Nota Bene Music Studio

I discovered last night that YouTube has a number of piano masterclass videos that are just wonderful. Isn’t it just a pleasure to listen to? I love studying music at every level, but it gets really fun when you’ve got mastery of the instrument and are working hard to interpret a piece well.

Seymour Bernstein on Beethoven: Technique & Interpretation (Interview at the piano) Join legendary pedagogue Seymour Bernstein for a fascinating and funny interview and lesson on Beethoven, hosted by tonebase Head of Piano Ben Laude.Ben play...

Take a listen to this very unusual but beautiful piece of music!

Gyorgy Kurtag : Jatekok _ Perpetuum mobile Gyorgy Kurtag(죄르지 쿠르탁) 曲Jatekok _ 게임, Perpetuum mobile _ 무궁동Piano: Zoltán Kocsis(졸탄 코치쉬)

Why do my beginner students stand to play at the piano? Why not sit on the bench, like normal piano students?

Lots of reasons!

First, most children are too small when they begin piano lessons to be able to sit high enough at the piano for good technique. Some benches do reach that high, but then the student can’t maintain good balance with feet on the floor. Standing allows for good technique.

Second, we move *a lot* during beginner lessons. When a child begins piano, that child needs to learn rhythm, and one of the best ways to learn rhythm is finding it in the body. Have you ever seen Strictly Ballroom? One of the most amazing scenes in that movie is when a young man who’s been ballroom dancing since he could walk tries to learn a folk dance of his girlfriend’s Hispanic culture. His first attempt makes her relatives roar with laughter: he has the steps, but there is no deeply internalized sense of rhythm. Beautiful rhythm in music is not found in following a metronome and counting ad nauseam—although counting and metronomes can be useful, they are often over-used, for true rhythm comes from inside. A true musician *feels* the rhythm much more than he or she thinks the rhythm. So in my piano classes, we move. A lot.

Physical movement also allows students to gain a sense of musical movement. Is the music light? Is it tight? Is it expansive, or is it contained?

Physical movement is also good for active children, most of whom don’t just want to sit at a piano and intellectualize music by reading notes on a page. Most children are like to move more than to sit, so it’s a good arrangement all around.

We also stand to play at the piano in my beginner classes because we use the entire keyboard. If you’re just playing music around middle C, you can sit in the middle of the piano even if you are a wee little thing, but if you are exploring the entire keyboard landscape, it’s better to stand at the piano and walk to area you want to play in.

Lastly, we play music together. Yes, even at the piano. We play duets, sometimes even quintets, at a single piano. We can’t all sit on a bench! That would be silly.

So that’s why my beginner students rarely sit. 🎹