Louis Nagel recital at NCKP

Louis Nagel gave a wonderful noontime recital at NCKP. Here are clips from Bach's French Suite in E-flat, BWV 815, and Haydn's Piano Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI/23.

Brian Chung at NCKP

Brian's keynote address was "Life Shaper or Artist Maker". Another great speaker, engaging, and thought-provoking. Are you as a piano teacher focused on making an artist, or shaping a life? There needs to be both, but perhaps we as a profession focus too much on the artist makers and neglect the life shapers. If you get the chance to hear Brian Chung speak, take it.

Robert Duke at NCKP

My evening ended with sessions presented by Bob Duke. He is a very engaging speaker, and whether I agree with all he says or not, I always leave his sessions with new ideas and different teaching strategies to try. This is a really good way to prepare for the new teaching year - inspired.

Pedagogy, Wellness, Technology, and Success

The NCKP pre-conference sessions offered something for everyone. The technology sessions offered the option to build a website, which would be complete by the end of the day. There were also sessions on wellness, student assessment, and how to be successful as an independent piano teacher. See the photos for the various sessions that were offered. A full and thought-provoking day for all!

Marvin Blickenstaff, "From the other side of the coin" at NCKP

Marvin Blickenstaff gave great feedback to pedagogy teachers on how to prepare students for internships or job interviews. He is also a dynamic speaker, as well as a great piano teacher.

NCKP has begun!

Here we are at the Keynote address for the 30th National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. We are looking forward to a great day of learning. The keynote speaker this year, appropriately, is Sam Holland. There are over 700 of us from around the world, with many countries represented. Sam is such an articulate and interesting speaker - he has the room in the palm of his hand.

Teaching Perfect Pitch

Tomoko Kanamaru, pianist and assistant professor of music at The College of New Jersey, will give a presentation titled "Can Perfect Pitch be Taught? Introduction to the Eguchi Method". The Washington Post published a wonderful article about the method, which also gives a good preview of the session. The Eguchi Method is used by more than 800 teachers around Japan to teach perfect pitch to very young children, claiming a success rate of almost 100 percent for those who start before they are 4 years old. At the end of the training, which starts by matching chords with colored flags, a teacher will play random notes on the piano and the child, without looking, can identify them. Check out the article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR2009072602350.html