As Chopin’s birthday approaches, I’ll admit it... I’m in a full-blown love affair. 💕 This week I’m recording the Polonaise-Fantaisie.After decades with this music, here’s what I’ve learned…You can’t decorate it.You can’t “add” to it. The moment you force it, the music resists. So how much rubato is too much? I recorded a short video exploring exactly that. 👀 Watch ⬇️How Much Rubato Is Too Much? If you want your Chopin to sound passionate but not messy, join me this Thursday.FROM TECHNICAL TO...
9 days ago • 1 min read
If you heard my Rachmaninoff on Valentine's Day, you know that I love schmalz in my music. 🥰 But I cringe when it’s added at the wrong time, especially in Chopin. 🙃 You're probably not lacking in expression. You may just be adding it in the wrong place. 🎼 A tiny practice experiment for you:Before you add rubato this week... Play the phrase completely without flexibility. Build the harmonic tension. Identify the exact point where the phrase can support rubato. Only then allow the rubato to...
16 days ago • 1 min read
I performed the Chopin Polonaise-Fantasie live Sunday. I was deeply inside the music, listening phrase by phrase, letting the space between the notes speak, enjoying every moment. Even the double-thirds felt easy. Then, at the height of the coda, I had a memory slip. I got close to the end, but it was improvised from that point on. Probably no one noticed except my student in the room who is also working on this transcending work. And then I did exactly what I tell you not to do. 🤦♀️ When he...
23 days ago • 1 min read
In high school, a pianist acquaintance said to me: “Lisa, you’re naturally talented technically. But my natural talent is musical.” Ouch, that stung. 🐝 But not because I believed it. It stung because it reduced me to technique, as if all I cared about was speed and accuracy. As if the hours I spent trying to shape a phrase or color a line meant nothing. As if musicality was something I didn’t already value, deeply. What I didn’t realize at the time?I had accidentally started practicing as if...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The comment I hear most frequently after a performance or on one of my videos is... “Your hands just glide over the keys. How do you make it look so easy?” Here’s the truth:It is easier when you use smart, efficient fingering with minimal movement. When practice starts feeling frustrating or inefficient, it’s rarely because you’re not working hard enough. More often, it’s because fingering has never truly been decided. This happens even at an advanced level, when there are multiple...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The first week of the new year, I shared that I’m preparing to enter my first international piano competition in over 30 years.(Missed it? You can read it here.) The volume of music itself wasn’t my concern.Memory was. 🤔 At this stage of life, memorizing hours of repertoire, much of it left-hand-only music I’ve never needed to memorize before, forces an uncomfortable question: not how much can I learn, but how reliably can I retain it under pressure. The Brahms left hand arrangement of Bach’s...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Nothing about the last week has felt normal. I don’t know how to write a newsletter right now and make it feel meaningful. When words fail me, I turn to music. Not for answers, but for a place to hold my heavy heart. I’m sharing a short excerpt of Chopin’s Funeral March here:👀 Watch on YouTube 👇 I also shared it on Instagram here Play On,Lisa Spector 🎹 🥷
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
As the new year begins, I want to share something I’ve decided. This year, I’m preparing to enter an international piano competition. At the recent International Chopin Competition, I heard a contestant say on an interview, “Nobody enjoys playing in competitions. We all just do it because we have to.” That was never true for me. I always loved preparing for competitions. Not for the outcome, but for what the process demands: sharper listening, clearer decisions, less excess, more focus. It...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I didn’t change how I practice by working harder or adding more music. Most of the real shifts happened years ago. What became especially clear to me in 2025 was how many old assumptions I had quietly let go of and how often I still see them shaping the way pianists practice today.They were ideas that once felt useful… until they weren’t. 🤔 10 practice assumptions I no longer believe (2025 edition) 1) A final tempo is a set goal. 2) Dotted-rhythm practice is a necessary step for fast...
2 months ago • 1 min read