Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio? YES! YES, I DID!
(YouTube; 5 minutes; recorded April 27, 2024)
This is the "after" video of my experiment. In this video, I play the arpeggio at my target speed, and I explain why I chose to do these arpeggio videos in the first place.
Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio? Day 27
(YouTube; 8 minutes; recorded April 20, 2024)
Day 27. 185bpm. Slowly but surely!
Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio? Day 21
(YouTube; 4 minutes; recorded April 14, 2024)
It's Day 21. I'm up to 170bpm. Still headed for 200!
Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio? Day 12
(YouTube; 2 minutes; recorded April 5, 2024)
It's Day 12 of this experiment. This is sure taking a lot of work! Here is the update on my progress.
Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio? Day 6
(YouTube; 5 minutes; recorded March 30, 2024)
This is the second interim video of my experiment - How long will it take me to learn to play a smooth E-flat minor 4-octave arpeggio? In this video, I explain how I’ve been practicing it so far.
Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio? Day 3
(YouTube; 4 minutes; recorded March 27, 2024)
This is the first interim video of my experiment - How long will it take me to learn to play a smooth E-flat minor 4-octave arpeggio? In this video, I explain how I’ve been practicing this over the first 3 days.
Will I Be Able To Improve This Arpeggio?
(YouTube; 3 minutes; recorded March 24, 2024)
This is the "before" video of an experiment - How long will it take me to learn to play a smooth E-flat minor 4-octave arpeggio with both hands in eighth notes at quarter-note equals 200 bpm? I will post follow-up videos with the results.
Playing By Ear
(YouTube; 9 minutes; recorded March 24, 2024)
This video is an explanation of how I approach teaching people to play by ear.
Medley Created From Student Compositions
(YouTube; 7 minutes; recorded March 19, 2023)
In 2019, I asked my piano students to each create a short composition. I combined all of their pieces into a single composition that I had planned to play at our next recital. The pandemic threw the recital schedule off kilter, but in 2023 we decided to do an online recital. This is the video of me playing the combined composition for that online recital.
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
(YouTube; 2 minutes; recorded December 16, 2021)
This is a recording of me playing a song for a Christmas recital with my students. We each recorded songs separately and posted them to a shared location.
Piano Study Examples
(YouTube; 12 minutes; recorded May 5, 2021)
(YouTube; 11 minutes; recorded October 20, 2020)
The following are videos of me learning piano compositions. In each video, I explain aloud as I go along what I'm thinking and doing. The purpose of these videos is to:
(YouTube; 6 minutes)
The best way to learn music. Even if you can’t play piano like Paul Barton, brainstorm other ways you and your family and friends can organically build the joy of making music.
Music As A Language: Victor Wooten(YouTube; 19 minutes)
This video gets at the heart of a topic that is dear to me. Learning music should be an immersive and exploratory experience, just like learning one's native language.
The Greatest 5 Minutes In Music Education: Leonard Bernstein(YouTube; 6 minutes)
This video explains (too quickly, maybe!) how so much music came to be focused on 12 musical tones to which many instruments today (including the piano) are tuned.
Seppe Gebruers Plays With "The Folks Who Live On The Hill"(YouTube; 4 minutes)
This Belgian musician has such a brilliant way of providing a pianist with a 24-tone scale. Two pianos, or two keyoards, tuned a quarter-tone apart and pulled up next to each other - an excellent way for those of us who've only played with the 12-tone scale all of our lives to explore microtones.
Conduct Us(YouTube; 4 minutes)
This video is a fun example of sharing music with the community at large.
Ode To Joy: Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain(YouTube; 7 minutes)
Another example of sharing music with many people all at once.
The Sherman Brothers: Disney's Great Songwriting Duo(YouTube; 6 minutes)
The Sherman Brothers are two of my musical heroes. Their vast knowledge of music and ability to create such a variety of perfectly crafted music is awe-inspiring to me. This video only touches the tip of the iceberg of the musical prowess of Richard and Robert Sherman.
The Young Composers Workshop(Seattle Symphony Plus; 34 minutes)
This is a 30-minute documentary about the Seattle Symphony's 2023 Young Composers Workshop. Each teenager created a composition for full orchestra! Performances of their pieces can also be found further down the link's page.