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And along came a…
I was out playing a gig on Friday night. Around sound check time, what looked like a piece of lint fell down from the ceiling towards my keyboard. I tried to wave it away, but it still fell on the keys. When I looked closer I saw to my horror that it was a…spider. Now…
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What’s the difference between a piano and a fish?
“You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish!” As I write this I am listening to the piano technician tune my acoustic pianos. He works completely by ear. He tightens or loosens every metal string [nearly every key on a piano has three strings] so they all sound good with each other, and…
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Should You Be Practicing Right Now?
This pretty much sums up my views on when and for how long. Thanks Joshua Wells at Oddquartet.com
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31 Days to Better Practising
Now that the piano season, school, and fall sports have launched, I’m hoping you are settling into a good practise routine. When you’re busy you have to be focussed when you practise your instrument. Chris Foley is a pianist, teacher, vocal coach, and the author of The Collaborative Piano Blog. His blog is one of…
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Tunes to study by
From September 8 to September 15, the Ottawa Citizen has been offering free downloads of music, TV episodes, apps, or books on iTunes. Today’s download is a 20-song playlist of the greatest works from classical music. If you are just building your classical music playlist, this is a great start. Play it while you study.…
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Studio On The Go
Last night I had the pleasure of playing at the Stittsville Sobey’s again. This time I brought along a few students from my studio. E.H., A.K., A.W., M.W., and R.S. did us all proud. Well done! And thank you to Sobey’s for having us.
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New Arts Season
Today the Ottawa Citizen released its guide to cultural events happening in 2011-2012. Music, visual art, theatre, dance, film, books – there are a lot of great events happening in Ottawa. There are some excellent pianists coming to town to play with the NAC Orchestra. If you get the chance, take in a concert by…
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What Do Musicians Do All Day?
The blog has been awfully quiet lately. It’s my summer break from teaching. The joke around here is that musicians mostly lay about playing music all day. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was a court musician for the Esterhazy family – wealthy Hungarian princes who loved music. Haydn composed music for church, opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano,…
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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…
