Ron's blog on piano improv and the role of music in our lives
The next time you sit down to practice piano… see how you need to practice at that particular time. Maybe yesterday you needed to work on rhythm, but today your rhythm is good. What then, would be an effective way to practice today? Maybe you’d continue playing rhythmically and take that aspect of your playing … Read More
We all know that there’s two sides to every coin. Nowhere is this more true than with our global culture these days. On the one hand, the internet is giving us all access to the same information and culture. We all see the same (or similar) YouTube ads, music videos and fashion photographs. Pop music … Read More
When I was in college at The University of Connecticut, I got the chance to study music with a truly extraordinary man. His name was Hale Smith, and I’ll share one of his insights with you here, which influenced me greatly. This is just one example of the way he saw life, noticed things that many others … Read More
Yes, it’s all about the bass! Our ears might gravitate to the melody, but the bass line is the real foundation of much music. But we often ignore it. As pianists, we often pay more attention to what our right hand is doing than we do to our left. To a certain extent, this is … Read More
Yesterday I got a surprising reminder of the nature of musical influence. I was sitting down at my piano to play live on Twitter via Meerkat, when I noticed that my book of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues was still on my piano. So even though I was going to play some jazz, I mentioned to … Read More
Hi! It seems like every time I sat down to write this post, I couldn’t find the right words for what I wanted to say, or even the right topic. I could feel that since I’ve started blogging daily I’ve been getting increasingly passionate about something, but I couldn’t identify exactly what that was. Do … Read More
When you’re at the piano, what does your “best” mean? Does your “best” mean: note-perfect? most emotional? highly satisfying? getting the most applause? making the listener feel good? showing the most improvement? having the most fun? Take a moment and think about it. The answer may be revealing. And while we’re at it, here’s the … Read More
“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart I have a confession to make: When I read a quote like this, I immediately think, “Oh yeah, I know what that means.” Meanwhile, our friend Mozart is in his grave, screaming, “No, you don’t! I’m trying to tell you … Read More
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been listening to a great horn solo, only to be disappointed when the pianist follows that with a monotonous, aimless piano solo full of patterns and run-on sentences. In one sense, it’s a little easier to keep a trumpet or sax solo musical; the player has to … Read More
There’s so much great music out there that we sometimes think we always have to be practicing something new. We get a little bored with the pieces we already know and consider it the “same old, same old.” But the truth is that we can learn a lot from playing songs on piano that we … Read More