Learn to sight-read more fluently by practicing with a partner, an experienced guide at your side. Of course, we know to keep our eyes on the page and look ahead. We know to begin by scanning for surprises of meter, accidentals or key change. We know, too, that setting a reasonable tempo based on the fastest note values ensures a successful performance. But in the final analysis we must learn not to stop for mistakes, the wayward flat, the dangling mordent or what-in-the-world-kind-of-scale was that, anyway. It would be rude to abandon a partner in search of the aforementioned and if social pressure isn't enough, just remember that might very well be your teacher there at your side, cracking the whip. So, look into these pages of colorful harmonizations from the collection of chorales by J.S. Bach, just to get started. There are forays into rare occasional pieces by Chopin, Schumann, Arensky, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. And the intrepid will find a 20th century organ prelude and a complete duet sonata by Mozart, just to name a few.
About the Author: Unlike life, playing the piano is easy and doesn't hurt. This mantra has carried Neil Stannard through what might seem to others like several lifetimes-performing as a collaborative pianist, soloist, symphony bassist and, through it all, a dedicated teacher. He took part in the first Taubman Institute at Rensselaerville, NY, and though he does not represent the Institute, he has participated in many more at Amherst, studying privately in New York with Edna Golandsky for many years. He has performed internationally with such artists as David Shifrin, Hermann Baumann, Leona Mitchell, Eugenia Zukerman, Clamma Dale and Christiane Edinger in venues from London to Moscow, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the White house, Vienna's Muiskverein, Berlin's Hocshschule and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. He has taken part in the Great Performers at Lincoln Center series, the Berlin Festival, the Vienna Festival, Tage Neue Musik, Marlboro and the New Port Festival. And yes, he has taught continuously through all that. After graduating cum laude from the University of Southern California, a scholarship student of Muriel Kerr, John Crown and Jacob Gimpel, he received a Naumberg scholarship for double bass to the Juilliard School (MS), during which time he performed in the American Symphony with Leopold Stokowski and in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra with Pablo Casals (Columbia Records). It was during this time that he made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Recital Hall as a pianist with violinist Christiane Edinger. Later, he studied piano on a German government grant with Gerhard Puchelt in Berlin, completed a doctorate in piano at the University of Arizona with Nicholas Zumbro and for 13 years taught graduate and under graduate piano at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he was a tenured professor. He now lives and teaches in Los Angeles, where he writes, paints, captures life in photos, plays the cello and, oh yes, still plays the piano with abandon.