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No matter the age, great brain workout for all…

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True!

Yes! 🙌 Invest in music education 🎶
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via Music Makes Our Students Smarter

Great advice

True!

This is true….

Great time of year to start with a fresh new attitude!! 😎❤️

Glad Santa knows what every musician needs!

True!

This is one of the best practice tips but one of the hardest to accept.

We all need a little encouragement from time to time.

Bit by bit, success!

All you need to do is keep moving one step forwards at a time.

A bitesize practice tip.

So often, learners practice beyond their errors. If you make a mistake, stop straight away, and don't be tempted to go on.

You are wasting precious practice time and strengthening an incorrect neural pathway.

The second thing to avoid- Don't try a second attempt before you've done some thinking.

Talk yourself through the error. Ask yourself what went wrong and why it happened. For example, perhaps you played an F instead of a G. That happened because you used finger 4 rather than finger 5.

Then repeat only the spot which had the error until you can play it with ease. That usually takes more repetition than you think.

What made you fall in love with the piano?

Music is a language. Expression is it’s vocal inflection. Talk with your fingers on the piano.

Colour in music also makes a massive difference to the overall musicality of your playing.

Asking yourself questions such as:

"Where are the emotional intensities within the music, and how can I vary the volume" are great starting points.

As a general rule, more volume intensifies the emotional power of the music. Melodies that ascend often grow in intensity, while descending phrases often offer repose.

Therefore, a simple tip is to crescendo as the melody ascends and decrescendo as the phrase falls.

Rather than worry about all the things that need to be done, choose one thing to focus on. That way, you can get started and set the wheels in motion.

One to keep by your practice space.

A little music history

Did Mozart and Beethoven ever meet?

The short answer to this popular question is yes! They did meet in 1787 in Vienna when the 16-year-old Beethoven first visited the city. We are not sure, but apparently Beethoven was taken to meet Mozart and played for him. A Beethoven biographer reports, “Beethoven made his appearance in Vienna as a youthful musician of promise in the spring of 1787, but was only able to remain there a short time; he was introduced to Mozart, and played to him at his request. Mozart, considering the piece he performed to be a studied showpiece, was somewhat cold in his expressions of admiration. Beethoven, noticing this, begged for a theme for improvisation, and, inspired by the presence of the master he revered so highly, played in such a manner as gradually to engross Mozart’s whole attention; turning quietly to the bystanders, he said emphatically, mark that young man; he will make himself a name in the world!” Beethoven might also have had a few lessons with Mozart, but we can’t be entirely sure.

( Young Beethoven Playing for Mozart, 1787 )

An all weather, life time hobby!

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Yes, it’s practice!

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Cute.....thanks to Piano Teacher Humor for sharing.....

Playing piano is good for your brain!

THIS is your brain on :

Keep practicing no matter what….

This piano for bedridden musicians was a real-life 1930s invention As an invention, it was the height of science and logic.

Always play with passion!

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Beethoven moves everyone!

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Here's how she describes listening to 's "Ninth Symphony" over the radio, Helen Keller wrote the following letter to the New York Symphony Orchestra in March 1924.

Dear Friends:

I have the joy of being able to tell you that, though deaf and blind, I spent a glorious hour last night listening over the radio to Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony.” I do not mean to say that I “heard” the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony. It was a great surprise to myself. I had been reading in my magazine for the blind of the happiness that the radio was bringing to the sightless everywhere. I was delighted to know that the blind had gained a new source of enjoyment; but I did not dream that I could have any part in their joy. Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm. What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibration, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and intermingling vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments! When the human voices leaped up thrilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flame-like, until my heart almost stood still. The women’s voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth – an ocean of heavenly vibration – and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.

Of course this was not “hearing,” but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sense, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand-swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.

As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others – and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.

The Auricle, Vol. II, No. 6, March 1924. American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives.

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⚠️ Important 🎵

Yes!

Love this fact!

Well, it says it all :) Now go and practice.