Back in 1996, when my family first moved from Taiwan to California, I didn't speak much English. Despite the language barrier, I made a lot of friends through basketball.
In fact, I had dreams of playing in the NBA--until I found out the growth spurt I had in sixth grade was going to be my last. HAHA. As part of my initial interview with students or just during lessons I like to find out about my student's hobbies. Knowing what they like to do helps me think of different analogies that put musical and pianistic concepts into more familiar and tangible terms for them. For my students who are into basketball, I often point them to these two videos about practice as I'm very into efficient and effective practice habits. What better way for a student to learn how to practice than to watch the two greatest shooters in the history of NBA practice shooting?
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My interview with Dr Kolar turned into a five-part series of video posts because we talked for almost TWO hours; an incredible amount of invaluable information for parents and teachers. Well, I've compiled the links and topics talked about for all five parts here for easy access.
Click on the interviews for the video and a more detailed list of topics discussed.
Ask any musician who's had experience performing and they'll tell you what a big role confidence plays in their performances. In a high-pressured setting like performing in front of an audience, confidence can mean the difference between a disastrous and a phenomenal performance. Not only that, but a confident body language also greatly affects how the audience perceives you.
While there are many things a student can do to build and increase confidence--in fact there's a great chapter in Barry Green's The Mastery of Music about building confidence in music that I'll write about in another post--this one is super easy. What if I shared with you a scientifically proven way to increase your testosterone(confidence) level, and lower your cortisol(stress) level easily and all in under 2 minutes? This is the video of a surprisingly touching TED talk by Amy Cuddy, a Harvard researcher, on the power of "power posing"; taking on a posture of confidence regardless of how we actually feel. Listening to Horowitz Live and the Importance of Attending Concerts - with Dr. J. Mitzi Kolar2/12/2013
This is the fifth and FINAL part of my interview with Dr. J. Mitzi Kolar! Whew! It's been a journey for sure. Some of the topics we covered in this segment is listed below. I noticed the background music for this part got a bit distracting, so for better audio quality, you can listen to just the audio with the audio player or download the audio file. In Part 1 we talked about the development of the piano pedagogy field and Dr. Kolar gave some some inside look at the thought process that goes into writing a piano method book. In Part 2 we discussed pedagogical issues in teaching Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin's music. Part 3 talks about difficulties about Rachmaninoff and Kabalevsky's pieces along with different ways to teach rubato, a secret to concert pianist's playing, and why method books include lyrics in their pieces. Part 4 is about how piano students have changed, misconceptions about piano lessons and teachers, and Dr. Kolar's favorite books on repertoire and teaching. Dr. Kolar also called me after the interview to tell me that she had said Angela Chang instead of Angela Hewitt in this last part of the interview :) Here are some of the topics we covered in the final part of the interview:
Have your own most memorable concert experience? Favorite CD's and pianist? Share it in the comments! Dr. Kolar's CD Recommendations: By the way, these are affiliate links to Amazon so I'd probably get a few cents if you purchase using these links. If you care then feel free to search for these yourself on Amazon :), if you don't care, I appreciate it! :)
This is Part 4 of my interview with Dr. J. Mitzi Kolar, some of the topics we covered in this segment is listed below. For better audio quality, you can listen to just the audio with the audio player or download the audio file. In Part 1 we talked about the development of the piano pedagogy field and Dr. Kolar gave some some inside look at the thought process that goes into writing a piano method book. In Part 2 we discussed pedagogical issues in teaching Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin's music. Part 3 talks about difficulties about Rachmaninoff and Kabalevsky's pieces along with different ways to teach rubato, a secret to concert pianist's playing, and why method books include lyrics in their pieces. Sorry for the blurry video again... Here are some of the topics we covered in the fourth part of the interview:
Like this interview? Learned something? Let us know in the comments! Piano Repertoire Guide Resource Recommendations:Piano Teaching Resource Recommendations: By the way, these are affiliate links to Amazon so I'd probably get a few cents if you purchase using these links. If you care then feel free to search for these yourself on Amazon :), if you don't care, I appreciate it! :) |
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