A trip to Steinway Hall, situated on Marylebone Street in London, is always a pleasurable experience. If you haven’t visited then I urge you to go and enjoy the vast array of pianos on display at the magnificent showrooms. One particular instrument has routinely caught my eye over the past few weeks. It’s this unusual…
Category: Melanie Spanswick
Great British female pianists and teachers: Emily Daymond
Emily Rosa Daymond was born on 11th July 1866 and was the daughter of the Reverend Albert Cooke Daymond, who was a headmaster. Daymond entered the Royal College of Music as a Foundation Scholar on 7th May 1883, when the College first opened and she primarily studied the piano. She studied with Ernst Pauer (piano),…
Great British female pianists and teachers: Katharine Goodson
British concert pianist Katharine Goodson was born in 1872. At 12, having already made several appearances in the English provinces, she entered the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Oscar Beringer between 1886 and 1892. After an invitation to play for the renowned pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski, she was introduced to his former teacher Theodor…
Sistema England
I have recently blogged about Sistema Scotland and the ‘Big Noise’ orchestra which opened the London 2012 festival last week. I mentioned in this post how fabulous it would be if we had a similar set up here in England, encouraging disadvantaged children to learn various musical instruments and immerse them in the power of…
Piano Duets: sociable and satisfying
I’ve been enjoying piano duets over the past week, both four hands at one piano and works for two pianos. Piano duos can take two forms. Two pianists at one piano being the most popular, that is, the first player, or primo part, plays at the high pitched side of the instrument or the right…
Great British female pianists and teachers: Adela Verne
Adela Verne was born in 1877 and was an important English pianist and composer of German descent. She was considered one of the foremost female pianists of her generation and she frequently toured the world playing in all the major concert halls. Adela was born into a musical family, she had nine siblings altogether, and…
Brigitte Engerer 1952 – 2012
French pianist Brigitte Engerer sadly died a few days ago, on 23rd June, from cancer. She was just 59. I loved Engerer’s playing. She was born in Tunis and was of Maltese descent. Having started playing the piano at the age of five, she entered the Paris Conservatoire in the class of Lucette Descaves. Obtaining first…
Great British female pianists and teachers: Mathilde Verne
Mathilde Verne was born in 1865 and was an English pianist and teacher of German descent. Born Mathilde Wurm in Southampton, England, the fourth of ten children, all of whom were musically gifted. She was initially a student of Franklin Taylor and was then given the opportunity to play to Clara Schumann, who took her to Frankfurt for…
The healing powers of music: repairing brain damage
Music is often used for healing purposes; from relaxation to recovering from cancer. According to science, music can have a powerful effect on repairing brain damage. Patients with left-sided brain damage who can no longer speak can find they are able to sing words, often without any difficulty or training. Melodic intonation therapy, or singing…
Can music slow down the aging process?
An interesting new study has revealed that music can help slow down the aging process. Researchers in the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in the US, measured the automatic brain responses of younger and older musicians and non-musicians to speech sounds. They discovered that older musicians had a distinct neural timing advantage and concluded…
Preparing for your piano exam
Being well-prepared for a music exam is crucial. By ‘preparing’, I’m not referring to the amount of practice required to pass exams. A considerable amount of practice is needed to achieve satisfactory marks. But once you have prepared thoroughly, the real ‘practice’ begins, that is, performance practice. It is too easy to go to your…
Aural Tests
It’s easy to go along to your instrumental lesson every week and focus on your pieces, scales and arpeggios, and sight reading, completely forgetting about the aural tests. This is an oversight because aural ability should ideally be developed over time. It takes practise to learn how to listen to ear tests and to respond…