On Trills and Twiddles
I am dusting off the Goldberg Variations for a couple of performances early next year, and I decided to consult my Kirkpatrick edition (Schirmer, 1938). When I have the best…
Focus in Practice
As a teacher, my chief aim is to assist my students in playing more freely and expressively. A big part of that process is helping them unlock their unique musical…
Controlling Tone
There has been a heated discussion this week on a Facebook piano pedagogy page concerning how we affect tone quality at the piano. This argument is nothing new - it…
The History of Piano Technique: The Finger School
The connecting link between the harpsichord and the early piano was undoubtedly Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), whose treatise Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments was revered by Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), Johann…