Today I welcome back world-renowned composer Christopher Norton to my blog. Chris is contributing a series of guest articles, each one offering a free download of one of his piano pieces, as well as plenty of practice tips, suggestions and advice. A Gentle Touch, an early intermediate level piece, is number three in the series…
Author: Melanie Spanswick
On preparing for a Beethoven marathon Part 10: Julian Jacobson
Today’s post is the final one before concert pianist and piano professor Julian Jacobson’s big day! He will be performing all 32 Beethoven sonatas on Saturday at St John’s Church Waterloo in London. Julian will be repeating this performance in Uruguay six days later on his 75th birthday. In this post, he discusses the issue…
Martha Argerich: The Rehearsal
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that I like posting master classes given by the great and the good in the profession. However, a few days ago, I stumbled across this most interesting rehearsal. It features Argentinian concert pianist Martha Argerich with conductor Charles Dutoit. Recorded in 2009, Argerich, who needs no introduction…
On preparing a Beethoven marathon Part 9: Julian Jacobson
In part nine of concert pianist and piano professor Julian Jacobson’s series of articles chronicling his Beethoven marathon preparations, he muses on many aspects which must be taken into consideration when gearing-up for such an event. You can find out more about Julian’s work and all the details for his marathon performance on November 12th…
On preparing a Beethoven marathon Part 8: Julian Jacobson
In today’s post, concert pianist and piano professor Julian Jacobson discusses the importance of the Beethoven edition as he prepares for his marathon, which takes place on Novemebr 12th at St. John’s Church in Waterloo, London. Find out more about this concert, here. On Beethoven editions… This week’s blog is on the vexed topic…
On preparing for a Beethoven marathon Part 7: Julian Jacobson
Today’s post is Part 7 of concert pianist and piano professor Julian Jacobson’s series chronicling preparations for his Beethoven sonata marathon on November 12th in London. Julian will undertake the mammoth task of performing all 32 sonatas in one day, and, here, he muses on the much-admired Appassionata sonata. You can read all the articles…
Creatively Celebrating Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 150th Anniversary: Garreth Brooke
This post celebrates the Birthday Anniversary of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams who would have been 150 tomorrow! To mark the occasion, pianist and composer Garreth Brooke, who is a pianist and composer based in Germany, has written four piano solo arrangements of folk songs. Here, he tells us why he felt compelled to write…
Music Teacher Associations & Webinar Events
Piano teachers tend to sit in a room all day. As one student leaves another appears and this repetitive cycle can go on for hour after hour. Some are happy with this status quo, whilst others admit to feeling isolated and ‘lonely’ during the working week – or the weekend, as many teachers work all…
On preparing for a Beethoven marathon Part 6: Julian Jacobson
Concert pianist and piano professor Julian Jacobson continues his series here on my blog. With his Beethoven marathon edging ever nearer, this week Julian lifts the lid on Beethoven’s Fantasy-sonatas Op. 27. Beethoven’s Fantasy-sonatas op 27, including ‘that one’….. Let’s start off by remembering that Beethoven was a phenomenal improviser at the keyboard, perhaps the…
New Piano Repertoire for the New Academic Year
It’s a new academic year and this means new piano repertoire. Today’s post focuses on educational piano repertoire which you may be interested in acquiring either for yourself or for your students. Earlier this month a new volume of Christmas music was released by US company Willis Music. I started working with Willis last year,…
Melanie Spanswick 