Buy Piano Music at PianoatPepper.com

Articles for the Pianist

William Westney's "The Perfect Wrong Note" new piano article

By Peggy Otwell
Bill's deep belief that the study and performance of music can – and more importantly, should – be enjoyable throughout one's life, lies at the very heart of his book. Its title, "The Perfect Wrong Note" conveys so well the concepts that he explores in depth within its pages: an exploration of specific ways that he suggests to bring joy and a natural pleasure back to our study of music, to our teaching, and to our own personal musicmaking
Read entire article

Promoting Thoughtful Musical Collaboration
by Seth Beckman and Jeffrey Graves - The first in a three-part series
Part 1: Music and Communication
Musicians spend a great amount of time practicing their craft alone. Collaborative music-making can therefore be an enriching experience, as the exchange of musical ideas with a partner may both broaden as well as deepen one's music skills.
Read entire article

Promoting Thoughtful Musical Collaboration
by Seth Beckman and Jeffrey Graves
Part 2: Specific Elements Influencing the Ensemble.
Critical time and energy can be saved, even before the first rehearsal, if both musicians spend a significant amount of time familiarizing themselves with the complete score. Pianists have an advantage in that they play from the complete score.
Read entire article

Promoting Thoughtful Musical Collaboration
by Seth Beckman and Jeffrey Graves
Part 3: The Role of the Teacher
The ability to collaborate effectively is one of the essential skills needed to become a well-rounded musician, and yet it is often overlooked. Teachers often focus their energies on the refinement of a student's technical and aural skills, as well as the establishment of effective practice regimens. And certainly, all three areas of consideration are crucial components of a well-trained musician's background. However, as students are routinely asked to participate in collaborative performances, teachers can further enrich their students' experiences by incorporating collaborative instruction into their teaching.
Read entire article

Musicality: The First Rule of Piano Technique
by Seymour Fink
Technique is best defined as purposeful movement towards musical ends and must be presented in ways that reinforce music's existence only in perceived or actual sound. It follows from this that the first rule of piano technique is to audiate musical intention before moving – to project in the mind what one wants to create before any attempt to do it.
Read entire article

Mechanics of the Piano
by Seymour Fink
The piano is a large, percussive, keyboard instrument, homogenous throughout in timbre, with an exceptionally wide range of pitches (larger even than a symphony orchestra) and dynamics. An extremely expressive instrument, it projects easily in large spaces. It is one of the few instruments where the fingers simultaneously control both pitch and dynamics, and where a player is freed from concerns of intonation.
Read entire article

Healthful Piano Technique: A Definition
Barbara Lister-Sink
Pianists need a clear, universally acceptable, understandable, and consistent definition of technique, one which works for pianists and keyboardists of all ages and in all styles of music, one that allows a maximum of artistic expression with a minimum of effort. I would like to suggest such a definition...
Read entire article