Taubman

[SDL]

Has anyone learnt from the videos and have they been really usefull?
Im considering buying them.  Is it worth £400 ($800) or is this a bit steep for the quality of purchase?

thanks

[abell88]

I'm thinking about buying them, too -- I saw a similar question to yours on another piano board and someone said they'd bought them and found them worth every penny. I'd really like to know if anyone has them.

By the way, I've seen it recommended that you check local university libraries to see if you can borrow them -- they don't have them here, but maybe you'll have better luck.

They are a lot of money, but way less than a year's worth of lessons.

[SDL]

I can't imagine which universities would have them.   I always think they are stingy with the pennies for music education in UK.

[xvimbi]

This is a lot of money, indeed, and I would probably not spend $800 on them. I had the chance to get the first five from the library, I have not seen the other five, but I am itching. The technical quality of the videos themselves is not very high, and the lectures are drawn out and require a lot of "stamina" to stay awake, but that's a minor detail. IMO, the videos are very useful. If you teach and want to learn more about the Taubman approach, and pass on the know-how to students, it would certainly make a worthwhile addition. Taking a course would probably be even better. I found that just watching the videos twice and taking notes was sufficient to extract the meat from them. So, the best way would be to find a library that has the videos, or convince a University to get them.

Of course, we could all chip in and get the complete set, then send it around among PF members, so they can watch them. I believe drooxy recently bought them. Perhaps, she is willing to share them for some chocolate in return. Also, keep in mind that the vdeos need to be converted in order to play them on European players. I think, drooxy actually did that too.

[SDL]

xvimbi - I was going to suggest a few of us chip in.  It would be great if someone had a video to dvd recorder with PAL conversion too!  So Im throwing the ball back in the court - what now?!

[xvimbi]

xvimbi - I was going to suggest a few of us chip in.  It would be great if someone had a video to dvd recorder with PAL conversion too!  So Im throwing the ball back in the court - what now?!

You are walking on slightly dubious (did I hear the word 'illegal'?) grounds here Because this is a public forum, one should be careful with suggestions like those. However, I think it is perfectly OK to send the videos around, once bought. What happens in everybody's own home is then out of control of the owner of the videos. Perhaps, we can have a "PF library" housed at Nils' place.

[SDL]

Ok ...  that's what I meant - we share but maybe some people don't have a video player 

[SDL]

Ive just been given a price from TaubmannInst

The cost of the videos is $800. Plus $35 for postage  and $9.60 for insurance.  The total is $844.60.

the postage/insurance was calc to UK

[abell88]

Well...if 10 of us went in for it, we would each have to pay $85, plus, I guess the cost of shipping them to the next person in the video-ring. (Maybe one at a time?)

If people are seriously interested, we need to determine:
1. Who should order them (should be cheaper for someone in US; I'm in Canada so again should be cheaper than to UK if no Americans are in).
2. Who will have final ownership (if there are 10, everybody gets to keep one?). Or will we eventually create a library -- someone will be the librarian and ship them to anyone who pays the shipping costs (and maybe a deposit??)
3. Procedure -- again if there are 10 people participating, should the person who first receives them watch them all then ship them to next on the list, or watch one and immediately ship it to person#2, etc.  Or should everybody get one right at the beginning (are they sequential, xvimbi?) and then keep them going around until everyone's seen them all?
4. Most efficient shipping order -- i.e. not from US to UK to Canada to Germany to US to France...

Your thoughts??

[abell88]

Or you could sponsor me to attend the Taubmann seminar (or Golandsky (sp?) Institute), and I'll tell you everything I learn! 

[i_m_robot]

Why the hey would they charge 800 for videos?

It would be wierd to walk into a video store and see Kung Fu Technique for a that price

[alraydo]

I'm proud to say that I attended the Taubman Institute three times, and was in the audience of most of the masterclasses and lectures presented on the tapes.  That being said-- I, too, think the price for the videos is a bit steep.  Although nothing can compare to the experience of actually being there, interacting with Dorothy and Edna, and getting the one-on-one instruction with a Taubman teacher, the high price is worth it.

I think what you have to do is weigh the price of the videos against the price of becoming unable to play piano due to injury (I'm not assuming you have bad technique -- I just know that most don't seek Taubman unless they've already noticed problems or pain).  I was lucky in that I took lessons from a Taubman trained teacher for two years and she completely transformed my technique (I used to play with flat fingers and bad fingering) before I experienced any symptoms of tendonitis or carpal tunnel.

As far as sharing the videos....I don't know any of the legalities.  But I do know that you can't watch them just once.  They have to be watched and practiced repeatedly until the technique becomes pure motor memory.


This is my first posting.  Piano Forum is great so far!




oops -- I just remembered that it's called the Golandsky Institute now.

[abell88]

There's the Golandsky Institute (Princeton, New Jersey)  and there are also Taubman Seminars (New York City).

[alraydo]

You're right. 

When I attended it was the "Taubman Institute" -- of which Edna Golandsky was a co-founder.  It used to be at Amherst College, then at Williams College.

[shoshin]

I downloaded some sample excerpts:
https://www.taubman-institute.com/html/web_videos.html

I am sold on what I saw but not sold on the price of these videos at $800.  It seems like its priced for a teaching center to buy and loan out to their students.  Hopefully one day I'll be able to watch them.  If anyone that has watched them or attended the course it would be wonderful if you could outline some key concepts. I'm sure it would be very much appreciated by many people on this forum.