Getting the most from this great hobby!
Neuhaus, in his book ‘The Art of Piano Playing’ tells us we need to ‘let the water boil’. He suggests that the most effective way to master something or to fix a problem is to simply work at it without stopping until it is as we want. He makes a comparison to boiling water. Paraphrasing...
"Let the water boil"Continue reading
All too often (for my liking), when people ask for advice on piano practice, they are given a ‘strategy’ to use without any regard for the ‘goal’ they are trying to achieve. What is a piano practice strategy By piano practice strategy, I mean the way your are going to practice. Now, this could be...
"Goal based piano practice"Continue reading
Knowing when to ‘move on’ in our piano practice is something that we need to really think about as amateur pianists. Without wanting to sound like an economist, I think we need to think at a Micro and a Macro level. By micro, I’m meaning those small things, individual bars or groups of notes. By...
"When to move on in piano practice"Continue reading
This article is part of my guide on how to practice piano effectively. Do you ever feel that, despite practising each day and working hard to improve, if asked to ‘play something’ we’re often at a loss? Sure, we have learned lots of things, but how many of them remain at a ‘performance standard’? In...
"How to maintain old repertoire"Continue reading
This article is part of my approach on how to practice piano effectively. There are lots of discussions about people being naturally talented or having an ‘ear’ for music. So, is there some innate ability that we need to have in order to be able to learn? Do we need to ask the question ‘Am...
"Am I talented enough to learn piano?"Continue reading
“What you need to know, have and do to start piano right” is a book by Jenny Leigh Hodgins. The book is exactly what it says on the cover and gives great insights for those considering taking up the piano. Jenny kindly consented to doing an interview for Tommy’s Piano Corner which I’m delighted to...
"What you need to know, have and do to start piano right!"Continue reading
Are you looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the pianist in your life (or perhaps just a festive treat for yourself)? If space and budget don’t stretch to a Steinway Model D or a nice Fazioli, I’ve got some good ideas of Christmas gifts for pianists below. These should suit all budgets and prove...
"Christmas gift ideas for the pianist in your life"Continue reading
Sight reading and memorising are two absolutely enormous topics for us pianists. Whilst there is definitely no silver bullet, recognising chords and recurring patterns can be a useful addition to our toolkit to help us sight read, learn and memorise music. Classical pianists are not always taught to approach a score in these terms, but...
"Improve sight reading and memorising"Continue reading
We’re all familiar with the expression ‘muscle memory’ – yet what exactly is muscle memory? We pianists so often rely on this phenomenon that we should probably understand properly what it is don’t you think? The expression muscle memory is generally used in the context of piano playing when it seems that our fingers seem able...
"What exactly is Muscle Memory?"Continue reading
Volume 3 of my free eBook Series on recording your piano playing is now available. You’ll see a whole series of articles on this website about this – all of which link to YouTube videos. However, I felt that for those who weren’t so used to manipulating unfamiliar software, it would be worth doing something...
"Download your free eBook series on recording your piano playing"Continue reading
