Okay, all you pianists out there, I admit it. As a flutist, I had a bit of a superiority complex: an inflated or “influted” ego, so to speak. Unlike pianos, flutes are portable and easy to assemble, and all that breath control is good for our lungs.
Inspiration and claiming your passion
How to Create Good Habits for Piano Practice
The word “piano” doesn’t appear once in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Random House, 2012). Yet this engaging book by New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg offers a useful perspective on how to create good habits for piano practice.
This Mother’s Day, a Concert Grand Piano
For Mother’s Day this year, don’t bother presenting Mom with a bouquet of plump peonies, gangly irises, and svelte tulips. Hold off on the box of dark chocolate truffles. Don’t even think about the simple gold necklace dangling with a charm.
Deserting the Piano: A Personal Essay
I am at East Coast Piano, a boxy, windowless warehouse store on New Jersey’s Route 46, because my husband, David, has insisted.
Five Reasons to Play Not Just at the Piano
Submerged in the responsibilities of life, the seriousness of world affairs, and our mission to practice and perfect our piano music, we often forget to PLAY.
Stamping Out Perfectionism in Adult Piano Lessons
For 2012, the piano teacher and concert organizer Catherine Shefski, disenchanted with how little she played the piano, resolved to upload to SoundCloud a new classical piano music recording each week.
A Piano Teacher Reclaims the Piano
January is the month of resolutions, and in January of 2012, Catherine Shefski resolved to reclaim the piano by recording classical piano music, one piece each week for a year.
Visualization for Carnegie Hall
For my performance at Carnegie Hall, I wanted to infuse my music with the same emotion I experienced at home.
Expression Is the Need of My Soul
I have often walked by my piano, even though I know that when I play I solve problems better, I am more peaceful, and I have a sense of positive fullness.
When An Adult Saw a Piano for the First Time
Indusekhar Menon hails from Pune, India, a city known as the Oxford of the East. In his early 30s, after looking upon a grand piano for the first time, he joined the global community of people with a passion for classical piano music.
Classical Piano Music in a Brownstone
On New Year’s Eve in 1986, a crowd wearing pointed party hats pressed against the velvet ropes outside a Manhattan club.
Lent’s Thirds in Clair de Lune
Three weeks into Lent, I saw her slumped on a side staircase at Penn Station, her face set with weariness although she was fast asleep.
A Piano Teacher Takes Adult Piano Lessons
In his early 30s, Matthew Harre felt disenchanted with his piano technique. So this graduate of composition from American University and a teacher of adult pianists enrolled himself in adult piano lessons.
Hope for Adult Piano Lessons
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.
Pianists Show Up in the Most Unexpected Places
The neon sign in the dark, second-floor window at the corner of 61st and Lexington simply read “Eyebrows.” Getting my eyebrows done had never failed to lift my spirits, and on that particular rainy Tuesday evening my spirits needed lifting.
Feeling Is First in the Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp Minor
Around a year ago, when I began studying the Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, I felt awed by how Chopin had packed in the notes a plaintive sadness. In contrast, in my childhood home, although Mom never articulated a rule on the matter, feelings were prohibited.
How Affirmations Help this Student of Adult Piano Lessons Achieve Her Goals
At least twice a week, I tear myself away from my writing, scoot out of my study, and stride down the sidewalk away from my house. I have a cell phone pressed to my ear, but there is no call.
Students of Adult Piano Lessons: Fraidel Leah Kletter, a Profile in Perseverance
I’m pleased to launch the first of my Students of Adult Piano Lessons Profiles, a series which will appear in an ongoing basis in this GRAND PIANO PASSION™ blog.
My Debut of Chopin’s C-sharp Minor Nocturne
When I awoke this past Sunday morning, I could feel a familiar clipped breathing and tight chest from performance anxiety. I was scheduled to play the Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp minor in public for the first time, at a mid-morning service at my church.
Red Light in Adult Piano Lessons
Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor is a signature piece of my piano teacher, Stephen Wu. At his wedding reception at the Montclair Art Museum earlier this year, the lights dimmed as Stephen sat down at the mahogany Steinway, where he played a piece of his own composition he had written for his new wife, Meredith.
Classical Piano Music at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel
Classical piano music may be found even in Yosemite.