Music is a magic that can change the world
The New Year is always a time of celebration, but this year especially so. We've journeyed through a really tough year. We've lost a lot, but we've also grown a lot. I don't want to diminish our struggles by closing the year with "let's focus on all the good things that happened." But I don't …
Continue reading "Countdown to 2021: The Top 5 Posts of 2020"
Today is a great day to start learning the piano. Not only is there a long pedagogical history to piano, but there are also innumerable options for picking an instrument to start on. This can make getting started a little overwhelming, however, so this post is your introductory guide to picking a piano or keyboard. …
Continue reading "Gather Supplies: An Introductory Guide to Picking Your Acoustic or Digital Piano"
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is a traditional English Christmas carol whose origins are unknown. Regardless of where it came from, it is a short and familiar tune that contains an interesting use of sequences and non-diatonic harmony. Exploring form, melody, and harmony in short, familiar tunes like this one provides an excellent entrance …
Continue reading "Anatomy of a Christmas Carol: We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
Last time, I focused on why being specific and relevant in your piano journey is helpful and how to implement that practice in your own goal-setting. In this post, I’m focusing in on the “MART” of smart goals and what it means to “reality check expectations,” as this is where new pianists especially struggle with …
Continue reading "Reality Check Your Goals: Mindset and New Experiences"
Deck the Hall is a classic Welsh Christmas carol from the 16th century. From its long-lasting popularity, we can learn how looking at the harmony, melody, and overall structure of a piece contributes to our ability as performers to control more fully how we express emotion and narrative (if there is a story) in a …
Continue reading "Anatomy of a Christmas Carol: Deck the Hall"
This is part 3 in the series on charting your quest, strategizing your piano journey so that you don’t get lost in some figurative dark forest of no return. We’re making plans, so you can achieve your goals and feel really awesome about the work you’re doing! The first few posts aren’t about the act …
Continue reading "Set Yourself Up for Success: Be Specific in Your Goals"
This post is part 2 in the Chart Your Quest series, for people wanting to start learning piano (or any instrument!) but don't know where to start! You can read the first part here. Last week, we talked about finding our motivation: what is it we actually want to learn to do in piano and …
Continue reading "How Curiosity Keeps Us Happy and Motivated While Practicing an Instrument"
Taking up piano is very much like embarking on an epic quest. You have a general idea of where you need to go, but there's a lot of terrain between here and there that you don't know about yet. If you're not careful, you could end up trapped in a dark forest of no return! But don't worry, these posts will be your guide to finding the perfect guide for you. It will help you create the path for your journey, starting with where you're going and why.
I am a pianist with small hands. That presents a challenge when many composers (cough, cough Rachmaninoff) write lovely pieces with large chords. Over the years, I’ve learned strategies for facing these challenges. Below are four tips on playing large intervals as a small-handed pianist that promotes healthy technique and ease of tension. But first …
Continue reading "Minuscule: Tips for Pianists With Small Hands"
“The demands placed on memory during a piano performance are remarkable, sometimes requiring the production of over 1000 notes a minute for periods of up to 50 minutes,”Chaffin and Imreh wrote in their 1997 article about musical memory (315). Their work, as well as the work of many other scholars studying the elements of memory …
Continue reading "Musical Memory: The Many Pieces of the Memorization Process"