Tucked away in my files I recently discovered an article I had saved from Repertoire section of the January/February 2017 issue of the Clavier Companion magazine. Titled, “A Cheerful and Dependable Flower,” Adrienne Wiley shares about British composer, Alec Rowley’s 1915 piano album, A Little Flower Suite, Op. 10. I’m glad I saved the article […]
Resource Reviews
Little Gems for Piano – Recital and Rote Pieces for the Primary Stage
Rote teaching of piano pieces has been part of my methodology for quite a few years now (here’s a blog post where I respond to one reader’s question about the point of teaching by rote), so I’m always excited to find new repertoire or even books devoted to including this approach in a rounded music […]
A Very Out-of-the-Box Book for the Improv-Challenged Pianist
As I mentioned in my recent post about improvisation pianist Anna Ferraro, I spent years feeling stuck to the page in my piano playing. My early forays into improvisation felt very uncomfortable and unmusical. And frankly, I’m still not that great at it. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and not know […]
Increasing Inspiration in Your Studio, Part 2 – A Guest Post by Improv Pianist Anna Ferraro
Note from Natalie: Be sure to enter the drawing for your own copy of Anna’s newest album, “Where Glory Dwells.” And…we’re back! With part two in this mini-series. As I mentioned before, the motivation behind everything I do in my studio is to inspire my students to excellence. However, I find that it is not […]
Increasing Inspiration in Your Studio, Part 1 – A Guest Post by Improv Pianist Anna Ferraro
Note from Natalie: Be sure to enter the drawing for your own copy of Anna’s newest album, “Where Glory Dwells.” The motivation behind everything we do in our studios as piano teachers is to inspire our students to excellence. However, I find that it is not crucial if my students are inspired with me. The […]
Giveaway of New Album by Amazing Improv Pianist Anna Ferraro
As a young teenager I remember watching gifted pianists open up a piece of simple sheet music and proceed to flood the air with musical beauty that seemed to come out of nowhere. I was baffled (and more than a little jealous!). It was beyond my stick-to-the-music-trained brain’s ability to comprehend how someone could know […]
