Dr. Barbara Fast

Dr. barbara fast

September 5
10 a.m. — Noon
Steinway
Joint Meeting with SLAMTA

Why We Don’t Do What Works: Practice Tips our Brains Like, But We Avoid
Dr. Barbara Fast

Barbara Fast serves on the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as professor emeritus. Dr. Fast is receiving the 2025 Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award with recognition celebrated at the 2025 NCKP Conference. Dr. Fast was the 2020 recipient of Oklahoma University’s prestigious David Ross Boyd Professor Award for excellence in teaching, and in 2014 the school’s Regents Award for Superior Teaching.

Her lifelong interest in effective teaching eventually led Dr. Fast to researching and discussing the practical applications of educational research for teaching in the private lesson and group class. Her interest in effective learning and practicing and their integration with current and future technology Nope resulted in the book iPractice: Technology in the 21st Century Music Practice Room (Oxford, 2018). Frequent workshop topics by Dr. Fast include efficient practicing tips from brain and sports research, sight-reading, the brain and learning, overcoming performance anxiety, teaching ensemble music, newly published music, and historical keyboard pedagogy.

An active clinician and adjudicator, Dr. Fast has presented at Music Teachers National Association conferences, numerous MTA state conferences, and many other conferences.

Her articles and reviews have been published in Music Performance Research, American Music Teacher, The Piano Magazine and the New School for Music Study blog. Additionally, she has performed in chamber settings in England, Russia, Japan, and India as well as presented lecture recitals and master classes throughout the United States.

Dr. Fast co-founded the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3) in 2000, a biannual conference affiliated with MTNA that focuses on group piano and piano pedagogy teaching. An active member of the Music Teachers National Association, she serves on the GP3 executive committee and currently is Immediate Past-President of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association. She has served in numerous national and state MTNA and NCKP piano pedagogy related positions, including the Editorial Board of the MTNA E-Journal, and as Associate Editor of Piano Pedagogy Forum.

Former faculty appointments include the University of Northern Iowa, Hesston College and Woodstock International School in India. Her broad interests are represented in her undergrad degree with a double-major in piano and flute, paired with a minor in English.