Blog posts that I’m including for my new project Notes Off the Staff
This post was inspired by an episode of Christina Whitlock’s Beyond Measure Podcast. In that episode, Christina speaks with guest Janna Williamson on the differences between proactive and reactive teaching strategies. It made me realize that my teaching is almost completely reactive. Sure, it isn’t optimal, but pretty typical of traditional teaching.
Continue reading “Meet Students Where They Are”Comparative listening in classical music refers to listening to several different recordings of the same piece, deciding what you like (or don’t) about each performance. It’s a great way to deepen your listening skills, which can help you listen more carefully to your own playing. I prescribed this type of listening recently to a couple of students who are preparing for the finals of a music competition, and I’m sharing a couple of those examples here as well.
Continue reading “Comparative Listening”The minuet and trio is a structure that began in the early Baroque, though matured through the Classical and Romantic Eras. This structure is also called A-B-A, where the minuet played at the beginning is repeated at the end, with the trio in the middle. The minuet is a court dance from the early 17th century. However, why is the trio called a trio? I am now well-equipped at answering this question, if it ever comes along again.
Continue reading “Minuet and Trio”My second long-form blog post for the Colourful Keys blog is based on the Pros and Cons of Music Memorization. I grew up in traditional piano lessons where a fair amount of your repertoire was not only expected, but required to be memorized. After working a number of years as a piano instructor, my view has changed quite a bit.
Continue reading “Pros and Cons of Music Memorization”Music theory is important to the study of piano because it describes the language of music composition. It’s comparable to teaching English as a comprehensive subject versus just having a period of silent reading with no analysis.
Continue reading “Music Theory Is Important”“Never good enough” was the original title I proposed for this post. That along with “How to discourage and demoralize a piano student” as the short description. I hope it’s obvious I don’t endorse any of this “never good enough” stuff. However, I experienced it first hand during my first two years of piano study at music school. I noticed a lot of this, across many students and teachers, during the six years I spent earning my BFA and MM degrees.
Continue reading “Good Enough”Christmas songbooks that are sold in the mass market, like at Sam’s Club, on Amazon.com, or at your local bookstore, are not thoughtfully compiled with piano students in mind. You’ll get a lot of songs at a reasonable price, but the arrangements will vary in difficulty from page to page. They’re often too complicated for beginners, but too easy and boring for advanced students.
Continue reading “Find the Best Christmas Sheet Music”I was asked by Sarah Folkerts to write a long-form blog post that became Music Reading Through Rote Teaching. She works with Nicola Cantan on the Colourful Keys Website and the membership site Vibrant Music Teaching. It all started as a result of my trying to reconcile how something sounds with the musical notation.
Continue reading “Music Reading Through Rote Teaching”My professor of keyboard harmony at The Juilliard School, Baruch Arnon, suggested that Edvard Grieg was a first-rate composer for the piano. Mr. Arnon was an all-business type of instructor, so when he gave off-topic recommendations it was worth noting. Grieg is one of those composers that a pianist typically knows, but doesn’t know well.
Continue reading “Grieg Galore”This article was originally intended to help my students prepare for their first recorded recital in May 2020, two months after lessons went online due to Covid-19 confinement. I’m repurposing it to preparing for any recording because it’s a different preparation process from live playing. You might say, yeah, it’s actually easier because you can record yourself as much as you want, and then just choose the best take. However, that flexibility can actually make the recording process much more difficult!
Continue reading “How to Succeed in the Recording Process”
