Welcome to the
Piano Project!
A platform for the teaching and ideas of pianist, teacher, and composer, Joe Bloom.
The map to a deeper connection in your musical life.
“A truly cultured and sensitive artist” – Henryk Szeryng (violin virtuoso)
“Joe has taught music theory and piano to my daughter since she was eight-years old. With great skill, infinite patience, and generous emotional support, Joe has developed the skills of a reticent beginner into that of a blossoming Musician.”
Who It’s For
Professional Pianists and Musicians • Teachers • Students of any Level
How It Benefits You
- Overcome obstacles to your playing.
- Receive step-by step-procedures of getting from an idea to a detailed end result.
- Gain an understanding of the body’s role in performing.
- Hear what you’re producing and what’s really happening in the music.
- Learn to evoke, sublimate, and control emotions for optimum performance.
How To Use The Site
- Explore the Video Collection to eavesdrop on lessons in which real students work on real issues in real time.
- Check out Joe’s Blog to get more insight on specific issues, ranging from body tension to Joe’s insights on the best recorded performances.
About Joe
Joe Bloom embodies a unique understanding of the deepest traditions of Western Classical Music. His background, his own pianistic gifts, and a lifetime of teaching, performing, and accumulating tens of thousands of pages of notes on piano technique and musicality has made Joe a true virtuoso as a pianist and teacher.
“His ability to get results with students at all levels is truly amazing; he is universally loved” (Norman Derby, Dean, Bennington College)
“His breadth and depth of music and performance skills is phenomenal. His patient persistence brings out the best in us – gives us confidence where there may be too little, and stretches our limits. He never settles for less when he knows he can get more, doing it gently and with kindness.” (Dr. Margaret Harrington)
Latest From the Blog
Joe Bloom
Never max out in volume, it leaves no room in which to maneuver musically
January 11,2020
This entry in the blog is related to an earlier one that spoke about how many small degrees of increments in loudness are perceptible by the ear between, say, pianissimo and piano, as against the number of such increments between piano and mezzo piano, mezzo piano and mezzo forte, etc..
Two interesting facts emerged in that earlier blog. 1. When ‘shaping’ a phrase we should, from note to note, make use of every possible increment of relative loudness and softness, down to the most minimal ones that the ear can perceive. 2. That the number of these minimal subdivisions in loudness does not remain constant as we go from pp, to p, mp, mf, f, ff.. As we get louder, there are fewer and fewer minimally perceivable gradations in loudness before we have already spilledd over into the next ‘milepost’ of loudness for which we have a notation symbol. That, for example, between f and ff there are fewer distinguishable degrees in loudness than there are between mf and f, which in turn has fewer than from mp to mf.
Read MoreThe many “directions” of legato
December 04,2019
Part one:
Legato is the existential complaint and rebellion by the piano against its mechanically percussive nature and thereby against the inevitable decline in loudness of every note it makes once that note starts.
Read MoreA tangible feeling of connection between each part of the arm mechanism and another
November 25,2019
This is a way to help the student feel the connection between the various parts of their arm mechanism – from shoulder to finger tip.
In the steps that follows the teacher or the student can follow the instructions by doing the things described either to themselves by themselves, or the student and teacher can it to the other.
Read More