Getting the most from this great hobby!
I was introduced to a fabulous quote from Louis Kentner when I first read Graham Fitch’s eBook series on Practising the Piano. Kentner purports that: “There is no such thing as difficult music, it is either easy or it is impossible. The process by which it migrates from one to the other is called Practice.”...
"The Three Stages of Learning a Piece on Piano"Continue reading
As a general rule, we tend to learn entire pieces rather than just parts of them. However, I can think of three occasions where it might well be worth learning only a part rather than the entire thing. Increasing Diversity in Practice One idea that I’ve heard before but read most recently in Penelope Roskell’s...
"Should we ever partially learn piano repertoire?"Continue reading
One annoying thing I have noticed is that that pieces I previously thought I had mastered (or as close as I’m likely to get to mastery) seem to subsequently deteriorate over time. Why, once we have overcome the hurdles, isn’t it ‘in the bank’? I think I found the answer to this in William Westney’s...
"The Piano Performance Account – and how to keep it in credit!"Continue reading
The idea of working smarter not harder is nothing new of course. However, often when we see videos promising to unlock the secret, we get content that just says ‘practice slowly’. This isn’t always the answer as I discuss in my approach on how to practice piano effectively. I have watched a few videos on...
"Problem areas on piano – work harder or work smarter?"Continue reading
Another year has passed and it’s perhaps a good time to reflect on what 2022 has taught me about practising the piano. Quantity wise, it’s easy to calculate. I managed to get 754 hours of practice done this year. All in all, I’m quite pleased with that! It’s less than last year, but with the...
"What 2022 has taught me about practising the piano"Continue reading
One thing about returning to piano after a very long break, is that suddenly learning does feel much more difficult. As a teenager, I could pick most things up relatively quickly. However, what happens when we’ve left a skill to one side for a very long time. My experience has been that it certainly feels...
"Four Step Piano Process – Great for Returners"Continue reading
I recently reviewed The Perfect Wrong Note by William Westney. As I was reading the book, I started to mentally join several other dots too. One of these dots was that quite often, not only do I play wrong notes, I often don’t even know what the right notes should be – even in music...
"Do we even know what the right notes should be?"Continue reading
This article is part of my guide on how to practice piano effectively. I’m a big believer in reading around something we’re passionate about. I was chatting with a pianist friend I met through the Practising the Piano Online Academy (of which I’m a member). During our conversation he mentioned a couple of ‘must read’...
"The Perfect Wrong Note – Review"Continue reading
On returning to piano, sight reading wasn’t something I really bothered with. I’m not preparing any exams so won’t need to demonstrate it. I don’t accompany other musicians and so don’t need to sight read in those circumstances. However, one thing that I quickly discovered is that when playing from music, my actual reading...
"Celebrating 200 hours of sight reading"Continue reading
An old boss of mine had a favourite expression (which he attributed to Einstein). It was ‘the definition of insanity is constantly repeating the same action and expecting a different result’. It was an expression that always made me smile. I still remember the first time it suddenly occurred to me that by this definition...
"Insane Pianist?"Continue reading