PIANO PRACTICE
A selection of articles and features on all aspects of practising the piano.
5 Tips for Secure Coordination and Quick Movement
This month’s 5 tips for Pianist magazine’s newsletter focuses on the issue of moving quickly around the instrument. I hope it’s usefui. Moving quickly and accurately can be tricky. Especially if fast passage work is involved. There are many ways to alleviate this conundrum, but one which can be really beneficial is octave displacement. Yes,…
5 Top Tips for Hand Coordination
My latest article for Pianist Magazine’s newsletter focuses on coordination between the hands. A perennially tricky but important subject, there many ways to improve this facet. I hope my suggestions are useful. Coordination between the hands can be a sticking point for many pianists. How do we play rapid passage work in both hands, ensuring…
Painless Piano Playing Part 1
This post was initially printed in Issue 50 of Piano Professional. This magazine is for piano teachers and is published by EPTA (or the European Piano Teachers Association). My article focuses on an aspect of playing which I feel is extremely important: flexibility. In it, I concentrate on simple exercises which students find helpful as…
Twiddling Your Thumbs
Recently I’ve been working with several students, aiming to develop strong, active thumbs. This may sound rather strange, but we tend to take the thumb for granted. They protrude at the side of each hand and we just expect them to support the fingers. I’ve written several times, here on this blog and in various…
5 Stage Presentation Tips Part 2
My most recent article for Pianist Magazine’s newsletter features the art of stage presentation. This often forgotten topic is rarely highlighted, yet it plays a significant role in every performance. This is the second of two articles on this subject, and you can read the first one, here. In my previous article on stage presentation,…
Etude Op. 97 No 1 by Anton Reicha
Some readers will know that I write a regular ‘how-to-play’ article for Pianist magazine. If you’ve yet to discover this magazine, you can find out much more by clicking here. My article focuses on elementary level pieces for students of around Grade 1 – 3 level. It’s actually called a ‘beginners how-to-play’, but in reality…
Fruitful Fingering Part 2
This is the second article in my series for Piano Professional Magazine, published by EPTA (of the European Piano Teachers Association): a teacher’s publication, for which I currently write the technique feature. You can read the first article by clicking here, and in Part 2, I look at different methods of applying certain fingerings, offering…
Five New Year Tips to Seriously Improve Your Piano Playing in 2019
Happy New Year! It’s January 1st 2019 and I hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Eve. At the start of any new year, we make resolutions, create new goals, or perhaps re-evaluate or reflect on existing goals. It’s the perfect time to revisit our hobbies, or investigate new ones. Many…
Basic Tips for Healthy Piano Playing
Earlier this month I presented a workshop for piano teachers at Millers Music in Cambridge. This activity will become increasingly important during 2019. Schott and I have organised several workshops across the country. I’m really looking forward to meeting and working with teachers and students. The following article was published on Millers Music shop website…
5 Tips to Create the Illusion of Legato
Every pianist knows the importance of legato, or the creation of a smooth musical line or phrase, notes joining evenly from one to the next. But there are many instances in piano music where we can’t join the notes: the melodic line might leap beyond our comfortable stretch, for example. How do we overcome this…
Structured Piano Practice for Beginners: 10 Tips
Several readers have recently written requesting a post on structured practice ideas for beginners. I scrolled through my archives and realised that I hadn’t written anything on structured practice for this vast and significant group of piano students. In order to redress the balance, I hope you find the following of interest. 1. Beginners, particularly…
Fingering: Part 1
Today’s weekend post focuses on fingering. I often write about this topic because I feel it’s particularly important for students of all levels. This article is the first in a two-part series. It was written for the September 2018 edition of Piano Professional. The magazine is published by EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) for whom…