.9 Children on the other hand come to a learning environment with more of a “clean slate.” Another difference between pedagogy and andragogy is that children often are motivated by outside forces, while adults demonstrate more internal motivation.10 Lastly, adults have shown preference toward self-directed learning.11

If you enjoyed this excerpt from Melody Morrison’s article “Emerging Adulthood and Undergraduate Group Piano,” you can read more here: https://pianoinspires.com/article/collegiate-essay-winner-emerging-adulthood-and-undergraduate-group-piano/.


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SOURCES

1 Jeffrey J. Arnett, “Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens through the Twenties,” American Psychologist 55, no. 5 (2000): 469–480.

2 Christopher Fisher, Teaching Piano in Groups (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); Pamela D. Pike, Dynamic Group-Piano Teaching (New York: Routledge, 2017).

3 Malcolm S. Knowles, The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy (Englewood Cliffs: Cambridge Adult Education, 1980); Joseph Mews, “Leading through Andragogy,” College and University 95 (2020): 65–68.

4 Malcolm S. Knowles, The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species (Houston: Gulf Publishing Company, 1973); Malcolm S. Knowles, Elwood F. Holton III, and Richard A. Swanson, The Adult Learner (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2012).

5 Geraldine Holmes and Michele Abington-Cooper, “Pedagogy vs. Andragogy: A False Dichotomy?” The Journal of Technology Studies 26 (2000). doi.org/10.21061/jots.v26i2.a.8

6 Knowles, The Modern Practice of Adult Education.

7 Ibid.; Joseph Davenport, “Is There a Way Out of the Andragogy Morass?” Lifelong Learning 11, no. 3 (1987): 17–20.

8 Darcy B. Tannehill, “How Do Post-Secondary Institutions Educate and Service Adult Learners?” EdD diss., (University of Pittsburgh, 2009).

9 Sang Chan, “Applications of Andragogy in Multi-Disciplined Teaching and Learning,” MPAEA Journal of Adult Education 39, no. 2 (2010): 25–35.

10 James A. Draper, “The Metamorphoses of Andragogy,” Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education 12, no. 1 (1998), 3–26; Mews, “Leading through Andragogy.”

11 Sharan B. Merriam, “Andragogy and Self-Directed Learning: Pillars of Adult Learning Theory,” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, (Spring 2001): 3–14. doi.org/10.1002/ace.3

Spring 2021: Pupil Saver: Adagio in F Minor by Chevalier de Saint-Georges



We would like to thank Leah Claiborne for this insightful article on Chevalier de Saint-Georges’s Adagio in F Minor. Want to learn more about Black composers? Check out our latest publication of Thomas Henderson Kerr Jr.’s Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel? for two pianos! This publication, spearheaded by Susanna Garcia and William Chapman Nyaho, is the first in a series of three publications of Kerr’s piano works by the Frances Clark Center. Learn more and order a copy here.

Can you imagine performing a piece by a Black composer who was born into slavery? What a piece of history you would have at your fingertips!

Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799) was a virtuoso violinist, conductor, and composer. Born in Guadeloupe, his father was a wealthy plantation owner and his mother was enslaved on the plantation. His father took him to Paris, France when he was seven years old to further his education. He became a leading concertmaster in Paris, performing his own violin concerti, and concerti that were dedicated to him by other leading composers of the time. Some of these composers include Antonio Lolli and Carl Stamitz. Chevalier de Saint-Georges composed operas, solo vocal and instrumental works, chamber music, and symphonies. All of the music that this composer created is hardly ever performed, but that can change right now by incorporating Adagio in F Minor into your repertoire.

Adagio in F Minor is a solemn, expressive piece that would be a wonderful predecessor before a student tackles Clementi sonatinas. It can be challenging for teachers to find music that bridges the gap between method book repertoire and sonatinas, as well as the transition from sonatinas to sonatas. Adagio in F Minor fits perfectly into an early-intermediate pianist’s studies. This piano piece in F minor features a melancholic melody with expressive harmonic support (see Excerpt 1). The musical maturity needed for this piece often makes this a favorite amongst intermediate adult students as well. 

Excerpt 1: Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Adagio in F Minor, mm. 1-4

CHALLENGE #1

The student is asked to perform scale passages in thirds in the right hand (see Excerpt 2). The thirds in Adagio in F Minor are beautifully intertwined with the melody and should be voiced to the top note. A similar example of right-hand thirds being used as the melody in the teaching repertoire is found in Czerny’s 100 Progressive Studies, Op. 139, No. 38 in G major, which can be a great companion etude when a student is learning this piece (see Excerpt 3). 

Excerpt 2: Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Adagio in F Minor, mm. 8-10.
Excerpt 3: Carl Czerny, 100 Progressive Studies, Op. 139, No. 38, mm. 1-4.

We hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Leah Claibornes’s article “Spring 2021: Pupil Saver: Adagio in F Minor by Chevalier de Saint-Georges.” You can read more by clicking here.

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Judith Lang Zaimont: “Mandarin Orange” from In My Lunchbox



We would like to thank Chris Madden for these insightful teaching tips on Zaimont’s “Mandarin Orange” from In My Lunchbox. Interested in learning more about Chris’s publications and research? Check out Technique through Repertoire Book 1 and Book 2, co-authored by Chris Madden and Jani Parsons. If you are attending the Music Teachers National Association Conference in Atlanta on Tuesday, March 19th, stop by our exhibit booth from 12:00-1:00pm to attend our Publications Book Signing and Meet-and-Greet.

Preparation and Presentation

Context: pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

  • “Charlie Chipmunk” from Piano Safari
  • Amazing Grace
  • Any tune that employs the pentatonic scale

Get Ready: creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

  • Improvise on black-key pentatonic patterns: the teacher plays an accompaniment and allows the student to experience the pentatonic scale via all five black keys. One or both hands may be used.
  • Sing pentatonic melodies and note the “resting tone.” After singing, encourage students to play the melody on black keys.
  • Once students can sing and play pentatonic melodies on black keys, encourage them to transpose them to white keys. F will be the easiest starting tone.

Initial Focus: features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

  • Simplify the visually complex key signatures. While students might be intimidated by two contrasting key signatures between the hands, they can easily understand that the piece will be played using only black keys.
  • Identify the mixed meter: have students circle the changing time signatures in mm. 18-19 and clap these measures to ensure rhythmic and metric understanding.

Coordination Essentials: physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

  • One challenge is achieving wrist flexibility in order to play the interval of a fourth with fingers 3-5. Depending on a student’s hand size, this could be a large interval to play using these fingers.
  • Two exercises can help:
    • Play an ascending series of 4ths on white keys, focusing on a relaxed “drop and roll” motion that outlines a wrist “smile” on each new interval.
    • Practice Hanon’s Exercise No. 1, which emphasizes allowing the elbow to lead and letting a relaxed wrist follow.

We hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Chris Madden’s Inspiring Artistry contribution “Zaimont: ‘Mandarin Orange’ from In My Lunchbox.” You can read more and listen to Chris discuss the piece on video by clicking here.

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Piano Inspires Podcast: An Interview with Vanessa Cornett



To celebrate the latest episode of Piano Inspires Podcast featuring Vanessa Cornett, we are sharing an excerpted transcript of her conversation with Alejandro Cremaschi. Want to learn more about Cornett? Check out the latest installment of the Piano Inspires Podcast. To learn more, visit pianoinspires.com. Listen to our latest episode with Cornett on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!

Vanessa Cornett at NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference.

Alejandro Cremaschi: It’s interesting because we are talking about anxiety, but there’s this other side of what you do, which is about peak performance and using sports psychology tools to help. I think in some ways they are related, right? Peak performance and anxiety?


Vanessa Cornett: They are! This is going to be an oversimplification, but I think musicians are behind athletes significantly. I think elite athletes and their coaches and their sports psychologists have understood for many decades, that if you train the mind for peak performance, that helps automatically with the anxiety because you’re taking a proactive approach. You’re thinking, “How do I win? How do I be the best? How do I get the gold?” You have practiced all of these internal and external things to get there. Okay, what do musicians do? We spend hours and hours training the body in our practice room and when we feel anxious, first of all, it feels wrong. “I shouldn’t be feeling this, this, clearly, I’m doing something wrong.” Then what we do as musicians is we tend to take a reactive approach: “Oh, you have this problem. Let’s see how we can help you fix this problem and get over it.” What I tell my students, is if you go into a bookstore or search on Amazon for “performance anxiety management techniques for top athletes,” “stage fright for football players,” you don’t find those books. You don’t find—Michael Phelps is not writing a book on: “I was Scared and Here’s How I Got Over It.” Because all of the literature is: “What can I do to be the best? What can I do to put my mind in the game where it needs to be?” I really believe—and again, it’s an oversimplification, because music and sports aren’t the same—but if we musicians would take a more proactive approach, if we would help our students and ourselves think differently, or pay attention to our mental processes, I don’t think performance anxiety would go away but I think we would know how to proactively sort of deal with it and it wouldn’t be weird, it would be normal. It would be you know that adrenaline when we feel scared—that’s the same adrenaline when we’re having a peak performance experience. I tell my students, no world record at the Olympics was ever broken except in front of an audience. Those are when the world records are broken because there’s so much adrenaline and it’s funneled in a certain way, right? So why can’t musicians take that adrenaline and instead of recognizing it as dread—”I’m going to die!”—why can’t we get our mind in a place where we use that as fuel as best we can to have what we would call a peak performance experience?

If you enjoyed this excerpt from Piano Inspires Podcast’s latest episode, listen to the entire episode with Vanessa Cornett on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or our website!

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Teaching Contemporary Piano Techniques to Intermediate Students with Alexina Louie’s Star Light, Star Bright



We would like to thank Lynn Worcester Jones for this insightful article on teaching Alexina Louie’s Star Light, Star Bright. Want to learn more about music by women composers? Check out our course, Hidden Gems: Four Centuries of Piano Music by Women Composers. Learn more and enroll here.

Introducing intermediate piano students to twentieth-and twenty-first-century compositional techniques and styles is essential, especially as we move from Gen Z students to those in Generation Alpha (born in the early 2010s). In Star Light, Star Bright (1995),1 both generations will find an established, musically rich collection of nine pedagogical solo piano pieces tailored for this purpose by Alexina Louie,2 an internationally recognized, living female composer. Students will gain greater rhythmic control, perceive their sound differently, explore new freedoms in their technique, and appreciate the importance of score study. Effective performance of these techniques will build a student’s inner conductor as they absorb the importance of rhythmic values and new approaches to time and space. Beyond the pedagogical benefits, these pieces may also help teachers retain students who are resistant to, or need a break from, traditional repertoire.

Star Light, Star Bright comfortably and brilliantly engages the intermediate-level student with minimalism, frequent meter changes, unmeasured music, and new presentations of musical notation. The pieces sound sophisticated and advanced beyond their pianistic requirements, and alone or in combinations are excellent choices for study in lessons, recital performances, and competitions. One approach in teaching this set is to study and perform the pieces in pairs. Each piece is brief—two to four pages—with the right number of contemporary musical techniques, styles, and new challenges. Louie provides musical directions that are succinct, specific, and inviting for students new to the way these techniques sound, feel, and appear on the page; and students and teachers will appreciate her pedal markings, ample fingerings, tempo alterations, articulations, and dynamics in the music.

Eight out of the nine pieces are listed in The Royal Conservatory Piano Syllabus, 2015 edition (RCPS)3 and they offer Gen Alphas an opportunity to be intrigued by stars, planets, and galaxies as they explore new sounds and colors emanating from this celestial set.

“Distant Star”
“Distant Star” is one of the most accessible pieces to learn in this collection and is a seamless introduction to frequent meter changes in a contemporary style for the intermediate student. Pianists will discover eleven meter changes in this brief twenty-four-measure piece with the quarter note receiving the main beat throughout. “Distant Star” begins in the lower register of the piano with two bass clefs and does not move into the ledger lines above the treble clef until the last four measures. Pianists with small hands will find one manageable octave stretch on F sharp that appears three times in the left hand in a moderate tempo. There are open fourths and fifths and the extended chords set an expressive mood that produces an other-worldly atmosphere. “Distant Star” is listed as Level 6 in the RCPS, p. 54.

We hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Lynn Worcester Jones’s insightful article on teaching Alexina Louie’s Star Light, Star Bright. To read the full article, check out our course, Hidden Gems: Four Centuries of Piano Music by Women Composers. Learn more and enroll here.

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NOTES
  1. The Star Light, Star Bright collection of intermediate piano solos, by Alexina Louie, was most recently available in print at J. W. Pepper, jwpepper.com/Star-Light-Star-Bright/5982051.item#.YVcHNtNKjPZ, accessed October 5, 2021; and is available for purchase as a pdf download through the Canadian Music Center Online Library at cmccanada.org/shop/14154/, accessed October 5, 2021.
  2. Born in 1949, Alexina Louie is a Chinese Canadian female composer who has achieved international acclaim, and whose works have become part of the standard repertoire. Read more about Alexina Louie in her biography found on her website at alexinalouie.ca/full-bio.
  3. The Royal Conservatory Piano Syllabus (RCPS) may be accessed online at files.rcmusic.com//sites/default/files/files/RCM-Piano-Syllabus-2015.pdf. RCPS page references listed in this article are taken from this document, accessed on October 5, 2021.

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2024



Today, we celebrate International Women’s Day, a time to honor and reflect upon the remarkable music and contributions of women. In this Discovery Page post, we have curated a collection of Piano Inspires resources to help everyone discover something new. From our international webinar series, to articles in Piano Magazine and Piano Inspires Kids, to our online course, Hidden Gems: Four Centuries of Music by Women Composers, there is so much to discover! We hope these resources will provide useful tips and ideas to help you incorporate music by women composers into your recital programs, lesson plans, and more.

Courses:

Hidden Gems: Four Centuries of Piano Music by Women Composers is an online course designed to shed light on a fraction of the large breadth of works by talented women composers spanning four centuries. Sessions feature selected piano works at varying levels of difficulty (elementary to early advanced), surveyed from a pedagogical and performance perspective.

  • Organized in 9 clearly defined sessions covering works by 22 composers
  • Features teaching demonstration videos, performances, readings, reflection activities, and more
  • Progress at your own pace
  • Easily return to completed sessions for later review
  • Full-course completion time is approximately 10 hours

Course Co-Leaders: Dr. Annie Jeng, Dr. Susan Yang, Evan Hines, Dr. Brendan Jacklin, Dr. Clare Longendyke, and Ashlee Young.
Senior Editor: Craig Sale.

Inspiring Artistry Video Series:

From the Artist Bench Series:

Magazine Article: Women of Exceptional Accomplishment: Eight Women Composers by Teresa Rupp

Recently I participated in a concert featuring works by women composers at the community college where I study piano. I am an amateur pianist but a historian by profession, and I was curious about the backgrounds of these long-neglected figures. So, along with preparing my musical selections, I also investigated the lives of the composers and the social and musical contexts in which they worked. Some of the composers I researched—Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Clara Wieck Schumann, Amy Beach—are practically household names. Others—Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Maria Szymanowska, Cécile Chaminade, Margaret Ruthven Lang—were successful in their own times but less prominent today. Still another—Clara Gottschalk Peterson—was obscure during her lifetime and remains almost completely unknown. All, however, deserve a place in both the performing and teaching repertoire.

Given the general lack of prominence of women composers, it is instructive to realize that while historically women were discouraged from pursuing music as a career, whether as performers or composers, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t make music. Quite the opposite, in fact. Example 1, a French fashion plate from 1835, shows two young ladies playing piano and singing in what looks like a domestic setting. It’s likely to be after dinner, and they’ve been asked to provide the evening’s entertainment. The singer is holding sheet music, not performing from memory, so they are probably sightreading (see Example 1).

Teacher Education Webinar Series:

Piano Inspires Kids:

In Autumn 2023, the Frances Clark Center launched a new initiative, Piano Inspires Kids, a magazine for young pianists developed by Editors-in-Chief Sara Ernst and Andrea McAlister. Through each quarterly issue, readers explore piano playing, composers, music from around the world, and music theory. The format is engaging and varied with listening guides, interviews, student submissions, music in the news, and games. The magazine includes an array of musical styles and genres, both from the past and present day. In addition, creative skills like improvisation, playing by ear, and composition are explored in step-by-step processes. Young pianists are directed to curated online content to deepen their engagement with the piano community.

The latest issue celebrates Florence Price. The issue includes a biography of Price along with an introduction to some of her piano works including the Piano Sonata in E Minor and her pedagogical piece The Goblin and the Mosquito. It also includes a short interview with pianist Karen Walwyn, a champion of Price’s music, along with new music composed by Artina McCain! To learn more, or to subscribe, go to kids.pianoinspires.com


“So Now What?” with Leah Claiborne



We would like to thank Leah Claiborne for this insightful article on handling repertoire that is culturally insensitive. This excerpted article comes from our new course, Piano Teaching through the Lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The course is now available for presale purchase. Click here to learn more.

If you are taking this course, you are already demonstrating that you are dedicated and committed to creating inclusive and safe spaces for your students. Perhaps what I love most about inclusive pedagogy is that we all must be aware that creating a diverse studio will look different for every teacher, creating an equitable studio will look different for every teacher, and creating an inclusive studio will look different for every teacher. There is no one way to approach the best pedagogy practices through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion, but there are steps we all can take to make powerful changes in our music studios and communities. 

Oftentimes, teachers say that they are committed to learning more about DEI efforts, but feel “stuck” with how to address culturally insensitive materials that arise in the educational resources that they are using. Below are three ways to potentially address these problematic issues to help teachers navigate what solutions might be best for them to incorporate. 

Teach It? 

When we approach musical material that is culturally insensitive, teachers still have agency to continue to teach the material. This course does not serve to “police” educators with what to teach and what not to teach. Rather, we aim to broaden awareness of the impact that the resources we give our students can have, and we provide alternative solutions and a path to help the student navigate an approach that best resonates with their practices. 

One solution to consider is to continue to teach a piece even if there are insensitive materials found in the music. If this is the approach that a teacher wishes to take, there are still ways to create safe spaces around the teaching material if the teacher wants to continue to use the piece of music. The first steps for any approach is to take the opportunity to educate ourselves on the reasoning behind why the material could be offensive, racist, and/or culturally insensitive. By understanding the historical and social implications of these issues, we are better equipped to make an educated decision on how to handle these materials. 

After further understanding is gained and a teacher still chooses to teach the music, I would suggest that a conversation around the cultural issues still takes place. This conversation will look different depending on the age and understanding of the student, but a dialogue can (and should) still be had. An example of this could be as short as, 

“This is not a term we use anymore to refer to a group of people.” 

“The lyrics to this music are not appropriate to sing because…. Would you like to create your own words next week?”

“This picture suggests ___ which is inappropriate. Would you like to draw a picture next week of what the music means to you?” 

We hope you enjoyed this excerpt from Leah Claibornes’s article “So Now What?” from our new course, Piano Teaching through the Lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The course is now available for presale purchase. Click here to learn more.

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Six Reasons You Should Apply to the Postgraduate Teaching Program at The New School for Music Study



We would like to thank Trevor Thornton for this insightful article on The New School for Music Study’s Postgraduate Teaching Program. Want to learn more about the Postgraduate Teaching Program? Learn more and apply by clicking here.

The New School for Music Study.

The New School for Music Study’s postgraduate teaching program provides the opportunity to continue your education while serving as a junior member of the New School’s faculty. It is a ten-month period of intense teaching and learning that is sure to change your life. If you are finishing your master’s degree and want to pursue more training in piano pedagogy, I could give you a thousand reasons why to consider the postgraduate program at the New School, but I only have room for these six:

1. You will gain a lot of teaching experience.

The Music Tree Part I

The New School’s postgraduate teaching program includes 15 hours of teaching each week in addition to observations and course work. That adds up to about 555 hours of teaching during the 37-week school year from the day after Labor Day through the third week in June. I like to joke that after I completed the program I could play the entire Music Tree series and most of the Celebration Series by memory. If you have not already worked with many beginning and intermediate pianists, you will feel confident in your abilities by the time you have finished the postgraduate program. If you already have significant teaching experience, you will be given the opportunity to push your teaching and lesson planning to an even higher level of excellence.

2. You will meet inspiring professionals in the field.

The New School’s connection to the Frances Clark Center and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) provides many opportunities for postgraduate fellows to meet inspiring pianists and teachers working in the field. As a junior member of the faculty, you may be invited to participate in a faculty presentation at NCKP, which is a great way to put your best foot forward in front of teachers and faculty members from across the country. In addition to NCKP, you can also meet experts in the profession through the New School’s guest faculty residencies. In the program, you may get the opportunity to have a visiting faculty member observe your teaching and meet with you to give you feedback. Guest teachers also give presentations to the New School faculty on their areas of research, which can spark new ideas for your teaching or performing. 

A post-concert photo from NCKP 2023: The Piano Conference featuring (from left to right): Tony Caramia, Kairy Koshoeva, Andrew Cooperstock, Nicholas Phillips, Susanna Garcia, William Chapman Nyaho, Artina McCain, Jeremy Siskind, and Angelin Chang.

3. You will learn about the New School’s founders.

Your experience at the New School would not be complete without learning about the teaching of Frances Clark, Louis Goss, Elvina Pearce, Richard Chronister, and other founders of the New School. Frances Clark’s teaching philosophy still lives and breathes at the New School—There is music in every child and it’s the teacher’s job to find it and nurture itWe teach three things: Technique, Musicianship, Practice Habits—We teach first, the person; second, music; and third, the piano—Preparation, Presentation, Follow-Through—Sound, Feel, Sign, Name. If you are lucky, you will have conversations with members of the faculty who did their teacher training directly with Frances and Louise, and you will see the glimmer in their eyes as they describe how inspiring it was to be in their presence and to feel the gravity of how seriously they took our profession.

Frances Clark and Louis Goss at the piano.

4. You will be part of a high-functioning team.

The faculty of the New School is the most inspiring group of people I have ever known. Each member of the faculty is intelligent, caring, diligent, industrious, creative, and so musical. One of the great joys and learning opportunities of the postgraduate teaching program is the time spent working closely with this team of experienced professionals who teach and play at a very high level. Each one can recommend teaching repertoire, lesson activities, helpful phrases, technique drills, organization tips, and anything else you need as you plan your lessons.

Faculty from The New School for Music Study.

5. You will see how an excellent music school runs.

The New School celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020. It has survived thanks to the vision and dedication of several leaders since Frances Clark’s passing, and it remains a fixture in the Princeton area. Through the postgraduate fellowship, you will not only learn the specific details of how to teach a well-planned lesson to a beginning piano student, you will also see the context that has been thoughtfully created in order to allow students to thrive. Before teaching at the New School, I taught in-home piano lessons, so I was keenly aware that the context of the New School—the group classes, Parents’ Observation Week, Parents’ Classes, Piano Progressions exams, Composition Contest, Recitals—hooked students and pulled them towards success in their studies. I know that wherever I teach in the future, I will be mindful of how it felt to teach at the New School and how I imagine it felt for my students. At the New School, excellence goes without question.

The New School for Music Study.

6. You will add your name to the New School’s ongoing legacy.

I applied to the postgraduate program because my friend had applied before me, but I never could have imagined the way the New School would impact the course of my life. I have had multiple conversations with people who have done teacher training at the New School, and many of us share the sense that the New School will never get out of our blood. I did my teacher training from 2018-2020, and after teaching at the New School for another two years, I joined the faculty of Tennessee State University, an HBCU in my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. I do not think I would have been offered my current position without the teaching and performance experience that I gained at the New School. I have known other former graduates who have remained on faculty at the New School, gone on to pursue more education and college teaching, or moved to their city of choice and made a career by teaching independently, at a community music school, or at a college. No matter what choices you make after the postgraduate program, your thread will be woven into the tapestry of the New School, and you will forever have your experience of what quality music education at the piano feels like, inside and out.

Trevor Thornton
"You must always know your roots if you are to know how sturdy the tree will grow." - Zoraida Córdova

Learn more about teaching and professional development opportunities at The New School for Music Study by clicking here.

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Create to Motivate: Using Repertoire to Incorporate Creativity in Lessons



We would like to thank Chee-Hwa Tan for this insightful article on creative activities to explore with your students. Want to apply these tips with your students? We encourage your students to submit to the Piano Inspires Kids 2024 Composition Contest. Student applicants are tasked with composing a fanfare inspired by the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics. Learn more here: https://kids.pianoinspires.com/composition-contest/.

The ability to experiment and create with our instrument is an important part of piano study. Yet I would venture that for many of us who teach, this component of piano study presents a logistical challenge as we juggle the many aspects of music study. We may feel defeated at our inability to include creative activities like ear training, improvisation, transposition, musical composition, and analysis within lesson time, experience an existential crisis at the prospect of teaching what we did not ourselves learn, or feel overwhelmed about plowing through stacks of resources purchased at a workshop. On the other hand, when we do include these activities, perhaps our student freezes like a “deer in the headlights” when asked to improvise or create. If any of these scenarios are relatable, you are in good company.

This article will explore how we can use repertoire assignments to integrate experimentation and creation into regular lessons. Repertoire study is a staple of every lesson; assigning pieces that meet performance study needs, and that also serve as inspiration for creative assignments, is a way to meet both goals in a sustainable manner. This approach can be utilized during summers, several times a year, every other month, or with alternating pieces. 

I will address this topic from the following framework:

  1. A “whole” teaching philosophy: I start with this because our teaching philosophy impacts how we motivate students and whether we prioritize time for creativity.
  2. Repertoire selection: How to select the right kind of music to organically incorporate creative activities in your lessons, without designing a whole separate track.
  3. Basic principles: What to do with repertoire that you assign in your lessons.
  4. Examples: Practical applications from a selection of pieces at different levels. 

A “Whole” Teaching Philosophy

Our teaching philosophy states WHY we teach and WHAT is important to us in our teaching. A teaching philosophy serves as a compass—a “priority check” for us when we feel overwhelmed by all the teaching to-dos and performance deadlines. As educators, it is good to revisit our teaching philosophy periodically to allow for personal growth and adjustments. Here, I share here my personal teaching philosophy:

I teach…

  1. To nurture a love and understanding of music.
  2. To create a pathway to lifelong music making at the piano, for both the hobbyist and the professional. 
  3. To equip my students with skills that will make them independent learners and to give them ownership of their music.
  4. To pursue music making with joy, with abandon, without guilt.
  5. So that my students will be more whole from the experience. 

As teachers, we imprint a “feeling“—a feeling about the student’s identity in relationship to their music study. Long after formal lessons have ended, our students may not remember much of what they learned or even how to play what they learned, but they will remember how they felt in their lessons. This feeling will spur them to continue to pursue music in some shape or form, or this feeling will cause them to be afraid to try because they feel they are “not good enough” to meet the standards or expectations. Reviewing my teaching philosophy helps me to remember to prioritize the emotional connection with my student and the music making process and then to ask myself: What skills do I want my student to still have twenty to thirty years from now? 

A lot of what we do as teachers focuses on the “what” and the “how”—specific skills for teaching repertoire and technique, materials, how to practice, style and interpretation, pedaling, theoretical knowledge—the list goes on. However, far more important than this is teaching the “why?” Do our students know the overarching purpose behind the concepts and skills that we teach them? Are they able to take what they learn in their music and apply it for their own purposes? Students who can do this are students who will make music for the rest of their lives.

Why is it important to encourage students to create? 
  1. When we create, we get ownership of our learning.
  2. Ownership empowers.
  3. This makes us curious to learn more. 
  4. Curiosity is motivating!

If we have not experienced this type of process ourselves, this can be intimidating. The underlying philosophy is to nurture a sense of wonder and curiosity about this amazing process we call music. From the very beginning of piano study, slow down and reinforce theory and musical concepts by helping the student discover or identify the sounds in each of the pieces they study. Then, experiment with at least one of these concepts through listening and explorative play with the student.

Why use repertoire as the basis for composition or improvisation? 
  1. Using specific pieces provides a natural structure from which to take off—a blueprint for concrete inspiration. This is common practice throughout music history.
  2. It is less intimidating to have a few guidelines or a “track” to stay within.
  3. Students need to learn that there is structure in creativity.
  4. Music is all about structure—neurological studies show that our brains automatically search for aural patterns in music.
  5. Everything has a form and structure—rhythmically, melodically, and harmonically. Entities that do not have clear form tend to lack longevity.

If you enjoyed this excerpt from Chee-Hwa Tan’s article “Create to Motivate: Using Repertoire to Incorporate Creativity in Lessons,” you can read more here: https://pianoinspires.com/article/create-to-motivate-using-repertoire-to-incorporate-creativity-in-lessons/.

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Chee-Hwa Tan has served as the Head of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, as well as on the piano pedagogy faculties at the Oberlin Conservatory and Southern Methodist University. Ms. Tan is the author of internationally acclaimed A Child’s Garden of Verses and other piano collections. Her music is published by Piano Safari; with selections included in the Repertoire and Study series of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada, and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London.

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