I first met Paul Sheftel when he worked with the educational wing of the Baldwin Piano Company, back in the early 1970s. Through the ensuing years I attended many of his instructive (and always humorous) sessions at MTNA. When I moved to Manhattan in 1999, we began a warm relationship. He often invited me to his nearby studio, where ...

On this overly-warm Autumn afternoon, I am attempting to teach a Net-Gener1 how to play Bill Boyd's "Swing-a-Ling." How do I know eight-year-old Panagiotis is a Net-Gener? Because he stuffs his iPod and earbuds into his pocket, carefully places his iPhone on the music rack, and begins to fidget the minute I put the music in front of ...

In the last twenty-five years a great deal of much needed attention has been given to musicians' injuries. It seems, however, that an overwhelming majority of the conference sessions and articles on this topic only address the potential injuries of advanced pianists—either at the collegiate or artist levels. In th...

When it comes time to remake your studio, it is a good idea to plan for your current and future technology gear, which may include any of the following: hi-fi system, recording paraphernalia, computer(s) and peripherals, pianos or keyboards with MIDI features, printer and scanner, networking devices, and maybe even a f...

"East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" may have held some truth in 1889, when Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem The Ballad of East and West, but the phrase has little relevance in 2012. World-wide communication, increased travel, and global industry have made our planet avery small place. So it's...

Norman Dello Joio's Simple Sketches (Edward B.Marks/Hal Leonard) provides a rewarding musical and technical challenge for the late-intermediate student. The collection contains three fairly short pieces, the first of which, Allegretto, is my favorite to teach. For some students, the quirky tonality—a trademark of Dello...

A piece of music can be centered around a key note, but have less of a feeling of a "western" chord progression. Contemporary pop pieces often use ambiguous chords and their harmonic structures can be based on modes rather than scales. If you start with a scale of C, you can build modes on each note of the scale, like this: Each...

The idea of reading patterns in music first became important to me when I began teaching young students how to read music. In my formative years I was raised on a note-by-note approach that began at Middle C. It worked for me... at least I thought it did. Today, even though I teach children to read by interval relation...

While the studios in Bruce Berr's article are inspiring and impressive, they also required substantial financial resources. We asked our readers to submit photos of small teaching spaces—we think you'll find these spaces efficient, creative, and inspiring as well! This 1,080-square-foot studio was built as a "mother-in-law"...

In my travels around the country as a clinician over the past decades, I have enjoyed meeting many new people—students of various ages, independent and community music school teachers, university professors, and music store owners. Occasionally, I have been fortunate enough to also see the home studios of some independent teachers. The variety...