Performance Practice Made Easy
Rules of Thumb for the Student. (Included in the Marvelous Marvin Bundle)
4 diverse video sessions you may access on-demand, complete with downloadable PDF handouts.
Warm-Ups? Who, Me? Technical Routines for All Ages
Marvin Blickenstaff, presenter
Physiologists would take exception to what many of our students consider a warm-up (one fast scale and we’re ready to go!) Athletes, dancers, and orchestral musicians have extensive warm-up routines. Piano students can learn much from these professionals about the concept of warming up, and apply those concepts to their own practice, regardless of level of development.
Performance Practice Made Easy: Rules of Thumb for the Student
Marvin Blickenstaff, presenter
It is a big job to bring our students to an accurate performance of notes and rhythms. Yet composers indicate details of sound through slurs and phrase markings, and a wide variety of articulations. This workshop attempts to provide students with Rules of Thumb that govern the interpretation of the sound.
A Simple Step-by-Step Start to Major Scales, All Without A Book
Elizabeth Gutierrez, presenter, and founder of Piano Camp for Piano Teachers
Why wait until students can read a scale book and understand key signatures before starting scales? You can start students easily with scales once they know steps and skips at the keyboard. Elizabeth shares a tried-and-true method for introducing scales in a highly visual, auditory, and kinesthetic manner to confirm understanding of all 12 major scales in just a few weeks!
The End is in the Beginning: Coaching a Piece to Performance
Marvin Blickenstaff, presenter
The teacher plays a vital role in guiding the development of a piece to performance. How do we introduce new materials to incite curiosity and a desire to learn? What are the pertinent practice steps? And what are the clues to an effective performance? Some of these answers are indicated in the score and others must come from the teacher's wealth of experience and personal musicianship. This workshop helps sharpen our skills as we lead students to effective performance. Memory techniques are also discussed.
Your Instructor
Marvin Blickenstaff is known among piano teachers throughout the country for his teaching, lecturing, performing, and publishing. He maintained a private studio in the Philadelphia area and taught at The New School for Music Study in Princeton. Blickenstaff is the former Board President of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy and was on the Executive Planning Committee of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. In 2007 the on-line journal Piano Pedagogy Forum published tributes to Blickenstaff honoring his contribution to piano teaching in America. Also in 2007 he was named Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He was honored in 2009 with MTNA’s highest award, the MTNA Achievement Award, and was selected in 2013 by the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy for its Lifetime Achievement Award.