Improvisation « Piano Addict

What’s Up With This Memory Thing?

By Gail Fischler, on January 29th, 2013%

“What’s up with this memory thing?”, asked one of my new transfer students. We talked about different levels of knowing and understanding and the fact that committing something to memory allows us to interact with it on a deeper level. “You don’t necessarily have to perform it from memory”, I said, “but you need the . . . → Read More: What’s Up With This Memory Thing?

Galumphing With Mr. Hanon

By Gail Fischler, on May 15th, 2012%

Inspired by Steven Nachmanovich’s book, Freeplay, my friend and mentor, Dr. Lisa Zdechlik talks a lot about galumphing as we learn. (you know- the playing part of playing piano) We galumph when we take a tricky passage and practice it in rhythms, or improvise on it, or create an exercise from it and transpose it . . . → Read More: Galumphing With Mr. Hanon

Happy Little Trees

By Gail Fischler, on March 13th, 2012%

Last Wednesday evening, while my class piano students were working on their improvs for the midterm, I suddenly found myself saying, “You don’t need to apologize! Maybe in your world there’s a happy little tree right there.”

The funny thing was that absolutely everybody (from teenagers to 60+) got it. They all knew the late . . . → Read More: Happy Little Trees

Lately, Some Things Have Made Me Smile

By Gail Fischler, on October 21st, 2011%

Hearing Emily tell me a passage of fingering in her Chopin Waltz was Stupid, tell me why, and give a crackerjack way to fix it.

Listening to some awesome Beethoven from Andrew who had made a sudden connection to inner voices and what he had been learning in AP class. This was a real breakthrough for . . . → Read More: Lately, Some Things Have Made Me Smile

Potholes: Chronic Key Signature & Accidental Disorders

By Gail Fischler, on January 23rd, 2011%

My Dad taught me to drive. He spent many hours on the road in his job and was a demanding teacher. One day we were practicing on a back road that was full of potholes. I swear there were potholes on top of potholes and, hard as I tried to miss them, I hit every . . . → Read More: Potholes: Chronic Key Signature & Accidental Disorders

The Sound of One Leaf Falling: Relativity in Music

By Gail Fischler, on January 15th, 2011%

Over the holidays, my husband and I took a daytrip to Madera Canyon, near Tucson. We had a very warm fall this year and so, at 5000 plus feet, the aspens were just losing the last of their leaves. I was totally re-amazed by the sound of a single leaf falling in the forest. How . . . → Read More: The Sound of One Leaf Falling: Relativity in Music

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