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Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum - Part 3
Playing by Ear
Although playing by ear might seem to be the opposite of sight-reading, we read with our ears as much as with our eyes. The inner ear helps us to navigate a new score, predict what is coming and improvise when the eyes haven’t had enough time to absorb everything. The third part of our Advanced Sight-Reading curriculum serves to strengthen the role of the ear by developing skills ranging from playing by ear, filling in harmony intuitively, reading open scores and improvising.
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Ken Johansen
Ken Johansen is a pianist, teacher, and writer based in Baltimore, where he teaches at the Peabody Conservatory. His projects include the iPad sight-reading app Read Ahead, a keyboard harmony textbook Harmony at the Piano, the From the Ground Up series and an advanced sight-reading curriculum.
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Quarantine-Spots
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you have spots in your pieces that regularly break down you’re going to need to identify them and isolate these sections so you can do some quality, systematic practice on them. This process I call quarantining, and each extract... Read >>
Separate Practice
Learning a complex piece each hand alone before putting the hands together is a strategy favoured by the majority of piano teachers. While it is of course possible to practise a fugue hands separately, this misses the point. Rather than working hands separately, I advocate strands separately (playing each line... Read >>
Practising for Long-Term Results
In this video, William Westney demonstrates a remarkably easy technique for mind and body to truly “digest” (and remember) what we’ve practised.... Read >>
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Slow Practice
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