My heart pounded as I stepped out of the elevator of the 27th floor and nervously approached the West End Avenue apartment in New York City where Madame Ruth Slenczynska worked and lived. "What was I thinking to ask to take a lesson from the great Ruth Slenczynska? What would a child prodigy and recording artist think of my goals to not only learn ...

What does it mean to be a good teacher? What separates good teachers from truly great teachers? Educators and researchers have spent untold hours studying outstanding teachers and written hundreds of papers on teaching expertise. In music and piano education, we have a rich body of work that highlights traits of effective teachers. But, as with man...

When I was a kid, I wasn't the best student in the class. I certainly wasn't the smartest, and I was terrible at tests—which made school very hard for me. My mother tells me that, until the third grade, I had a terrible time processing. For some reason, this included music. You see, I started piano lessons at the age of six, the "standard" age. But...

Playing the piano can mean searching out middle ground, and that ground may be similarly ill-defined, well-nigh slippery, or even mired in paradox. Let's start with the easy examples. I'm not sure that it's particularly more difficult to play non-legato than staccato. But a portamento passage is a dreaded occurrence in the life of my students. Mayb...

These are words I have spoken countless times over the last ten months as I have adapted to the realm of online piano teaching. Some days lessons flow seamlessly without incident or interruption, and I feel inspired, confident, and extremely proud of my students. Other days, I struggle to communicate a simple point as network connections falter, au...

Eugénie Rocherolle has written numerous compositions inspired by the music and culture of her hometown of New Orleans. Many of these appealing pieces offer students opportunities to learn about styles of music that permeate the parades and festivals in the city while developing important technical and musical skills. Her suite, New Orleans Sketches...

Rocherolle's impressive musical output over her long career is both broad and substantial. She has composed a total of 678 individual pieces and 108 collections for solo piano as well as chamber music with piano. In addition, Rocherolle has published some forty choral pieces, four band compositions, and a piece for flute and piano. Finally, there a...

The world lost a legendary musician, pedagogue, and colleague with the passing of Dr. Nelita True Laires on January 17, 2021. In a 2010 Clavier Companion interview, Dr. True expressed, "I value deeply being part of the eternal continuum of teaching… I simply cannot imagine a more satisfying role in life than that of teacher and being part of that c...

After the long, dark winter, springtime represents a time for rebirth and renewal. Yet, as we head into the second year of our new "pandemic" normal, many musicians have grown weary of what they had assumed would be temporary inconveniences—teaching online, physically distant performances, and time-shifted chamber music experiences. I'm struck by h...

Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770, in Bonn. Although unimaginable on that winter day, his influence on generations of musicians across Europe cannot be overstated. To this day, his work occupies an enormous part of our musical canon and playing certain Beethoven sonatas remains a rite of passa...