Ep 76 Top Piano Learning Questions Answered by 7 Expert Educators

[00:00:00] Voice Over: Welcome to Your Creative Chord Podcast, where host Jenny Leigh Hodgins, author and educator shares unique insights dedicated to empowering your creative flow and inspired living. Through solo reflections and dialogues with creators and wellness experts, Jenny Leigh shares holistic wisdom influenced by her Buddhist practice alongside poetic insights and practical strategies for living authentically.

[00:00:28] Voice Over: This podcast helps you overcome challenges and unlock your full creative potential.

[00:00:43] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Welcome panelists and welcome to everyone in the group. I'm Jenny Leigh Hodgins. I'm a pianist, an author, music educator, and Creative Empowerment Coach with over 30 years of experience. I'm also the host of Your Creative Chord Podcast and the founder of the New and Returning Piano Learners Facebook group.

[00:01:03] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: I started this group to create a supportive space for accountability, encouragement, and growth for all of us navigating similar challenges as busy adults. I'm excited to be hosting today's piano panel event because I believe in the power of collaboration and learning from different perspectives. Our panelists

[00:01:23] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: are all highly skilled pianists and educators. They have a wealth of experience and wisdom and compassion for student growth. And in a moment, I'm going to introduce each one of these panelists. We're going to address questions that were submitted by you, our group members, and questions I've personally gathered from the many students I've taught over the years, and also a few questions from these panelists themselves that they would like to address based on their own expertise and experience.

[00:01:56] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: So let's get started. Juan Cabeza Hernandez is a pianist and pedagoge and composer based in Madrid. He specializes in teaching elementary and intermediate piano students blending research driven pedagogy with creativity. Juan shares his teaching insights and repertoire ideas through his blog, and he's the author of Pedagogical Works, such as piano trained trips and diversions.

[00:02:26] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: David Holter has a BA in Music Composition from Middlebury College. A certificate in injury preventive keyboard technique. It's called the Lister Sync Method from Salem College and a master's degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Salem College. He's passionate about training a strong feel of the keyboard.

[00:02:48] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Maria Lopez is a pianist, educator and researcher with an international career in the United Kingdom. Portugal and Finland. She holds a Bachelor's in piano, a master's in Music Education, and A-B-R-S-M teaching diplomas and is currently pursuing a PhD in piano education as the author of various articles, books, and pedagogical resources for pianists.

[00:03:14] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Maria continuously seeks to make fruitful contributions to piano, pedagogy and performance. And Leah Murphy's piano journey was full of gaps and struggles. Returning to the piano as an adult, it took her years to understand why traditional teaching methods are often unhelpful to adult students and what to do instead.

[00:03:36] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Now, Leah's mission is to empower others with her hard won knowledge. Next we have Lorraine Robinson. The Painless Piano Coach after nearly losing her ability to play piano due to extreme pain in her hands and arms, Lorraine Robinson found a mentor who helped her release tension and work with her body.

[00:03:59] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Instead, this sparked her mission to empower fellow pianists with the same advanced techniques, showing them you how to avoid and alleviate repetitive motion based injuries. Next we have. Suzanne Gilmore. Combining her unique background with a passion for piano to offer a fresh perspective on learning,

[00:04:21] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: she specializes in music learning theory. Her insights shaped by her personal experiences and deep connection to music inspire learners to embrace creativity, discipline, and joy in their learning of the piano, and making the piano accessible and meaningful for everyone. Now that we've introduced all the panelists.

[00:04:42] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Let's get started. Today, we're gonna cover topics such as staying motivated or getting motivated, overcoming challenges, nurturing your creativity at the piano, refining technique, site reading, and other things. Here's the first question. How can new or returning learners stay motivated when facing challenges?

[00:05:05] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Leah, could you answer? 

[00:05:07] Leah Murphy: I, I think motivation is, is so important, but the first thing to understand about motivation is, is we'll let you down. When we start something new, we feel very motivated in the first days, the first weeks, and then it, it tapers off. My advice is to not rely on motivation at all to really think about what it is you want to achieve and think about what the process is that you need to put in place in order to achieve that, and then try and build a habit.

[00:05:32] Leah Murphy: Don't let that habit rely on whether you feel like doing something on a particular day. Now, my particular trick to get myself to practice when I don't feel like it is to break it down to the tiniest action that I can come up with. And usually that's just a question of getting my bottom onto the piano stool.

[00:05:47] Leah Murphy: And what I do is I sit at the piano and I tell myself that if I do one minute of piano practice, and if after that I really don't feel like doing anymore, I could do something else. But usually what happens is once I'm there and I'm started. The interest kicks in and I find something to do. So don't rely on motivation, but look for a very tiny way to get started.

[00:06:06] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Lorraine, would you like to respond? 

[00:06:08] Lorraine Robinson: Yeah. So what I found really helpful is remembering your why. Literally keeping that in view. How can you do that? If you have a piano, lesson binder, putting that in the cover of your piano lesson binder. If you just have a page that sits on your piano. What is your why?

[00:06:30] Lorraine Robinson: The result that you eventually want to get to that will keep you going even if you aren't looking forward to today's task. 

[00:06:42] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: I love that. Maria, did you wanna respond? 

[00:06:44] Maria Lopez: I think for returning student, the challenge of the line, uh, and rekindling with your connection to the instrument and when you're returning to the piano, it's a wonderful opportunity to reflect.

[00:06:57] Maria Lopez: Previous experiences and explore new areas that might have been developed in the past and even even experiment a new style and new, a new set of skills. I think that motivation is often a, a blend of curiosity, purpose, and also the joy of the progress for new and returning students. It's central to connect with why you want to play the piano, whether it's the emotional satisfaction of creating music or the drill of mattering, a challenge.

[00:07:26] Maria Lopez: Just the simple joy of self-expression. So it's equally important also to find a balance between discipline and also joy. Surround yourself with inspiration. Listen to music that moves you, collaborate with other musicians, or explore new genres and think that motivation is esthetic. It needs to be nurtured.

[00:07:48] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Oh my gosh, I'm already inspired by all of you. So let's move on to the next question. What sparked your passion? For learning or teaching piano. And how has that shaped your approach today? Suzanne, would you like to go first? Oh, this 

[00:08:03] Suzanne Glimore: was actually for the previous question, but that's okay. I'll just mention regarding that previous question.

[00:08:10] Suzanne Glimore: I think the best thing is to treat, like any appointment, mark it down, what you plan to do. Start small, maybe five or 10 minutes what you think is feasible to do and. You just write it down, make a schedule and try to keep these appointments. But as to what's created, my passion, I just loved music and for me it speaks so much about emotion.

[00:08:38] Suzanne Glimore: And if you're in a bad mood or if you are sad, music really can help. And I. Have chosen to spread this to any other people. And I think life without music is life. Touche. Juan, did 

[00:08:55] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: you want to answer? Yes. Thank you. I want to serve how I, I wanted to, to learn piano when I was young. I started at, uh, 12 years old.

[00:09:07] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: I, I started because I saw my, my cousin playing, uh, when I went to her, his house. He was played because he was a studying piano. He was at the grave and I was completely amazed by how can a person make music with his hands? And that, uh, really fascinated me, and I always remembered this the way I, I started to, wanted to start piano.

[00:09:32] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Because I know some students don't want to start, or they don't know if they want or not because their parents want day to start piano, and I wanted to make that connection. Have with my cousin, seeing my cousin play, I want to make this connection with this students. And the part of is there is the music and there is the student, and we have to connect the music into the student.

[00:09:54] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: And I always have in mind how I fell in love with piano, seeing how my cousin play and practice piano. That's beautiful. David, 

[00:10:07] David Holter: I think it's really interesting to think back to our childhood and what sort of musical memories stand out. I was just thinking about this earlier today because today is when, I think it's six or seven planets are all lining up and so many of them are visible.

[00:10:22] David Holter: It's a very rare event. I remembered back to when I was a little kid and I was sitting in this big empty room at night looking out the window at the night sky listening to Gustav Hols, the Planet's Suite, and I think that's when my love for music was really sparked. I just, that's just a very strong memory hearing that the piano is like, it's basically the orchestra in one instrument.

[00:10:46] David Holter: Maybe I could create something that sounds remotely like that. So I just dove in and then eventually I got injured from overplaying with a lot of tension and my professor helped retrain me step by step. And that had such a profound effect on me that how that's affected my teaching now is really a, a sentence that it's possible, like anybody can learn this highly complex skill.

[00:11:10] David Holter: If we just go step by step by step, really break it down, whether it's technique or sight reading or learning a piece, whatever it is. We all start with this strong sort of musical feeling and this inspiration maybe from an experience like that, and we just wanna sit down and have it flow. But it's so much more complex than that, right?

[00:11:29] David Holter: I just love teaching and I love meeting you all and doing this panel to talk about how we can make it more accessible, build that foundation, help people to go step by step. It's great. 

[00:11:40] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Sharing and spreading that love of music. So, Lorraine, you're up. 

[00:11:43] Lorraine Robinson: How I started playing the piano is one of my favorite stories to share because when I was six years old, the pianist from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra was a family friend, and he came for a Christmas dinner, and of course after dinner he was asked to play Christmas carols on the piano.

[00:12:07] Lorraine Robinson: He happened to see me sitting on the living room floor just completely entranced and mesmerized, and asked if I wanted to sit on the piano bench with him. And I remember sitting there on the bench and watching his hands why on the piano keys, and promising myself that I was going to play the piano like that someday.

[00:12:29] Lorraine Robinson: And so for the next year. Straight. I harassed my parents begged for, uh, piano, piano lessons until finally my dad, I drove my dad crazy and he couldn't take it anymore and he told my mom, you have got to find her a teacher. 

[00:12:48] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: That's great. Okay, so we're gonna move on to the next section of questions, and this is about foundational skills and posture.

[00:12:56] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: How does proper posture. Impact a beginner's learning experience. Um, Suzanne, go ahead. 

[00:13:06] Suzanne Glimore: Okay. A lot of piano beginners might say, oh, I, I can only play for a few minutes because my roots start 

[00:13:14] David Holter: to hurt, 

[00:13:14] Suzanne Glimore: or my back starts to hurt. So yes, posture is important that keeps you from slouching and putting attention, but also how you use your whole instrument.

[00:13:27] Suzanne Glimore: It's not just. Your fingers or your r it, it's a actually a gymnastic exercise. 

[00:13:35] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Love that. Good answer, Lorraine. Can you answer? 

[00:13:38] Lorraine Robinson: So not only is posture, just your physical posture, but your posture affects how you feel, whether it contributes to whether you feel happy or sad, energetic, or malaise. Having correct posture contributes to your mindset that you're ready, you're capable, and you're enjoying the experience.

[00:14:04] Lorraine Robinson: In addition to the physical aspect, if your posture creates pain, you're certainly not going to want to recreate that experience either. 

[00:14:15] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Can anyone share one quick practical tip for maintaining painless posture during practice sessions? David, go ahead and you can go first. 

[00:14:28] David Holter: I like this concept that I learned from my teacher, Barbara Lister, and it's a lot of her work is actually, um, based on a lot of principles of the Alexander technique.

[00:14:38] David Holter: Well, I recommend Alexander Technique if anybody really wants to develop, uh, more easeful posture. One of the things that she taught me is to imagine that the head is like a helium balloon. And so there's a sense of up. I like also to think of the spine as like the ribbon coming down from the balloon. So there's a sense of up, but it's not, you know, balloon doesn't force itself up.

[00:15:01] David Holter: It just has a sense of up. So it's not a forced uprightness, but there's a feeling of lengthening through the spine basically. That's helpful. 

[00:15:10] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: I think Leah had her 

[00:15:11] Leah Murphy: hand up. One thing I I've seen in a lot, particularly in adults when they play, is that they become very rigid and still, and everything is rigid except for the fingers.

[00:15:19] Leah Murphy: We always tell people to relax down to release tension, but that it's quite difficult to think of releasing tension as relaxing when you're playing. Actually the opposite of tension is not relaxation. It's movement. So if you're at the piano, try and make sure that you're not becoming too static. I always ask my students to think of those things you see outside garages that, that are kind of filled with air and they, they flap around the place.

[00:15:41] Leah Murphy: They're always moving. So think of your body like that a little bit. Just keep a little bit of movement. I think it comes back to the Alexander technique as well. Talks about that. Just micro movements and that sort of releases tension as you go. So that's my chop and sword. Very good. Well, Lorraine, did you wanna 

[00:15:57] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: add to that?

[00:15:59] Lorraine Robinson: Yeah. Something else would be making sure that your seat is well balanced on the piano bench, that you're not too close to the edge, not too far back. Your ideal. Placement on the piano bench lets you have freedom to reach both ends of the keyboard without straining, without creating shoulder tension. It gives your upper body strength to assist in playing like Suzanne Chin mentioned.

[00:16:28] Lorraine Robinson: It's not just your fingers, it's your full arm and upper body, and then you can connect effectively with your instrument. 

[00:16:38] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Thank you. Maria, 

[00:16:40] Maria Lopez: there's this idea that I like to transmit the students, which is the M point. So the fulcrum point, the point of where energy is released, where, where it sustains the rotation.

[00:16:52] Maria Lopez: And I could think that our arm and our fingers, our hand had varied fulcrum point. And if we think of them individually, it might help her kind of control where the tension is coming from and be able to release. The tension from that point. So if our finger is tense, maybe if you think of that fulcrum and the knuckle, maybe we can release all of the tension of the finger if our tip is tense, maybe if you think of the fulcrum right on that spot of your finger at Fulcrum Point.

[00:17:24] Maria Lopez: Taman approach with quite interesting as well. 

[00:17:26] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Yes. Thank you. Okay. What's the best way for beginners or returning learners to approach foundational skills? Like finger strength, dexterity, and hand positioning. Go ahead, Lorraine. 

[00:17:42] Lorraine Robinson: This is one of my favorite topics. Developing that finger strength when you know how to utilize your larger body and the larger muscles to do that heavy lifting of creating sound and save your smaller muscles for the finer jobs of tone and colorizing and vocalization.

[00:18:03] Lorraine Robinson: Um, dexterity is also greatly influenced by overall body relaxation. It's extremely difficult, if not impossible to effectively relax your hands and fingers if, for instance, your shoulders are tense. So knowing how to relax those larger muscles is really important. And one of the basics that I approach first before really diving into the finer points of.

[00:18:33] Lorraine Robinson: Finger strength and dexterity. 

[00:18:36] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Lovely. So we've covered kind of how did you get motivated, how would you motivate others? How do new and returning learners deal with challenges keep going forward? How do they deal or what are the best ways to. I have correct posture. All these ideas we've kind of covered, and now we're gonna move more into the creativity and musical expression part of learning the piano.

[00:18:58] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: What strategies can nurture creativity in piano students? And how does improvisation support that growth? Juan, we'll go for it. 

[00:19:10] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: I used to, to think improvisation was a gift for some people. I mean, people that can improvise at people who can't improvise like me. I couldn't improvise at the beginning, but then I realized that everyone can improvise.

[00:19:23] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: And from the very beginning in the first lesson, I improvised with my students in every single lesson. And when I discover improvisation, I, I. Made a, a segment in my lesson, always from improvisation, but suddenly I spread the improvisation to all the segment of, of my lessons. So, yeah, I used improvisation in my performing thesis with my experience in the technical exercises, breathing in navigation, in oral tests, also in rhythmic section, and I work on creativity on every single part of the lesson.

[00:20:00] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: I know that I don't only teach improvisation in a few minutes, but in all the, the parts of the lesson, 

[00:20:09] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: how do you feel that? Improvisation is supporting the student's piano growth or skills. 

[00:20:16] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Yes. Improvisation is the basic cross press themselves to work their creativity, and you can also, with improvisation, teach whatever thing you want to teach to your students and when they realize they can make their own music, this made a big impact in their students because they don't need.

[00:20:37] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: The score. They don't need other people compositions. They can make music by themselves in every moment they want. It is very motivating for them because they can improvise and they can play piano while at whatever time they want because they have the music within inside of them. And then you can use improvisation to to teach.

[00:21:01] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Theory also, also because you can improvise with all, all the elements in, in theory, and you can improvise with all the ingredients in the pieces. If you improvise with a company pattern for the left hand and you make an improvisation, you are going to have an holistic learning process because you are going to feel the drive to create with these aspects of music.

[00:21:28] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Beautiful. Suzanne, did 

[00:21:30] Suzanne Glimore: you wanna add to that? Yes. I think creativity's such a big thing, but how I do it is I teach them tiny little patterns of rhythm and total powers. We start maybe with rhythm because that's the easiest to learn. And even just having them do it on the piano, maybe a four measure better on one key.

[00:21:57] Suzanne Glimore: It releases all of these problems where you feel inha, inhibited. Or another fun thing we do is just anywhere you could just randomly go over your whole keys. Now, taking these patterns and putting them together and, and understanding what they are. Really helps your creativity as well and feel more confident with it.

[00:22:20] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Love that. So let me just streamline this a little bit. Let's do this rapid fire thing, and we'll start with Leah. What's your number one tip for sparking creativity in your piano practice or lessons for the students? 

[00:22:32] Leah Murphy: Well, yeah, I, I trained a music therapist and improvisation is a very large part of music therapy.

[00:22:38] Leah Murphy: So I remember when we started tackling that, it was kind of terrifying because we think of improvisation. Free for all. We can do anything, but actually it's much more helpful to restrict what you do. Just as Suzanne was saying, to to limit to one rhythm. Or often I ask people to just play on the black notes, to pick two notes and play them all over the piano, but to restrict themselves in some way.

[00:22:58] Leah Murphy: And how that can help with creativity is you can develop a student's understanding of harmony, which underlies a lot of improvisation, knowing your primary chords in different keys, and then you can improvise over that. It really helps you to develop and build confidence and feel freer on the piano when you have that foundation.

[00:23:16] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Very inspiring too. David, you wanna go next? 

[00:23:18] David Holter: Yeah, just along the lines of musical patterns, et cetera. I love teaching piano technique specifically, but scales, chords, or PEOs. These are patterns, right? So it's really useful when teaching a student a scale, for example, is to not have them just always go through the motions of exactly the same thing, which there's something to that, right?

[00:23:38] David Holter: It builds reliability, but also just have them improvise using S scaler patterns. Key, for example. So I think with technique especially where our goal is to use only the tension that's necessary, not have a lot of unnecessary muscle tension, this. Improvisation. It gives them freedom to go at their own pace, to get louder, softer.

[00:24:01] David Holter: And so they're really in touch with their own body and kind of listening, what does my body want to play right now instead of just going through this kind of rote, mechanical, uh, thing that can create tension, right? 

[00:24:11] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: That really puts a twist on the perspective of playing scales because a lot of people will complain of boredom with things like that, but you're throwing in a way that really.

[00:24:20] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Again, connects them to their own self-expression. That's great. Uh, did you wanna 

[00:24:24] Maria Lopez: jump in there, Maria? 

[00:24:25] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Uh, 

[00:24:26] Maria Lopez: yeah. I know that it's important to have this kind of theoretical knowledge behind improvisation, but we can't really expect it from beginners, and I think it might be a bit daunting for returning students as well.

[00:24:37] Maria Lopez: Improvisation allows students to move beyond the written notes and develop this kind of musical confidence. So yes, they should explore scales in different ways and modes and all of that, but it's also about similarities. Helping them understand how sound can evoke emotion and strategies like experimenting with melodies, connecting music to personal experiences, or even asking open ended questions to kind of build this mindset can be one of the ways they can improvise, but by combining improvisation, ear playing, fight reading, and much more.

[00:25:10] Maria Lopez: Can really allow the student to connect deeply with the piano and develop this kind of creative musicianship. 

[00:25:17] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Thank you. And that touched on the creativity and improvisation, things like that, but the question now is how do you encourage students to bring their personal style and creativity into their playing One.

[00:25:30] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Yes. I encourage my students to play the pieces they are working with. Creativity and improvisation is not about playing a lot of knots and making very difficult things. Maybe you can play the tonic, only the resting tone in different rhythms, and this is just improvisation. And you can make this in the pieces they are playing.

[00:25:51] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: They can also change the pieces they are playing and the articulation of the piece, eh? You don't need to play the, the way, uh, moan wrote it. It's, it's great to play, but, uh, I always encourage the students, uh, to think how build that song at a Sounds, if you change the articulation the poster wrote and make another choice.

[00:26:15] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: So why can we explore the pieces we are playing and play in a different way and change matters, change articulation, change tempo, change. Expression and, and I encourage to change everything. They, they want to change and explore every single piece. They, 

[00:26:34] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: they are playing, leading into their own interpretation, their own self-expression of whatever it is, not just the historical and the composer's interpretation.

[00:26:43] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Lorraine, 

[00:26:44] Lorraine Robinson: did you want to add something? Kind of going back to the improvising and composing a little bit, just asking them what. What sounds they hear every day in their life and what inspires them. So I do work with a specific improvising and composing segment with my students. And so, you know, many of them are inspired by the dream that goes by their house every day, where beautiful little kitty cat or you know, they loved horses and the rhythm of the horses hoof beats running in the.

[00:27:22] Lorraine Robinson: In the arena. And so bringing that specific creativity, even if two students are writing a song about they each have a kitty cat that they're writing a song about, it's going to end up being completely different because they'll interpret their cat purring differently than the other student. Well, it makes it really fun and exciting to see.

[00:27:50] Lorraine Robinson: Other minds work and how they bring that in 

[00:27:52] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: using their real life experiences and pulling that into their creative expression. Love that. David, you wanna respond? 

[00:27:58] David Holter: Sure. So along the train of thought of scales, I so ha. I love having my students encouraging them the best I can to sing at the piano because that is their own personal style.

[00:28:09] David Holter: And a lot of people, they may say, well, I don't see, but you know, privately. In their own life, they might be humming this or that, or singing in the shower, whatever. Most students, eventually they will start to sing a little bit, and so for example, along the lines of scales, if they're just playing C major scale, it's nice to have them actually

[00:28:32] David Holter: stop,

[00:28:35] David Holter: you know, improvise a little bit and actually sing. Because you just feel more of a connection to the piano if you're actually singing too. The breath and everything else, and the phrasing can start to come more naturally for them. So that is their style in a sense. That makes sense. 

[00:28:51] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: A hundred percent.

[00:28:51] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Suzanne, did you wanna chime in? 

[00:28:55] Suzanne Glimore: Yes, actually, that's part of what I do in the lessons with my students. We do prior to sitting at the piano. We sing and we move and I give them different ideas of how to move. Are we gonna move strong? Are we gonna move loading? And all of these ideas of how we move all these questions work with rhythm.

[00:29:15] Suzanne Glimore: First of all, work with creating that total space so you know where in your, in your tonic and in your dominant, I know what's technical term, but all of the actions that they're doing and singing at the same time. We can put it on the piano. I'll say to them, now, does that really sound like a bird? If you're playing deep down there in the end of the piano?

[00:29:39] Suzanne Glimore: So it is movements, and I agree with David. Singing is very important. 

[00:29:46] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Beautiful. Love these answers. Here's the next one. We're gonna talk about technical and practice development. How can technical skills be developed in a way that promotes healthy technique while encouraging musical expression? Lorraine?

[00:30:01] Lorraine Robinson: Healthy technique of course, making sure that your posture is in alignment. I prefer to make sure that before we really start the keyboard technique part of lessons that the posture is in good alignment and a good habit there. But as far as the keyboard technique. The train of thought that I had forgotten to mention in your last question.

[00:30:29] Lorraine Robinson: Encouraging students to play the scales and the exercises as beautifully as possible with as much emotion as possible so that it doesn't become the dry route. I have to do a scale and now I have to do chords, but playing it as beautifully as possible as if it's the most amazing piece that they're performing out on stage.

[00:30:55] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Leah, you wanna chime in? 

[00:30:57] Leah Murphy: Yeah. I just wanted to add that if we think about what technique actually is, it's just the ability to make the sounds that we want to make on the piano, and that often involves our whole body, whether we're playing staccato or legato, or we're playing loud or soft. It's really important that we not sit rigidly in with tension, trying to make these sounds as we really relax into it and enjoy ex exploring these different sounds that we can make on the keyboard back in promote.

[00:31:20] Leah Murphy: Expression in a healthy way that we're not becoming tense and rigid. 

[00:31:24] Suzanne Glimore: Suzanne, do you wanna share some thoughts? I think if you have any pain or any bad feeling in your body, quit playing right then and there and try and figure out what is the problem 

[00:31:38] David Holter: at 

[00:31:39] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: David. 

[00:31:39] David Holter: The element of discovery of sort of how our bodies are designed already.

[00:31:46] David Holter: So, for example, teach the rounder pan shape here. It's pretty much built in to the way we're designed. And so having the student explore their own natural hand arch, for example, you know, explore sort of just the feeling of gravity, letting go into gravity with the arms and oh, then we can start to combine these elements, you know, of how we are designed with how the piano's designed to show them how quickly that hammer hits the string.

[00:32:15] David Holter: So we really don't need to press continuously, you know, 'cause. It is, it's the blink of an eye. These little elements that they can start to just explore and have a sense of, wow, these bones, how beautifully they're curved and draw the hand. That sort of thing can help to make technique training more fun and probably Wow, 

[00:32:32] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: we're actually made for it.

[00:32:33] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Wow. 

[00:32:35] David Holter: Right. 

[00:32:36] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: I'm Jenny Leigh Hodgins, Creative Empowerment Coach, and 30 year music educator. I've distilled common piano challenges into a clear guide. To help you start or return to piano with confidence. If you or someone you know is interested in learning piano, Start Piano: What You Need For Successful Learning is an invaluable guide.

[00:32:56] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: This book covers everything from choosing the right keyboard and finding a great teacher to mastering effective practice techniques. It's perfect for new learners and those returning to the piano. Bulk orders of Start Piano can equip aspiring musicians and educators alike With valuable tools for success, build a solid foundation for steady musical progress.

[00:33:18] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Get Start Piano: What do You Need For Successful Learning at YourCreativeChord.com/books.

[00:33:31] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Okay. Thank you everybody. That was awesome. I'm gonna move on. This one is on the topic of insights for adult and returning learners. So some of us didn't start when we were children. Some of us started when we were adults. Here's the question: What teaching approaches do you find most effective for adult students

[00:33:52] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: specifically? Lorraine? 

[00:33:54] Lorraine Robinson: I work with a lot of adults and something that I've found. Really helpful for them is to have a practice guide a, a breakdown of exactly what they need to work on each time they sit down at the piano. Because when I first started working with adult learners, I would encourage them to take notes and they would feel like they had taken the best, most comprehensive notes that they could, and they would get home and still feel like they had this page full of notes, but they still didn't know where to start.

[00:34:27] Lorraine Robinson: So I've worked on showing them how to take notes effectively so that they know exactly what to do, basically every five minutes of their practice session. 

[00:34:41] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Okay, so I'm gonna ask the next question. This is about learning pathways and resources. What is your advice for students who are trying to decide between self-study, private lessons, or online courses,

[00:34:57] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: or the mix of, and how would you recommend students evaluate the quality of learning materials or courses that they come across online? Go ahead, Leah. 

[00:35:08] Leah Murphy: So ideally you could use all three. I mean, it's great to have a private teacher if that's possible. I know that's not always, uh, feasible. Um, if you do have a private teacher that's maybe an hour of your week and the rest of your time, you're left to your own devices really.

[00:35:21] Leah Murphy: And, and the teacher can only cover so much in a lesson. So being able to access resources online, I mean, there's a wealth of stuff for free online. YouTube is a fantastic resource. There are lots of self-study courses you can draw from different places and have those three strands work together, or only two of them.

[00:35:37] Leah Murphy: If you can't, uh, access a teacher, then you can combine online courses with self-study. So really to explore the resources that are out there now in regards to. Evaluating the quality of courses online sounds too good to be true. It probably is, and we all are familiar with the ads out there for, you know, learn piano in an hour.

[00:35:56] Leah Murphy: You, I can teach you a hundred songs in an hour, or you know, a piano in three months. Fine. If you want to learn a couple of chords, but honestly, those courses, you find all that material for free on YouTube anyhow. So really look for the more serious courses that are more realistic and how long something takes and how much commitment it takes and how difficult.

[00:36:15] Leah Murphy: It's a complex skill. It really is very difficult. So, you know, trust your instincts 

[00:36:20] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Well articulated. Thank you, Suzanne. 

[00:36:22] Suzanne Glimore: You wanna chime in on that? I think it is important to have a teacher for least a portion of your study because they can. Help you to avoid technical skills that are gonna create you problem.

[00:36:36] Suzanne Glimore: And online teachers are also great. 

[00:36:39] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Yeah. Yes, a hundred percent. David, thank you. Did you notice any comments before you respond? Do you mind? Um, 

[00:36:46] David Holter: there are a few comments. T says, there are so many options online. How can I find what is right for myself without getting totally overwhelmed? I wanted to just mention that.

[00:36:56] David Holter: At least for my students. I like having both, so I like having prerecorded videos that I've made for them. Basically, it feels more or less like this. Like I'm sitting there next to them saying what to do, what to feel for, what to look for, but then absolutely, I like working with them weekly on Zoom, et cetera.

[00:37:14] David Holter: I think that is important. I think about any athlete as a coach, even the greatest athletes have coaches, because even if you feel yourself like you're doing everything right. You're still in your own body. You're not that external observer that can just put all their attention on, you know, seeing what you're doing and listening to what you're doing.

[00:37:33] David Holter: And they probably have experience that can be helpful. If you're practicing golf or something and you can't quite get that ball to go the way you want, an outside eye can, can see, well, if you just turn your foot a little bit more this way and the ball goes flying, that's what a teacher can do really well among other things.

[00:37:49] David Holter: That's just technique basically, in answer to Theresa's question. I feel like to find what's right for you without getting totally overwhelmed. I think part of staying motivated and making real reliable progress, like Leah was saying, not trying to learn piano in a day, but real progress that can pay off long term.

[00:38:08] David Holter: Look for a teacher who breaks things down, who if they have something on YouTube or whatever, you're feeling these tiny little wins that are, you don't have to try really hard to make something happen, but they're able to show you. In a kind of step-by-step way that you feel you resonate with. I mean, it may be a personality thing, it may be the approach.

[00:38:28] David Holter: Some people are more visual, more auditory, et cetera. Do you resonate with each little step that they're giving you? 

[00:38:34] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Very valuable and a hundred percent. Like Leah said, trust your gut instincts. If and, and as David's saying, get a feel for how they do teach. A lot of people. A lot of these people on the panel, they show demonstrations of things, and if it resonates with you and you feel like you know that they can see you and they can help you individually, to me, that's the power of having a teacher to work with you, whether it's through their online courses or one-on-one or both.

[00:38:59] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: It really has to be, you have to feel like. They're communicating and seeing you, you know, vice versa, so that you are getting what you want to learn and that this person is putting it, like David said, in a step-by-step way that where you can grasp it and you can move forward. 

[00:39:15] David Holter: There is one other question.

[00:39:17] David Holter: How do I set short-term goals? 

[00:39:20] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Leah touched on that a little bit earlier in how to track yourself and get started with your practice. What I use myself is. Use a tracker. You know, work with your teacher if you have one, or for yourself, choose your goals and use an actual piano practice tracker so you know exactly what repertoire you're gonna work on and what is it in that repertoire that you need to work on and work on.

[00:39:44] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Singling out the things that you need to improve and set your goal for the practice session based on that. So for example, if I'm playing a piece of music and I'm not, uh, able to play it fluently, I keep hesitating and starting and stopping, then I kind of zoom in and figure out, oh, that's a part that's giving me trouble.

[00:40:04] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: That's a part I wanna work on. So what would my goals be? Well, maybe it's. I don't really know what the fingering is, and so, you know, that's a goal. I wanna mark the fingering and then practice that fingering. Just break it down individually for what you need in that moment. In terms of setting achievable goals, Suzanne, 

[00:40:22] Suzanne Glimore: I find the best way is to keep a journal and possibly record yourself and every time.

[00:40:28] Suzanne Glimore: Mm. Get a new place. You can record that in the journal. And as you look back or as you listen to the audience, I tell students to do this all the time. Record, record, 

[00:40:40] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: record, and listen back and hear your trouble spots. And then those are where you make your goal. That's how you make your goals. You find your trouble spots and set the goals there to smooth that out.

[00:40:51] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Right. Lorraine? I thought I saw your handed. 

[00:40:53] Lorraine Robinson: Yeah, so confused. So going back first of all, few. Finding a teacher that works for you. I've had the privilege of working with several high level teachers over the years. Finally, what I realized for me was finding someone who has the results that I want to get in the way that feels most aligned for me to get them.

[00:41:19] Lorraine Robinson: So really doing your homework and seeing if you can. Have a trial session or a trial period or something like that, even if it's not necessarily free, but maybe just a shorter term commitment with a teacher before having to commit to say a full year of lessons or something. 

[00:41:41] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Thank you. I think that is one of the biggest struggles for new or returning adult learners.

[00:41:47] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: How do they break down their practice routine into. Achievable, clear goals. And all of us really touched on great things there. Journaling it, recording it, listening for it, uh, zoom, zooming in on what's not working for you, and then bringing it down from there. And if you have a teacher express to them, Hey, I can't do this, or I can't do that, or I'm having trouble with this, and they're gonna help you break that down into individual goals.

[00:42:12] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: The next part of the, um, panel discussion is about overcoming. The personal challenges that we, the panelists have had to overcome. So here's the question. Can you share a personal story about overcoming a challenge in your piano or music journey and how did that impact your approach to teaching others or playing, uh, the piano yourself?

[00:42:38] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: I bet you all wanna answer that question 'cause we've all been there, done that, right? Leah, go ahead. 

[00:42:46] Leah Murphy: Sure. I'm laughing because it's not a question of I have overcome a challenge. My entire piano career is overcome challenges, and I think that's probably true for everybody. Really, we, we overcome, we achieve one goal and we just move on to the next because there's always something else that we want to achieve.

[00:43:01] Leah Murphy: As you touched on when you were introducing us, I didn't have the typical start. Start piano as a child and continue all the way through. Get your college degree and start teaching. I did do piano as a child, and then there was a, a, a gap from about the age of 14 to about the age of 34, where I did not even have access to a piano, but the love of it was always there and coming back to piano and trying to pick up where I left off and immediately just all the difficulties kicking in and the imposter syndrome and the feeling of the inferiority in, in conjunction, you know, when I looked at other students and how they were doing and really having to overcome those mental blocks.

[00:43:36] Leah Murphy: Really just recognize that you are where you are and you have to recognize the deficits where you are and tackle them one by one, one, and really finding the resources to help me, me do that. And that's an ongoing thing, and that's my passion, is to share that with, with other people. And then my teaching is all about helping people recognize where they are and recognize what they need to do to, to, to move forward.

[00:43:56] Leah Murphy: And. And really get over that idea that, that everybody else is better than you. They really aren't. You know, everybody is, is we're all in this journey together, struggling our way forward, but loving every minute of it. 

[00:44:07] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Love that. I have very similar background. David, you wanna chime in 

[00:44:12] David Holter: a story? I like to tell along the lines of my sight reading because I couldn't sight read at all and I would work pieces out, note by note.

[00:44:18] David Holter: And I was able to play some decent, big pieces at church. One of the church members came up to me and said, will you play our upcoming holiday luncheon, uh, next week? We just need you to play about half an hour of carol's. And I was terrified. I think I was like 16 or something. Spent about 25 hours that week.

[00:44:36] David Holter: 'cause I was on break learning carol's note for note and then I pretended to be reading them at the party and at the end of the half hour she came over to me. She said, that was great, but you didn't play my favorite Carol's silent night. And my heart just sank. And I started to try to figure it out by ear, but I was so.

[00:44:52] David Holter: Just overwhelmed. I couldn't. And she said, everybody we're gonna sing Silent Night. Here it is, David. She turned to the page in the hymnals. Go for it. 'cause she thought I could read, 'cause I'd been pretending to read for the past half hour, but I was just using it as a trigger for remembering the notes. I tried to start reading the music, but I couldn't even get started and everybody was in my 16-year-old self-conscious self.

[00:45:14] David Holter: I thought, well, everyone's just laughing at me and I. It was so embarrassing and all of that. But ever since then, I just was like, I've got to learn how to sight read better. I've gotta do it. That's what set me on this whole sort of obsession with figuring out how to sight read music. And so we have, we have positive and, and more negative type experiences that shape our whole journey and they, it all works out for the best often.

[00:45:36] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Yeah. You really used that as a catalyst to turn a very poisonous situation into medicine because it forced you to learn how to do it. Maria, did you wanna go next? 

[00:45:46] Maria Lopez: Uh, so one of the biggest challenge I face, especially because I'm a classical trained pianist, has been shifting away from my reliance on sheet music.

[00:45:56] Maria Lopez: And I think those red classic train will probably find the challenge as well. I was always taught to focus on technique and to interpret music strictly from the page. And be a perfectionist as possible. Uh, but this reliance on the Ation limited my ability to fully engage the music and be more spontaneous than created.

[00:46:17] Maria Lopez: I can even tell horror stories where myself or other p that I know would encounter a piano in a hotel or a public place, and their friends or friends say, oh, can you play something? And I would just dread the feeling of having to go and play because they would think, do I have anything? Do I have my sheet music with me?

[00:46:35] Maria Lopez: So since I moved to Finland, I discovered actually a curriculum which is called Free Accompaniment, that the English translation that emphasizes developing this wide range of musical skill that are improvisation, playing by ear. So it's not just depending on the music sheet, but have to unlearn old habits and rethink the way I approach the piano.

[00:46:55] Maria Lopez: I've had to force myself to do the sheet music in my back and really start to use my, my ears to explore music as it is. It's organic form. It has been very slow and frustrating process, but it's something that I tell all my students and everybody I I meet who's a piano teacher, please, when you start learning the piano again, or at the beginning, don't just grab the resource or the book or the sheet music, really explore piano at its organic form.

[00:47:27] Maria Lopez: That's my challenge right now. 

[00:47:29] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Very good points, and I think it's crucial that all piano educators include in their curriculum a little bit of that creative, fun, improvisation, playing by ear and not relying too heavily. I mean, we are aiming for a well-balanced musical education there. So I think we can all relate to having some gaps in our education ourselves, and we're trying to pull all that in and help our students not miss the things that we've missed.

[00:47:53] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Basically, Lorraine, 

[00:47:55] Lorraine Robinson: probably the biggest. Story in my music journey actually was being able to leave a toxic, abusive relationship and how that actually gave me the freedom to fully more fully embrace my own music and sharing music with piano clients and being able to just experience music in a. Or a satisfying way without having all of the negativity that surrounded my previous relationship.

[00:48:33] Lorraine Robinson: So that's an encouragement for anyone who might find themselves in any sort of toxic relationship and needing to develop more personal boundaries. 

[00:48:49] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: And thank you for sharing such a personal topic. And, and again, I think Suzanne or somebody, I think it was Suzanne that mentioned at the beginning, music is an expression.

[00:48:58] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: It's, it's a great avenue into letting that self-expression exist. So a very healing thing as well. Speaking of Suzanne, did you wanna respond? 

[00:49:05] Suzanne Glimore: Yeah, I, I've always been a wonderful thing for you and. I have to pin it so much on reading, but since discovering ideation and what it really means, not just listening, but to understanding, it brings so much joy.

[00:49:22] Suzanne Glimore: You understand why the music is created or how to create it yourself. So this brings me joy and I try to give it to everybody else. 

[00:49:31] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Can I piggyback on that and just ask you, for the people in the group who may not know what audiation means, could you just describe that and how maybe you use it? 

[00:49:41] Suzanne Glimore: Okay.

[00:49:42] Suzanne Glimore: Audiation is hearing music and some people think it's just listening or hearing it back in your head like an echo, that it's actually being able to look at her sheet music. You're not perfect pitch, but you can read it 

[00:49:56] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: in your head. Thank you for that really wonderful explanation. So just because I know that some new and returning piano nerd may not even know that term audiation, so there's a great explanation.

[00:50:07] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Thank you. The question that I just asked was I. Can you share a personal story about overcoming a challenge in your own piano or music journey, and how did it impact your approach to teaching or playing? Go ahead, Juan. I 

[00:50:19] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: was very to the score. My challenge was to get free from the Tyson. I didn't want to be, I, the, the, the pianist who can play happy, happy birthday in the parties.

[00:50:32] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: I didn't wanna be that kind of pianist anymore who play.

[00:50:40] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: But I also wanted to play for a companys, something for someone I else sing or or improvise something or play for people they, or play Silent Night. I wanted to be both pianists and everybody can be both pianists with. 

[00:50:59] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: We've covered some really great points today, and I'm certain everyone got a lot of value out of it and found inspiration in our very honest, authentic answers and experiences.

[00:51:09] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Someone in the chat of our live event here has asked, I want to be both kinds of pianists, like Juan had said when he was speaking, the commenter says, my training is only classical. What is the best way to get started into being the freer kind of pianist? Juan, would you like to tackle that? Yeah. 

[00:51:31] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Kinney is, for those who who don't know, uh, he has such incredible books about improvisation and with very simple patterns, you can create very beautiful music using very simple guidelines.

[00:51:45] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Everybody can improvise from the very beginning with very simple instructions and guidelines. It has a series of books about making piano accompaniments to songs. And to make different versions of the same piece. These resources are incredible. I highly recommend the work of of skinny. 

[00:52:08] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Okay. If you wanna go a little broader, how would you respond to the question?

[00:52:12] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: What is the best way to get started? Being a freer kind of pianist, 

[00:52:16] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: I always encourage every student to, to create their own music based on the pieces they are playing. Because the easiest way is, is to be inspired by, by the pieces you are playing in that particular moment. And, and it's very important for me that too, to mix the patterns between the different pieces you are playing.

[00:52:36] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Maybe you are playing a piece in two foreign G major and a piece in F minor in in six eight. And maybe to mix the, the patterns in one piece and play in in the other piece. And this way you continue creating new music based on the music you are playing, but you are not playing the, the music is, is, is written, but you can use the patterns, everything, the music you are playing.

[00:53:03] Juan Cabaza Hernendez: Combining very different ways. We should have way to start to be creative with and to improvise and to create your own music. Thank you. David, did you wanna chime in there? 

[00:53:15] David Holter: Sure. I love that, Juan, because you know, it's similar to how we learn language right? From a young age. First we hear the words, then we start speaking.

[00:53:23] David Holter: Then later we usually, most people, we start reading more intensively. And so with reading music too, it's very helpful of course to just feel the keys and keep your eyes on the page. But I think first it makes sense to actually look down at the keys, look at your hands, get comfortable with whatever technique is required.

[00:53:44] David Holter: Improvise a little bit with it. Like take an idea from a Mozart piece that you're working on and just move it around different hand positions, et cetera, and mix something up with it just like we do with language when we're little kids. We get little snippets and then we start making our own combinations.

[00:53:58] David Holter: Fantastic. And then you're more likely when you see that same sort of pattern in sheet music, to feel confident. You can feel your way through it, recognize it quickly, visually, because you've built that familiarity with it from the ground up, so to speak. 

[00:54:14] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Thank you. Beautiful. Suzanne? 

[00:54:16] Suzanne Glimore: Yeah, I just, uh, would suggest a real quick one would be to take a little four beat pattern that's different than the one you're playing and put it into the piece that you're playing.

[00:54:26] Suzanne Glimore: This is just a, 

[00:54:27] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: a quickie that's an outside of the box quickie. I like that. Okay. Thank you everybody. I'm gonna jump back to the questions here. Jeff Davis says, how do I set short-term goals? And we covered it a little bit. 

[00:54:38] David Holter: David, go ahead. One thing I, I love to do and teach. Is to just play through one section, like one line, for example.

[00:54:46] David Holter: And then like you mentioned, Jenny, go back to the most challenging spot of that one line. So that's a very short term goal just in terms of what could I do to polish the piece. But then I do encourage students to work on like a short term piece, something they can learn in a week, for example. I think that's important for motivational purposes, not just a piece that's gonna take months and months, and that'll sound fantastic.

[00:55:10] David Holter: Come the recital. Then you've missed out on all these great little shorter pieces that you could have learned as well, 

[00:55:16] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: and it might feel like drudgery if you're not doing some short-term repertoire goals. Right. In between that or as you're doing that. Right. Okay. So here's a question from Paula Coleman.

[00:55:26] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: How do we as adult beginners differentiate ourselves from a piano beginner? How do we know if we've become a player, not a beginner. I'm gonna say, first of all, you are a player because you have begun. And so if we look at ourselves and we're all musicians, and like Leah said earlier, it's a never ending lifelong game here.

[00:55:47] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Once you learn piano, it never ends. We're constantly learning and we're constantly challenging new growth in wherever we are. So how do we know if we've become a player when we're a beginner? You're already there. High five to you, Lorraine. 

[00:56:02] Lorraine Robinson: I totally agree with what you were just saying. Once you've begun, you are a pianist.

[00:56:07] Lorraine Robinson: You are already doing it, and I really love comparing playing the piano to a language. You learn to speak first and repeat what you hear. You know that you are becoming more of a player when you're able to. Get into the more creative phase of creating your own phrases as musical sentences versus just constantly regurgitating.

[00:56:37] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Very good. Thank you. Leah, did you wanna add to the discussion on that? 

[00:56:41] Leah Murphy: Yeah, I just wanna say it, it, it really took me about 20 years of musical practice before I dared to call myself a musician. So I'm going to invite everybody out there to practice telling yourself you are a musician. Not to worry that if you call yourself a musician, everybody's going to expect things from you that you don't feel you can deliver.

[00:56:59] Leah Murphy: If you love music and you're involved in music, you're a musician. It doesn't matter what level you're playing at, but practice telling yourself that you are. 

[00:57:06] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Thank you, Maria. 

[00:57:08] Maria Lopez: Not to discourage anybody but my piano teacher from the United Kingdom, he was about 70 something and he say, I haven't even mastered the piano yet, and that I think beginners often focus simply on playing the right note.

[00:57:23] Maria Lopez: As we progress, we kind of start to engage more deeply with the music itself, and we begin to hear beyond the written score, experiment with phrasing compelling, and really bring our own interpretation into the piece. So we ensured it's not really about how many notes we can play, but how we choose to express ourself through these notes that make this transition between a beginner and maybe a more advanced pianist.

[00:57:48] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Beautiful, and thank you, David. Go ahead. 

[00:57:51] David Holter: If someone sits down and plays just the twinkle, twinkle little star, just the melody with the right hand, but they're really there with it and they've got their full attention on the sound and they're expressing musically what they feel. I call them more of a musician in that moment.

[00:58:08] David Holter: Then someone who in the other room is sitting down and playing all Mozart's variations on twinkle little star, boom, boom, boom. But they're just, they're kind of just going through the motions and not really. Expressing anything. 

[00:58:19] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: It's the difference between being mechanical and in tune. Yeah. In tune with your own creativity.

[00:58:25] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Love that. Love that. I love everything you all are saying. There's another question here from Dan Mandel. Dan says, I would love to hear tips for how to increase left and right hand coordination. Dun, dun, Lorraine, go ahead. 

[00:58:45] Lorraine Robinson: Sure. So something that I. Recommend when you're trying to increase coordination, especially in your non-dominant hand, is to do daily household tasks or whatever you do with that non-dominant hand, picking up a glass of water and drinking.

[00:59:03] Lorraine Robinson: Maybe as you gain a little bit more dexterity, brushing your teeth, but in everything you do, recognize that trying to do things with your non-dominant hand. Naturally causes some tension because you're afraid of doing it wrong or you're afraid of dropping something, you're holding the thing awkwardly compared to how you would with your dominant hand.

[00:59:28] Lorraine Robinson: So be aware as you are working on increasing that dexterity, that you are not increasing your tension and strain. 

[00:59:40] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Anything, just like when I mentioned earlier, if there's a trouble spot or something in the music piano skill that you're unable to do, like left hand skill or whatever, coordination between the two hands.

[00:59:52] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Um, practice. It just, it's very simple. Spend more time working on it and depending on what your level is as you get into early intermediate, um, late intermediate Bach inventions, symons, they are. Really good for that. His writings are so meant for developing independent hands through the phrasing and through when you're putting the hands together, all of it.

[01:00:18] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: So when you get to that level, um, start incor incorporating Bach, I would recommend that for sure. Use every day. Activities to practice using your non-dominant hand. And my take is when I apply that to the piano, okay? My left hand is not as coordinated, let's say, then my right hand here. So I'm gonna devote attention and time to practice that and give it a little bit of work over time.

[01:00:46] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: And that's just one approach. Practice. Long story shorter. Leah, did you wanna add something? 

[01:00:52] Leah Murphy: Yeah. One thing that can be really useful is to use your, uh, dominant hand as a scaffold for your non-dominant hands. The simplest, um, example is a contrary motion scale. So what you can't necessarily do easily in your left hand on its own will flow quite nicely when your right hand is doing the same thing.

[01:01:08] Leah Murphy: So if you have an exercise, you can play in your right hand, you know, whatever combination of fingers, just have your left hand play along, usually exactly the same fingers, it's just doing a mirror, and so you're training your left hand with the help of your right hand or your non-dominant and dominant hand.

[01:01:21] Leah Murphy: It usually is the left hand that is weaker, even in left-handed people for some reason. But I find that very useful. 

[01:01:28] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Very good tip, 

[01:01:29] Suzanne Glimore: Suzanne. One of the things students have a problem with is trying to play everything up to speed. So I would say lower it down to the speed that you are able to do it correctly.

[01:01:42] Suzanne Glimore: Work on maybe rhythmically getting it correct or just try both hands together. Really slowing it really, really slow actually for anything makes a better player. If you can play it slow. 

[01:01:59] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: You will know how to play it fast. That's one of my mentor piano teachers honed in on that very strongly. Slow practice is much more challenging than fast practice.

[01:02:10] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: You're not relying on your muscle memory. You're really relying on the skills. In my experience, 90% of the problems are solved when people slow down. You know, because we get ahead of ourselves, we wanna do it so much. You know, 

[01:02:22] David Holter: David, go ahead. Getting the right and left hand coordinated together. To play together correctly and BI was just thinking with Bach in inventions, if, if, if we're always going fast right then it might not, things might not line up.

[01:02:36] David Holter: So if you really Yeah, if you take a moment to really go slow and to me feel which fingertips go together basically, so like three, you know, goes slow and I'm feeling okay, three in the right hand, I'm feeling that play along with one in five in the left hand and they happen simultaneously and just become more sensitive to, you know, which fingers.

[01:02:55] David Holter: Are playing in the left hand at the same time as the fingers in the right hand, and sense that it sounds kind of funny, but really feel it. Then it can often help things to lock in better if you just build that sensitivity and going slowly does help for sure. With that, 

[01:03:10] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: it really does because it puts you in tune with sensing,

[01:03:13] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: physically Before we wrap up, I encourage you to stay connected with the resources and the community we've discussed today and go check out each one of these panelists and all their resources, any offerings or uh, materials that they have. I wanted to say thanks again for being part of the New and Returning Piano Learners Facebook group, and to all the panelists.

[01:03:35] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Really sincere thanks for everything that you've contributed. Before I end, I see a, a couple of questions in the chat. Oh no. It looks like everyone's just excited and happy to be here. Thank you everybody. So thank you again for being a part of this group. We look forward to seeing you in the group. Thank you again, everybody really appreciated this.

[01:03:54] Jenny Leigh Hodgins: Really inspiring. Thank you.

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