Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
πΉ rock solid trills in 5 minutes a day
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After I shared my Cliburn audition of the Bach B flat Partita, the comments on YouTube and Instagram kept mentioning my trills. People noticed how easy they sounded. Here's the thing. I haven't practiced a trill inside a piece since graduate school. π€·ββοΈ Over 40 years ago, I learned a five-minute warm-up from John Perry, R.I.P. I've done it almost every practice session since. When a trill shows up in whatever I'm playing, it just works. I don't stop to negotiate with my wrist. I don't wonder if it should come from my fingers. I already know, because I solved that question years ago, somewhere else entirely. Not inside the piece. That's the part you might be getting backwards. You try to fix the trill while you're also managing phrasing, memory, balance, and the next entrance. That's a lot of jobs for one tiny moment. So I separated it out. One short sequence, done on its own, before the piece ever asks for it. I call it Ninja Trills. Want my trills? β
I told you how much practice time this saves, you wouldn't believe me. Try it for yourself here.β βNinja Trills intro offer is half price through Thursday, Sept. 3. |
Lisa Spector, Piano Ninja
Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
I don't believe in endless hours at the piano. I believe some of your best progress often happens away from the piano. That's why two years ago I created, Beyond the Keys, a 3-day piano retreat in beautiful Monterey, California. πThis year, it's October 8-11. This is not your typical adult piano camp.Gil said it better than I can... Watch a 90 second trailer here. β¬οΈ No grinding. No judgement. No pretending you don't compare yourself to the person next to you. Just a room full of pianists who...
Someone caught it. 23 seconds in, on the Gigue from the B-flat Partita, the one from my 1989 Cliburn audition. A mistake, small, just a switch in the notes. He commented so everyone would hear it. Barely noticeable, but he felt good catching it. π₯Ί I replied without thinking twice. "My motto now is Screw Perfect. Just Make Music." 131 likes on that reply. More than the comment that started it. That reel also got me 466 new followers on Instagram which lead to celebrating 10K followers...
I started my 1989 Cliburn audition with the Bach B flat Partita. π Watch it here. β¬οΈ Someone left a comment I keep coming back to... Good question. Here's the answer I didn't expect to give. No judge ever told me. No scoresheet. Nothing written down anywhere. I built that story out of an absence. I always paired my Bach with my Chopin. People complimented the Chopin. Every single time. Nobody said a word about the Bach. So I decided the silence meant something. π€¦βοΈ No comment became "not good...