The Enterprising Pianist: Story, Music, Art, Video
When I was a kid, I was kind of addicted to the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. The idea of reading a story and being able to proactively change…
Artist Portrait: Charles Szczepanek
Meet pianist Charles Szczepanek- performer, recording artist, artistic director, composer, church musician, and producer. You have probably watched his awesome Star Trek and other transcriptions on YouTube. As many hats as he…
PA Shorts: In The Zone With Not Yous
Have you ever something totally perfect fly out of your mouth during a lesson and wondered how? It’s fun to be in the teaching zone. It’s a win for the…
The Enterprising Pianist: How Pedagogy Inspired A Screenplay
Four years ago, I wrote a screenplay. I called it Playing with Beethoven. It was around the time my piano teaching had taken a turn away from the traditional classical…
The Adaptable Pianist: Orange Fundamentals
As I enter my 10th year in the world of Autism and special education and my 20th as a music educator, motivated teachers, therapists, and parents contact me with the goal…
Finding Inspiration: Redux
It is human nature to have a gut belief that everyone finds musical inspiration just as you do. The way we operate is just so intrinsic to who we are…
Putting On Our Piano Pants: The Student-Teacher Two Way Street
Practicing is definitely a two way street. I was reminded of this important dual thoroughfare is when my work with 2 different students and my own practicing intersected this week.…
Vintage PA: Happy Little Trees
One 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…