Getting the most from this great hobby!
Before embarking on the 18th Variation project, I decided that this time, rather than plunge head in and then get demotivated by poor results, I should do some decent research to get a fuller view of what is involved. My first step (seemed logical) was to research what is involved in creating a Home Recording...
"What do I need to know to create an Orchestra on my Computer"Continue reading
Some people might remember Mike Oldfield perhaps? He released an album called Tubular Bells back in May 1973 on which he played every instrument himself, recording track by track on a (then) state of the art multi-track recording system. This was featured on Blue Peter (he even re-recorded the Blue Peter theme song in the process)...
"Adventures in Digital Audio"Continue reading
When I decided to re-start piano, I mentioned it separately to a couple of friends who didn’t know me as a youngster (and so didn’t know I used to play). Interestingly, the first thing both of them said was ‘but you don’t have pianist’s hands!’. More oddly, one of them has never even played piano before...
"But you don’t have Pianist’s hands"Continue reading
Why Technique? When I reached my grade 8, I hit a sort of technical wall. I had never previously struggled with repertoire at my grade – passing my exams with distinction for very little effort. At grade 8, I scraped a pass mark (and think I was lucky to get that). One of the first...
This fabulous little waltz is more commonly called the Minute Waltz – almost always pronounced ‘minute’ as in hours, minutes and seconds but actually intended as ‘minute’ as in very small. Chopin’s inspiration was apparently watching a little dog chase its own tail. This is the type of piece that I would never try to...
"Chopin ‘Valse du petit chien’ – the ‘little dog waltz’ (Op. 64 No. 1)"Continue reading
When I first got my Clavinova, I had all good intentions of doing some serious practice. This then opens the question of where to start – scales, arpeggios, studies, pieces. Naturally, these days, if you want to know anything, then the way to go is Google. So I spent some time with Google (and YouTube)...
"How to practice?"Continue reading
I suppose I should start with how I first wanted to play the piano. I would say that I come from a reasonably musical family. My earliest musical recollection is of playing the recorder at Junior or even Infant school. Brought up in the good tradition of the Salvation Army, I started playing brass instruments from...
"First Steps"Continue reading
From being about 10 years old to my early twenties, I was a very keen pianist. Not necessarily a very good one when compared to some of these fantastic kids you see playing, but acceptable all the same. For reasons I’ll probably go into later, I ended up abandoning the piano and pretty much didn’t...
"Getting back to the Piano"Continue reading