Welcome to the Grand Manner.

I am happy that you are here.

You see, I’ve been waiting for you a long time.

Together we will enter a sublime world of beauty…

My goodness, I couldn’t be more excited.

But first, allow me to tell you a bit about myself.

My name is Margaret Wacyk.

I am a classical pianist, author and educator dedicated to honoring the tradition of great piano playing.

And I hope to be of service in your pianistic journey.

Let me start by making a bold statement here:

If you are having any trouble in your technique, artistry or approach, I can help.

Why?

Because I’m in a rare category of concert pianists.

I learned to play as an adult.

Talk about the agony and the ecstasy.

On the one hand, what a unique window to discern the complexities of piano playing!

But how humbling…

You see, while most start learning piano when they are toddlers, I truly began learning to play piano when I was 19 years old.

Before that I my piano lessons didn’t supply me with a solid foundation. I was playing pieces but it concealed a deep problem.

By the time I turned 16, it became clear that I had serious technical gaps in my training.

I needed answers…and quick, but there were none to be found.

By the time I got to be 19 years old and on the verge of a concert career, my hopes were dashed by a sinister foe:

Tendonitis…A crippling dream killer.

I couldn’t play more than 4 measures of music before the pain got unbearable.

The problem was, I just loved piano too much to give up.

The words of my hard-working immigrant father in his thick Polish accent echoed in my ear:

“Gosiu, the secret to life is never to quit…”

So I persisted, but had to learn another way.

Take another road.

“The problem in our life becomes our purpose…”

And at the ripe old age of 19 I had to rehabilitate myself while my classmates were already making their big careers.

While they were busy practicing the Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto for competitions, I was practicing one finger exercises.

I cried rivers of tears over the piano keys…What a cruel fate!

It truly seemed hopeless.

I looked for answers in all the typical places and knocked on the studio doors of big named teachers yet found no relief.

Until one day the answer came in the most unexpected of ways…

But first a little backstory…

I believe that life gives us clues early on that we can use to solve problems that emerge later.

My clues arrived when I was a child.

I would pour over exotic legendary recordings that I would borrow from the library.

Oh, the anticipation I felt, sliding the shiny black vinyl records from their paper cover and onto the turntable my parents bought me at Toys R Us.

It was like stepping into a new a world of color and tonal beauty.

I would listen, lying on the wooden floor of my room as those golden sounds radiated up and down my spine.

Pianists such as Paderewski, Rachmaninoff, Artur Rubinstein became my best friends.

How did they know how I was feeling?

Their sound cut me to the quick. It captivated me, grabbed me by the waist and danced with me.

It penetrated my soul transporting me to a place of such rarified beauty.

I learned about life in all of its depth, passion and pathos through their recordings.

There was that ‘special’ something about the way they played…

A depth..a radiance…a glow.

I later learned it was called the ‘Golden Tone.’

Yes, I tried to emulate it.

I couldn’t.

So when I found myself all those years later nearly paralyzed with tendonitis, I had a miraculous thought:

“What if my technique problems are related to the issue of tone?”

Then another even more miraculous thought emerged:

“What if I could cure these problem by learning how the old masters produced their Golden Tone?”

My friend, this was the fork in the road. With a nod to Robert Frost, I took the path with less traveled.

It was hard…it was lonely…Yet through and through it was joyous.

And now I can share the fruit of this journey with you with an integrated piano approach that will free your playing.

I call it the ‘Golden Tone Technique.’