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Elvina Pearce, nationally recognized pianist, teacher, lecturer, author, and composer, studied piano with Isabelle Vengerova and pedagogy with Frances Clark. For 14 years, she taught pedagogy and directed the Preparatory Piano Division at Northwestern University. She currently teaches at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois where she also ...

Whenever we hear a new piece of teaching music that attracts our attention, and think of exactly the student who will enjoy playing it, we are apt to wonder if it has one or more of those traps that have cost us countless, precious minutes in the middle of a lesson. What really counts, if it truly is a great piece of music, is our attitude toward t...

The subject of fingering may be one of the most neglected aspects of reading. I suspect we might all be surprised if we really knew how much fingering affects the student's ability to read. And, we might all be surprised at how many things about fingering we take for granted, sort of in the same way that we assume everyone knows that to the right i...

Ermine Todd, who appears on the cover of this issue, dreams about playing the piano  like his mommy. Preparation for making his dream come true includes moving- danc ing?- around the room while he listens to her play such things as the Bach Preludes. The  picture on this issue's cover was taken a few hours after one of those exp...

When children begin to learn to read word s, it is assumed that the goal is sight reading-the ability to say the word a split second after seeing it-and that this goal will be reached rather quickly. And furthermore, it is assumed that the ability to sightread a string of words which make a sentence will follow close behind. If this were not t...

 The fascinating art work on the cover of this issue is by artist Amy Stewart who lives in Dallas, Texas. This Escher-inspired design involving the treble and bass clefs came naturally to Amy, the daughter of former piano teacher Mary Ann Stewart who is now the owner of Music in Motion, a music education and gift catalog familiar to many KEYBO...

How Do You Teach Your Students Not to Back Up and Start Over? by: Richard Chronister Our question for this issue is not worded very delicately, but none of us has a very delicate feeling when a student-for the 999th time-quits playing a few measures into a piece, looks up at us sheepishly, and says, "May I start over?" The obvious answer might be, ...

Another new teaching year is upon us, and with it the observance of September as National Piano Month. We are pleased to join in this celebration of the importance  of piano study and we are particularly grateful to the National Piano Foundation for permission to use the clever Peanuts cartoon logo you see on this issue's cover. At the bo...

 Southwestern artist Amado Pena's beautiful and colorful stylized portrait of four music makers against an austere stone backdrop which rises to beautiful mountain peak featured on this issue's cover was used to celebrate the famous Telluride Festival in  Colorado. While we all realize that this is not a photograph of the real thing,...