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Inspired Piano Teaching
The Frances Clark Center is thrilled to announce the publication of Inspired Piano Teaching by Marvin Blickenstaff. Mr. Marvin Blickenstaff shares his wisdom and expertise from over 60 years of celebrated piano teaching and teacher workshops.
Inspired Piano Teaching is filled with practical advice on teaching students at all levels. It is dedicated to keeping inspiration and artistry alive for every student in every lesson. After reading the book, teachers will feel like they have attended a multi-day workshop with Marvin. Topics range from proactive teaching, the interview, and the first lesson to technical gestures, guidelines to interpretation, and coaching a piece to performance. This is a book to be experienced, to be consumed, to be internalized—so that teachers can, in turn, pass musical and artistic concepts to students.
Inspired Piano Teaching is filled with practical advice on teaching students at all levels. It is dedicated to keeping inspiration and artistry alive for every student in every lesson. After reading the book, teachers will feel like they have attended a multi-day workshop with Marvin. Topics range from proactive teaching, the interview, and the first lesson to technical gestures, guidelines to interpretation, and coaching a piece to performance. This is a book to be experienced, to be consumed, to be internalized—so that teachers can, in turn, pass musical and artistic concepts to students.
380 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2024
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September 13, 2025
Marvin Blickenstaff has a gift of being able to distill principles of playing the piano into their essense. He has given the piano teaching world short, memorable rules of thumb or "Guidelines to Interpretation" as he calls them in the final section of this book. For example, shorts go to longs, stress the unusual, the last note of the phrase is the softest, and wide leaps require extra time. The kind of principles that are easy to say and remember, even if they're harder to do. They have been invaluable in my teaching since his July 2012 article in the Clavier Companion (now Piano Magazine) which is fleshed out in this book, with loads of other piano teaching wisdom as well. Beginning with why we teach, he sets out his philosophy of well-rounded teaching, dives into foundational skills for beginning and intermediate students, and finishes with the interpretation guidelines already mentioned.
I've had the privilege of having both one of my students and myself play in masterclasses for him, so I can hear his warmth and encouragement in his voice throughout the book. I hope it comes through even if you haven't met him!
Five stars, but could have been made even better if there were links to videos showing the exercises he describes. He encourages teachers to demonstrate for their students, and a demonstration to his readers would have also helped. There are many videos with the same or similar exercises and concepts on the @pianoinspires channel on YouTube or at https://pianoinspires.com/, but you'll need to explore that yourself. Definitely go do that if you happened to discover the book first instead of getting the book because of his work through the Frances Clark Center.
My favourite quote of the book:
Highly recommended to any piano pedagogy student or piano teacher, even if you've taught many first lessons already and you don't think you need a whole chapter on that.
I've had the privilege of having both one of my students and myself play in masterclasses for him, so I can hear his warmth and encouragement in his voice throughout the book. I hope it comes through even if you haven't met him!
Five stars, but could have been made even better if there were links to videos showing the exercises he describes. He encourages teachers to demonstrate for their students, and a demonstration to his readers would have also helped. There are many videos with the same or similar exercises and concepts on the @pianoinspires channel on YouTube or at https://pianoinspires.com/, but you'll need to explore that yourself. Definitely go do that if you happened to discover the book first instead of getting the book because of his work through the Frances Clark Center.
My favourite quote of the book:
Beautiful music reaches deep into our souls, evoking feelings, memories, and aspirations. For a moment, we are affected, transpired, and, yes, in touch with our feelings on a deeper level. Momentarily, we are changed. Beautiful music has the power to change us as human beings.
Highly recommended to any piano pedagogy student or piano teacher, even if you've taught many first lessons already and you don't think you need a whole chapter on that.
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