I was deeply saddened by the death of Earl Wild on January 23, 2010. Often described as the “last Romantic,” Wild enjoyed a career that spanned fully eight decades before his death at age 94.
Wild was both the first pianist to perform on television (1939) and the first to stream a performance live ...
Question: Dear Mr. Frantz,
How can one get accepted into a university and study piano after starting very “late”?
I just fell in love with music and it’s absolutely incredible. I feel this I have discovered what I want to do in life and it’s remarkable. The only thing is, I started “late” as som
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Question: Read your email today. I am a trained musician and songwriter (guitar, voice, music major at college level) working as a physician/surgeon. I have forever wanted a legitimate comprehensive piano course that I can do on my own. There are a few out there that are more like “piano candy,” g
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7 Common Beginners’ Mistakes
When beginning piano lessons, most students make a number of significant mistakes. I’ve listed the most common among them to help you along. This list is deliberately limited to strictly musical matters that cause confusion to beginning pianists; mistakes in teaching me...
Seven Hidden Advantages
It is impossible to count the number of times we piano teachers have heard, “I wish I had learned piano as a child.” Adults assume that if they didn’t learn to play piano as a child, then it’s simply too late.
Yet not only are adult piano lessons more often than not extreme...
Question: I’m a music student – a piano student – and also I want to start a fitness program. Can it damage my piano technique? I mean, how can push-ups, pull-ups, yoga, isometric training and so on bring me problems with practice, and if this is the case, what kind of fitness routine do you recom
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Question: I learned to play piano back when I was 16 years of age and I learned to read piano notes. I haven’t played in years (my own fault for not keeping up with it). Can I learn again to play piano?
– Virginia (Sierra Vista, Arizona, USA)
Albert’s reply: Of course you can learn to play pia...
Question: I know people usually say it depends on the person. Well, I want to know the average year of when a person who take lessons starts playing by ear. I know that some people don’t take lessons and play by ear.
– Mila (USA)
Albert’s reply: The unfortunate truth is that the most pianists ...
Question: I would like to know more about proper voice leading. I can hear each separate voice in a piece and I can hear chord progressions, but this seems like an either/or method for me. When transposing all voices, notes in chords are arranged in different orders and inversions. I would think a
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Question: Thank you very much for this website – it has helped me tremendously. My question goes for the Intervals lesson, where you stated that to learn the intervals in a scale, one should sing the actual numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. In order to remember the intervals, how would I be able to go from a
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Question: Hi Albert,
My name is Shane. I’ll keep this brief. I’m hunting around for different ear training methods. I’ve been through a bunch of stuff but it doesn’t stick.
The level of ear training I’ve done was 2 1/2 years of classes at a university music school, which was preceded by 2 1/2 ye
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Playing piano by ear is among the most essential of musical skills, yet it is generally looked down upon by teachers of traditional reading-based approaches (of which I am also one). In this article I wish to demonstrate that the two can live in harmony with one another.
I find this state of affair...
