Voice those chords!

When playing anything with multiple voices in a chordal fashion, voicing is almost always an issue. A helpful image I like to give my students is to visualize holding and supporting a basketball with two hands out in front of you.  3-4-5 have more grip or support of the ball on the bottom and the thumbs which are higher up on the ball should be more relaxed and floating.

Picture above with a more relaxed expression :0).  This visualization will help achieve the right angle of the hands on the keyboard directing sound towards the outer voices for greater effect.

Visual Productivity-Pull out the abacus!

This week, I got a bit excited about abacuses.  Let me explain...

One of the reasons practicing remains difficult for students to gage is the lack of daily project completion/assignment confirmation for students.  Think about this - at school, kids routinely hand in daily assignments and get checks for completion or some sort of letter grade.  For piano, my proposal is for the student to use an abacus as a physical and visual measure of daily productivity.  There is an appropriate abacus for every level of student and engagement!

My youngest student, loves the rainbow abacus (second from the left).  She squeals in excitement in order to "move the beads!" For this student, the different lines and colors are great for breaking down the sections.  Say one is working on a 4 line, 16 bar piece. A single row could be a line, or even half a line (2 measures), right hand, left hand, or hands together.  By moving the beads, he or she stays on track and has both visual and physical confirmation of completion.  The top red line could be for linking two sections/lines together successfully or even playing through the whole piece. I swear that using this method may beat giving out stickers!

For the intermediate or advanced student (see 1st or 3rd abacus), each row can be applied towards running through a larger section; ie. an entire exposition, and the rows could be used to keep track of progress through several days or a week even or less if broken into smaller sections and used for different pieces. There really is no wrong way to use an abacus.

Have fun practicing and organizing everyone!

Metronome...Check!!

Today is the first official day of the school year (post Labor Day) in the city and for many parents, along with purchasing school supplies, make sure your child has the appropriate metronome handy!

Metronomes have gone through little change through the years.  I am forever buying new ones just because a metronome not in use does absolutely no good and the updated Seiko metronomes have a volume wheel that makes a whole lot of difference!

http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-SQ50-V-Quartz-Metronome/dp/B000LFCXL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391705671&sr=8-1&keywords=metronome

The updated SQ50 (red wheel, far right), finally gives us volume control of the beeping sound without having to pay a fortune and resort to draining our iphone/ipad battery with a metronome app. The blue version, left side, carries a louder beep (2 different pitches) which is good for young kids and the one in the middle, though credit card size, has a higher pitch beep if you're into that short of thing. Finally, a metronome I can be happy turning on and playing along with!

What is the metronome for besides the obvious, keeping steady?  The metronome helps us diagnose the weaker areas of our playing so we can work for greater control.  It helps us iron out our kinks!  On a higher level, it fine tunes our listening and phrasing.  On a more basic level, it organizes our practice time more efficiently.

Happy practicing!!

Our Studio has relocated across the Park!

Last week was a big week! Our studio relocated across the park, and the first of the two pianos have arrived! The Steinway B has been put on the truck. It is due for a long drive...will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, the little one has already arrived.

and went in for a tune up on Superbowl Sunday.

And yes, congrats to our Superbowl champs! Go Ravens!!

Look how we've grown!

My beautiful extended New York family whom all came together last friday...I am so proud of you all. It warmed my heart to see and hear your beautiful performances. And yes, there were indeed some magical moments! Till next year!

I think in big cities this is particularly true :0( Let's change this and keep the connection alive!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Chamber Music Recital Tonight at 7 pm!

A Special Evening of Cello/Piano Music

Friday, October 5, 7:00 p.m.
Greenfield Recital Hall, The Manhattan School of Music (located on UWS at 122nd and Broadway, 120 Claremont Ave).

Program:
Beethoven 12 Variations on Handel's Judeas Maccabeus
Brahms E minor Cello Sonata
Shostakovich Cello Sonata

Admission is free







Ben Larsen, Cello
Alexis Zhu, Piano

Listening and Creating Your Own Personal Sound World

An inspiring, eye-opening lecture about how to listen given by Evelyn Glennie. This will transform your concert going experience and the way you respond to music. What every artistic teacher is trying to impart to their students...

Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen | Video on TED.com

What can you get done in 20 minutes?

A simple test to check how productive you are really: set a timer to 20 minute increments to monitor your practice throughout the day to see what you are able to accomplish in that amount of time. Revealing, no?

The timer can also be used to organize your practice time between, sections, pieces, etc, so that you don't get stuck on a piece/page and forget to move on.

Photo: Practicing kit: hairclip, Starbucks coffee from downstairs, trusty debate timer, klm collectible porcelain dutch house, pile of scores, backdrop-NYC!

Favorite IPAD apps/technology and how it has changed the piano studio

This past year, one of my favorite questions that I get from my students are, what are your favorite iphone/ipad apps?

Besides the usual keyboard, (virtuostic pianist app), things have taken off so far and beyond that (great for ear training, theory assignments, btw) to have substantially transformed the way we think about music study on the most basic level.

One of my favorite apps is the pdf-notes app on the ipad which allows you to mark up your music and saves you from lugging scores around.

I also am a big fan of gmail video chat which enables me to check in and even teach my students occasionally online. The vtok ipad app enables video conferencing on my ipad 2 with gmail video chat.

Both tools have greatly altered the way I think of "traditional music study" as well as a way to enhance the limitations of the "traditional weekly lesson format."

Kudos to technology!

Sightread in Keys

For the summer, one of the best things to do and to make sight-reading much more enjoyable, not so tedious and effective is to sightread in keys!

For example, for the intermediate and even advanced student, a great way to spend the afternoon is to grab a copy of Schubert Waltzes and sight read day by day...

All the ones in E Major.

All the ones in A Major

than, pick some minor keys...

e minor

d minor

b minor

f minor, etc.

Try it out! You will be surprised how effective this be in improving your reading very quickly. Good luck!

End of Year Recap

People asked me what did you think of your student recital? And my gut reaction was my realization through the midst of it, "Holy moly, almost all of my students are playing a real complex program of serious pieces." Every recital is a journey. I am really so very proud of my studio.

Second installment...New York City Steinway Hall on June 17th, 6:30 pm.

Student Recitals

A huge congrats to my New York students and families who just performed beautifully this December at Steinway Hall! A huge thanks also to Jennifer at Steinway for hosting us. Thank you!

My Peabody Conservatory Students will have their semester-end recital on January 22nd in Goodwin Hall. We will also be hearing concertos as a new addition to this year's program.

A funny and thoughtful gift from one of my students today...

Ina Garten at Sur la Table

I entered the new Sur la Table on 3rd between 75th and 76th today looking for a lemon grater. Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa will be there on Wednesday 5-7 pm! Too bad I will be teaching at that time. :0)

Kindle for the bus, train, and everywhere!

It's happened. I just purchased a real book (no kindle version), requested a kindle version, which came out a week later and returned the original.

Infinite Possibilities...

http://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Possibilities-ebook/dp/B002NT3B5W/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1288281196&sr=8-1

For the amount of time I spend on public transportation, subways, trains, and buses, and since I live the life of the typical NY female with an overcapacity bag, thank goodness for kindle books. Who likes dog-eared pages anyways?

My reaction when I got the real book home last week, "what am I supposed to do with this exactly?"

Welcome to my new blog!

This is my first attempt at a blog. My decision making process went thus...

1. I thought it would be an interesting way to simply to keep up with my writing skills as an actively performing and practicing pianist. Yes, we all try to go to concerts, practice, and read, but at times forget to write!

2. I hoped to provide a useful and engaging forum for all parents, students, musicians to discuss both practicing and psychological factors for instrumental practicing, as well as offer and share advice and stories with other parents. A forum where the advice comes not only from teacher to student, or teacher to parent, but for parents to share also what worked in their household and creative space as well as what went wrong!

3. A place to share other interesting tidbits and observations, whether it be food, concerts, or anything else!

I look forward to offering my own experiences, comments and look forward to reading everyone elses responses as well!

Let me know what you think! I look forward to conversing with you!

~Alexis