Now Available: Muscle Builder Book 5

Now available in the Store is the next volume of the My Muscle Builder Book technique series! I’m super excited about Book 5 and about all of the things students have learned once they have reached this level. In this book we are using our “Sneaky Thumbs” and finger crossovers learned in previous volumes to play two-octave major scales!

Students will learn the basic scale fingering patterns and put them to good use on and off of the piano. We review our minor triads and then use them to play some fancy, musical arpeggios on both ends of the piano.

We also start dabbling in full-octave arpeggios, using the black-key major keys of D-flat, E-flat, G-flat, A-flat and B-flat. Students will really have a fun time as they cross over and under and play all over the piano in 19 different keys! As always, this Muscle Builder Book is in full color and includes all of the colorful picture scales and arpeggios to help students of all ages become literate at the piano.


Also available to purchase is the companion Muscle Builders Extras pack, including 3 full-color picture scale/arpeggio reference sheets and a “Book 5 At a Glance” page, where teachers or students can keep track of their Book 5 technique progress on one handy sheet. I recommend printing the Muscle Builder Book 2 pages per sheet in booklet format.

My Muscle Builder Book 5 and the Book 5 Extras pack may be purchased in the Store or at the bottom of this post. Enjoy some preview page views below. Have a happy new teaching year!

 

 




My Muscle Builder Book 5
40 pages, digital download
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My Muscle Builder Extras – Book 5
4 pages, digital download

Making Music Musical: Playing Beautiful Phrases

Thanks for the wonderful comments about Finding the Balance! Let’s discuss another technique for making music musical

One of the most important elements of beautiful, musical piano playing is something that is usually introduced very early on, but is a concept that I feel many piano students never fully understand or are taught well. Enter the SLUR…

Slurs, of course, are those fun curvy lines we often see in our music connecting two or more notes together and forming a phrase, or in other words a musical sentence.These slurs are often ignored while the focus is placed on more “important” matters, such as correct notes, rhythm, fingering, etc. (Which, don’t get me wrong, are super important as well!) It is relatively easy to achieve correct notes and rhythm, but isn’t our goal to actually make some beautiful music?

When slurs are learned, often the student learns to play them legato, or smooth and connected, and then they stop there…when really there is so much more to a slur or a phrase that can add so much musicality to a piece. Before we begin, let me just add that mastering the technique of phrasing is hugely important in making beautiful music, and while it takes some time and a lot of practice to master, it is something that can be introduced to the young beginner.

So let’s talk slurs. We’ll use a simple Bach Minuet for our example…(thanks 8notes.com for this image!)

Great, so we’ve got a lot of slurs here. What do we need to do first? That’s right…play the slurred notes smooth and connected. We do lots of walking around the room in my studio to discover that you can’t lift one foot up until your other one is touching the floor (unless of course you hop, but that would be staccato now, wouldn’t it?) So first we…

1.) Play smooth & connected

But is that all there is to playing slurs? No-sir. We’ve got to somehow differentiate between each slur, or else it is going to sound like one big musical run-on sentence. (If you have a student who loves to read, they will definitely get this analogy.) There needs to be some kind of period or exclamation mark or question mark in between each “sentence” for it to make sense, right? So in music, we’ve got to have some kind of a break between each slur. I use lots of arrows in my students’ pieces to remind them to gracefully lift their wrist up and bring their hand off of the keys to create a nice little break or “breath” between each phrase.

2) Lift your wrist up and take your hand off the keys to create a break between slurs

What, there’s more? Yes! How about what to do within each slur to make each phrase as beautiful and musical as possible? Remember that a general rule in music is that when the melody line goes UP, the notes should get LOUDER. When it goes DOWN, they should get SOFTER. Help students find the peak or the high point of each phrase, and learn to crescendo up to it and diminuendo down from it. It’s subtle but it’s effective!

3) Use graded dynamics to follow the melodic line within each phrase

Another concept that is related to number three but is important enough to restate, is that a lot of the time phrases should taper off and get a little bit softer on the last note. The main reason for this is that you usually do not want the last note of a phrase accented, that would just sound and feel not musical. (Of course there are definitely situations where you should crescendo until the end of the phrase – like for example maybe the first phrase of this song!)

I had a piano teacher who taught me this principle by explaining that you wouldn’t say my name “Jen-NY” with the second syllable accented. Try it – it just sounds weird, and not natural. Phrases in music should sound natural as well! When you taper off and say the second syllable softer, it sounds much nicer, and even more “musical” if you will – “JEN-ny.”  (Be careful before using this analogy, your student’s name may have an accented last syllable and it’ll kill your analogy! That happened with me and my student Nichole. Oops!)

4) Taper off (get softer) on the last note of a phrase (unless otherwise indicated)

And finally, you need to decide how each phrase should function (dynamically and otherwise) in relation to the phrases around it. We’ll go more into this concept later, but it is important to notice if a phrase should be generally louder or softer than the previous phrase and the following phrase. In the Minuet, for example, the dynamic level is marked as piano, but you can tell that the second phrase should be a little louder (the notes go higher, and a crescendo is marked), and then the three phrases on the second line sort of gradually get softer, to create an overall crescendo/diminuendo effect that peaks at the end of the first line.

5) Decide how each phrase should function, dynamically and otherwise, within the context of other phrases

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now…what are some ways you have come up with to teach your own students beautiful phrasing? Do you make sure they learn correct techniques for playing slurs right from the beginning, or is it something you find you need to focus on with your intermediate or advanced students?

Have a nice weekend!

Making Music Musical: Techniques of Musicality

Good morning readers! I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend. 
Something that I love about my piano studio right now is the variety of students I am able to teach. I have a great mix of ages and levels in my studio, from preschoolers to adults and beginners to more advanced students. It keeps me on my toes and helps keep things interesting. 
This week I’d like to focus on some techniques for the intermediate to more advanced students (although these techniques could be applied on a simpler, smaller scale to students of any level, and a teacher would be wise to begin teaching these techniques right from the beginning!). I’d like to talk about ways to make music musical, and how to teach our students to play with artistry and beauty.
It is relatively easy to teach our students how to play the correct notes, rhythms, fingerings, and even basic dynamics. But what about making real music out of that combination of notes and rhythms? Let’s talk about some specific techniques that can be applied to really make some music! Ready, go – 
1) Finding the Balance

One of the most important techniques that a pianist can learn and master is the ability to achieve a good balance between hands, fingers, and musical lines. For example, let’s take Romance, Op. 24 No. 9 by Sibelius – a great piano piece for working on musicality.
image source
Notice the repeated staccato D-flat major chords in the right hand (marked at piano) and the legato melody in the left hand (marked at mezzo-piano). In order to bring out the melody, the right hand chords must be played as quietly as possible to allow the listener to hear the left hand notes. 
This technique of independence of hands (playing different dynamics or articulations with each hand at the same time) is easier said than done.  I often have my students play small sections like this very slowly, with a lot of exaggeration to emphasize the difference between the two hands (playing the right hand super, super soft and as close to the keys as possible, while playing the left hand very loud and even staccato to really hone in on those contrasting dynamics. (Of course, in this example, you will eventually want to make the left hand smooth and legato and put a little bounce into the right hand – but at least that technique will help master the dynamics!) A good way to improve this technique is to take a scale or other simple exercise (Hanon works great) and practice playing one hand soft and the other hand loud, or one hand staccato and the other hand legato. It is good to switch off so each hand gets a chance to practice each technique.
Sometimes independence of fingers within the same hand is needed in order to bring out the top note of a chord, or the top line of the music (when the melody is played in the top notes of the right hand, for example). In the Sibelius example above, perhaps you’d like the top note of each chord in measure 6 to be a bit louder than the other notes. I find it helpful to visualize the top part of my hand (finger number five) as being heavier, or to lean into that side of the hand and use more weight on those top notes.
What are some ways that you teach independence of hands to your students? I’d love to hear your ideas! Stay tuned for more tips on making music musical!

pretty poll results

Thanks to all who participated in this week’s poll! It seems that scales & arpeggios and Hanon exercises are pretty common for our intermediate students. I personally feel that a good mix of all of the options are ideal in teaching our students good technique.

So, I was getting tired of the same boring colors on the poll results – and realized I could easily change them! Sweet. That makes me happy. So here are the results –

How do you most often teach technique to intermediate students?

This week we will be focusing a little more on ourselves as teachers – specifically on a way to maintain our professional skills. Our topic for this week will be: Maintaining Professional Skills: Continuing Your Own Piano Study. Do you still take piano lessons? Do you practice regularly? How do you keep up your piano skills, and how does this influence your teaching? 


One of the questions in our reader survey asks how you maintain your professional skills. Out of the 34 people who have answered this question so far (head on over there and take it if you haven’t already!), 22 people said that they practice the piano regularly, 21 said that they perform for their students and others, and 8 said that they are currently taking formal piano lessons.


Have a wonderful week, and we look forward to your comments!

Technique from the Pianist’s Bench

Notes from the Pianist's BenchI was recently re-reading a great book by Boris Berman, Notes from the Pianist’s Bench. What a wonderful book! I highly recommend it for any piano teacher. Berman includes in his book chapters on topics such as Sound and Touch, Practicing, Deciphering the Composer’s Message, Technique, and The Art of Teaching and the Art of Learning. He illustrates his points with tons of musical examples from great piano literature. I find this book really inspiring to me as a pianist as well as a teacher. I think that this book is just as helpful for teachers of young students as it is for advanced pianists.

In light of our current topic here on The Teaching Studio, I was especially re-reading the chapter on Technique, which is fabulous and goes into great depth on what good technique is and how to teach it. I’d like to summarize a bit of his chapter on technique, because it has been so helpful to me (but you really should read the entire thing, it is chock full of incredibly helpful ideas!).

Did you know that the word technique is derived from the Greek word for “art”? I didn’t, until I read this book!

Berman talks about three fundamental physical actions used in piano technique:

  1. independent use of well-articulated fingers
  2. rotation movements of wrist or forearm
  3. use of weight of the forearm and upper arm

He believes that most of the pianist’s movements are some combination of these actions, and that they are all equally important.

Berman also believes that two pillars form the foundation of good piano technique:

  1. The economy principle (being economic in your movements; to not use a bigger part of the body when a smaller will suffice)
  2. The extension principle (to regard the finger, hand, forearm and arm as the continuation of the others, with each individual unit ready to support and share the work with the others.)
He goes over each part of the hand/arm that is used in playing the piano (fingers, palm, wrist, elbows, arms, etc.)
Fingers

The fingers must always be active; this is essential for enunciation…The fingertips give definition to the sound…Finger technique is not only indispensable but also completely safe if practiced properly.

Wrist

It is essential for the pianist to develop a flexible wrist, capable of small and rapid movements. It should be able to work flexibly and smoothly in three ways: rotating, performing horizontal shifts, and making vertical movements….Wrist technique needs to be developed early in the pianist’s life.


Studies & Etudes

Berman briefly discusses studies and etudes, but says he is more familiar with the more advanced ones, as that is the level he most often teaches. However, for etudes he does recommend that Czerny, Cramer, Clementi and Moszkowski be used before more difficult ones such as Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov or Scriabin. As far as exercises go, he prefers Brahms, Tausig and Hanon. He says, 

…some of them are well worth incorporating into a daily technical routine…to be highly useful for daily warm-up. 

He also builds his daily technical routine on scales and arpeggios.
No technique without a musical goal

Important as the technical work is, it should never be done without a musical goal in mind. Realizing the musical content of the passage helps the pianist to find the right technical approach.

Principles of Intermediate Technique

Teaching technique to your students can seem like an intimidating task at times; at least I think so! For a budding pianist, developing a good, healthy technique is one of the most important things to do to become a fine pianist and a good musician. So how can we, as teachers, make sure we are helping our students develop good technique? 
Each teacher has different ideas about technique, was taught technique differently (depending on the teachers we all had as young pianists), and stresses different techniques to their own students. For this reason, I hope we can get a lot of input and comments as to how you go about teaching your students technique, or how you were taught technique.
When teaching intermediate students, I feel that there are three main important techniques to help our students develop, as well as one other important point we should stress to our students.
  • A good hand shape – yes, this is basic and should be taught to our beginning students. Still, there are sometimes intermediate students who need a little help making good hand shape a habit, or transfer students who need to completely re-learn this. Students who still frequently let their knuckles collapse and play on the flat part of their finger instead of the tip of the finger need some help and guidance in making that a habit.
  • Finger dexterity and articulation – students should develop strong fingers that can play with good articulation and control. This can happen through scales, Hanon exercises, high loud fingers, etc. However, this should never come at the expense of injury, so we need to also stress the importance of not tensing up muscles as we play, as well as help our students to develop….
  • Wrist movement – It is important to teach our students to keep their wrists relaxed and incorporate appropriate wrist movement into their playing. This can be in many ways: a slight lift of the wrist at the end of phrases; wrist movement like knocking on a door to assist in repeated block chords; playing a singing, lyrical melody with a loose, relaxed and slightly rotating wrist, etc. Keeping a relaxed wrist not only helps to avoid tensing the muscles too much, but truly aids in achieving a beautiful sound.
  • When teaching techniques to our students, we should always give them a musical reason for the technique. Don’t just tell them to lift their wrist slightly at the end of phrases, explain why that makes the phrase musical.
What techniques do you feel are important to teach your intermediate students?

New Topic: Intermediate Technique

Now that we’ve talked about Intermediate Repertoire a bit, we’d like to move onto Intermediate Technique. How do you teach intermediate technique in your studio? Scales and arpeggios? Hanon exercises? Other exercise books, such as Czerny? Etudes? Through your students’ repertoire itself? We are excited to explore this important topic this week!

Make sure you take our poll of the week to tell us how you teach intermediate technique!
Also, if you haven’t taken our reader survey, please take two minutes and do it! Your responses will be anonymous, and they help us get a good idea of who you are and what you’d like us to write about on the blog. Thank you so much!
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