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In this poem consisting of a single sentence, Dan Howell draws on a lived experience to describe the sound of an older woman playing.
For musicians with hearing loss, we offer this expert-verified checklist to take to your audiologist to create a better music program on your hearing aids.
What are the best apps for adult piano students and amateur pianists?
For every decibel that amateur pianist Joyce Morton has lost in hearing, she has gained double the wisdom about how to keep on making music despite her hearing loss.
The Claude Debussy Clair de Lune, released in 1905 and today a favorite of piano students and concert pianists alike, presents the challenge of an emotional interpretation.
Affirmations, those positive statements I chant to myself, are one of my secret pleasures.
The question I receive most often from readers of GRAND PIANO PASSION™ is whether I might be able to recommend a good piano teacher.
The Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition judges amateur adult contestants on the basis of a submitted video. The philosophy underpinning the competition is that pianists often lack the time and funds to travel long distances simply to compete.
Reflections on a Grand Passion
I am at East Coast Piano, a boxy, windowless warehouse store on New Jersey’s Route 46, because my husband, David, has insisted.
For my performance at Carnegie Hall, I wanted to infuse my music with the same emotion I experienced at home.
On New Year’s Eve in 1986, a crowd wearing pointed party hats pressed against the velvet ropes outside a Manhattan club.
An adult piano student considers her music ugly, a holdover from her childhood. Then when looking to buy an antique Steinway, she instead leaves with hope.
Classical Piano Music Amplified
The Chopin Prelude in A Major Amplified
While the Chopin Prelude in A Major only lasts 16 measures and takes about one minute to play, it is a wonderful study in imagination of dynamics, color, and rubato. I explore this work from multiple perspectives here, as part of GRAND PIANO PASSION™’s well-regarded Classical Piano Music Amplified™ series.
The Debussy Rêverie Amplified
In the Debussy Rêverie, the best way to communicate the music’s natural rises and falls is through your own physical breath control.
The Liszt Un Sospiro Amplified
A closer look at the Liszt Un Sospiro reveals patterns in the rolling arpeggios, an Impressionistic quality, and some historical background on the piece. The most striking part of Un Sospiro is its ethereal and poetic qualities, with its rolling arpeggios and flowing melodic line creating an atmospheric mood.
Popular Articles
If you’ve ever listened to a professional recording of a piece you’ve been working on for your piano lessons—say Yuja Wang playing Schumann’s The Smuggler—you’ve probably been struck by the obvious: she plays the piece way faster than you do. She plays some passages so fast you can barely process the notes and rhythms in order to see how you should practice.
Looking down at our hands as we play breaks the continuity of reading, prevents us from looking ahead, and undermines concentration. Yet for many piano students, even some who have played for years, it is a frequent temptation.
When I went back to the piano in my early 40s, I decided not to mention my hearing loss to my new teacher, Stephen.
What makes the contrapuntal music of Bach difficult for adult piano students?