Ms. Bellamy , my high school classic spinet 1953 Baldwin Acrosonic, now for sale (San Francisco) Many modern piano teachers seem to emphasize the neccesity of learning improvisation. Well and good, for those who revel in what to me and many, are uber-anxiety producing. If I don't have a concertizing or public performance goal, why would I want to engage in that? Believe me, I have engaged in many other experiences that stretched me and my preferences to the limit, and I'm

As  a returning piano student starting at age 76 in 2020 after a 58-year gap to do other art and business-related things, joy in making...

Do you notice how sometimes you set out in one direction toward a location only to end up headed in another direction and landing at...

My body betrayed me a few years ago during lessons with two piano teachers. One was my third teacher since taking up piano lessons after...

There is pain in learning the piano. And there are solutions to reduce the hurt. I'm not talking about tendinitis pain which I battled...

View of the aurora borealis on May 10, 2024 across Mono Lake. Photo: Samantha Lindberg from the Mono County Newsletter. Listen to...

"Wave of Emotion" (Photo (c) Jeanette (Stringham) Vonier 2022) ("Ein Traum" by Grieg (orchestral version)) "Music is like a dream. One...

In this second week of the New Year, yet another message from the universe has come to my attention: a call to contemplate "loneliness."...

My November music-themed birthday party table decorations; photo courtesy of guest Grace Hueunemann. Thelonius Monk always said that the...

New Year's Resolutions represent the ultimate folly as far as human beings and my personal experience go. I've learned not to bother;...

I wonder if pianists of top calibur like Yuja Wang (pictured here at a March 2023 symphony where I heard her play Rachmaninoff's Third...

After almost two years of zoom lessons and a ton of YouTube research on music and "how to" technical skills since returning to the piano...

Reading the French word "complicite" (accent aigu) had a powerful impact on my understanding about the learning environment when it...

Theories in the field of psychology about motivation are vast. What can we use to motivate ourselves toward lessons with a goal of...

The COCA-COLA company claims that "Advertising slogans are a part of everyday life for consumers around the world,and Coca-Cola has...

One of the principal elements I seek in any piano teacher with whom I work, is that I be allowed to choose the pieces I want to learn,...

HOW TO USE YOUTUBE: Cello teacher Hans Jorgen Jensen (from Denmark) taught me the "right" way to use many performances on YouTube to...

Why is explaining how do make something happen on the piano, or what a term in the piano vocabulary means, so difficult for my piano...

Last night I played Schumann's "Traumerie," Mendelssohn's "Confidence (intermediate arrangement)," Schumann's "Foreign Lands," Aram...

Opera singer Joyce DiDonato, a mezzo-soprano, is a miracle maker. In a 45-minute Mistress Class mezzo-soprano DiDonato transformed a...