Getting the most from this great hobby!
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. Indeed, they were a key revelation that led me to my approach on How To Practice Piano Effectively. Practicing...
"Piano Practice eBooks by Graham Fitch – expert practice advice"Continue reading
The Essential and Nice to Have settings at your fingertips This article is part of my guide to recording your piano at home. 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...
"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...
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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
Piano playing essentials I’m a firm believer in using the technology (such as iPads) available to us all now to enhance our enjoyment of our great piano playing hobby. It’s possible to use an iPad or other tablet to replace many of the things any pianist needs – things like Sheet Music, a Metronome, a...
"Every pianist deserves an iPad"Continue reading
There are so many flawless versions … You might think there is no benefit to the wider world in us recording ourselves playing and then publishing on YouTube or Facebook. Clearly, we amateurs aren’t likely to produce a rendition as faultless as our favourite pianists, however, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t some of the...
"Why record your own piano playing and post on Facebook?"Continue reading
First thoughts Are you like myself and find that if you try to play things quickly, you get a lot of tension in your hands, arms, shoulders and even back sometimes? If so, read on and let me know whether or not you think I might be on to a possible significant contributor. You can...
"A possible relationship between tension and speed at the piano"Continue reading
Goodbye to bags and bags of paper On discovering forScore for piano sheet music, it makes me smile as I remember all those years ago. As a student, I often played background music at dinner functions. I used to carry around two massive plastic bags of books, photocopies and all sorts of moth-eared bits of...
"forScore: Piano Sheet Music with you everywhere"Continue reading