Getting the most from this great hobby!
Whilst becoming familiar with chords might seem like a theoretical exercise, it is a useful addition to our toolkit and can help us practise piano more effectively. It gives us another way to organise what we see, hear and play. It can strongly support sight reading and memorising, help us understand more of the broader...
"Mastering chords for classical pianists"Continue reading
My last update on my YouTube journey thus far was back in September 2018. So I thought it about time I posted a further progress update. Important Numbers If you watch YouTube, then you’ll be familiar with the adverts that play before, during and/or after some of the videos you watch. This happens when a...
"YouTube Progress Update – May 2019"Continue reading
This article is part of my approach on How to Practice Piano Effectively. There are lots of occasions when we try to find out how difficult (or easy) a piece of music might be. We might need to do this when we are: The challenge Of course, if your interest is more into popular music...
"How difficult is this piece? Henle can help"Continue reading
Clair de Lune is one of those iconic pieces that many of us decide to learn on piano before we’re really ready. Both the beginning and the ending sound deceptively simple. The middle section gets progressively more and more difficult and it can be awkward to control properly. It might take a very long time...
"Learning Debussy’s Clair de Lune"Continue reading
When I started to re-learn piano and work out my practice regime, I decided not to bother with sight reading. I think the main reason for my decision was the title (sight reading). Particularly the ‘sight’ part. I have always associated sight reading with the traditional interpretation of playing a piece of music for the...
"The hidden benefit of Sight Reading – why we should all practice it"Continue reading
Playing at speed is probably the one thing that I’ve always found the most difficult to do. This is why I think it is so important to mention it specifically in my approach on how to practice piano effectively. Short bursts of notes (such as in mordents, turns and the like) aren’t so difficult to...
"Piano speed building ideas"Continue reading
This post is part of my guide on How to Record Your Piano at Home – and covers one of the fun things you can do with GarageBand. Thanks to something called MIDI and Virtual Instruments, we are able – surprisingly easily – to create orchestral backing tracks using GarageBand. The basic process creating an...
"Saint Saens ‘The Swan’ – Play Along with your Piano"Continue reading
An essential part of learning piano is listening. Listening to piano music helps us to discover new repertoire. It also helps us get an initial understanding of pieces we’re trying to learn. It also keeps us inspired through the sheer joy of hearing beautiful works played amazingly well. We have traditional radio and TV where...
"Streaming Services for Classical Music"Continue reading
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
