First Prize winner In the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 2000, and at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 1997, 31-year-old Italian pianist Alessio Bax has sure-handedly established himself as one of the most accomplished performers in the world. Praised by the international press, his performances have been described as...

Have you ever had a student who just couldn't sit still and listen? Have you ever had a student who couldn't focus on what you were saying for more than a few seconds? Have you ever had a student who got frustrated easily? Are these rhetorical questions? Of course they are! Anyone who has taught for several years has perhaps dreaded the sight ...

"One of the fundamental problems," says Eugenie Rocherolle, "is the fact that music in America is viewed merely as an extracurricular activity. We teachers need to reframe it in the public mind as a noble subject which develops character and skill through self-discipline and artistic relations with other people." A composer since childhood, Eugenie...

Learning a new piece is like building a house. First there is a conception of the end result. The foundation is then laid - the more solid and stable, the better. Then the frame is erected and the most basic infrastructural elements are added. The skeleton then has more "flesh" progressively added until the process is nearly complete. The fini...

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States Mental attitude, to use Jefferson's term, is crucial to learning the piano. I tell my students, if you can hear it, then think it - you ca...

Questions How do you begin teaching memory, and approximately when in a student's study do you begin?  Answer I like to begin memorizing within the first few weeks of study and continue it as a regular part of piano lessons from then on. Like every other discovery, memory should first be a secure and pleasant experience before it is given a na...

Marvin Blickenstaff has stated that the " hook" for students to continue their piano studies is to assign challenging and motivating repertoire they want to play. That is always in my mind when I select literature. My students play music from all four style periods, as well as a concerto each year. During the Christmas season, most of them pla...

Thirty-plus years ago, on a February evening, I dashed across 57th street in Manhattan in blue jeans, weaving like a typical New Yorker between beeping cabs, with a black velvet dress napping over my arm and a satchel stashed with music and various sundries. I was about to give my debut recital at what was then called Carnegie Recital Hall, and in ...

In my first two articles you learned how to record and edit video. By this point in the series I hope you are excited about how easy and affordable it is to create movies of student recitals and lessons in your piano studio. So far, all the movies you created have remained "trapped" in your camera or your computer. In this article you will learn ho...

For the past quarter century I have conducted piano teacher workshops throughout the United States and Canada. Teachers always have a lot of great questions, and one of the most frequently asked questions is "What is a jazz suspension?" Jazz suspensions in general are bridges to somewhere, at least usually. Suspensions are chord tension-tones ...

We're in the communication business. We may think our job is teaching little fingers to play, or furthering the mission statements of our music schools, or projecting our understanding of a long dead composer's score to a passive but attentive (we hope) audience. But what we really do everyday, in each of these arenas, is give or exchange informati...