Getting the most from this great hobby!
Did the title Lies to Pianists grab your attention? Is it click bait as they say? Actually it’s a critical part of my philosophy of how we can practice piano more effectively. Lies to Children is an expression I came across in the Terry Pratchett Book ‘The Science of Discworld’. For those of you unfamiliar...
"Lies to Pianists"Continue reading
I was watching a video of the amazing Martha Argerich the other day. Whilst watching her play, she seemed to be almost nonchalantly throwing her hands in the general direction of the notes she wanted to play, yet, of course, landed each one with pinpoint accuracy. This had me start thinking more about what the...
"Become more accurate at the piano"Continue reading
Practising problem passages in context is the Integrate step of my Four Step Piano Process. It’s how we get from isolated technical problems to flowing passage. 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...
"Practising problem passages in context"Continue reading
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...
"Tone production at the piano – training the ears"Continue reading
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: All three of these piano practice strategies have one thing in common – they are based on the principle of ‘simplification’. After all, playing something slowly is simpler...
"Essential Piano Practice Strategy – keep it simple"Continue reading
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