Sara Ernst

Sara Ernst

Smiling Faces and Adapted Approaches in Online Lessons with Children

My recent lessons with elementary and intermediate students have been filled with music making and sweet moments of personal connection. I enjoyed a student's smile with a first lost tooth, another's excitement in showing off her scales with both hands, and exclamations of "I love this piece!" and "That's Treble G!" While these experience...
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Sara Ernst and Blickenstaff Students

A Tribute to Marvin Blickenstaff and his Pedagogical Legacy

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Marvin Blickenstaff has been a pillar of the North American piano community for more than five decades. His dedication to outstanding teaching, learning, and performing has been honed through his work with innumerable students and their teachers. Anyone who has witnessed Marvin working with young pianists understands why his work is so powerful. He...
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Suzanne Schons

Winter 2020: New Music & Materials Reviews

(S4) TOCCATA "HYGAGAN," OPUS 229by Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee From the FJH Contemporary Keyboard Sheets, Toccata "Hygagan" by Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee is an engaging and virtuosic late-intermediate piano solo.Born in Massachusetts, Rahbee is a first-generation Armenian American. She was a piano major at Juilliard, and a self-taught composer who ...
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Sara Ernst

First Looks: Music for Young Children® (MYC®), A group piano program for young children

MUSIC FOR YOUNG CHILDREN (MYC) is a piano-focused music curriculum designed for age-based classes of up to six children (ages 3–9). Founded in Canada by Frances Balodis program's focus on group learning and parental involvement. in 1980, it was most recently revised in 2015, and is now an international&n...
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Suzanne Schons

Spring 2019: New Music Reviews

 (S1-3) Imaginations Books 1 and 2, by Kevin Olson.  Kevin Olson has a knack for creating fresh and original sounds at every teaching level. While incorporating the reading, rhythmic, and technical skills needed to advance the piano student, Imaginations offers a wide variety of appealing pieces. With titles like "Android Attack," "Pengui...
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Sara Ernst

Gurlitt: Aus dem Norden, Op. 130, No. 21

Gurlitt: Aus dem Norden, Op. 130, No. 21
Preparation and Presentation  Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one. Kohler: Etude in F Major, op. 190, no. 27Diabelli: Vivace in C Major, op. 125, no. 7any pieces that involve playing a LH broken-chord accompaniment against a lyrical RH melody, in either 3/4 or 3/8 Creative activities to explore bef...
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Susan Geffen

November/December 2018: New Music Reviews

(S3-4) Big Phat Jazz Piano Solos: 10 Big Phat Band Classics, arranged by Gordon Goodwin. (S3-4) If you're not familiar with the name "Gordon Goodwin," you probably haven't played in a high school jazz band in the last fifteen years or so. Goodwin's music has achieved near ubiquity in the jazz e...
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music reviews Sara Ernst Jeremy Siskind Gordon Goodwin Helen Marlais Kevin Olson Suzanne Schons jazz E.L. Lancaster Kenon D. Renfrow arrangements pop music sight reading reviews
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Sara Ernst

Gurlitt: Aus dem Norden, Op. 130, No. 21

Gurlitt
Preparation and Presentation  Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one. Kohler: Etude in F Major, op. 190, no. 27Diabelli: Vivace in C Major, op. 125, no. 7any pieces that involve playing a LH broken-chord accompaniment against a lyrical RH melody, in either 3/4 or 3/8 Creative activities to explore bef...
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Susan Geffen

September/October 2018: First Looks, New Music Reviews

jingle-bells (S1-2) Jingle Bells, arranged by Wendy Stevens.
New Music Reviews Editor's note Ho, ho, ho! The holidays are on the horizon. We know how it is for piano teachers (we're teachers ourselves). We frantically run to the music store, hoping to snag our favorites before the teacher with 120 students cleans out the inventory. Clavier Companion is here to help. This issue's holiday reviews will help you...
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Deborah Rambo Sinn

July/August 2018: First Looks, New Music Reviews

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Six Progressive Sonatinas for the Piano Forte, Op. 36, by Muzio Clementi. Authentic Revised Edition ("With Considerable Improvements"), edited by Arthur Houle. This volume presents Clementi's ubiquitous Op. 36 Sonatinas in "the first and only definitive critical edition based on all the primary sources, with extensive notes on performance practice ...
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Susan Geffen

May/June: New Music Reviews

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Festival Sonatina by Eugénie Rocherelle  The Classical sonatina is such a pedagogical treasure, as it provides great material to study and perform—teachers can spur growth in artistry, and students love the musically satisfying material. Eugénie Rocherolle's Festival Sonatina has two commonalities with the Classical sonatina: its three-mo...
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Susan Geffen

Jan/Feb 2018: First Looks New Music Reviews

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(S1-2) 24 Short and Easy Pieces, Op. 1, Alexander Reinagle. Teachers and students enjoy Reinagle's pieces both for their charming writing and their accessibility to elementary students. Reinagle's biography, moreover, is a fun and interesting one that connects traditions of European classical music to life in the United States. Reinagle is tho...
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Susan Geffen

New music reviews: November/December 2017

(S3) From Sight to Sound: 6 Original PIano Solos, by Randall Hartsell.  Randall Hartsell composed From Sight to Sound to express the "interconnectedness of nature and our lives," and this collection contains six reflective pieces characterized by melodic simplicity and harmonic richness. The collection capitalizes on the piano's capacity for c...
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Susan Geffen

New music reviews: September/October 2017

Happy Holidays! (S1-4) We Three Kings, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Deck the Hall Hoedown, arranged by Wendy Stevens. For teachers wanting some fun and creative options to spice up their holiday recitals, three new arrangements by Wendy Stevens are fantastic choices. "We Three Kings" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" even invite the audienc...
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Pete Jutras

New Music Reviews: May/June 2017

(S3) Aurora: 5 Original Solos Inspired by the North, by Naoko Ikeda. Japanese composer Naoko Ikeda composed five lyrical character pieces based upon "the Scandanavian landscapes of [her] own imagination." Aurora has the potential to motivate intermediate students, especially those who enjoy music with lyrical phrasing and expressive timing. Ikeda i...
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Susan Geffen

Closer Look May/June 2017: New Ways with Bach

(S4) Bach Meets Jazz: 15 Well-Tempered Classics, arranged by Phillip Keveren. Phillip Keveren's latest arrangements will entertain anyone who loves Bach. In Bach Meets Jazz, Keveren cleverly adds a jazzy spin to fifteen popular Bach works. All the original melodies in these two-to-three-page arrangements are recognizable throughout, and the setting...
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Susan Geffen

New Music Reviews: January/February 2017

(S3) Preludes to Mastery, Books 1 and 2, by Chrissy Ricker. Chrissy Ricker's two books of preludes provide a fresh and varied assortment of pieces in Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary styles. There are twenty preludes in the two volumes; each is in a different key, thus offering students exposure to keys they might not visit often. Boo...
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About Piano Magazine

Piano Magazine is the leading resource for pianists, piano teachers, and piano enthusiasts. We bring you informative, interesting, and inspiring ideas on all aspects of piano teaching, learning, and performing. The official name of Clavier Companion magazine was changed to Piano Magazine in 2019.

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