Recently, a disgruntled parent complained that my expectations were unclear. I scoffed. To me there is not much that’s more important in the teacher – student – parent triangle than …
play – practice – perform
play ~ practice ~ perform Part One Playing, practicing, performing are the three basic ways we spend time at the piano. Neither one is better or more important than the …
Vanhal Cello Concerto in C
In May, Mark came across mention of a cello concerto by Vanhal he wasn’t familiar with, decided to look for it and found a delightful YouTube recording but no score. …
How to Practice Better
The following are excerpts from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s daily email where he wants to cultivate “the positive corner of the internet”. While his emphasis is of course on physical fitness, many …
Dealing with Performance Anxiety
Most of us who grew up learning an instrument and therefore performing at recitals were offered various pieces of advice on how to deal with performance anxiety. They ranged from, …
The Issue of Wrong Notes
How one deals with wrong notes depends on what one is trying to accomplish. When learning a new piece, it is useful to distinguish between the different skills needed. “HARD, …
The Art of Teaching
The Art of Teaching is different from, say, the art of painting, or the art of playing an instrument, different from the art of tuning a piano, or the art …
What I have learned
I have been teaching for a while now, and like most piano teachers, I heartily regret the first ten or so years of my teaching career – I had no …
New Students
(publ. Nov. 2021) Over the last 15 months or so quite a few new students have come into the studio, and because I have a strict mask policy I have …
A Sign of the Times
Our town has always had its (small) share of (usually) homeless people, standing in the shade under a tree at the street corner, often close to a grocery store or …