What does music to me?

Consider looking back at past experiences and the role music played at making them meaningful and personal

I believe music to be a discipline, a philosophy, a mental, emotional, and spiritual activity. 

My own evolution

Aside from our love and enjoyment of music, sometimes we do not know why we enroll in lessons. Our perspective can change with time

At first music was a competitive activity. My fellow students and I would compete to see who could finish a lesson book first, or move faster on a technical challenge. Later on, music took on a different meaning and I had to look for a teacher who would really guide me to learn really incredible music. 

A New Experience

What do you look forward to ? Learning and playing are only but a part of this next experience

It was not until I was 11 that I enrolled at the university for lessons and music theory classes. Here I received the level of education I aspire to share with my students. It was a formative experience and have very fond memories of it

Constructive Criticism v. Compliments

My goal is to assist in developing skills and love for music, being sincere with the student in their progress

I learned how to work hard, take criticism, and be highly suspicious of gratuitous compliments.

​Criticism made us grow and improve. Constant compliments are not good in the long run. Our hard work was rewarded by allowing us young students to perform in public.

Family and Peer Support ​

With love and support at home, it is easier to reach our goals and have a great shared experience

A lot of the time it was hard to see what we were accomplishing while in the middle of it. Having a well grounded family and friends proved to be helpful and put everything into perspective. The effort and sacrifices were shared together and became part of the experience for all of us.

What do you want to get out of music?

One has to find a balance between working on a new challenge and finding a peaceful activity. It takes time to find the balance. Development is not always linear!

Music is not only a recreational activity to me but something more. To express the composer’s intentions, their state of mind, one has to work extremely hard. There are moments of crisis, of hitting a plateau as it is commonly said now, which one has to learn to overcome in music. There is no formula that applies to everyone all the time.

Methods

What type of learning would be the best fit? So many options!

I do not believe it is useful to have a cookie cutter approach to something as complex and in need of constant reflection as pedagogy. I am highly suspicious of methods to learn piano. The names and methods are endless, as well as their levels of success and brand recognition. Sure,  it can be easier to understand progress by assigning levels or books. Progress is not always linear. We encounter valleys, peaks, plateaus, and the student must learn to navigate and overcome them. No victory without a struggle. 

What’s your teaching style then?

Every lesson has to be tailored to the student’s needs! No two lessons are ever the same.

From my own background and my teachers’ background, we have been influenced by Sandor, Neuhaus, Lhevinne, Gieseking, Dohnanyi, Cortot. All these authors were also formidable pianists and in many cases, very serious pedagogues. Their ideas do not always agree with each other, however, there are also many ideas in common but said differently. 
While we all have two hands with ten fingers, the way my mechanism works is different from someone else’s. Just as we have similarities, the differences must be tailored to everyone’s needs.

Constantly Learning

Do you still practice and continue taking courses to better yourself?

Something I take a lot of pride in and emphasize to my students is that I am constantly learning, playing, and challenging myself with learning new music. It is integral, from my perspective, to continue to learn and be influenced by new ideas and different approaches to playing and performing.

It is during this process that one has to teach oneself, even when there is a very good guide. In my case, it came much later in life in the shape of one of my dear teachers and mentors, Vladimir Stoupel.

He challenged a lot of my perceptions and really pushed me to learn and play music I had no intention of ever learning. I seriously thought he was out of his mind, because I had made up my own mind that I would not approach the repertoire he was proposing that I should work on.

I felt I knew my limitations and did not want to spend time and energy on something I was not very good at. I am extremely grateful he was crazier and braver than me. In the process he has guided me through some highly demanding and challenging music. At the same time, some of this music “teaches” you how to play it.

​It is a never ending cycle of feedback from someone else, and the feedback given by the music itself. It is very rewarding and because of that, I become more and more convinced that subjecting myself to “a method” and my students to a limited way of thinking of playing as a result of “a method” does everyone a disservice.

Working on a foundation

Getting the most out of lessons by providing the student with a solid foundation.

Two of the things I tend to focus on at the beginning: Building piano technique and Learning how to work on repertoire.

​A secure foundation from working on scales, arpeggios, chords, double notes, etudes,  etc, familiarizes the student with the topography of the instrument and on problem solving.

Learning how to work on a piece of music introduces the student with style, sound production ( also covered in technique, but taking a different approach here), phrasing, etc.

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