“Grand.” “Enjoyable.” “Really neat piece.” “I loved it!” Those are the descriptions and exclamations that I heard from students after one week of them playing Kori Buchanan’s excellent piano compositions! Kori has been a longtime follower of Music Matters Blog and contacted me recently about reviewing some of her piano compositions. I thought it would […]
Resource Reviews
Review and Giveaway of I Wish I Didn’t Quit: Music Lessons
With bookend stories about the fictitious piano student Olivia in his new book, I Wish I Didn’t Quit: Music Lessons, author Nathan Holder paints a picture first of an all-too familiar scenario and later an ideal scenario when it comes to studying music. Himself a member of the “I-wish-I-didn’t-quit” statistic, Holder writes from a collection […]
Review and Giveaway of 100 Left Hand Patterns Every Piano Player Should Know
One of the most valuable skills any pianist can learn is to play popular tunes by ear and easily play them with an appropriate accompaniment. If you’ve ever found yourself blank when trying to think of a new melody to play or out of ideas for a left hand accompaniment, this is the book for […]
Want to Learn to Play or Teach Jazz Piano?
In the last issue of the American Music Teacher, there was a brief review of the new Jazz Piano Basics series by Eric Baumgartner (apparently, it’s “a revised and vastly expanded version of the Jazzabilities series”). It piqued my curiosity, so I decided to order books 1 and 2. I confess that I’m not especially […]
Journeys Series by William Minter – A Review and Giveaway
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 […]
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 […]
