No scale system would be complete without scales in double thirds and sixths. Largely neglected by students and teachers from America and other western nations, double-note scales have for at least two centuries been the cornerstone of the “Russian Piano School”. Practicing scales in double notes is difficult but highly rewarding, in that the required techniques involved imbue students with incredible control, power, flexibility, and finger independence. Determining the most logical and practical fingerings for double-note scales is difficult and elusive. This article explains and justifies the fingerings used in Volume 3 (the double-note volume) of BachScholar’s Complete Guide to Major & Minor Scales……

Franz Liszt’s (1811-886) arrangement of Nicolo Paganini’s (1782-840) La Campanella is arguably the most popular classical piano piece on YouTube. It has become the ultimate “litmus test” for pianists to show off their technique and bravura playing, which is strange piece to select for this category since it is only marked Allegretto…..

J.S. Bach composed over 400 four-part chorales, which have recently been compiled and edited for piano by the author. This page presents a list of 60 of the musically finest chorales according to the author at the time of this writing. This was a very difficult list to compile, and especially difficult was the decision of which chorales should be in the top 20 out of 400.

A "Hymn Tune" or “Chorale Tune” is the specific melody Bach used for his chorales, which may include chorales that bear different titles. Below are Bach's chorales categorized alphabetically according to their Hymn Tunes,

J.S. Bach’s four-part (or four-voice) chorales are classical music’s ultimate masterpieces in harmony. Bach composed a total of over 400 chorales, which come from two sources, the C.P.E. Bach Collection and Bach’s approximately 200+ cantatas. A typical church cantata by Bach usually included a chorale as the final movement, which most today would refer to as a “church hymn,” although Bach’s chorales are usually a bit more harmonically complex than most popular hymns we are familiar with today.

Imagine this scenario: A young and highly gifted piano student can play all the major and minor scales and arpeggios four octaves at a fast tempo and can play Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu well and up to speed. This young student, who is under the age of 15, loves practicing piano, is a fast learner and fast memorizer, and has spent the last three years working his way up the grades in one of the world's leading piano testing systems

BACH MEETS RAGTIME: 10 Four-Part Chorales Arranged, Volume 2 is a diverse and exciting collection of chorale arrangements for piano that remain true to Bach’s originals, yet are fully immersed in ragtime and related styles. These are ideal pieces for the studio and concert hall and are relatively difficult ranging from about Grades 6-10. Here is a short summary of each…..

BACH GOES ROMANTIC: 10 Four-Part Chorales Arranged, Volume 1 is a diverse and exciting collection of chorale arrangements for piano that remain true to Bach’s originals, yet are fully immersed in the 19th-century romantic style. These are ideal pieces for the studio and concert hall and are relatively difficult ranging from about Grades 6-10. Here is a short summary of each:

Listen to virtually any recording of a “French” style courante in Bach’s keyboard suites — namely, any courante in 3/2 or 6/4 time in the Six English Suites, Six French Suites, Six Partitas, Overture in the French Style — and you will be given the impression that courantes are fast and lively “show” pieces like the Chopin or Liszt etudes. Ever since I embarked on serious study of historic Bach tempi, beginning in graduate school in 1992, this performance tradition has befuddled me. The French courante is by far the most misunderstood and misinterpreted dance style used by Bach in his suites, mainly with regards to tempo, touch, and character….

In my opinion as a pianist and piano teacher, hymns and chorales are among the most neglected and overlooked musical style, which is unfortunate since they provide countless benefits and skills for pianists of all levels. Hymns and chorales should be a regular part of the pianist's practice routine from around "Grade 3" up to the professional, concert level. Nobody is exempt. Hymns and chorales are analogous to vitamins and minerals. The great 19th-century pianist Hans von Bülow (1830-94) was famous for proclaiming that Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier is the pianist's "Old Testament" while Beethoven's 32 Sonatas are the pianist's "New Testament”….

Learning to play classical piano well and to excel in the music of the great masters like Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and others takes much desire, dedication, and practice. Ideally, the younger one begins piano study the better one will be able to play later in life; however, it is encouraging to know that students at any age can begin piano study and it is never too late to learn piano.

Most piano teachers and students are well aware of the value of practicing slowly. Moreover, countless high-profile pianists and instrumentalists have espoused the value of slow practice. The great pianist John Browning advocated that the best and most efficient practice speed is a slow tempo that is neither too slow nor too fast, but a “moderate” tempo that allows for total control and intelligible phrasing.

Most students and teachers of piano are well aware that playing major and minor scales and arpeggios four octaves is the “industry standard.” Colleges, conservatories, popular examination programs like ABRSM or RCM and others, as well as most university or conservatory trained piano teachers throughout the world regard four-octave scales as something like the “Holy Grail” of piano study. Basically, if you cannot play your scales and arpeggios four octaves at a fast tempo (or even at a slow tempo) you are often thought of as being sub-par in your pianistic abilities…..

The rise of videos and YouTube culture over the past decade or two (ca. 2005-present) has dramatically changed the way pianists approach the instrument, often for the worst. I say this because what has been lost in the glorification of the visual over aural — “aural” refers to when all we had was recordings before the rise of YouTube and other video platforms — is the art and science known as “economy of motion.” Arguably the most celebrated pianist of the 20th century, Vladimir Horowitz, had economy of motion down to such a science……

Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises by Charles-Louis Hanon (1819-1900), first published in 1873 in Boulogne, France, has since the late 1800s established itself as the most beloved, popular, and best-selling of all exercise books for pianists. It is quite shocking and certainly an anomaly that the most popular exercise book of all time was written by a man, a Third Order Franciscan monk by occupation, who was neither a concert pianist (and presumably, not a “virtuoso”) nor an accomplished composer with a substantial body of published works…..

Sight-reading is perhaps the area in which students and teachers express the most concern and, students especially, confess the most weakness. In my 35 years of teaching piano, I have rarely witnessed exceptional sight-readers and have been told time and time again by students that sight-reading is their worst area. If we were to poll a room full of 1000 pianists in which they rank their own abilities in technique, theory, musicianship, and sight-reading, it is sight-reading that would most likely get the lowest score…..

When I wrote my popular book Sight-Reading & Harmony in 2016-2017, my main objective was to address what I believe to be two of the most pressing problems encountered by pianists today, namely, note and chord identification. I believe the next pressing problems are the related issues of rhythm and tempo. So, here I am a few years later writing a book addressing several important and foundational issues pertinent to rhythm and tempo. This book offers a systematic approach to rhythm, tempo, counting, and related topics. It is based on my experience of 50 years as a pianist and over 35 years teaching piano and music theory…..

This article summarizes BachScholar’s new groundbreaking edition of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” which explains Bach’s symmetrical tempo plan indicated by the use of fermatas. This attractive Urtext of Bach’s popular variation cycle is not only extremely user-friendly and extra-legible, but in addition, presents thought-provoking performance practice research that explains Bach’s never-before-revealed plan of tempo relationships between variations. This discovery is highly significant with regards to the tempi chosen for the variations in a complete performance…..