PA Shorts: Onwards & Upwards
Recently, while in the preparation phase of a presentation, I asked what some of our college students wished they had known before coming to study at a more advanced level. Some of…
PA Shorts: 10 Cent Words
Differentiated Instruction was the topic of the article. Specifically how to do it effectively. (Students Matter: 3 Steps for Effective Differentiated Instruction) As I read the text, I realized that…
PA Shorts: All People
Think of a typical college/university area recital. Well, that's not what happened last Wednesday at the Piano & Strings Area Recital. Yes, there was a piano on stage in the…
PA Shorts: Finding Waldo
“You need to find Waldo,” I said. It was true. Maggie was working on polishing the Bartok Sonatina and it needed character, action, detail, and nuance to truly come to…
PA Shorts: On Forging A Personal Musical Connection
I'm always encouraging students to find something personal in their music—something from their own lives and experience. Often, they look at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my…
PA Shorts: A Pianist, A Halfpipe, & A Snowboard
"Amanda," I said, "You have to spot your landings before you get there!" She looked at me for a minute and then said, "" We talked about the fact that…
PA Shorts: Interference! No Penalty.
Last week I found myself focusing on practice strategies again and again—specifically how to change up passages and scales/arpeggios etc. when practicing with repetitions. I have quite a few new…
PA Shorts: Boundaries
"You can’t fill up when you’re holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like…