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.
We are focusing on correcting accents and strengthening fourth finger performance
Alan helps a student improve their fugue performance by addressing hand positioning, finger contr...
Alan demonstrates how understanding the compositional structure of Bach's challenging prelude req...
Proper finger posture—keeping fingers 'standing' rather than relaxed or twisted—creates richer ha...
Alan demonstrates how proper finger positioning—keeping fingertips up and thumbs down—produces ri...
Keeping knuckles raised and properly activating the hand for more power and less tiredness during...
Alan demonstrates how improper hand positioning causes fatigue while playing, comparing bent knuc...
A hand arch exercise. We should always strive for this feeling
A series of exercises around the hand push
Stand up ATMP exercise
Every time we do these, they are different
Use the physical to express musically
You can or can't learn the notes but what will help you tremendously is putting the musical thoug...
Alan talks about the hypothenar muscles and how can we use them (better)