Insights Into the Making of Beginners Piano Method and a History of Piano Pedagogy - with Dr. J. Mitzi Kolar

I had an awesome time interviewing Dr. Kolar on Wednesday night and was blown away with how much I learned through the opportunity to pick the brains of such an experienced piano pedagogue for TWO HOURS. Video of the interview is above. If you want better audio and only the audio, you can download or just listen to the audio file.

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Here are some of the topics we covered in the first part of the interview:

• What is piano pedagogy?
• How has piano pedagogy changed?
• Approaches to reading, how it started and evolved?
• What weaknesses were created with the original methods used to teach reading music?
• What is a comprehensive approach to piano teaching?
• What were some of the goals of the Celebrate Piano! Method during its inception?
• The “gap” between method books and the standard repertoire
• What happen to students when they first get to the standard repertoire if the gap isn’t properly bridged?
• Specific examples of how Celebrate Piano! Method bridges that gap
• Importance of properly sequenced musical concepts
• How Celebrate Piano! Method is a comprehensive method book
• Unique elements of the Celebrate Piano! Method
• Improvements the authors of Celebrate Piano! Method would like to make with things they discovered after publishing the method

Here's a link to the Celebrate Piano! Method website.

Interview Part 1 Audio File
File Size:	13700 kb
File Type:	m4a

Download File

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In the next segment of our interview, Dr. Kolar shares specific pedagogical issues with Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin's pieces and how to teach and practice each skill. This is a very informative segment with loads of information for piano teachers.

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