I've been playing Amy Beach's "Dreaming" at the same tempo for years. It felt like an andante tempo, as the composer wrote. Then I heard Greg Anderson play it slower. I'm talking seriously slower. 🐢And I stopped mid-scroll and was mesmerized, because something clicked that I didn't want to admit. My tempo wasn't wrong because it wasn't Andante. It was wrong because I'd never questioned it. Here's the thing nobody tells you about tempo: it doesn't just live in your fingers. It lives in your...
13 days ago • 1 min read
You know the moment. You're three lines out from That Passage and your stomach already knows it's coming. 😳 Hands tense. Breath gets shallow. You start playing the mistake before you've even reached the measure. I used to think the fix was more reps. Drill it until the fear goes away. But no matter how many reps, it was hit or miss for years. The fear isn't about the notes. It's about what your body does when it feels it coming. Here's the first thing that changed it for me. SMILE 😃 Tension...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Yep. Fifteen. Chopin Polonaise-Fantasie. Ginastera. Godowsky. All three movements of Chopin E minor Concerto. Scriabin Nocturne for left hand. Gershwin-Wild arrangements. Bach/Brahms Chaconne left hand. Villa-Lobos. That list can feel like too much. I hear it all the time... sitting down to practice and scanning through everything, feeling like you're failing all of them. Like you have to touch everything or you've abandoned it. I built a practice tracker that fixed that. Not by reducing the...
27 days ago • 1 min read
400 pianists entered from 77 countries. ~ 16 were selected to compete in the Vigo (Spain) International Piano Competition. I made the waitlist! 🤩 While there's a prize for best youngest pianist, I'm almost certainly the oldest. 😳 I'm not telling you this to brag. The decision-making, the diagnostic work, knowing when to stop chasing perfection and start chasing beauty, that's what got me on that waitlist. It works at any age, any level. I almost didn't send you the recording that did it. One...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
These comments stopped me cold... Not because of the compliments. (although that was nice too 😊) Because tension-free playing isn't a gift. It's a decision. Specific choices made before your hands ever touch the keys. I turned those choices into a free mini-course. Tension-Free Playing. Short. Practical. It will change what you notice about your own body at the piano. It's free. Go get it here 👉 LisaSpector.com/tension-free Play On,Lisa SpectorPiano Practice StrategistFounder, Piano Ninja...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
I thought my competition days had ended more than 30 years ago. Apparently not. 🤷♀️ There are very few international piano competitions with no age limit. I only know of three.I've been recording for one of them this past week. I love the preparation. What I didn't love was what happened last week. The maximum submission length was 15 minutes, which isn't much time to make an impression. My plan was to submit Brahms's left-hand arrangement of the Bach Chaconne. It's an extraordinary piece,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I started this weekly newsletter 6 months ago and have been searching for the right name for it, followed by a logo. And here it is, sitting at the top of your email. PRACTICE NOTESunfiltered. It didn’t go perfectly. I knew when I landed on the name (after 48 iterations) but I originally started with a completely different design direction. It just wasn’t landing. So I scrapped it and went somewhere entirely different before arriving at the logo you see now. And as soon as I had it, I knew....
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Your score tells you when to pedal down and when to release. You know what it doesn't tell you? How slow or fast to pedal. 🐢 🏃♀️ That gap is where most of your pedaling decisions are happening on autopilot and you don't even know it. In this YouTube short from the recent 50 Shades of the Damper Pedal workshop, I'm playing 24 seconds of Debussy Reflets dans l'eau. I'm describing what to watch and listen for. Watch my foot. You'll notice it doesn't always move at the same speed. Sometimes fast....
2 months ago • 1 min read
Last week I told you the score is lying to you about pedal. This week I want to show you what it sounds like when you stop following the score and start listening instead. Are you using the damper pedal the same way every time? Down to connect. Up to clear. Repeat. 🔁It keeps things smooth. It keeps things safe. And it keeps your playing from ever sounding like anything other than competent. Pedal isn't a connector. It's a color. 🎨 And the moment you hear the difference, you can't go back. In...
2 months ago • 1 min read