Abby Whiteside studied anatomy so that her inborn talent for analyzing what the performer did would be strengthened technically. Watching closely the performances of great instrumentalists, dancers, jazz pianists, athletes - anyone with any kind of physical skill - became a lifelong occupation. (For example: She found a solution for teaching octaves after watching a drummer who accompanied the Hindu dancer, Shankar.) And, of course, she was constantly testing her various discoveries on pupils and modifying her theories on the basis of the results.

Through these extensive explorations of anatomy, expert performances, and student's reactions to various teaching tools Abby Whiteside found her basic principle of learning; rhythm. Essentially a whole body approach to learning piano, Abby Whiteside's indispensable ideas about rhythm involve the student in a process that is musical from the very start and never strays into dull drilling, unduly slowed tempos, or boring finger exercises. For Abby Whiteside a student must feel the rhythm of the music first and foremost, getting this rhythm into the body, so that it may work its magic. And what is this magic? What does it do for the student trying to learn anything from their first piano piece to a difficult Chopin etude? The magic is the involvement of the whole body in the process of playing the instrument.

By letting rhythm guide the process our attention is liberated from an excessive preoccupation with the minute details of the music. This is crucial, for if each detail, or individual note of music, is attended to with the same amount of energy the tendency is to use one isolated muscle group - that of our fingers - to execute, or reach for each tone. But the very nature of music is defined by difference and momentum, tension and release. Treating each note the same not only negates the sway of the rhythm and is unmusical, but is also horribly taxing on the body and utterly inefficient. We are, after all, equipped with many muscle groups - many of which are capable of initiating or finding a tone on the piano. Abby Whiteside taught that performance and learning equally benefit from an approach that trains us from the center to periphery - i.e. the center of our bodies, our torso, to the periphery - our fingers, never the other way around.