About Sigrun

I help musicians in pain.

Are you and your music at a crossroads?

I teach foundational movements for music-at the piano specifically, and in our bodies generally. I look to movement principles for root causes to limitations and pain playing music

If They Could, They Would

I believe that people want to succeed. If people are not able to follow a direction, it is not because they are untalented, recalcitrant, or beyond help. Instead, they need to find the experiences, information, strategies, or steps that will allow them to improve.

Anat Baniel’s Kids Beyond Limits is my teaching Bible. It is nominally about helping children with significant developmental challenges learn to move and speak. However, it is quickly apparent that it is about everyone with a brain. Learning is emotional and neurological, and we can support it instead of preventing it or shutting it down. ‘If they could, they would’. I use her strategies to the best of my ability to help students succeed.

A beauty of the book is how filled with peace, wonder and curiosity Anat Baniel herself is when working with children. The more a teacher can embody the principles, the more they will be able to help someone else, no matter how old. At its best, learning is a two-way relationship.

About sigrun

From debilitation to freedom
on the piano

I experienced playing limitations and pain at the piano and organ all through high school, college, and graduate school, and then a much more severe piano injury 5 years ago. I also experienced frequent back and neck pain, which expanded to include sciatica and shoulder pain after age 40. I have spent the past 5 years studying both piano technique (Taubman Approach), and posture (Gokhale Method). I am now completely free from pain in my body, and nearly free from my devastating piano injury. I am motivated to help others get to the other side of back pain while making music, and to help children avoid what I experienced at the piano in my adult life.

hear from sigrun’s clients...
“She guided me to feel the proper technique in my body.”
"As a music teacher, finding an experienced, qualified piano instructor who genuinely cares about kids' music education was crucial. After extensive research and numerous calls, I joined Sigrun's waitlist. Sigrun is a master teacher who continually refines her craft, ensuring a high-quality learning experience for her students."
-Courtney Lindl, Madison, WI
"Sigrun has a patient, clear, and compassionate teaching style"
"Sigrun has a patient, clear, and compassionate teaching style that makes the Gokhale Method accessible to anyone. Using what I learned in her Foundations class, I was able to finish a 180-mile Camino de Santiago with minimal pain and without injury. Highly recommend!"
-Sara Beachy, Madison WI
"She listens to our daughter’s interests and tailors the lessons to challenge and inspire her."
"Our experience with Sigrun has been incredibly positive. Our daughter started taking lessons when she was 4 years old and her piano playing, music reading and understanding of music theory have progressed impressively over the last five years. Sigrun is patient and supportive. She listens to our daughter’s interests and tailors the lessons to challenge and inspire her. We appreciate the different opportunities to perform, and particularly love the holiday recital in the Capitol Rotunda. Sigrun makes learning piano fun for our daughter and we find piano to be a valuable part of her education."
-Kirk Haskins and Monet Hutchins, Madison WI

meet sigrun franzen

I have played piano from age 5, and the organ from age 12. I have bachelor degrees in electrical engineering and music from Case Western Reserve University, and a master’s degree in organ performance from UW-Madison. I love the harpsichord, and mostly play and perform early music.

A healthy, virtuosic technique is accessible to almost anyone. I study the Taubman Approach with Mary Moran, an internationally recognized authority on children and piano technique. Implementing a technique from the very first lesson that engages the children’s intellect and musicianship and protects their future at the piano is fun, satisfying, and possible!

The natural symmetry of the clefs can be exploited by using imagery and visual aids to help children with dyslexia or other reading challenges learn to read music notation. This strategy has small but successful track record in my studio.

After experiencing back pain so debilitating I couldn’t sit and stand, I eventually found the Gokhale Method, a system of posture re-education that is step-by-step, clear, efficient, practical, and lasting. Now a certified instructor, classes in the Gokhale Method are available — not only to enhance students’ work at the piano, but to help anyone who has been struggling with pain that Won’t Go Away.

A wish list for the world: Positive reinforcement dog training, universal basic income, Kids Beyond Limits. Everyone deserves a place on the start line, and the doggies are just like us. They want to do well. We all want to do well. Let’s do well together.

After working with me, my clients:

  • Experience more trust and cooperation while practicing with their children
  • Feel less anxiety and more competence when musical problems arise
  • Understand movement on the piano
  • Learn to implement a solution-based instead of repetition-based practice at home
  • Feel empowered to help themselves reduce their pain

We will work well
together if you…

  • Agree that foundational movement skill underpins musicianship
  • Agree that posture impacts pain, and are motivated to change
  • Agree with ‘Roughly right instead of precisely wrong’
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Ready for a joyful relationship with music?

Let’s work together to learn how fundamental movement affects music practice and performance.
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