Kathy Knebel

Kathy Knebel has been teaching piano for almost 40 years.  She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance.  In graduate school she held two assistantships in accompanying, and she accompanied for the University Singers under the direction of G. Edward Bruner.  She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  After graduate school she became interested in learning about the Suzuki Piano Method which was a fairly new approach for beginning students, ages 4-7.  She became excited about the many advantages this method offered young students.  First, parents come to every lesson and help their child practice at home.  Since music is a listening art, it made perfect sense since children begin by listening to the pieces they will learn to play by ear.  Reading is only postponed until students have achieved a natural hand position and good coordination of playing hands together.  They play “by memory” in the beginning which makes memorization and performance much easier after they have started reading.  It is a wonderful skill to have, and makes playing without sheet music very natural, and hopefully, helps them feel more relaxed when they play at recitals and other events.  It is important not to neglect learning to read written notation!  Having great listening skills and being able to read written notation are the two very important skills students develop.  

However, if a student wants to start with the more traditional approach of reading at the beginning of lessons, that is fine too.  The main focus is on learning the geography of the piano and reading the written notation, while the aforementioned skills are acquired much more slowly.  Having an acoustic piano or high quality electronic piano is preferable either way, but especially for the Suzuki Piano Method.  Keyboards are discouraged unless the student has the goal of learning to read only.  Learning to play loud, soft, with many volumes of sounds and expressiveness is only possible with an acoustic piano or a high quality electronic piano. You shouldn’t have to adjust the volume with knobs!

Kathy has taught at the Omaha Conservatory of Music for 13 years, and is now teaching at the Nebraska Music Company.  She would be happy to talk to you in-person at this location at 114^th and Dodge or by email with any questions you many have.  I would be happy to meet you at one of our piano dealerships and show you the difference!