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One of my Facebook friends recently shared a few words of advice to aspiring musicians by pianist, singer, songwriter, and producer, Ben Folds. This earthy collection of thoughts struck a chord with me. Also, I find it entertaining and awesome that he wrote it while on a flight to Boston. The advice applies to . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Opportunity Knocks  Do pianos eat things? Some technicians I know think maybe they do. I received a great question from PA reader, Josh about quite an unusual something he and his technician found inside his piano. I have a 1910 Jewett Upright Piano. Recently I had the keyboard pulled to repair some various felts and repair keys. . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: What Has Your Piano Eaten Lately? Since 2009, Malan Wilkinson has interviewed over 60 pianists on her site, Pianists From The Inside. The likes of Ralph Votapek, Michal Tal, Ilana Vered, Andre Gavrilov, and Pierre-Arnaud Dablemont have graced these posts. Malan always manages to make each artist come alive in these interviews. Her next post will feature Simone Dinnerstein. Nancy . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Interviews From Newbies and Oldbies Lately, cyberspace has been full of posts and articles dealing with practice and perfection. Together, they have all got me thinking hard about both myself and my students. We can all get so involved in our beloved work that we don’t notice when we begin to merely walk the walk or talk the talk. When . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Practice, Perfection, & Personality Whew! All the end of term and holiday recital craziness is past us. Years ago I read a group of entertaining rules of performance etiquette in the style of Jolly Olde England. I have no idea what the original source was at this point. (Someone once told me that after 5 years of using an . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Ye Olde Rules The Happiest Of New Years To All My Fellow Piano Addicts! My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you for stopping by and reading the blog, following @pianoaddictblog on Twitter, and liking Piano Addict on Facebook. I truly appreciate all the post comments and unexpected personal notes of support. You are inspirational, insightful, witty, . . . → Read More: Happy New Year: 2011 Top Posts Last week, I received a new insight on romanticism in a most unlikely place. I was on my way home from Eastern Arizona and a podcast from To The Best Of Our Knowledge entitled Writing Nature came up on my playlist. I sighed and thought “no, really?”, because I was truly afraid I was going . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Wild Things Last week: I was shocked when of one of my teen students developed an alarming tendency towards passive aggression. Is she suffering from middleschoolitis? Is she bored? Is she a victim of raging hormones? Last fall her parents expressed the desire for the children to participate in our state evaluation program. We began the theory . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Student vs. Teacher It’s that time of year again—time for the college fall recital. We always try to do something unique and different (put on a show) so that the audience is glad they came and the performers have something to focus on besides just getting the notes right. In the past, our programs have included dueling piano . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Sound Images This week I came across two absolute gems that I feel compelled to share. The first is a quote from Terri Gross’ interview with Tom Waits on Monday’s edition of Fresh Air. There’s no such thing as not playing. Music has rests in it. So, you’re on a rest and the music will begin shortly. . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Gems Some pianistic trick-or-treating in honor of the day. Enjoy! Halloween Puzzler Night on Bald Mountain: Andrey Dubov Pictures at an Exhibition Pt. 1. The Gnome & The Old Castle : Jonathan Plowright The Sunken Cathedral: Claude Debussy The Imperial March from Star Wars: Anderson & Roe Bach/Busoni Toccata & Fugue in D Minor: Arturo Benedetti . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Trick or Treat!
Remember my story wherein Teacher 42 became so uncomfortable with musical choices that she finally said, “You mean there’s no right way?” I concluded that I had given that teacher more doubt and uncertainty than she could handle. (PA Shorts: 42) Well, I read an article, Helping Students Deal With Uncertainty In . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: 42 Redux aka The Uncertainty Principle How do we learn the rules of the game? Some of us get right in there, roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. We figure out the rules quite naturally along the way. Others of us are more systematic and require a list of rules and strategies to study before we begin. If . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Rules How often do our students (and occasionally ourselves) end up banging against a brick wall (figuratively speaking) because we need to change our game plan and gain the knowledge and experience to move forward? We have all had students who want to learn repertoire way above their current level of pianism. They will try, sometimes . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Hard Work Years ago, I was giving a workshop on encouraging musicality and creativity in elementary students. The teachers were interested and very eager to learn. It was a great group, but a few minutes into the presentation, I noticed a teacher in the back who showed signs of discomfort. As the session proceeded she looked more . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: 42 photo: M.H. Fischler Some American pianistic fireworks in honor of The Glorious 4th! These are the best kind of fireworks for us in Arizona since our state has mostly been on fire lately. And yes, I know that Debussy snuck in about 10 days early and neither he or Wagner are American but I . . . → Read More: PA Shorts: Fireworks  |
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