In this lesson, American pianist Leann Osterkamp guides you through Franz Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3. <br><br>You will learn how best to determine fingerings through a process Osterkamp refers to as "blocking." Depending on your music theory background, she gives both technical and non-technical ways of understanding of grouping notes under the hand in blocks. Once determined, these blocks serve as comfortable positions through which you can more easily learn the piece. <br><br>She then discusses the origins of the work as a song without words and explores the meanings expressed in the original poem as a basis for developing a nuanced conception of the piece and as a guide for shaping the melodic lines. Osterkamp introduces and demonstrates the concept of "ghosting" as a technique for balancing the layers of the piece in order to create a balanced texture. <br><br>You will learn concrete ways to form your own artistic interpretation, paying attention to combining melody and accompaniment and finding rational uses of dynamics and timing for expressive effect. Osterkamp then helps you map out the piece in order to develop a larger scale, structural interpretation by picking adjectives to describe sections and using them to form a larger narrative. <br><br>Finally, she tackles the challenging faster passages and cadenzas, giving specific practice strategies for developing facilitiy.

In this lesson, American pianist Leann Osterkamp breaks down the technical and musical obstacles of Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu, and devises practice strategies to help you overcome them. Rather than walking through the piece from beginning to end, she selects passages that best represent a certain kind of obstacle and uses them as models applicable to related passages. <br><br>Osterkamp first focuses on fingering and compares finding the best fingering to solving a crossword puzzle. She then applies this method to a tricky run in the right hand and shows how finding the right fingering solution can decrease its difficulty substantially. Secondly, she targets a pervasive polyrhythm in the piece where the right hand plays four notes against the left hand's three. She demonstrates how polyrhythms can also be determined precisely by visualizing where the notes of each rhythm fall, and using this spatial representation of the rhythm as a guide for executing them at the keyboard. <br><br>To help you develop a natural feeling of rubato, Osterkamp focuses on the lyrical middle section. To do that, Osterkamp recommends you try putting words to the melody and singing it, keeping track of the natural variation in stress and duration in your voice. She encourages you to develop a conscious stylistic approach to Chopin, choosing between different valid approaches. <br><br>Finally, Osterkamp focuses on applying pedal, likening the process of trying out extremes (too wet or too dry) to determining just the right prescription at the eye doctor.

In this lesson, American pianist Leann Osterkamp teaches Beethoven's Sonatina in G Major. Starting first with hands separated, Leann breaks down each challenge into small, easy steps. She then moves on to combining the hands, and dealing with issues of balance between the different voices. She provides a number of tips, tools, and suggestions to help learn this staple of the beginner repertoire. One such tool is to approach the piece as an orchestrator, assigning imagined instrumentation to each voice to gain new musical insights. Whether or not this sonatina was composed by Beethoven, it remains a valuable part of every pianist's growth and development.

In this lesson, American pianist Leann Osterkamp guides you through Felix Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14. <br><br>You will learn to refine your melodies and articulations through singing and verbalizations. By singing along with your melodies, you will discover their natural phrasing and learn where to crescendo or diminuendo, where to take a “breath,” and which melodic leaps benefit from a slight ritardando. By assigning words (e.g. “strong” and “weak”) to your articulations and speaking them out loud, you will learn to execute them efficiently and expressively. <br><br>Osterkamp also suggests assigning descriptive adjectives to each section of this piece. She invites you to imagine yourself as an actor and reflect on how you would interpret these adjectives as character changes. What kinds of experiences or events might trigger these shifts? This mental exercise, Osterkamp tells you, will imbue your playing with a greater sense of storytelling and drama. <br><br>Throughout this lesson, you will learn various strategies for tackling this piece’s technical challenges, such as fast staccato playing, octave work, and oscillating double thirds.

In this lesson, American pianist Leann Osterkamp teaches Kuhlau's Sonata in C Major, Op. 20 No. 1. A popular piece with early intermediate players, the piece offers many opportunities to develop one's fundamental skills at the instrument, ultimately laying the groundwork for tackling more challenging classical sonatas by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.<br><br>Osterkamp breaks down the work into its component technical and musical challenges. She focuses first on the catchy main theme, revealing its structural role and providing insights into shaping and interpreting the theme as it recurs throughout the work.<br><br>Next, Osterkamp delves into the always important subject of hand coordination, giving tips on how to control the left hands' Albertis bass and employing subdivisions in practice to achieve more security in your mechanics and to prepare for faster playing.<br><br>For the remainder of the lesson, Osterkamp delves into questions of fingering, memorization, articulation, and pedal, while tackling specific technical challenges in all three movements.

In this lesson, American pianist Leann Osterkamp shares her technical insights into Clementi’s Sonatina No. 1 in C Major, Op. 36. <br><br> She encourages you to keep your hands moving during moments of rest in order to release tension, reinforce your sense of rhythm, and prepare for changes in hand position. <br><br>Osterkamp also teaches you to avoid rushing through fast runs by dropping your arm weight in-time with the music. You learn to use this gesture not as a means of accenting notes but rather as a way to ground yourself. Furthermore, when you're practicing fast runs, Osterkamp encourages you to use the fingerings that you know well – fingerings that you use to play scales and arpeggios. <br><br>Finally, Osterkamp shows you how to play a quick Alberti bass in a legato style without sacrificing clarity and comfort. You learn that you don’t have to hold onto notes to create a connected sound. Rather, you can play each note with a staccato-like bounce. At a fast tempo, your notes will still sound connected, especially if you incorporate light touches of the pedal.

In this segment from her lesson on Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu, Leann Osterkamp demonstrates one of the classic strategies for gaining speed and facility in rapid passagework: rhythmic drills. While many teachers advocate rhythmic drills, there are better and worse ways to practice them. After rehearsing the technique of alternating resting on each of the four sixteenths in a group of four, Osterkamp shows how students often tighten up while paused on a given note. The trick is to feel the utmost balance at each resting point, as if your finger is anchored in the key. This will increase your security at each of the smallest rhtyhmic moments in a fast passage. Try it on the fast passagework in your repertoire!

Looking to improve your piano skills to play pieces like Für Elise or Clair de lune, but don't want to go through years of boring beginner pieces before graduating to your favorite repertoire? If so, this course is for you. Join Steinway Artist Leann Osterkamp as she introduces you to the core elements of learning serious repertoire at the piano. Designed both for novice players with only a basic familiarity with treble and bass clef as well as more experienced players looking to fill in gaps in their skills and understanding, this course will put you on a fast track to learning the gems of the intermediate concert repertoire – from Bach Inventions to Mozart Sonatas, Brahms Intermezzi to Rachmaninoff's C-sharp minor Prelude.