Getting the most from this great hobby!
Journey so far with Play It Again Piano I’ve been progressively charting my progress following Melanie Spanswick’s Play It Again Piano course. I bought Book 2 (aimed at a late intermediate and beyond level) and am having a great time working through it. At the moment, I’m looking at pieces 4 and 5. If you...
"Variety is the spice of piano playing life"Continue reading
Do you ever wonder if your Piano Practice is as effective as it might be? If you’d have asked me last week whether I practiced effectively, I’d probably have quite proudly answered ‘oh yes’. And I’d have really believed it. Why my practice should be good First, I have a very well defined planned...
"Piano practice game changer – record what you’re doing"Continue reading
Traditional piano fingering When playing piano, a vital part of being able to move up and down the keyboard is the ability to pass our thumb under our other fingers or conversely our other fingers over our thumb. This is what I’d call ‘traditional’ piano fingering. This is how we’re taught scales and arpeggios and...
"Imaginative Piano Fingering Choices"Continue reading
What works on Apple … I did a series of posts around how to record your piano playing at home using your smartphone. I’ve received some good feedback that they have proved useful to my fellow pianists. Being an Apple User, I mainly described how to do this using an iPhone and then showed some...
"Record your Piano Playing using an Android or Windows device"Continue reading
Are you looking for some great resources to help you in your Piano Practice? I bought a series of Piano Practice eBooks by Graham Fitch a couple of years ago and have found them really useful. Practicing is a skill in itself I’ve said before that one thing that did occur to me when I...
"Piano Practice eBooks by Graham Fitch – expert practice advice"Continue reading
Recording with your phone More and more people are enjoying recording themselves playing Piano and sharing on social media. This is either for advice from other pianists or just for the sheer hell of it. An external Microphone has proved to me to be a cool investment. Today I’d like to do a deep dive...
"Take control of your Shure MV88 microphone"Continue reading
Aimed at returning pianists Are you returning to piano after a break or perhaps looking for a set of pieces aimed to gradually build or rebuild your technique … this is my third instalment on Melanie Spanswick’s Play It Again Piano Book 2 – today looking at the third piece she has chosen – one...
Piano Solo? Piano can sometimes be a lonely hobby … do you ever want to play with your own band, ensemble or even orchestra? Well, these days you can quite easily create your own if you’re willing to spend the time. Keep reading to learn how. We pianists spend hour upon hour alone practicing. For...
"Create your own orchestra and play along on piano"Continue reading
Childhood Memories Bach’s Air on a G String was originally written for a String Quintet (as part of a larger orchestral suite). You’ll find many transcriptions of it for solo piano – including one by Siloti. Air on a G String brings back childhood memories for me. There was a famous set of Cigar advertisements...
"Air on a G String"Continue reading
Beethoven’s iconic Fur Elise is the second cleverly selected piece in Book 2 of Melanie Spanswicks Play it again Piano series. This is a series of books aimed at pianists returning to the piano after a break. Introducing Play It Again Piano I recently released a post and a video giving my initial impressions of...
"Für Elise: More from Play It Again Piano"Continue reading