What Time Is It?

Hey everyone, This is my 1,000th blog post. Just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, a journey of a thousand blog posts begins with a single word. And so, on July 10th, 2012, I sat down at my computer and typed the word “the.” This is significant, because we often put so much pressure on ourselves to begin momentously that we get paralyzed and stop altogether. “The…” It’s a great beginning, just as an ordinary first step can be the great beginning of a wondrous journey. And a Middle C can be the great [...]

We pianists can be solitary creatures at times. After all, sitting down at our piano and practicing a new technique doesn’t require much interaction with our fellow human beings. Instead, it provides us with a (daily) opportunity to spent some “quality” time with ourselves in an incredibly stimulating and rejuvenating way. Wonderful things begin to happen, however, when we begin to let this invisible wall dissolve, even a little bit. My student June has been gradually doing this, and the experience just keeps getting better and better, from both the community and musical aspects. June is in the fitness field, [...]

I’m honored to be included in an excellent podcast by Larry Saidman called Discovering Jazz. Larry is passionate when sharing his knowledge and insight about jazz with others, and we share many common goals with our online musical activities. He’s been a big supporter of my Journey Through The Real Book video series on YouTube and asked me if he could include excerpts from one of my videos. Of course I said yes! Here’s Larry’s description of this episode, along with the link where you can hear it for yourself: Episode 93 is loaded----and it is Part 3 of my [...]

A funny thing happened on the way to The Kennedy Center… One of my Skype piano students, Phil, had been studying transcriptions of the great jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, and for months now has been excitedly looking forward to hearing the master play a concert at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (Phil lives in the D.C area. Coincidentally, the day before the concert, I was giving a Skype lesson to another student of mine, Bill, who lives in Pennsylvania, and he casually mentioned “I’ll be going to see Ahmad Jamal tomorrow night in D.C.” Wow – small world! I [...]

What’s your next step? This is perhaps the most important question for each of us, at any given moment. It’s also one of the most difficult to answer, simply because of what we don’t know. After all, it’s usually easier for someone “who’s been there” to see our true potential, and also for them to know how we can practice piano in order to get there. “More of the same” is fine for a while, but it’s usually not what will enable us to play exponentially better. (And yes, we all have the potential to play exponentially better – often [...]

Hey everyone! I was going to title this newsletter “A fresh take on New Year’s Resolutions,” and then I realized that January 1st already feels like ancient history! So I dug a little deeper and discovered that the question “behind” our New Year’s Resolutions is actually: “What do we really wish for ourselves?” The main problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that even though the New Year is a powerful time of renewal, most of us all-of-a-sudden decide to change something in a our lives, like “I’m going to exercise for 60 minutes every day.” Yes, sometimes this works, but [...]

As we move through time, further and further away from the historical source of jazz, things tend to become codified. Everyone learns the same A and B chord voicings, everyone develops the same rhythmic feel because everyone jams with the same playalong recordings, and everyone follows the same method books. Part of this is perhaps inevitable, and it happens in other art forms too, such as classical piano. But, for us, it doesn’t have to be the whole story. Here are 5 ways you can personalize your jazz piano playing, to reflect who you are individually, as a real person. [...]

How do you practice piano? I’m asking this because most people don’t practice piano correctly. And I’m using the term “correctly” in the best sense of the term. Not in the sense of having one set “correct” way to practice, but simply in the sense of enjoying ourselves, feeding our musical souls, and becoming better pianists. So.. the question remains… how do you practice? Do you try to continually learn more and more difficult things? If so, you’re probably feeling frustrated most of the time because it’s impossible to get better each and every day, especially as adults. And, counter-intuitively, [...]

I used to read a lot of biographies, of all kinds of people. In a biography of the British actor Sir Laurence Olivier, there was one thing that made a big impression on me: While filming a movie or rehearsing for a play, Olivier would always take the time to help another actor learn their lines or practice their part. He’d stay late after rehearsal and read lines with an actor who needed the extra practice. And this was when he was the big star! Lady Gaga is another performer who is extremely generous. In her case, I see it [...]

Did you see the Grammy Awards on TV? There was a lot of piano this year! For starters, the pianist Alicia Keys hosted again and she didn’t waste any time getting to the keyboard, improvising some nice underscoring music beneath her opening monologue. She effortlessly “noodled” around using what I call the “Adele” chord progression, and reminded us all, beginners and pros alike, how music has the power to relax and soothe us. Here’s the clip: Alicia Keys: 2020 Grammys Opening https://www.vulture.com/amp/2020/01/alicia-keys-grammys-opening-2020.html Another piano highlight was Camila Cabello’s performance of “First Man,” her tribute to her father, which she sang [...]