Not Harder, Just More Complicated
This semester, I have been tutoring a foreign graduate student. He is struggling with English and with his practice skills. I think that his main problem has been this: He…
Duty or Joy?
A gonga post by John Terrauds of Musical Toronto made me sit up and take notice last week. In it, he wrote about his experiences taking on a group of…
Guest Post: Dennise Ontiveros Rivera
In this post, Dennise describes her journey to music and teaching. When Dennise came to me at EAC, she told me that there were few teachers in the area of…
Happy Little Trees
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…
Playing With Wolfgang: Ravel in Pi
This Valentine’s morning, as I browsed through my Twitter feed, I was instantly transported back to one spring semester during my undergraduate days. The tweet went like this: A Strauss…
Thoughts On An Upcoming Competition
Some thoughts for my student as she prepares for a Welcome to the next step of your personal musical journey. You will meet some colleagues who are musically much more…
Chestnuts: Becoming A Rubato Geek
OK, I admit it, I was streaming Christmas music again during my commute this week. Alright, alright—a few other times Lots of mid-century renditions of classic holiday songs were in…
Guest Post: Teaching Students From Different Backgrounds, Neeki Bey
Those of you who know me, know that I am totally against, what my friend calls, "drive by arts experiences". These experiences can encompass a range of genres; the Chopin…