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, […]
Last Friday I had the immense pleasure of hosting the Winter Piano Seminar (WPS) at the Wesley Conference Centre in Sydney’s CBD. The success of the Summer Piano Seminar (SPS) in January prompted me to organise another conference which would cater to teachers’ needs. My aim was to create a programme that was stimulating and […]
At the Summer Piano Seminar I ran in January of this year, the final session of the afternoon was a panel discussion on general teaching. The panel consisted of myself and the other two presenters of the day, Elissa Milne and Abe Cytyrnowski, as well as Dr Rita Crews, Syllabus Advisor to the AMEB. Teachers […]
Abe Cytrynowski, teacher, examiner and creator of ‘Scalecards’, will conduct a masterclass on technical work at the Winter Piano Seminar. Following is some information from Abe on what he plans to cover in this session. “From as far back as my early days of teaching piano (some 29 years ago) I have always felt that […]
At the upcoming Winter Piano Seminar on July 16 I plan to run a session called ‘Games and Aural Training’. There will be several different games demonstrated, some on-screen and some with live volunteers from the audience! The thing about playing games is that they are just so important for creating a vibrant and interactive […]
Following is the opening paragraph to the blog by Elissa Milne regarding her Getting To Series. Click on the ‘read more’ link to read her full blog about this topic. Back in January I had a great time doing a short tour (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth) with Samantha Coates (of BlitzBooks fame) and Abe Cytrynowski […]
As the author of texts for each of these AMEB syllabuses, the question I am asked most frequently is, “What’s the difference between Theory and Musicianship?” For Grades 1, 2 & 3, the answer is: almost nothing. I find that by the time students finish Grade 3 in either one, they pretty much know the same […]