Lang Lang on Ice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLrczpou4RE&feature=player_embedded

Posted via email from PIANORAMA

IT TAKES ONLY ONE GOOD TEACHER

I spent many years playing the piano and not getting much better at it, although I had a natural talent for playing the piano and began lessons at a very young age.  There were no competent piano teachers in the small town in Kansas; my first teacher was the grade school principal who knew a little about music, then a relative who just wanted me to play hymns, and then a high school English teacher who taught piano on Saturdays.  My mother drove my sisters, me, and my younger brother many miles every Saturday for piano lessons when a teacher could be found.  I taught myself, mostly,  banging away at grand pieces by Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff.

At  KU, in Lawrence, Kansas, I majored in voice.  My voice teacher, Mirabah Moore was a great teacher.  I loved her because everything she asked me to do made perfect sense, felt good and made my voice stronger.   I had little interest in practicing the piano and just wanted to play for my own enjoyment. 

Finally, past the age when most young students would have gone to Juilliard,  I was privileged to meet and study with Nigel Coxe, at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.  He told me at our first meeting, after hearing and watching me play, that I was quite gifted but had some problems that needed to be rectified. 

He made the development of piano technique crystal clear.  It involved practicing scales and arpeggios in a certain way, with correct posture (including the right way to sit at the piano!), totally relaxed arms and flexible wrists, relying on the strength of the fingers for power and control.  When I'd go to the practice room I knew exactly what to do.  I saw clearly the value of having a good technique and how and why the hard work of disciplined practice would set one free to really "play" the piano.  For me, that was pure joy.

Nigel Coxe was kind, patient, encouraging, witty, (sometimes wickedly hilarious) and inspiring.  He was also a world class concert pianist!  It was always exciting to hear Nigel Coxe play; he made music come alive, visually and viscerally, and sing to my own heart.  When he demonstrated a passage to me, it was revelatory.   Practicing began to be enjoyable.  Then it began to be positively addictive!  Soon I began to look forward to my piano lessons with anticipation instead of with dread.

It takes only one good teacher to set a talent free.  I had one good teacher and I have been forever blessed.

Posted via email from PIANORAMA