Sight reading and aural skills are essential components of being a good musician. It is so important to develop these skills, and not to concentrate solely on performance skills. Good sight reading and good aural gives you access to any music, any time, for life. Good sight reading is a skill that eludes many a […]
Studies show that if you invest 10,000 hours of practice into pretty much any field, you will be a master in that field. This applies to musicians, sportsmen, chess players, computer geeks, anyone. This comes from a book called ‘Outliers – The Story of Success’ by the economist Malcolm Gladwell. It’s a fascinating book that […]
EDIT: This is an old blog post, but recently I hosted an extremely informative webinar on this topic! Click here to watch it. In my recent workshop tour I presented a session with the above title, which seems to be rather a ‘hot topic’ amongst piano teachers I have mentioned this to! The idea […]
Four weeks ago, my Harry Potter-obsessed 11-year-old daughter suggested I implement a ‘house’ system with my students. She said she thought they would all practice more if they were earning points for their house and competing for the ‘house cup’ (something which happens in Harry Potter, in case you didn’t know that). Even though it […]
Well, piano lessons aren’t exactly like swimming lessons, I realise that. But in my quest to discover the best answer to the Most Commonly Asked Question of piano teachers, which is ‘When Should My Child Start Piano Lessons?’, I stumbled across an excellent analogy . My answer is simply: ‘Well it’s just the same question […]
As I was sitting in my living room doing the laborious and tedious job of stapling BlitzBooks flyers together for an upcoming promotion, I thought it would be a good use of my time to listen to and attempt the Grade 6 Music Craft Aural exam. Armed for multi-tasking with the test paper, a pencil […]
As with anything in life, excuses are sometimes genuine and sometimes a force of habit. For example, I have a friend who is alwayslate, and there is always a good excuse for why. When she tells me her excuse it tends to waft over me like a familiar yet slightly irritating smell. In contrast, I […]
As most music teachers are aware, this year the AMEB released the next two instalments of the Music Craft series: Grades 5 and 6. In NSW these two levels were offered in the August series of exams. Despite my best intentions, I unfortunately did not get around to studying for and sitting these exams. So […]
This Friday afternoon my 11-year-old daughter will audition for Gondwana Voices, a national choral school run by Sydney Children’s Choir. To help her prepare, I downloaded some of the practice materials from the Gondwana website. I was particularly interested to find out the level of sight singing required, and was amazed to find that even […]
Children get so much out of learning a musical instrument, both academically and socially. Having piano lessons is a joy. However, the practice that needs to take place between lessons can often be a stumbling block on the road to success. The following ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ of practice are mainly to do with piano practice, […]