Metacognition in Teaching Music Performance, Part 1: Defining The Problem

“I am absolutely convinced that there is, overall, far too little rather than enough or too much cognitive monitoring in this world. This is true for adults as well as for children, but it is especially true for children.” Flavell, 1979 This nine-part series of articles is the result of […]

Two-Piano Teaching Duets for Burgmüller’s Op. 100

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 […]

Why Gender Matters in Music Performance Anxiety

As a private piano teacher, I’ve observed over the years that my female students seem to complain more of (or be affected more by) performance anxiety than my male students do. These observations lingered and built up over the years, and then I read a fantastic book titled Why Gender […]

Why Memorize Music? Respect, Communication, Enjoyment And Skill

The word appearance often carries a negative connotation in society. Disney movies and bedtime stories tell us most definitely not to be concerned about outward appearances when the quality of our character is all that matters. While this is sound advice for daily living, in my opinion it isn’t good […]

Piano Yoga: My Journey To Overcome Tension In Piano Playing

I began learning Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 during my freshman year of college.  When the piece started to gain tempo in certain passages, these passages felt difficult when I knew they shouldn’t, and for the first time, I started feeling like I was reaching some kind of physical “ceiling” in […]

Studies Addressing Piano Voodoo of Tone Production

In July 2010, I wrote about The Piano Voodoo of Tone Production, which demonstrates that pianists cannot control timbre of a single note independently of volume because of the physics of piano escapement/letoff.  There are those who claim we can control the tone of a note without changing its volume, and […]

The Piano Voodoo of Tone Production

Note (6/27/16):  This article, first published in 2010, as well as the follow-up article (Studies Addressing Piano Voodoo of Tone Production), were edited and combined into one article, and published as a feature article in Clavier Companion titled “Tone Production: Doing the Right Things for the Right Reasons” (July/August 2016, p. […]

Reaching The Preparation Threshold

Students, and unfortunately most teachers, believe that a student should move on from one piece to the next before the first piece is truly mastered. This article explores the benefits and psychology of working more extensively on repertoire before moving on.

Tenuto and Portato

The tenuto mark is by far the most confusing symbol in all of musical notation.  I’ve noticed that transfer students rarely even know what it is called, much less know how to interpret it.  I have observed confusion and misinterpretation about the mark among music teachers.   We certainly can’t blame them […]

How Good Is Your Looking Technique?

That’s right, the last two words of this article’s title are not accidentally swapped.  We’re going to talk about the technique of looking.  Most of us are well-aware of the four types of memory available when we memorize music:  audio, visual, kinesthetic, and analytical.  However, I believe that many are […]