Bach and his contemporaries considered themselves to be artisans who crafted music for specific occasions and purposes. Bach improvised, arranged, and composed music for church services, events (weddings, funerals, dances, etc.), organ testing, and lessons. His pedagogy reflected these aims. According to his son, he taught students figured bass (the lead sheet of the day) near the beginning, and his students learned to improvise, arrange, and compose. He was preparing …
The primary goal of some of the early level methods is not necessarily to teach children to play the piano.
Instead, the goal of these methods is to teach children to read music notation at the piano.
Because of this intense focus on reading, these methods can be compared to a grammar book intended to teach a student an ancient language.
Although a person may learn to read and write in ancient Greek …
Often the student is blamed for not being a natural reader, when it was really the method or teaching approach that was flawed.
The student develops the idea that reading music is not fun and that he is bad at it.
It is so important to lay the foundation correctly when developing a student’s relationship to the notated score!
One wrong assumption many methods or teachers seem …
The great Italian pianist Ferruccio Busoni once wrote about the difference between the sound "of the piano" and the sound "of playing the piano".
What is meant by "pure sound"?
A "pure sound" is a sound whose harmonics and noises are controlled .
But how can we create a "pure sound"?
Let's start from the beginning explaining the basic aspects of piano playing: to many it …
When the genius of Chopin begins to manifest itself?
In the month on July, 1826 Chopin, he was 16 years old, writes a b-flat minor Polonaise that belongs entirely to the so called Biedermeier stilistic world.
The first episode is influenced by the brilliant and whimsical ornamentation of composers such as Dussek, Hummel, Ries, …