I have completed and released a 6-hour online video course teaching in great detail how rubato works! It is called The Art of Rubato: The Musical Expression of Tempo. The price is now $19.99 (when the course first premiered, the price was $39.99). Rubato, in my own words, is the […]
To see the first Ten Rejected Topics For Piano Teacher Conferences, click here. Music and the Brain: The Undeniable Connection This session will present the findings of several new radical studies in neuroscience, making a strong case for the idea that one cannot perform music when there is an absence of […]
Three years ago, in a lesson I was giving to my oldest daughter, she completed a Burgmüller piece from the Op. 100 set. After I put a sticker on the page, she said, “Daddy, remember those duets we used to play in the Alfred books? I really miss playing those […]
Private music teachers, I’d like to propose a business deal. Here are the terms: You compose a musical work, put together and record a well-researched presentation, write a major article, make a music recording, or some other high-quality creative product. You upload it to my website. You get a one-time […]
One of my hobbies is debate, especially when it involves a philosophical element. Years ago in an online piano discussion forum, someone declared that music is not a language after someone else had mentioned that it is. This was a subject I could not leave alone, so we had an […]
Years ago, a piano teaching colleague and friend of mine gave up teaching piano and switched careers. I could hardly believe this, because whenever we talked on the phone, he always brought as much excitement, curiosity, and fascination into our conversations about teaching as I did. What could make such an enthusiastic […]
Adding Verbal Color to Clementi & Burgmuller Discover the excitement that so many teachers are missing out on when they omit profane language from their teaching of late beginning and early intermediate repertoire. Parallel Octaves & Universes Learn how the latest discoveries in string theory and quantum physics change the way […]
When students play piano passages that push the student to (or near) their limit of dexterity, every student except the extremely gifted will demonstrate a lack of control. Such passages could consist of several lines or pages of quick-running notes such as Burgmuller’s “Velocity,” or it could just be quick […]
In 2012, I moved across the country and joined two different music teachers associations. One of these associations held certain education and experience requirements for joining, a foreign concept that disturbed and continues to disturb me. Not that I had any trouble joining – my qualifications are more than solid. And granted, […]
This article explains why rubrics are not appropriate for evaluation of musical performances, despite the success of rubrics in academic evaluations.
