Thursday, 24 November 2011
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Compose!
Here's a really fun site for students to try their hands at composition!
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/musicLabF.asp?pageid=15
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/musicLabF.asp?pageid=15
Sunday, 30 October 2011
A Dream Comes True
Finally, my new grand piano - a Yamaha C2 - arrived on the 21 Oct 2011, a Friday morning. The movers did a professional job!
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The piano where it is now in my studio. The tone and touch are really beautiful!
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A Really Wonderful Music Dictionary & also a great App on Musical Terms
I have found the Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary really helpful.
It's a real boon with the audio files to help pronounce all the foreign terms. This is the link:
http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/
Below is an App for Musical Terms complete with pronunciation in Italian, French & German. It also includes a favorite section where one can store the terms currently understudy. Somehow, it works well only with iPhone.
It's a real boon with the audio files to help pronounce all the foreign terms. This is the link:
http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/
Below is an App for Musical Terms complete with pronunciation in Italian, French & German. It also includes a favorite section where one can store the terms currently understudy. Somehow, it works well only with iPhone.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Some Useful Apps
It took time and effort, but it was worth it. As I explore and experiment with various Apps, I discovered some useful ones that have enhanced my students' learning. Hope you find them useful as well. What Apps do you use?
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Mastering Piano Technique
The past few days saw me busy in front of the TV trying out the exercises of Prof. Seymour Fink (State University of New York) in his DVD on Mastering Piano Technique and the accompanying book.
Let me quote and paraphrase some of Prof Fink's thought-provoking lines:
He believes that " focusing on the body's movements with their inner kinesthetic sensations creates the condition of awareness, flexibility, and refinement that allows the performing pianist to physically mirror and reproduce the finely tuned nuances of musical thought. Technical development implies the abilitiy to accomplish this with greater and greater subtlety and power. In effect, pianists are dancer-athletes of the keyboard: to perform is to move in ways that give birth to the products of music imagination."
So, what is the role of the teacher?
1. "They can first make students aware of their movement patterns, both the helpful and harmful."
2. " Advise students about posture, efficiency of movement, habit formation (progress from conscious to subconscious), learning strategies, various kinds of simple and combined coordinations, keyboard shape and tactics, and instrumental mechanics."
3. How these relate to serious music making
4. Increase their awareness of their movements, learning new coordination, improve analytic and problem-solving skills and forge links between technique and musical conception while cultivating efficaciois practice habits.
He believes that " focusing on the body's movements with their inner kinesthetic sensations creates the condition of awareness, flexibility, and refinement that allows the performing pianist to physically mirror and reproduce the finely tuned nuances of musical thought. Technical development implies the abilitiy to accomplish this with greater and greater subtlety and power. In effect, pianists are dancer-athletes of the keyboard: to perform is to move in ways that give birth to the products of music imagination."
So, what is the role of the teacher?
1. "They can first make students aware of their movement patterns, both the helpful and harmful."
2. " Advise students about posture, efficiency of movement, habit formation (progress from conscious to subconscious), learning strategies, various kinds of simple and combined coordinations, keyboard shape and tactics, and instrumental mechanics."
3. How these relate to serious music making
4. Increase their awareness of their movements, learning new coordination, improve analytic and problem-solving skills and forge links between technique and musical conception while cultivating efficaciois practice habits.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Interesting software for the young beginner
You may like to connect your electronic keyboard to your PC via USB and turn piano learning into a interactive session.
The software featured here is from eMedia My Piano
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