Jerry Martini was the sax player for Sly and the Family Stone. In fact, according to the story, he was the one who came up with the idea to start the band. This was a San Francisco band, and I have lived in the SF Bay Area since mid-seventies. Somewhere [read more...]

I was recently interviewed by Bridgette Devin, co-host of the “Behind the Scenes” Podcast. We talked about how I started my music teaching business; a few pointers about how to practice successfully; the concept of practicing, and why it is necessary; learning methods, and more. You can listen to [read more...]

Many prospective students ask about how to choose an electric piano. First of all, I strongly recommend going to an actual store to try out electric pianos. Buying via mail order (ie, from an online store) is not recommended! You really need to feel and touch an instrument to get a [read more...]

By Ernie Mansfield There is a story about Leopold Auer, who was a famous Russian violin teacher. Auer was the teacher of Jascha Heifetz, who later became one of the most famous violinists of our time. Heifetz was the first violinist to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto up to speed. [read more...]

Students - and parents of students - often have concerns about how much time should be devoted to practicing instruments at home. I think it is important to understand that being overly concerned about practice can lead to unnecessary levels of stress, and can actually detract from learning an instrument. [read more...]

I recently had a conversation with a friend. He doesn’t play the piano, but he wants to learn. In fact, he has been wanting to learn for a long time. I mentioned to him that I would give him a couple of free lessons. He countered that he had found [read more...]