Take Your Piano Playing to the Next Level with Charles Szczepanek

You already know Musicnotes Signature Artist Charles Szczepanek for his incredible performances and arrangements. Plus, he’s also helped explain the benefits of our website & app, as well as Musicnotes Marketplace. But did you know that he can help you become a better piano player?!

The internet is full of resources for beginner pianists, but when it comes to the intermediate player or teacher of intermediate students, there aren’t as many places to look. That’s why Musicnotes Signature Artist Charles Szczepanek, from the YouTube channel, Pianist Academy is here to help with his new course “Next Level Piano: Christmas Edition.”

Charles pairs his extensive knowledge and experience with an approachable personality and teaching style that brings the music conservatory right into your own home but in words you can understand and small enough tidbits that you can digest.  Unlike other online platforms and courses, the purpose here isn’t just to teach a few holiday songs.  Instead, Charles teaches concepts that can be applied to any piano arrangement or music composition.  These include concepts: phrasing, musicality, wrist and hand techniques, in-depth discussions about the intricacies of dynamics, how to choose your own fingerings, and tips to spend your practice time.

There is also over an hour of lesson time spent working on the damper pedal technique and new thoughts about what the pedal does for your music.  And on top of that, he offers a mini-course over an hour long that teaches how to become a faster and better sight-reader at the piano.

Charles teaches all of this over 9 hours split into nearly 100 modules and, to get you in the holiday spirit, through 5 new arrangements of Christmas classics: “Silent Night,” “Away in a Manger,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Joy to the World.”  The sheet music for all of those arrangements comes right with the course.

If you aren’t sure about it, or simply want to get to know Charles better first, there is a wealth of free content available on his channel Pianist Academy on YouTube.  He also hosts bi-weekly livestream masterclasses and Q&A sessions where viewers are encouraged to send in their video recordings of music they are learning for a free public lesson tailored to that specific individual and their performance.

You can also hear Charles perform some amazing arrangements on YouTube, all of which are available for you to learn yourself at Musicnotes.com.

Published on December 13, 2022.