Tag: Chicago piano instructor

  • To be respected in music.

    I talk with other drum and piano teachers regularly and I am always surprised that their experience of being a private music teacher is so different than mine. Their grief runs like a laundry list of what we all imagine are the typical obstacles of doing that job. I’ll give you a few of them:…

  • Every day music.

    I must be nuts. Every day for the last 40 years, I’ve been thinking mainly about one thing: music. That’s not only a long time, but it’s crazy. Now, let’s tame that statement a bit, shall we? I’ve crossed different eras in my journey, some intense some not so intense. There were some times when…

  • The famous exercises in drum or piano.

    There are some exercises that have gained fame and fortune in the studies of instruments. There are so well-known that it’s a matter of minutes before drummers or pianists talk about them. They usually have names that the common mortal wouldn’t understand and that mystery itself envelops the exercise of an even more attractive aura.…

  • Beginning on the piano.

    There are a thousand ways to be interested in studying an instrument, but I am pretty sure it almost always start because we love the sound of it. When you listen to music, are you drawn to the voice or the bass, the drums or the piano? The piano, you say? Keep reading. Piano is…

  • The fight to build.

    In my line of business, which is teaching music lesson privately, we are always striving to build a clientele. The numbers go up when the season is good, and down when the season is bad. I could agree with that statement if I thought it was the whole picture. Unfortunately, it is not. There are…

  • Listening to intentions.

    Sometimes digital music is disappointing because we cannot hear the artist intentions behind the notes. Machines are great, don’t get me wrong, but they are, almost by definition, devoid of emotions, which, at least for me, is the reason why I listen to music in the first place. Hearing the sorrow of Billie Holiday when…

  • The belly of music.

    I won’t lie, I’ve got a belly, a pouch, some extra dough above my belt. I know. Nobody ever mentioned it, but I know. I can feel it. I drag a bit when I’m walking (forget about running at this point), I make a sound when I bend at the waist to pick something up,…

  • The importance of concepts in music.

    Here is something strange. I hear all too often about a drummer who can run circles around all the known and famous drummer and yet, nobody knows him. Imagine someone like Carter Beauford, the drummer for the Dave Matthews band, but without the celebrity. One of the reason is that technique is really not the…

  • Pictures.

    When I first started my internet adventure, I had exactly one picture to display, not two, just one. That one: It has stayed this way for close to 15 years. I suppose that this young man is now a fully grown up adult with a busy and happy life, at least that what I wish…

  • Piano Trivia.

    Did you know that Johann Sebastian Bach didn’t like the keys he was playing. He learnt to play the harpsichord but the instrument was limited since it couldn’t restitute any dynamics. Nonetheless, Bach was a virtuoso on the harpsichord. He preferred the organ, by the way. The Piano takes its name from a pretty long…