Richard Chronister

Richard Chronister, editor

Independence Day: Music Reading

Richard Chronister is executive director of The National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, president and educational director of National Keyboard Arts Associates, and editor of Keyboard Companion magazine. He has been active in developing piano teaching materials and piano teacher training programs for more than thirty years. He is known thr...
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Elvina Pearce

The Other Teacher: Home Practice

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 ...
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Richard Chronister, editor

How Do You Prepare Students for the Reading Traps in a Piece?

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...
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Richard Chronister, editor

How Do You Teach Students to Plan Fingering?

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...
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Richard Chronister

How Do You Teach Fluent Rhythm Reading?

When piano teachers talk about music reading, we tend to think only of note reading. In fact, the questions we have posed for this department of KEYBOARD COMPANION have concentrated on just that one aspect of reading. Likewise, students seem to give note reading first priority when they sightplay new music. If they can't find the next note quickly ...
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Richard Chronister

How Do You Teach Fluent Chord Reading?

Countless times, teachers hear something similar to "I don't want Johnny to be a concert pianist, I just want him to be able to play hymns." Usually, we take the time to explain that hymn playing-or any chord reading for both hands together-represents one of the hardest kinds of reading any student has to learn to do. Regardless,&nbs...
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Richard Chronister

The Editor's Page

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- dancing?- 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 experi...
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Richard Chronister, editor

Do you teach sightplaying from the very first lesson?

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...
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Richard Chronister, editor

The Editor's Page

 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...
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Richard Chronister
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Clavier Companion

Independence Day: Music Reading

How Do You Teach Your Students Not to Back Up and Start Over? by: Richard ChronisterOur 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, "...
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Richard Chronister

The Editor's Page

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 bot...
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Richard Chronister, editor

Independence Day: Music Reading

Where Should Reading Come in the Beginner's Curriculum?by Richard Chronister The best way to teach piano students to read will probably always be a hotly debated item, and we will continue to explore that subject in this department of KEYBOARD COMPANION. Another controversial subject in this area is the one we deal with in this issue — when to...
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Clavier Companion

The Editor's Page

 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, ...
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Richard Chronister
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About Piano Magazine

Piano Magazine is the leading resource for pianists, piano teachers, and piano enthusiasts. We bring you informative, interesting, and inspiring ideas on all aspects of piano teaching, learning, and performing. The official name of Clavier Companion magazine was changed to Piano Magazine in 2019.

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