wellness

William Westney

Luxuriant Piano Playing: A Wellness Principle

 Carrying the proactive view into piano study, I would say that the physical enjoyment of playing is the key to a lifetime of pianistic wellness. Not just asking ourselves "was that correct?" or "was that what the teacher wanted?" but, far more importantly, "did that feel natural to me, did it feel great?" As beneficial as such awareness is fo...
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Brenda Wristen

Burning Brightly Without Burning Out

Burnout, a long-lasting state of emotional exhaustion in which we become cynical about the value of our occupation and feel doubtful that we will be able to continue to perform our job, has been identified as the biggest occupational hazard of the twenty-first century.1 Burnout is a serious professional and quality of life issue for individual...
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NCKP Committee on Wellness for the Pianist

Tips for Healthy Remote Teaching

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While preparing for the 2021 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, members of the Committee on Wellness for the Pianist collaborated to establish wellness tips specifically for teachers. At the beginning of the pandemic, most students and instructors were obliged to cope with the challenge of becoming completely dependent upon technology, adapt...
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Lesley McAllister and Luis Sanchez

Summer 2021: NCKP 2021 Conference and Preconference Previews

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In our spring 2021 issue we previewed some of the daylong preconference sessions in which attendees of the virtual conference can participate in July. Below, we follow-up on two more exciting preconference days and highlight a new conference track featuring presentations in Spanish and Portuguese, with English subtitles. See the NCKP 2021 webs...
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NCKP 2021 wellness Latin American music Lesley McAllister Luis Sanchez
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Gail Berenson

Professional Associations: Your Indispensable Resource for Musicians’ Health Information

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As an eager college student majoring in piano, I felt it was a badge of honor to practice eight hours a day on the weekends. I thought I was doing what every dedicated music major was supposed to be doing. In those days there was little in my curriculum that offered information about efficient and healthy practicing strategies, or any musicians' he...
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Henning Vauth

Winter 2021: Wellness in Applied Piano Teaching: A Two-Way Street

Many years ago, at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media in Germany, my piano teacher Professor Einar Steen-Nøkleberg used to greet us students with a handshake when entering his studio. He took our hand, pulled us into the room, and closed the door. "Now you forget all your woes and worries. ...
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wellness communication mental health Henning Vauth
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Clavier Companion

Coping Psychologically with COVID-19: Effects of Trauma on the Musician's Sense of Self

 Coping Psychologically with COVID-19: Effects of Trauma on the Musician's Sense of Self with Julie Nagel & A. Chris Heath Did you enjoy this webinar? Please complete our brief survey to help us improve our webinar series and continue to bring you the highest quality resources in piano teaching. 
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COVID-19 wellness Julie Jaffee Nagel A. Chris Heath
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Clavier Companion

Teach, Breathe, Move, Repeat: Tips for Physical Wellness during a Pandemic

Teach, Breathe, Move, Repeat: Tips for Physical Wellness during a Pandemic with Laura Amoriello, Lesley McAllister, and Paola Savvidou   Did you enjoy this webinar? Please complete our brief survey to help us improve our webinar series and continue to bring you the highest quality resources in piano teaching. 
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wellness COVID-19 Laura Amoriello Lesley McAllister Paola Savvidou
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Heather Malyuk

The Teacher's Role in Hearing Health

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When I was a young music student, I remember one of my teachers telling me, "I am not teaching you how to be a musician, I'm teaching you how to practice. I'm giving you the tools you'll need to be independent of me." So much of health-centered education is the same. Educators often ask, "Am I responsible for the hearing health of my students?" The...
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wellness Heather Malyuk physical health hearing
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Vanessa Cornett

Physical Health and Wellness Considerations For Online Teaching

The need to shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way music instructors interact with their students. Most teachers now rely on various technologies to facilitate remote instruction for lessons and group classes. While this shift is essential to slow the spread of infectious disease, the sudden move to online instru...
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Vanessa Cornett COVID-19 online teaching physical health COVID-19 Issue wellness
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Vanessa Cornett

Mental and Emotional Well-Being in the Time of COVID-19

The recent global pandemic has generated a mental health crisis in our culture. Although experts will not fully comprehend the psychological effects of COVID-19 for many years, millions of people around the world are currently experiencing the repercussions. The complex emotions associated with the coronavirus include feelings of fear, grief, loss,...
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Vanessa Cornett wellness COVID-19 COVID-19 Issue self-care emotional health
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Laura Amoriello

Checking In: Mindful Body Awareness for Pianists

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"You have pneumonia."  It shouldn't have been a surprise. A cold reared its ugly head just as the school year started, but I had to push ahead. No daycare the week that classes start? Stay up late to write your syllabi! Feel like you might collapse? Those classes won't teach themselves! Been six weeks since you felt like yourself? It'll clear ...
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wellness Laura Amoriello physical health
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Amy Boyes

Don't Make Me Use My Teacher Voice: How to Get Results Without Getting Frustrated

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I recently assigned a Bossa Nova to my sixteen-year-old intermediate piano student. Even though the style was new to him, he enjoyed the sound of the piece and was excited to learn it. In preparation, we watched performances on YouTube so he could hear a range of tempi and characterizations. We wrote out the beats in the score so he could understan...
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Amy Boyes Frustration plateaus wellness emotional health
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Jessica Johnson

Self-Compassion In the Studio: Helping our Students Practice with Kindness

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As musicians striving towards perfection, we engage in destructive self-talk while practicing, undermining our confidence, disconnecting us from our bodies, and cutting us off from authentic artistic expression. With increasing rates of anxiety and depression among adolescents and teens, our young students often feel overwhelmed and ...
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wellness Healthy Playing Healthy Teaching Jessica Johnson emotional health practice self-care mindfulness
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Lesley McAllister

Winter 2020: Book Review

With The Mindful Musician: Mental Skills for Peak Performance, Vanessa Cornett demonstrates how mindfulness has the potential to change musicians' lives, fostering a healthier outlook and improved performance—both in the practice room and on stage. Promoting mindfulness as a way to increase attentional focus, emotional awareness, and creativity, sh...
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wellness book reviews Lesley McAllister Vanessa Cornett mindfulness mental practice
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Brenda Wristen

Finding Fingerings that Fit

The impact of hand size is attracting much attention in the piano world. Several studies have demonstrated that the conventional piano keyboard is sized for a relatively large hand, presenting challenges for small-handed pianists as well as raising the risk of injury.* Areas of particular concern for small-handed pianists i...
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wellness fingering healthy playing Brenda Wristen hand size
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Charles Turon

Dystonia: Thoughts and Attitudes

When a doctor diagnosed me with focal dystonia in 1996, it was as if a line suddenly divided my life between "before dystonia" and "after dystonia." Numerous physicians had already given me other diagnoses, but this one was different—it could mean the end of performing. After struggling with the symptoms for several years, I not only stopped per- f...
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James Litzelman

Recovering from Focal Dystonia

2018 marked my twenty-fifth year of living with focal dystonia in my right hand. During this time not only have I learned much about this condition, I've also learned a great deal about human anatomy, musician's wellness, the brain, and perhaps most importantly, how to practice more effectively. Much of this is applicable to all pianists—not j...
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Tinus Botha

The Road to Kindness: Encouraging Greater Generosity of Spirit in an Overly Competitive World

The habit of comparing ourselves (and being compared) to others is not restricted to the world of music. Starting shortly after birth, our physical attributes, talents, and achievements are constantly compared to those of our peers. The age at which first words are spoken and first steps are taken can be a tremendous source of pride for parent...
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Pamela Pike

How Sleep Impacts Learning (And Why We Should All Sleep More!)

Healthy Playing, Healthy Teaching, Vanessa Cornett, Editor  A common refrain among teachers in the developed world is that twenty-first-century students are over-scheduled, anxious, and unable to focus during their limited practice time.1 Compounding these stress, anxiety, and distraction issues for my students is that they are awake late...
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PamelaPike Sleep wellness
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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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