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Sorry, newbie here. Do bach chorales count as orchestral reductions?

It is so sad this skill is not taught any more. I would love to do this!

I love that you were getting the word out 6 years ago. Even my friends who got the college gigs often have less than desirable positions with icky politics (not to mention floor-waxing). There were a couple reasons I didn’t pursue a grad degree but the cost was always there at the top. Not being in debt (and having other employable skills) leaves me free to teach privately and advance my skills other ways. I have two questions: 1. Is there anything you would tweak or add to this advice now? 2. How can the undergrad degree (and even pre-collegiate studies) be improved to better prepare students who do not go on to grad school? My degree was full of useful things but, looking back, it feels more like prep work for the next level than thorough training in my craft. I’m not opposed to the liberal arts degree. It suits my personality. But maybe there is room in the world for a type of music trade school. Or something . . .

"Exciting pieces tempt us to go straight towards the triumphant performance..." ……Guilty 😂😂 ! This is the moment (every time) when I had my worst lessons, the deepest fall from my imagination of "doing quite well so far" hahahaha wonderful!

I think your concepts can be applied to more than just piano playing.

This is what a serious musician looks like

speaking as a full time professional performance musician of over 30 years - I totally agree that improvisation is "more important than memorisation" (although improvisation obviously requires a great deal of memorisation in itself ...) - great series of videos 🎹❤️

I have books from both of you. They’re great. Thanks

If you have the gift, then yes. If not, then no.

Thank you for your instruction. I enjoy music, first of all! I love my practice time, in the realm of music. After a year of lessons. As a 9yr old. I was given sheet music by zed,kitten on the keys. I didnt know what it was or how it sounded. I attempted to play by sight, because i was told When i could play that. I could be a musician. Wow! I can play the first page, i quit lessons. But. I still play and love 🎶 just saying...

Sometimes composers write what you do rather than what the result should be. You see this often in Schubert and Chopin etc. figurations with staccato and phrase markings that are not expressed audibly, because of use of the pedal; rather they are instructions for how to use the hand.

I like Hans-Martin Theopold’s fingerings.

Is this the only recording posted online of The Demerits??? I was telling my children of the storied Demerits of old and was happy to stumble across this gem.

Why were we NOT taught this in Music School??

Bravo! I love this piece and I love what you've done with it! One of the best performances of it I have heard.

Did anyone mention ear training? IMHO ear training is the most important thing in Improv

I think the most important thing in improvisation is ear training

Would Fantasia by Joe Hisaishi work? I’m planning on auditioning for a minor in music as music is important to me but it isn’t my main focus.

My teachers stressed counting out loud from the get go then add a bit of rubato later if appropriate. One of my teachers grew up in thr USSR. When he was 3 years old someone came to his classroom, gave everyone a little drum, and did a little drum rhythm lesson. If someone was very good at understanding how to keep a beat, they were placed on a music track and given a world class music education. Certainly not saying USSR was good, just interesting that they chose kids by their ability to keep a beat!

I’m so desperate to be good at this instrument. I’ll get there one day though. We all will.

I’m glad you emphasized the bottom of the pyramid. I feel very comfortable as a mathematician and economist, but man I’m challenged when it comes to music. I practice every day and all, but I’m just a slow learner when it comes to music. I’m so happy that teachers like mine exist; she is constantly pushing me with positive criticism and continues to believe in me despite how slow I am in music. :)

This is the first time I've heard exactly what my teacher says all the time about classical composers. He went to the Royal Northern College of Music, won the final competition and quit the path to being a classical concert pianist. He did study composition, but he'd taught himself to improvise on the sly as a child. This talk helped me to appreciate that he's training us in tonal and rhythmic fluency using harmonic blocks without scores, without auxiliary notes for a long time, in common time in only half, quarter and eighth notes. We learn to express ourselves fluently in simplified language like toddlers speaking. Complexity is only added incrementally once fluency is attained at the current level. This makes the traditional way that adults learn piano seem like memorizing Russian poems phonetically. Or, as you say, human piano roll, which was my conclusion after two years of ordinary adult method book self-study.

This is solid advice. Where do you find enough easy pieces to play only once for 20 minutes every day? That's a lot of sheet music. Even Cory Hall's big fat sight reading book based on graduated simplifications of Bach chorales wouldn't last very long. I think this is why my teacher's way of imparting fluency is modular.

Is there a video on the 4 pillars of piano technique?

I have been using method books and the basic sight-reading tests on piano marvel and in 6 months my sight-reading level has barely improved. I am up to playing some early advanced pieces at this point with a month or two of practice for each piece but I am still not really able to sight-read even beginner pieces with hand position changes in tempo. it seems like because I have always looked at my hands I just do not actually know where my hands are without looking at them. there must be a way to begin developing this skill that is efficient and that is what i am trying to figure out. The difference between an inefficient and an efficient learning strategy can literally be years.

What is the rule of the octave?

thank you

I used to take metro subway in Washington DC and, yes trains could go a wrong way.

loved the illustration at the beginning about train tracks vs. hiking!

I’ve learned so much from this man. ❤

thank you so much for this video, it gave me inspiration to start taking improv more seriously

'Giacomo Spimoni...' - never gets old! 😂

Dr. Mortensen, you’re a ferocious musician and the introspective journey this music takes me through is quite something.

You need to wear a wig and not take antibiotics 💀🤣

Ridiculously good video. Some of the most incredible harpsichord music I’ve ever heard. A microcosm of everything that makes baroque music so good, along with plenty of counterpoint and fugal improvisation. A new addiction for me since this is my trillionth time watching this.

I'm not even good enough to not make the neighborhood cats scream...

get a smaller piano duh

I've had times where I could only get 15 minutes of practice a day when trying to learn some accompaniment parts. It forced me to be efficient. The first day or two, I figured out which sections actually needed practice to be sufficient. Then, I would pick three sections to work on for 5 minutes each. I found that most trouble spots are only a measure or two, sometimes just a single leap between two chords. While not ideal, I think I learned more about good practice habits in those micro-practice sessions than I did when I would have to get hours of practice every day.

Como posso obter esse fantástico arranjo ou pdf ? Grata

I read the requirements and was wondering why partimento is not required? I would have assumed that it served as a classical springboard sort-to-speak.

great stuff! one quick question, how long is the course?

❤

Genial! 🙌🏻🙌🏻

31:14 Still Got the blues??????

Tell me where does study of species counterpoint fit in? Eg. The youtube tutorials of Dr Jacob Gran. Do aspects of partimento cover this?

Well, I can sight read 30 times the same piece. I can't memorize a single note, I can't play even the first bar without the paper. So, it's like always the first time. Perhaps my brain is rewired differently. 😮😮

💥 You are very right. Being a good memorizer or a good sight reader, deoends on what kind of experience you had at the beginning of studying. In order to be a good reader, you need to read a ton of things, every day, and don't stop on mistakes, keep the tempo, and don't look at the keys. In order to do that, study scales and arpeggios, blindfold. 🎉❤

💥 I play the piano for more than 35 years. I can compose, improvise, even learn several pieces of music, but I can't sight read. I began in music by listening. It was late, at 14, I studied classical music for 3 years, and I discovered Jazz. Since then, I mostly play jazz, but I have played several piano concertos, I studied about 60 Chopin's pieces, among several other composers, but I can't sight read. Even my music reading is poor. I need time to learn very slowly. But reading is proportional to the difficulty. I can almost sight read a Chopin's waltz, but when I sight read, I can't memorize anything. Looks like the brain is rewired in such a way that the circuits used to sight reading prevents memorizing. If I want to memorize a piece, I have to study it carefully, divide in chunks, and memorize by parts. Everybody has weakness, some in reading, some in listening, or composing, or improvising... We are never perfect like Franz Liszt ! 😅😅

You play magnificently ❤ !!!!