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.
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
Tidbits from recent lessons: Shostakovich, Chopin, Mozart, Bach
June 12,2019
R.M: Shostakovich: Prelude # 10
Its syntax is filled with sonic miscues, altered expectations. Like a peptide chains that have been snipped apart into separate amino acids in order to form unexpectedly new peptide chains.
Read MoreMore Beautiful Sounding Octaves: for the Medium-Size Hand
June 02,2019
When I play octaves, there is a tendency, at least in my-sized hand, to have the pinkie and the thumb move towards each other when contact the keys. But it is worth sometimes practicing in way so that the tip of the pinkie as well as that of the thumb should move in a line along the longitude of their key. This requires my attention, because the hand is already spread for the octave, and the first and fifth fingers moving slightly towards each other happens naturally. Especially for the thumb it is a more natural movement. So, just once in a while, practice octaves so that those fingers move in a plane so that they go directly and horizontally towards the body in an extension of the longitude of their keys.
The muscles needed to move the thumb and pinkie in this direction move in these constrained directions require first, in the case of the right pinkie, an extreme flexion of the third knuckle, down and aimed to the right as it moves in the direction of the body, aided also somewhat by a flexion in the right side of the wrist. In the case of the right thumb it should practice its motion by slowly tracing over an imaginary straight line extending beyond the lip the key aimed towards the body. The third knuckle, where it attaches to the wrist, is prominent in keeping the thumb congruent with this line. As the motion is made the thumb is always compensating for the desire to move outwards and away from the second finger.
Read MoreEven More Thoughts on How to Play a Bach fugue
June 01,2019
A.B.’s playing of the first fugue of book one of the Well Tempered has improved by leaps and bounds. Due to the high quality of his mind he can contemplate and at the same time be in wonderment at the amazing things, small and large, going on in the piece.
Here is what arose on Thursday, May 16, at his latest lesson.
Read More