A mini workshop in Steinway Piano Gallery, Miami, FL - February 2016
Born in Montreal in 1955 Alan Fraser studied piano but also delved into composition, cello, classical singing and had several stints as a pop musician. Alan’s main pianistic influence was the pioneering research of Phil Cohen who studied alongside Ronald Turini, Andre Laplante and Janina Fialkowska with Yvonne Hubert, who had been Cortot‘s assistant in Paris. Alan spent several years with Cohen after an apprenticeship with two former Cohen students, Alan Belkin and Lauretta Milkman.
Alan talks about the right way to get started with the piano and how the teacher should approach the beginners
Developing a function is a way to avoid stiffness
Alan stresses the importance of standing hand from a young age
Functional standing that gives us the quality tone
Alan works with a young student and explains the propper technique
Short lesson on the thumb and how we started playing with it
A question on how do we set up a beginner's hand on the piano
Alan talks about elasticity and why we should embrace it.
Alan is helping a stundent's dysfunctional hand stand up and gives great performance advice
Many great things in this lesson. Alan explaines many key aspects of his approach
18 minute long lesson with a young pianist packed with useful info
