Helping Adult Students Move On Part 1
The fall semester of lessons has begun here in Arizona. This year, I have quite a number of adult students in my studio. I love teaching grownups. Some are completely…
Frustrations
A pianist is a person for whom playing piano is more difficult than for other people. (Apologies to Thomas Mann) Everyone has their own responses to frustration. Personally, I need…
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.…
IKEA Practicing: 5 Steps To Improve Learning
Can the way you put together a piece of IKEA furniture say something about the way you might approach other tasks? L J Sedgwick thinks so and advocates using the…
Materials for a New Year: 7 Things to Keep in Mind
It’s back to piano again. For me the start of a new semester can be both exciting and overwhelming. There are new students to get to know and ongoing students…
Giving Your Best Guess
My favorite quote about guessing comes from a Star Trek movie. No, I haven’t finally lost it. Please bear with me. Here’s the full text from IMDB. How do we get…
Cartwheels, Piano Style
“Oh! It’s like a cartwheel with my fingers,” she said. Oh, yes she did. We have been working on learning our penta-scales and chord patterns in all keys. She has…
Memory: Brain vs. Body
I'd like to weigh in on this memory thing. I've read some pretty caustic posts over the years, mostly bemoaning the loss of discipline in piano study as evidenced by…