One of my favorite things about teaching piano is playing through new repertoire to find just the right selections that will ignite each student’s interest and imagination. It’s especially fun to discover a new or lesser-known composer whose music is fresh and engaging! That’s why I jumped at the chance to review William Minter’s inaugural […]
Resource Reviews
Giveaway of Little Gems for Piano Primer Level
Last week I posted about Little Gems for Piano: Recital and Rote Pieces for the Primary Stage. Author Paula Dreyer has kindly offered to giveaway one copy of this fabulous book to a special Music Matters Blog reader! All you have to do is leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing to […]
A Flower Suite by Alec Rowley
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 […]
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 […]
