I will be forever indebted to my own teachers, whose wisdom permeates anything useful I may have to say. All the thoughts and ideas about practicing offered in these pages are my own genuine expressions; the tools described are the ones I have used myself all my life and that I explore daily with my students. But given the long, unbroken chain of transmission from piano teacher to student across the generations, who can claim ownership of any of it? Practice skills are collective wisdom! We put everything we are taught into the blender, so to speak. We throw our own ideas, energy & personality into the mix…. we leave aside whatever isn’t helpful for us; we introduce new material from all kinds of sources…. time passes, we grow and learn and change, the blender blends, and at some point, with any luck, we honor our teachers by putting the whole thing to good use. And by passing it on.
Rachel, you are a great teacher. My lessons and my practices are places and moments where I always want to be and enjoy being. Thank you!