Friday, July 22, 2022 by LaDona Ahenda | Books

I've been reading pianist Jeremy Denk's book, Every Good Boy Does Fine, a book about piano lessons and performing. I laughed when I read the following passage about Sonatinas, those essential pieces that develop the skills and knowledge required to play the great Sonatas.

Sonatinas ... music so transcendentally mediocre that it is thought a child cannot ruin it. They follow a formula: You start with a cheerful tune and then play some scales, wrapping things up with the classical equivalent of "jazz hands." At the beginning of the second half, you get one semi-surprising shift, as if the piece were about to become interesting. This is just a decoy - soon you have to play the same dippy tunes and scales all over again. Sonatinas could be considered instruments of torture, despite and because of how happy they seem. 

As I browse through new books for fall teaching, I play each Sonatina as musically as I can possibly make it. Most Sonatinas have at least one or two turns of phrase that we can be made to sound quite beautiful.  And wait for a time when the student is able to play "the good stuff." 

Hats off to Clementi, Kuhlau, Diabelli, et al., for giving us these preparatory pieces. 

Thursday, November 25, 2021 by LaDona Ahenda | Books

There does come a time when the assimilation of new knowledge must temporarily come to a halt. All the knowledge has to be shaken down, evaluated, and let lie, so that it can produce the fermentation needed to generate an inner response to it.

Stewart Gordon, Etudes for Piano Teachers