My students do a lot of notating, whether for compositions or for various games. One thing that always gets me is how much I have to remind them which direction the stems should go and on which side of the note they should be placed. It doesn’t seem like it should be that complicated, but […]
Teaching
Effective Piano Performance Warm-Ups
Have you ever been judging at a piano event and when you tell the student that they can take a minute to warm-up before playing they tentatively depress the notes of a C-major chord and then quickly assure you that they are ready? I’ve had this happen on more than one occasion. Sadly, I’m sure […]
Free Major Chord Worksheet
Sarah, of the Discoveries Piano Studio blog, recently posted a free major chord worksheet that is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! It is a page of shamrocks with the root note of a chord pre-printed on one of the leaves. Students have to write the name of the two subsequent notes to form a major […]
Are You an Amateur or a Pro?
The other day I read an article called, Pushing Past the O.K. Plateau, and was especially struck by this quote from Joshua Foer: “Amateur musicians, for example, tend to spend their practice time playing music, whereas pros tend to work through tedious exercises or focus on difficult parts of pieces.” Here’s a fascinating paragraph that […]
Monday Mailbag – Students Leaping into the Unknown
I had a beginning student come to lessons and pull out her lesson book we’ve been working on, except she had jumped ahead 10 or so pages and wanted to play that piece for me. She is still an off-the-staff-black-keys-only player, and this piece was on white keys complete with note names in the note […]
Hanon Makes His Internet Debut
Nowadays you can find just about everything on-line. But really, who would have thought that Charles-Louis Hanon would get his very own website dedicated to his “The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises”? Thus far, the site contains Part I – the first 20 exercises. You can transpose the exercise to any major key, download the […]
