Quotes

I've been collecting inspirational quotes for years.  I've included a few here.  Perhaps one day I will expound on them.  For the present, I hope they provide just that: inspiration to approach the piano with confidence and to play with satisfaction.  

At the piano I am a teacher, a coach, a cheerleader.  No, I don't have pom-poms, although now that I think of it...  These various quotes and others have instilled confidence in me to encourage my students to strive for more.  I think it's working!

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Gabriel Faure, in a letter to his son Philippe in 1908: "For me, art, and especially music, exist to elevate us as far as possible above everyday existence."  

"The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious."  Lester Bangs

Ella Fitzgerald: "I know I'm no glamour girl, and it's not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I've got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing."

"Talent is only a starting point."  Irving Berlin

Gilbert Kalish, a longtime professor of piano performance at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said he finds the necessity of adjusting to quite different pianos an "interesting challenge."  He emphasizes to his students: "You don't play by feel; you don't play by habit; you play by sound, by listening to what's being produced.  You have to learn to trust yourself, not to depend on someone out there listening."

"Every skill you have today was once unknown to you."  --James Clear

Maya Angelou: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."