Blog | WKMT

May 10, 2019
2 min

WKMT Piano Festivals: Musical Practice and live performance

“I can’t play in front of people”, “At home I could play it perfectly”, “My nerves don’t allow me to play in front of an audience” How many times did we hear this during our piano lessons? As a piano teacher in WKMT studio, I have heard it many times. But why this happens to our Piano students? One common symptom is the inability to play the Piano lesson pieces when the teacher (or anyone else) is listening. When an audience is present, these students tend to make strange err

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Rotation Movement - Scaramuzza Piano Technique

Juan José Rezzuto

Oct 24, 2018
2 min

Rotation Movement - Scaramuzza Piano Technique

Introduction This article is much better understood after attending the masterclass dictated by Juan Rezzuto at WKMT. In other words, this article is meant to be used complemented Juan Rezzuto's masterclass on “rotation” movement. Definition The “rotation movement” is one of the most complex movements in the Scaramuzza technique. It involves the supinator and pronator muscles, the forearm, the palm, and the fingers primordially. The idea behind the application of this movemen

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Juan José Rezzuto

Oct 16, 2018
3 min

Wrist Movement

Anatomy We will give a name to a movement based on the part of our body that moves and becomes responsible for actioning the keys. In the case of the wrist movement, in particular, this clarification becomes fundamental to understand how to produce this movement. Even though the wrist movement is “seen” to be happening at a “wrist level,” the muscles responsible for moving the wrist are not located on the wrist. The muscle which is eminently in charge of the activation of t

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Four remarkable piano performances / VII WKMT Music Festival 12.05.2018

Juan José Rezzuto

Jul 2, 2018
2 min

Four remarkable piano performances / VII WKMT Music Festival 12.05.2018

It was a pleasure to see our piano students in action at our last Music Festival. It was very satisfactory to me as director of WKMT to look at our students making sustainable progress since the previous edition to this one. The repertoire performed was of a much higher level, and the quality of the performances was noticeably more robust. The majority of our students look relaxed while playing. I was particularly happy to see performers like Marinela Pasca, already deliver

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Juan José Rezzuto

Apr 25, 2018
3 min

Hand settlement and Left Hand

Hand placement can prove to be fundamental for the implementation of an efficient piano technique. I have seen my students, and sometimes even myself, trying to apply a specific piano movement to a particular passage without having adequately settled the hand into the keyboard. What does settlement imply? I personally consider a hand is appropriately “settled” when it is inserted on the piano in a way in which it can easily support the weight of the fingers without having to

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PIANO PRACTISING: HOW TO PRACTISE MORE EFFICIENTLY

Juan José Rezzuto

Apr 4, 2018
4 min

PIANO PRACTISING: HOW TO PRACTISE MORE EFFICIENTLY

PIANO PRACTICE ROUTINE: HOW TO DEVELOP A MORE EFFICIENTLY PRACTISING TIME An exemplary student: Mark Yeo performance of Haydn Bozner Sonata at WKMT Music Festival 18.11.2017 London - Fitzrovia Not performing for long time-spams can prove to be detrimental to our artistic abilities. To be honest lacking time for piano practice is the worst enemy of any kind performer. Reaching the momentum once again can prove to be both very tedious and a quite disappointing process altogethe

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Juan José Rezzuto

Mar 13, 2018
2 min

Piano Technique - Arm Movement

Considerations Arm movement is the “largest” of all pianistic movements. It involves the use of more muscles than any other movement in our technique. It can be used, along with the forearm movement, to enter in the piano at the beginning of our performance. It can easily be used for expressive accompaniments. Functions Negative movement The movement starts from the back of our arm, it pushes our wrist until it gives in. Simultaneously, one finger works as an axis stopping th

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Practising on a digital piano or on an acoustic piano?

Juan José Rezzuto

Feb 11, 2018
3 min

Practising on a digital piano or on an acoustic piano?

Keyboard vs piano? Introduction Many things have been said about practising on a digital piano. Old school piano teachers state that piano students should never practise in digital pianos because it can ruin their sense of tone. They also say it can also affect the way they project the sound and how they manage textures. in reality, there is hardly anything written about the disadvantages of studying on a digital piano. Seemingly, the good old maestros are too busy playing th

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Juan José Rezzuto

Dec 30, 2017
2 min

Compound Themes - Interpretation

Compound Themes Size 16 measures (standard) Types There are two types of Compound Themes Compound Period The compound antecedent can be built up of: Presentation Antecedent Compound Basic Idea + Continuation The compound antecedent: generally ends in HC It can’t end in "consequent" as it would bring the b.i. back too early in the theme. 1. Presentation + Continuation The reinstatement of the b.i. at the beginning of the presentation is perceived as a “repeat”

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Phrase Deviations, Cadential Deviations and Framing Functions CH.5

Harmony review - Analysing Haydn Piano Sonatas

Juan José Rezzuto

Nov 22, 2017
2 min

Harmony review - Analysing Haydn Piano Sonatas

Harmony review - Analysing Haydn Piano Sonatas It is fundamental, for the sake of music analysis, to be very confident about our knowledge of harmony. This article reviews those harmonic functions and elements usually found in most classical sonatas. Harmonic Progressions Prolongational One of Haydn’s most commonly used progressions; prolongational harmonies serve to support the harmonic effect of a chord through the use of 4 different methods: Neighbouring chords We can easi

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Juan José Rezzuto

Nov 16, 2017
2 min

WKMT Piano Scholars

WKMT was established in 2010. In its beginnings, WKMT tried and employed many different piano teachers, some of them became part of its pedagogical core while some other passed through leaving behind beautiful musical remembrances.. Since 2017, WKMT differentiated itself from all other private organizations and become a part of a smaller elite group… WKMT is one of the few London practises which offers lessons with fully committed piano teachers. Our professionals are careful

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Juan José Rezzuto

Nov 11, 2017
2 min

Forearm movement - Piano Technique

Forearm Movement - Piano Technique Definition and structure The forearm movement is made of two very distinct stages -its positive and its negative movements-. The negative movement becomes its most important compound as it is paradoxically the one that requires the muscles to be enacted. Structure Negative movement The elbow should be left completely relaxed forming a 90 degree angle (approximately) between the shoulder and our hand. All the job of lifting the forearm itself

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Juan José Rezzuto

Oct 24, 2017
2 min

Haydn Sonatas - Transition in general

From all piano sonata sections, the transition is by far the least defined of them. Some musicians say the transitions are the truly creative functions of the sonata form; some others say the exact opposite -that they are the most technical of all sonata functions-. The position we adopt will depend on whether we consider compositional resources as means to create something new or to develop something we already created. The main purpose of transitions is to destabilize the s

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Piano Performance: Music Inertia VS Phrase Control

Juan José Rezzuto

Sep 26, 2017
2 min

How to analyse Haydn Piano Sonatas

How to analyse Haydn Piano Sonatas Introduction Analysing all Haydn Piano sonatas imply being aware of many different concepts related to the composition of these pieces. In general, my analysis are based on the theoretical work “Classical Forms” written by William Caplin. This is a quite extensive book which explains all the basics and particularities of classical forms. My analysis are fundamentally different to others, mainly because they integrate the compositional, harmo

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Is it late for me to start learning piano?

Juan José Rezzuto

Sep 1, 2017
3 min

Is it late for me to start learning piano?

Classical music and most specifically piano can come to us at very different points of our life. My former maestro, Bruno Gelber, used to say that for the majority of people, classical music arrives during maturity. Does this mean that it is too late for mature students to develop practical piano skills? Not really. There's not a minimum age for piano lessons. As opposite to sports, performing the piano is an activity we can carry on doing until the very last stages of our

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Haydn Sonata in F Hob. XVIF3 - 1st movement / development

Juan José Rezzuto

Aug 12, 2017
2 min

Haydn Sonata in F Hob. XVIF3 - 1st movement / development

DEVELOPMENT This section opens with theme A transposed to the dominant tone as expected. It is then followed by an episode focusing on the tail of the first episode’s motive. It basically utilises the last descending section of the passage anticipated by two semi-quavers from episode-one’s ascending gesture. These gestures are used in contribution with the build-up of episode-one’s main motive recapitulation. Haydn will instate a longer sequence of repetitions on this motive,

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Juan José Rezzuto

Aug 9, 2017
3 min

Haydn Sonata in F Hob. XVIF3 Bozner

I - Allegro Moderato This is a rather unussual example for an early Haydn Sonata. The way it is written proposes a big challenge to the pianist. This challenge is not a technical one though; it is mainly interpretative... NOTE: For the sake of this analysis, we will only consider themes, those musical compounds which are more than 8 bars long. EXPOSITION Theme A The correlation between short and long notes and the way in which Haydn establishes a melodic vertical line moving

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WKMT Piano Festivals: Musical Practice and live performance

Rotation Movement - Scaramuzza Piano Technique

Wrist Movement

Four remarkable piano performances / VII WKMT Music Festival 12.05.2018

Hand settlement and Left Hand

PIANO PRACTISING: HOW TO PRACTISE MORE EFFICIENTLY

Piano Technique - Arm Movement

Practising on a digital piano or on an acoustic piano?

Compound Themes - Interpretation

Phrase Deviations, Cadential Deviations and Framing Functions CH.5

Harmony review - Analysing Haydn Piano Sonatas

WKMT Piano Scholars

Forearm movement - Piano Technique

Haydn Sonatas - Transition in general

Piano Performance: Music Inertia VS Phrase Control

How to analyse Haydn Piano Sonatas

Is it late for me to start learning piano?

Practicing Problems

Haydn Sonata in F Hob. XVIF3 - 1st movement / development

Haydn Sonata in F Hob. XVIF3 Bozner