Last week’s post, ‘The Pencil’, garnered a lot more interest than I had anticipated: it was really intended as an irreverent end-of-term topic that had been on my mind for a while. If you’d like to read it, please click on the button below: Subsequently, several teachers have written about the issue of ‘enticing’ students…
Tag: Piano Lessons
Teaching Observations: The Pencil
As the academic year draws to a close and teachers look forward to the refreshing long summer break, there is a natural tendency to reflect, focusing on elements that have brought particular joy throughout the year, as well as those that, perhaps, have been less successful or have caused upset in some way. I’m exploring…
‘Author Focus’ at Presto Music: Part 3 – The Older Beginner
I’m currently music store Presto Music’s ‘Author Focus’ of the year, which means that Presto will be publishing a video about my work every month on their website. I recorded these videos over the Easter holiday and you can hear the first one, published in May and serving as an introduction to the series, by…
5 Tips To Sharpen Concentration and Focus
In this month’s Pianist magazine tips article, I suggest ways to sharpen mental focus, helping to optimise both our attention span and concentration. We all know that feeling, don’t we? We are happily traversing our way through a favourite piano piece and then all of a sudden and seemingly out of no-where, we’ve lost our…
Pianissimi in India
Piano courses are becoming increasingly popular, particularly those focusing on the adult piano ‘hobbyist’ market. It makes sense: this demographic probably have the most money to spend, and they also have more time to hone their piano chops, especially retired pianists. And they can be excellent players and attentive students. Like many teachers, I’ve taught…
‘Author Focus’ at Presto Music: Part 2 – The Young Beginner
I’m currently music store Presto Music’s ‘Author Focus’ of the year, which means that Presto will be publishing a video about my work every month on their website. I recorded these videos over the Easter holiday and you can hear the first one, published last month and which serves as an introduction to the series,…
Seeds of Hope: From Inception to Publication and Beyond by Alison Mathews
Today’s guest writer is pianist, teacher and composer Alison Mathews. Over the past year, Alison has compiled and edited a very special publication called ‘Seeds of Hope’: a collection of elementary level piano pieces featuring Middle Eastern themes with a focus on nature, growth and hope. Each work in this volume has been written by…
Classic Piano Repertoire: Advanced Level
My latest ‘Tips’ article for Pianist magazine’s website was published just a couple of weeks ago and focuses on repertoire for advanced level players. You can read the first two posts in this series by clicking on the button links below: This is the third and final part in a series delving into suitable repertoire…
‘Author Focus’ at Presto Music: Part 1 – Introduction
I’m pleased to be the featured author and composer this year at Presto Music. For this series, entitled ‘Author Focus’, Presto Music will publish a new video every month over the next twelve months featuring my work, books and music. In each video, I discuss various aspects of my career, including teaching beginners, talented young…
A Master Class with Cyprien Katsaris
I came across this interesting master class given recently by French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris held in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong City Hall on October 1st, 2025, for the Chopin Society of Hong Kong. Edmond Cheng is the piano student in this class and he plays Frédéric Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61….
Piano-Playing Wisdom: Rami Bar-Niv
Today’s guest post has been written by Israeli pianist, teacher and writer Rami Bar-Niv, who is no stranger to my blog. Rami has recently published a new book, ‘Piano Playing Wisdom’, and in this post, he writes about the inspiration behind it. Piano-Playing Wisdom After the success of my book ‘The Art of Piano Fingering:…
Classic Piano Repertoire: Intermediate level
This article is the second part of a three-post series delving into suitable repertoire intended to develop piano playing at whatever your current level: it was published earlier in the week on Pianist Magazine’s website. Whether your practice is structured so that you are able to tackle the following repertoire altogether, or you decide to…