DOROTHY TAUBMAN AND THE
TAUBMAN APPROACH
Dorothy Taubman was an American music teacher, lecturer, and founder of the
Taubman Institute of Piano.
Dorothy Taubman was one of the first piano pedagogues to work with playing-related problems, such as discomfort, tension, pain and injuries. She recognized that these problems were caused by incoordinate movements at the instrument, and she discovered that correct positions and movements were the means for complete recovery.
​
The Taubman work also enables the pianist to attain higher levels of technical and artistic mastery. It can assist those wanting to learn how to produce an infinite range of tone and color at the piano and those seeking more speed, security and freedom in their playing, in order to be able to play increasingly difficult pieces.
Dorothy Taubman, “I discovered how the hand has to move and what the movements are that make for efficiency in any musical passage. There is only one purpose to my technique. That is to have a magnificent interpretation, no matter what instrument you are playing. You cannot have magnificent playing without magnificent technique.”
Leon Fleisher world-renowned pianist: “Dorothy is absolutely extraordinary in her intuition of when you have pain, where it is you’re doing something wrong and how she can get rid of it.”
Shulamit Ran, Pulitzer prize-winning composer, “Basically, what Taubman has done is decipher a natural phenomenon.”
​
Composer-pianist Yehudi Wyner, “I thought there had to be a better way than having to do scales and arpeggios and all the rest. Dorothy’s approach does not depend on mindless repetition and physical bludgeoning. It is a comprehensive system of totally organized, economical motion that is relaxed and effortless.”
​
Edna Golandsky, “Color, tone production, pulse, rhythmic phrasing, intonation–all are produced by the body. If the body doesn’t do it, all the thinking and feeling in the world won’t help.”