Dear Friends,

I just got back from Bowling Green State University, after spending yesterday as the featured presenter for the Northwest Ohio MTA Fall Piano Pedagogy Seminar. It was a busy day! I presented three sessions – Repertoire Alternatives to Overplayed Piano Pieces, Seven Foundations of Piano Technique, and The Musical Legacy of Fanny Mendelssohn – along with a Q&A and a masterclass. It was a fun day, and I enjoyed meeting teachers from northwest Ohio and spending time with the BGSU piano students who attended!

At one point during the day, a teacher asked me: “I noticed you've been talking quite a bit about works by women composers in your presentations. Is there any particular reason for that?”

It wasn't until she asked that question that I realized I have gradually become more and more interested in the women composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Many were successful in their lifetimes, but their music fell into obscurity as the traditional canon of classical music was codified.

I have been pleasantly surprised to learn that my own assumptions (learned during my training) were completely wrong: women composers did, in fact, contribute significant value to the piano repertoire of the 18th and 19th centuries. Serious scholarship on these composers and their contributions didn’t begin until the 1980s and 1990s, and it has continued to pick up steam ever since. Many manuscripts have been kept in private collections, making them difficult for scholars to access. It takes time to fully understand a composer and uncover the breadth of her compositional activity.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel is a great example. At the end of her life and shortly afterward, only eleven opus numbers ("opera") of her works were published. This led to the false assumption that she was not terribly prolific and wrote mostly miniatures.

Today, we understand that Hensel composed more than 450 works, which were finally catalogued in chronological order by Renate Hellwig-Unruh in 2000.

Hensel's story is just one example, repeated across the lives of many women of the 18th and 19th centuries. So, my answer to yesterday's question was simple: Women were wrongly excluded from the canon for many years, and now that we are re-discovering these amazing works I am excited to learn more about them and share them with people!

Thank you to all of you who have written to me with stories of lesser-known composers and works you particularly enjoy. I will gather these thoughts together for a future issue and share them with you all!

👋 Have a great week! Happy Practicing! 🎹

-Kate

Today's Practice Tip: SLOW PRACTICE! 🐢

I like to joke that about 20% of my work as a teacher involves sharing my knowledge and expertise with my students – while the other 80% is telling them to practice slowly!

While this might not literally be true, slow practice is an open secret to improvement that everyone knows, but few have the patience and dedication to truly embrace.

Playing under tempo allows your brain to process more "frames per second," making it easier to identify patterns and transfer information from short-term to long-term memory. You may find yourself easily distracted at first, but with repetition, slow practice will sharpen your ability to focus, both in the practice room and on stage.

While many students use slow practice when they begin learning a piece, it remains important at every stage of learning, especially when a piece reaches performance level.

Although it may not feel immediately rewarding, slow practice pays dividends when used regularly. This week, I challenge you to dedicate at least 15 minutes each day to slow practice.

This week’s exercise: Slow Practice, 3 Ways

1. Select a challenging 4-8 measure section of one of your current pieces, and practice it at half tempo, using your metronome (e.g. for a piece marked at 120 beats per minute, set the metronome to 60 beats per minute). Repeat this two days in a row.
2. Select a larger section of a piece you can already play well (e.g., the exposition section of a sonata), and practice it at 50% of the goal tempo for one day, at 65% tempo for one day, and at 80% tempo for one day, using your metronome.
3. Do slow-motion practice for a short fragment of a piece that is technically challenging for you, and play it veeeery slowly, focusing on moving smoothing between notes and avoiding jerky motions. Repeat this, with the same section, two days in a row.

When doing slow practice, keep these things in mind:

• Clear distractions: put away your phone and clear away any clutter.
• Engage your mind: this kind of practice will be mentally taxing, when done right.
• Stay relaxed: strive for relaxed shoulders and elbows, and keep your wrists flexible and loose.
• Breathe: check in with your body and make sure to breathe naturally.

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🎥 YouTube video:

Since this week's practice tip focuses on slow practice, here are links to two videos I've created on this topic:

• ​Slow Practice at the Piano (with 5 Tips!)
• ​Practice Tutorial: 6 Examples of Slow Practice​

💜 Some of My Favorite Things

1. 🎶 Performance: I’m currently working with a student on Tchaikovsky’s iconic Piano Concerto No. 1. Revisiting this piece makes me remember this thrilling performance by Martha Argerich from the Verbier Festival in 2014. I have been fortunate to hear Argerich perform several times live in concert, and will never forget those experiences.
2. 📚 Book: Piano-Playing Revisited, by David Breitman. This is a great book for pianists interested in applying historical performance practice concepts to their interpretations on the modern piano. The book also contains information about the evolution of the piano, as well as historical sources for performance practice. Click here to see my other book recommendations.​
3. 🖋️Resource: HenselPushers.org. This is an amazing resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about the music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The stated mission of HenselPushers is to “share and celebrate the work of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel” – they are dedicated to providing free PDFs of her compositions, which you can find on their website.

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🎹 Stay Connected:

• 🎓 Contact me to learn about applying to study with me at Butler University at the undergraduate or master's level.
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