What Do We Really Learn When We Study the Piano?

I go to Copenhagen to answer the question

Have you ever gone somewhere you thought you’d be the outsider? I did. But the result wasn’t what I expected.

In February I saw that the Second Annual Embodied Education Conference was still looking for presenters. “Sounds like they really need folks,” I thought, “so why not give it a shot?” Half an hour later, I had my proposal in: “What Do We Really Learn When We Study the Piano?”

It wasn’t easy to decide to try for the conference. Rejection is no fun, and even just 30 minutes investment can feel like a serious loss when you’re playing a long-shot. Let’s just say I was feeling lucky.

When I got the acceptance I felt more than lucky. I felt panicked. I was going to go to Copenhagen to talk about piano lessons?

Sure, my approach involved embodied cognition, which is how I differentiate myself from a lot of other piano teachers. Sure, I’m a good public speaker. But these are scientists, philosophers, PhD’s.

I’m supposed to impress them with a presentation on Piano Lessons?

Nevertheless, I got myself over there just last week, pretty nervous. But what I found was a very different conference from what I expected.

There were dancers, both active and former dancers who had gone on to other careers. There were teacher-prep instructors. There were practitioners like me, Feldenkrais, Alexander, Dalcroze.

AND there were scientists, philosophers, researchers. Quite the amazing mix of talents and abilities. Best of all, everyone there was interested in embodied education.

I made as many friends as I could. And by the time I presented, I had a nice crowd ready to see me.

Here’s the presentation: