Getting the most from this great hobby!
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. Short bursts of notes (such as in mordents, turns and the like) aren’t so difficult to pull off, however, anything that involves longer passages is something I’ve always found both difficult to manage and extremely prone to tension....
"Piano speed building ideas"Continue reading
In a recent blog post, I explained the basic process creating an orchestral backing track that you can use to play along with your piano. This first piece – to which I made a free MP3 download – was using Gounod’s Ave Maria. This is based on an almost note-for-note version of Bach’s well know...
"Saint Saens ‘The Swan’ – Play Along with your Piano"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
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
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
The inspiration I’m an avid Terry Pratchett fan and recently read the book ‘Truckers’ from the Bromilad Triology. Cutting a long story short, a group of Gnomes needed to ‘appropriate’ a full sized Heavy Goods Vehicle (hence the title Truckers) and drive it away from a Department Store Depot. This clearly would be Impossible –...
"How to practicing something impossible (Cadenza 2 – Liebestraum)"Continue reading
To plan or not to plan …? Do you plan out your practice or just go with the flow? We all have limited time to practice and, if there is one thing I have learned with age, it’s that when things are well planned up front, it generally saves lots of time and effort down...
"Should we plan our Piano Practice?"Continue reading