POPULAR POSTS
A selection of the most widely read posts on this site.
Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano
I’m delighted to introduce my three-book piano series: Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano (Schott Music). This series was published in February/March 2022 and was one of my lockdown projects. Schott and I worked on these publications over a significant period and I’m happy to say that this series won a Presto Music…
Pianists From The Past: Teresa Carreño written by Clara Rodriguez
My Pianists From The Past series continues with this fascinating post detailing the life and career of Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreño. This article was written by Venezuelan pianist and pedagogue Clara Rodriguez. She is a professor of piano at the Royal College of Music Junior Department. Clara is also a noted exponent of…
Harpsichord Essentials: Katharine May
Katharine May, who is a British harpsichordist and pianist, is my guest writer this week. I asked Katharine (pictured above) for some tips and guidance for those who fancy swapping the piano for the harpsichord. In this post she seeks to explain a few fundamentals. I have often been approached by pianists wishing to try…
Hand Flexibility: Piano Professional Article
I’ve written about hand flexibility before here on my blog. It’s an important topic for piano students and teachers. So, I thought I’d publish a more in-depth post on this subject. The following article was first published in the most recent edition of Piano Professional, which is the UK piano teachers magazine published by EPTA…
A few thoughts on publishing houses: a tour of Oxford University Press
I was recently invited to tour Oxford University Press, the renowned publishing house affiliated to Oxford University. The premises of this outstanding company, situated in Oxford on Walton and Great Clarendon Street, is majestic, grand and almost 200 years old: OUP has used three major sites in Oxford city over the course of its history….
Focal Dystonia: Andreas Eggertsberger
I first met Austrian pianist Andreas Eggertsberger in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) last November, when we were both presenting at the UCSI University Piano Pedagogy Conference. I was fortunate to catch Andreas’ fascinating presentation which focused on this little known condition. Injuries are frequently considered a taboo subject for pianists, and tend to be surreptitiously swept…
Play it again: PIANO Book 1
About the Series My four-book piano course, Play it again: PIANO has been written with the ‘returner’ in mind. Book 1 takes pianists back to Grade 1 level of the British music examination board standard. The entire course consists of 97 piano pieces from the Prep Book through to Book 3. Most pieces are drawn…
Top Tips for Practising Octaves
I wrote the following article for the EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) magazine, Piano Professional, and I hope it may shed some light on this important technical topic. There’s a downloadable PDF with nine suggested practice tips and you can also click the link at the bottom of the article to view the original feature….
Resolving Tension in Piano Playing: Article for EPTA’s Piano Professional
Most of us know that too much tension can ruin piano playing. Reducing this tension usually requires time and lots of work. There are many ways to address the uncomfortable, tight feeling. This feeling often accompanies a fixed and tense disposition at the piano. The following article was originally written for the Piano Professional Magazine, an…
Some thoughts on chordal playing in the Scottish Legend Op. 54 No. 1 by Amy Beach
I love highlighting female composers. Trinity College Exam Board’s Grade 8 syllabus has revealed a gem of a piece by the American pianist and composer Amy Beach. Beach (1867-1944) was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Most of her compositions and performances appeared under the name of Mrs. H.H.A. Beach. A…
Rhythmic Precision in the First Movement of Beethoven’s Sonata in C Minor Op. 10 No. 1
Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas are a musical autobiography, charting the composer’s development from a young man up to his death in 1827. The early sonatas are more typical of the traditional classical style. They are akin to those written by Mozart and Haydn. The last six sonatas are possibly the greatest in this genre ever written for…
A few thoughts on Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C Sharp Minor Op. Posth.
Frédéric Chopin’s nocturnes offer a rich array of depth and emotion for both the pianist and listener. Written between 1827 and 1846, they consist of 21 short pieces. It’s generally acknowledged that the genre was developed by the Irish composer John Field. Chopin expanded on this original conception. He produced what are often considered to…