rhapsodydmb
WHY DO SOME PRACTICE DAYS GO SO WELL?
Last night I played Schumann's "Traumerie," Mendelssohn's "Confidence (intermediate arrangement)," Schumann's "Foreign Lands," Aram...
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Rhapsodydmb.com
A soft place to land to read music poetry and stories, and share our love of piano adventures!
rhapsodydmb
- Feb 27
- 5 min
HOW DO SELF-ESTEEM AND SELF-CONFIDENCE DEVELOP?
Shaky self esteem and self confidence seem to be major challenges for many senior or "older" adult piano students. A former piano teacher...
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rhapsodydmb
- Feb 26
- 5 min
FIFTEEN TRANSFORMATIVE LESSONS FROM MAESTRA MEZZO-SOPRANO JOYCE DIDONATO
Opera singer Joyce DiDonato, a mezzo-soprano, is a miracle maker. In a 45-minute Mistress Class mezzo-soprano DiDonato transformed a...
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rhapsodydmb
- Feb 22
- 8 min
LANG LANG FOREVER!
Love him or hate him -- there's just no "in between." Is he the best (or worst) pianist who has ever lived or who is alive today? Some in...
25 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Feb 20
- 3 min
FRIENDS, PIANISTS, & COUNTRYPEOPLE: LEND ME YOUR EAR!
Today after a short conversation with my composer-pianist friend Bruce, this strange idea came to me: Do you think up there somewhere in...
16 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Feb 13
- 9 min
WHAT I WISH I HAD KNOWN AT THE START
At the end of March, 2023 I will accomplish 24 months of weekly piano lessons. So what do I wish I had known before I returned to study...
52 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Feb 6
- 6 min
MUSIC - IN THE "RIGHT" TIME!
Bruce, a composer-pianist-broker friend who is significant to my growing musical confidence and knowledge, recently asked why my music...
56 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Feb 5
- 6 min
LISTENING TO ONE’S “INNER VOICE” IN A HANG DRUM - by Raven Crone (Guest Blog; with Rowley & Joy)
I was reading two poems about “Inner Voices,” in a manuscript of Ann’s second volume of poetry which is scheduled for publication later...
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rhapsodydmb
- Feb 5
- 7 min
FINDING A MUSIC TRIBE: The loneliness of a long-distance piano student
Being an amateur pianist who studies in individual zoom lessons at home, is a lonely affair. It occurred to me after about a year of such...
71 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Jan 29
- 4 min
QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER
I'm eternally curious about what makes for an effective piano teacher. Here's a helpful list of 19 common elements present in the methods...
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rhapsodydmb
- Jan 25
- 8 min
THE "FLOW" - A MYSTERIOUS CONCEPT
Words fascinate me. When I was in early grammar school and it was about time to leave for school in the morning, my mom used to find me...
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rhapsodydmb
- Jan 23
- 6 min
LEARNING THE PIANO - DREAMS & INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS
After the just-past 21 months of piano lessons, I have arrived at the conclusion that there are no (or very, very few) "best practices"...
45 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Jan 20
- 4 min
“MUSICALITY” - AN ELUSIVE CONCEPT
The more I delve into new words and concepts from the world of music, the more I find ambiguity and vagueness. So often the experts I...
22 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Jan 13
- 5 min
IN COMPLETE HARMONY: My Story of The Piano & Music
I'm an exuberant lover of health and the arts. As a “baby boomer” child growing up in Texas and at the urging of my mother, I pursued...
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rhapsodydmb
- Jan 13
- 7 min
TEACHING PIANO TO OLDER STUDENTS
There is nothing different -- and everything different -- about teaching the piano to older students! Working in a cooperative...
26 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Jan 8
- 6 min
DESENSITIZATION: HOW TO ENCOURAGE FOCUS DURING PIANO LESSONS
People who experience more anxiety than others tend to focus attention on OPO (other people’s opinions), especially negative opinions....
18 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Jan 6
- 8 min
SITTING IN THE POCKET: HOW AN ADULT STUDENT CAN ENHANCE LESSONS
“Sitting in the pocket” is a summary saying that comes to my mind when I consider this blog topic. On December 14 in an earlier blog, I...
43 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Dec 25, 2022
- 4 min
DIVINE DISCONTENT
Motivation to persist is a gossamer, ethereal concept. The yearning for some goal or thing is not all, because in order to effectively...
41 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Dec 23, 2022
- 3 min
FINDING OUR VOICES IN THE NEW YEAR
Such a lovely holiday present just arrived in my Dec. 23 morning email and it's about bells! It's an article written by Maureen Buja, a...
52 views0 comments
rhapsodydmb
- Dec 20, 2022
- 4 min
GLITTER EFFECTS
I'm not sure that "glitter effects" are passe. Glitter is ineluctable to me! Tom Stoddard, playwright and now 85, thinks differently, as...
57 views0 comments
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