“No pain, no gain” is something that we hear so often in the world of physical accomplishments. But it is a dangerous approach in piano and in fact my physiotherapist tells me it’s an absolute myth in any physical pursuit.
I’ve created a very specific list of piano performance criteria that can be applied to any student, at any level, playing any piece. This list contains what I believe to be the components of any great performance, whether it’s given by the tiniest beginner pianist or the most accomplished recitalist.
Exam results. Encouraging? Soul-crushing? Well deserved? A definite fluke? It’s the combination of those that are either brilliant or lethal for us and our sanity.
My seven Suzuki books arrived this morning! I couldn’t wait to sit down to play through the pieces.
What do we do when pushy parents insist on an exam being undertaken when they don’t leave enough time in a child’s day for the practice to be done?
Last month there was a discussion on Facebook about the Suzuki method. However, it was not the usual Suzuki discussion, which consists of traditional piano teachers lamenting the lack of sight reading skills in Suzuki students…
Piano teachers are no longer an isolated breed. With webinars, online memberships, blogs and Facebook pages, we have never been so connected or informed. So bother to get off our bottoms and actually turn up to a conference or workshop, if we can get everything we need online?
This is a guest blog written by my friend and colleague Anne Jakes. Anne has been teaching for several decades and took the time to write to me in detail about her experience of various grades in the recent AMEB Theory exams.
Learning to read music seems synonymous with Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit. But are mnemonics really the quickest and easiest way to learn letter names?
All sorts of things can go wrong in a performance. A cockroach can scuttle across your pedalling foot (this has happened to me). The music may fall off the stand (this has happened to me)….