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Listen Up!
The hallmark of a good pianist is the beautiful tone they create when they play. I recently attended a workshop presented by clinician and pianist Marc Durand called Technic: Understanding the relationship between the piano and how one uses the body. Marc Durand teaches at the University of Montreal and the RCM Glenn Gould School in…
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Slow and Steady Wins the Race
I tell my students that you can’t cram piano. Skills like sight reading, memorizing, and developing technique must be worked on every day so the ability is in place when it really counts. Cut corners in your practising and you won’t be able to deliver under the pressure of performance. Last week I found myself…
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I ♥ NY
Around the time I got serious about buying a grand piano, I was in Manhattan for an anniversary getaway. For one whirlwind weekend, we saw as many sights as we possibly could by foot, subway, taxi, and ferry. On Saturday afternoon we set out walking on West 57th Street. At 5th Avenue we made a brief…
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Just when you think you’ve seen it all
…something new comes along. One of the goals of entering the music festival is to gain performing confidence and experience. It’s about developing the ability that “the show must go on” no matter what. And performing live is unpredictable. Until yesterday I thought I’d seen it all: music falling off the piano, performers falling down…
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Science & Music
Scientific research is changing how we teach piano. And the field of how to teach music is rapidly expanding. Playing the piano is a complex skill – players have to master motor, cognitive, auditory, and expressive skills. There is much to still understand. By advancing the study of how piano skills develop, the Piano Pedagogy…
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Opening Day
The 66th Annual Ottawa Kiwanis Music Festival opens today. It’s a month-long music festival held at ten locations across Ottawa with over 10,000 area music students competing. That’s a lot of music! Students gain performing confidence and benefit from hearing others’ performances and the adjudicator’s comments. There are trophies and scholarships for the top performers. Performances…
