One of my objectives with every group class (held monthly) is for students to not only perform for each other, but also to play music together. We accomplish this in various ways, but for our January group piano class, I thought it would be interesting to try having a jam session. This isn’t something we […]
Improvising
Free Musical U Masterclass with Forrest Kinney this Saturday
Perhaps one of the most transformational moments of my music teaching career was attending a showcase by Forrest Kinney at the MTNA conference in 2010. It is not an exaggeration to say that my teaching has never been the same since! I began incorporating his ideas on improvisation into our lessons right away and was […]
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 […]
