Getting the most from this great hobby!
What do I mean by practising problem passages in context? Let me start with this hilarious image I came across on Twitter a long time ago. I think it describes the practice habit of many of us. In fact, I have seen this very same picture used in other contexts since and I hope that...
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We’re all familiar with hearing how certain pianists have a fantastic ‘tone’ at the piano. We’ve all probably read numerous articles telling us how we need to concentrate on ‘tone production’ at the piano. However, how often is it even clear how we should do that? What is more important, training the fingers or training...
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An essential piano practice strategy is to keep it simple! We are often are advised to use the 3 S’s whilst practising piano. That is to say: Slowly (slow things right down) Separately (practice hands separately) Sections (practice in small sections) All three of these piano practice strategies have one thing in common – they...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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 reality, for me at least, very few. So, how do we maintain old...
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There are lots of discussions about people being naturally talented or having an ‘ear’ for music. So, is there some innate ability that you need to have in order to be able to learn? Do we need to ask the question ‘Am I talented enough to learn piano?’ Certainly, in every area of life, there...
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Being able to use chords and patterns to improve sight reading and memorising music is extremely helpful. However, as classical pianists it’s a skill that is often not forefront in how we are taught. However, it’s definitely a skill worth acquiring and in fact it isn’t really that hard to do with a little practice....
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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...
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