Piano with Judy H.

The only reason I have taught piano is that I LOVE music, especially piano music. I have THE PASSION for piano teaching. I love to share what I know and appreciate of, to see people enjoy music and piano playing, and to bring more people closer with piano music. It always breaks my heart to see a lot of students (mainly beginning and intermediate leveled) are NOT learning music but mainly asked to memorize every musical piece before they even learn the structure of the music or practice it. Their goal is to play a musical piece out quickly, rather than LEARNING or STUDYING the music or piano in the process. I would like my students to enjoy, understand, and bring the ARTISTRY of music into their life, but not just being able to play out something. I explain why we need to have a good posture and awareness of how our physical parts work together, why we need to have a flexible wrist to play certain passages, why we push our elbows out to play some notes, why we use different weight transfer to the hands, why we don’t attack notes, why we rock our hands back and forth to play certain notes, why we round up the notes rather than pressing the keys down, as early as the students are able to comprehend. Piano studying is not only about learning the notations but also expressions, interpretations, phrasing, structures, tonal relationships, mood, articulations, analysis, and etc. for intermediate and advanced piano students. I include some music history in association with the pieces the students are learning to play, besides the theory and structure of it. I would ask my students to find any patterns in the pieces and any differences between the same or similar passages. I often ask students to tell me what they can find throughout the pieces based on the knowledge they have and what they have acquired through the lessons. I ask them to listen while playing and train them to listen. When they make mistakes, they likely do notice the weirdness about them by listening the sound. I imitate HOW they play a passage and HOW I play it, and ask them what the differences are in terms of techniques and artistic interpretation. I explain how the students should practice and how they can tackle and isolate a problematic area. Competitive endeavors and striving for excellence are appreciated with pedagogic approaches. It is important for me, as a piano instructor, to understand what purposes each student would like to achieve. Although striving for excellence is my personal goal and is what I would like my students to have, not every student takes piano lessons for the same purpose. Some students take piano lessons simply because they just enjoying the therapeutic quality of playing the piano. I am totally respecting that. Having said that, my approach of teaching varies, according to the needs of the students. I don't ever use a universal single method or approach to teach all. Some methods work better for some students but not others. That's why I use different method books to different students. It always makes my day when I hear music pieces my students play with their hearts and enjoyment. It is my joy to see them grow and immerse in music and music studies. *** Lesson Details *** Various teaching methods for different individuals for sight-reading, ear-training, techniques, interpretation, performance, artistry. *** Specialties *** classical piano