Play Piano

Why is playing piano so important?

Well for one thing, you are creatively engaged. You are working each side of the brain - you could say you are giving your brain a workout! The right side of the brain controls the left hand and the left side of the brain controls the right hand.
When you are working scales, chords / cadences and arpeggios you could go through this checklist and find that each are is being improved with piano playing. I am not saying piano playing is the only activity that would improve these areas -- no, not the only one, but a good one:
1. working the brain: right / left
2. working the fingers - obviously
3. eye co-ordination - with your inner eye you are projecting how it should be and with your physical eyes you are observing
4. ear control - you know how you want the sound to be and are imagining this sound with your inner ear and then your physical ears are checking up, that it all actually turned out the way you imagined it
5. oh yes, you are working with imagination!
6. you are projecting your emotion into the tune
7. you are raising your emotion as you relax more and more into the music - the scales - the tune you are playing
8. you are detaching from problems of daily life while playing or practicing piano
9. you are breathing with the pulse of the music you are playing
10. you are adjusting your heart rate up or down; in my opinion, piano playing regardless of the piece or speed, it is relaxing -- even if you play a piece in top speed, your heart rate is not necessarily flying with your piece. You adjust your heart rate by breathing and practicing with the metronome, counting out loudly so you know your count and playing aligns perfectly with the metronomic clicks.
11. So it is important to practice breathing, relaxing arms, shoulders, upper, lower arms lose wrist, hands just enough tension to maintain effortlessly good pianistic hand position.
12. Sit upright, comfortably feeling slight body weight over your feet (well grounded), upper body / shoulders lose - your body is lose enough to vibrate with the sounds you are making - to tune in - in contrast if you are all stiff, shrug shoulders and tense your sound will be wooden and have no ring, or it will sound forced.
13. Think of the beauty and quality of your sounds, the music you are playing. - the esthetics in your playing.

This is what I can tell you today about the importance of playing piano.
Playing Piano is an important and creative step in your daily life.
Enjoy, Eva

The importance of teaching and learning piano in these times

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season:

Just came across this link and article about the decreasing creativity in American young children. Besides everything mentioned, I am certain that lack of nutrition and lack of purity of water have a tremendous contributing impact as well.

As a piano teacher I have felt an urgency to work extra hard to help students accomplish their goals. From very young and very early on, do I ask for creative ideas, creative ways of looking at music and decision making. Even in little ones, do I ask what they would like to play for me. I leave as much choices to my piano students, as possible.. However, once a program is decided, we work towards it and complete it. Piano playing, since it trains both sides of the brain equally it is a very important area in every student's life to continue to play piano despite so many distractions and school activities, especially nowadays.

I am also always looking for self expression. Music making is a fantastic way to accomplish that. In order to season a piece, the player's personality and feeling need to shine through. I always expect a student to practice humming or singing the tune of the piece during practice, so the individual emotions can shine through.

I am sure my Play Piano in All Keys finger charts books and work books are helping to bring out more personality by providing solid education in Major and Minor scales, chords/ cadences and arpeggios; important patterns that need to be rehearsed very well since most of classical music build on these patterns. These basic patterns are also a foundation for all creative people wanting to create music. If you can pay in all keys, you will be able to improvise and move easier from one key to another.

Here is the newspaper article that I quoted:

Britannica: What are some possible explanations for the recent decrease in creativity in American children?

Kim: The results of my study indicate that children in the U.S., especially kindergarten through third grade, are becoming less creative as measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), the most respected, tested, and applied creativity test in the world. This is a new finding, so there is no research yet as to the causes for the effect. Still, we can speculate.

Creativity is decreasing for children and adults. For younger children, the decrease probably arises more significantly from their homes than from their schools, because research indicates personality development is most influenced by home environments. Research also indicates that more children are spending the majority of their time in front of televisions, computers, and video games, and less time engaging in what I would consider creative activities.

From: explanations for the decrease in creativity in American children?

Play Piano in All Keys Scales Fingering Charts - video introduction on youtube

My first youtube video introducing my Major and Minor charges book. This manual comes in very handy when learning scales for the very first time. This book also comes in very handy when preparing for an exam and my students use this book until their piano Highschool diploma.

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National Piano Playing Auditions 2010 Results

Hello all:
I am happy to announce our Piano Guild auditions are finally complete. All students testing higher than Elementary B with a National (10 piece) or International (15 piece) program performed scales -  musicianship phases and most chords / cadences and arpeggios musicianship phases as well. I used the book "Play Piano in All Keys" fingering charts to prepare these musicianship phases. And all I can say, I could not have been able to get everyone through their preparations if I would not have had this manual at hand. The students worked their phases and just turned pages. Accurate, traditional fingering - for the first time, as a teacher, could I relax - accurate fingering in all scales is so hard to achieve. But my students did and they were happy and so was I - what a great feeling (for me) to provide such an essential piano playing fundamentals book. Even the late Intermediate and Preparatory (for College) students could benefit from using the scales charts. Never before could I get "clean" scales fingering in 4 octaves - all Major and parallel Minors. This year it was a breeze!

Congratulations to all my students who worked hard setting their goals and achieving them. 10 and 15 piece programs are not easy, regardless how you look at it and everyone who put their mind to it completed it with many commendations and solid performances, all from memory. All National (10 pieces) and International (15 pieces) programs are Gold Medal programs; the 5 piece program is a Bronze Medal. We had a total of 26 Gold Medal programs and 1 Bronze Medal program. The Specials category is for those gifted young pianists who are able to play repertoire in a higher category than expected for their age.

Congratulations to everyone working so hard, staying focused and dedicated:

Riverside, CA May 21, 2010: Judge Beatrice Mosburg:

	Name	Number of Years in Guild auditions	Number of Years National Winner	Classification	Program	Number of pieces performed
1	Jothy Yogarajah	5	5	Intermediate E	National	10
2	Thulasi Yogarajah	5	5	Intermediate A	National	10

Temecula, CA June 6, 2010: Judge Ana Stahl:

	Name	Number of Years in Guild auditions	Number of Years National Winner	Classification	Program	Number of pieces performed
3	Chloe Lovato	5	5	Intermediate B	National	10
4	Sai Sivapalan	8	8	Preparatory Special	International	15
5	Shalini Nair	9	9	Preparatory B	International	15
6	Cynthia Nguyen Phan	4	4	Intermediate Special	National	10
7	Kathleen Nguyen Phan	4	4	Intermediate A	National	10
8	Stacey Nguyen Phan	4	4	Elementary Special	National	10
9	Ranen Unger Hicks	5	5	Elementary Special	National	12
10	Sierra Rupnow	5	5	Intermediate C	National	10
11	Brittany Durgiah	6	3	Intermediate A	District	5

Escondido - Sand Diego, CA July 8 and 11,2010 judge: Ann Vanderschaaf, TX

		Number of Years in Guild auditions	Number of Years National Winner	Classification	Program	Number of pieces performed
12	Thien-Sa Luyen	1	1	Elementary A	National	10
13	Thien-Sam Luyen	1	1	Elementary B	National	10
14	Bret Paddock	7	7	Preparatory B	International	15
15	Cassiopea Bostan	2	2	Elementary Special	International	15
16	Robechelle Mina	1	1	Elementary A	National	10
17	Rossale Mina	1	1	Elementary A	National	10
18	Roxanne Mina	1	1	Elementary A	National	10
19	Anais Perkins	2	2	Intermediate A	National	10
20	Shanti Ryle	9	9	Preparatory D	International	15
21	Mitchell Johnson	5	5	Intermediate F	National	10
22	Patrick Xu	1	1	Intermediate Special	International	15
23	Kelly Rausch	4	4	Elementary E	National	10
24	Song Nguyen	3	3	Intermediate A	National	10
25	Andrew Vu	4	4	Preparatory A	National	10
26	Nessa Vu	4	4	Intermediate B	National	10
27	Victoria Vu	4	4	Intermediate B	National	10

Sincerely, Eva

MTAC Convention July 2 - 5, 2010

Hello all:
The past weeks have been incredibly hectic. Besides the Guild auditions, I had the opportunity to introduce my books "Play Piano In All Keys" Scales, Chords / Cadences, Arpeggios Fingering Charts and Workbooks in the Music Teachers Association of California Convention, at the LAX Marriott.
Four days of meeting with teachers whom I had not seen in many years, talking about my books almost non-stop,... it was exciting and fun. Several teachers looked at my work and told me, that's exactly how they were teaching and hand drawing scales - now they just didn't need to hand draw the scales, chords / cadences fingering charts any more; they just purchased the complete fingering charts book. I cannot wait to hear from teachers how they could integrate the book in their teaching curriculum and what results they could achieve. So far the feed back was very positive.