Why Technique? When I reached my grade 8, I hit a sort of technical wall. I had never previously struggled with repertoire at my grade – passing my exams with distinction for very little effort. At grade 8, I scraped a pass mark (and think I was lucky to get that). One of the first...
Category: Approach and Technique
Chopin ‘Valse du petit chien’ – the ‘little dog waltz’ (Op. 64 No. 1)
This fabulous little waltz is more commonly called the Minute Waltz – almost always pronounced ‘minute’ as in hours, minutes and seconds but actually intended as ‘minute’ as in very small. Chopin’s inspiration was apparently watching a little dog chase its own tail. This is the type of piece that I would never try to...
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How to practice?
When I first got my Clavinova, I had all good intentions of doing some serious practice. This then opens the question of where to start – scales, arpeggios, studies, pieces. Naturally, these days, if you want to know anything, then the way to go is Google. So I spent some time with Google (and YouTube)...
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