My newsletter article for Pianist Magazine this month focuses on playing octaves smoothly. It follows on from the last article, which offered a few exercises to loosen the hand so that octaves feel comfortable to play. You can read the previous article here. My last ‘5 Tips’ article focused on keeping the hand relaxed as…
Tag: Pianist Magazine
Octaves in Comfort – 5 Tips
This particular topic is central to my teaching and is one of the most troublesome for many students. How can we keep our hands relaxed? This is especially important when they are in the ‘open’ (or ‘out-stretched’) position necessary for playing octaves and chords. This post is the first of two on the subject and…
5 Tips To Help Develop Dynamic Range
This month’s Pianist Magazine website article focuses on developing piano sonority or tonal colour, also known as ‘dynamic range’. Building dynamic colour into our playing is vital if we want it to be expressive, warm and engaging. But sometimes it takes all our attention just to play the notes on the page combined with the…
10 Tips To Help Develop Arm-Weight
Today’s post was published in Pianist Magazine’s newsletter last month. It focuses on the importance of establishing and developing arm-weight into your piano playing. I hope you find it of interest. Producing an attractive, pleasing sound when playing the piano is key to good interpretation. When we perform a piece of music, we want our…
The Metronome: 5 Tips
Greetings from Melbourne, Australia, where I’m on a book tour. I’ve been intending to publish this post for a while; it’s a recent blog post written for Pianist Magazine’s website focusing on the use of the metronome. Over the years, I have found this device to be extremely helpful in my teaching class and I…
Voicing: 5 Tips
This month’s 5 tips article for Pianist Magazine’s website focuses on voicing. This is a vital role in piano playing and will determine a pianist’s artistry and musical phrasing. I hope the following ideas are beneficial. Voicing, or the highlighting of various musical lines or strands of music, plays a crucial role in good piano…
The Mature Pianist: Interview
I was recently interviewed about the value and benefit of learning the piano later in life. Many students play as children taking up the hobby again years later, whilst others learn from scratch. Is it a good idea? Can you succeed as an adult learner? Is anyone ever too old to play the piano? Here…
Three-Part Webinar for Pianist Magazine
I’ve been contributing articles to Pianist Magazine for over 10 years. During that time I’ve written an elementary ‘How-To-Play’ column—over 60 in total—for each issue and have composed an elementary piano piece—just over 15 so far—as part of the piano score section. I’ve also contributed regularly to Pianist’s blog, writing a series of ‘5-tips’ style posts. It’s been…
Reverse Practice
This article was published in Pianist Magazine’s latest newsletter and is, therefore, in the customary ‘5 Tips’ format which applies to nearly all my articles for Pianist’s website. It highlights a rather unusual practice tool, that of reverse practice. Some may find this unnecessary and irrelevant, but it does help to focus our minds when…
5 Tips for Practising Polyphony
This month’s article for Pianist Magazine’s newsletter focuses on polyphony, also known as counterpoint, or the playing of several different musical lines at the same time. I hope it’s of interest. Contrapuntal or polyphonic music usually consists of several musical lines sounding altogether, or at the same time. This style of music can be complicated…
Rubato
Today’s ‘5 Tips’ post was first published a few weeks ago in Pianist Magazine’s bi-monthly newsletter. It focuses on rubato, which literally means ‘robbed time’. Taking time for musical effect during a piece can be a tricky task for many a student and this article offers some suggestions. Rubato means ‘robbed’ time or taking time…
5 Tips To Create Rhythmic Independence
Rhythmic independence is the topic of my most recent article for Pianist Magazine’s newsletter. As usual, these articles are in a ‘5 tips’ format and I hope you find it of interest. In some of my past articles for this newsletter, I’ve suggested and implied that the use of the metronome is paramount. It can…