Devised by my ex pupil Amy Reynolds, ‘Chicken Wings’ may be of interest to anyone focusing on the elbow. Many pedagogues feel this part of the body to be of real importance when playing the piano, and Amy felt compelled to write about her recent discoveries. I have reproduced her blog post here. Chicken Wings…
Tag: Piano Playing
5 Top Tips to Aid Memorisation
Pianist Magazine produces a newsletter which wings its way into a reader’s e mail box every other month. It’s brimming with piano news and information, as well as a few articles. I write a regular ‘Piano Tips’ feature, and today’s post presents the most recent, which focuses on memorisation. Memorisation is a hotly debated topic…
A Weekend at Jackdaws Music Education Trust
I had the pleasure of tutoring a second piano course at Jackdaws Music Education Trust over the weekend. Jackdaws offer residential and one-day instrumental and vocal courses. They also provide various education projects and a Young Artists Programme. Additionally, there are performances by world-class musicians. Piano courses are becoming increasingly popular. This includes weekend courses…
Meet the Judges Live Stream Interview
This week I’m in Chicago adjudicating at the Chicago Amateur Piano Competition. Judging starts today but this competition offers an impressive events roster, a fairly unique concept amongst competitions, which runs in tandem, therefore proceedings actually started last night. Fifty-five talented pianists will play a short programme over the next two days. The finals will…
5 Top Tips to Improve Wrist Staccato
This is the second post exploring touch and articulation. The first focused on finger staccato (you can read it here), and today I’ll try to provide a few practice ideas for wrist staccato. Wrist staccato technique is generally used to play chordal passage work or groups of two notes or more in a very short, detached manner. A pianist friend and…
5 Practice Tips To Instantly Improve A Performance
Over the past few weeks I’ve been travelling around, teaching and adjudicating, providing the opportunity to hear a large and varied selection of piano playing. Whether pianists are young or old, beginners or very advanced players, and there has been an unusually large cohort of superb playing this year, several issues persist amongst pianists. With…
10 Top Tips to help Resolve Tension
A few days ago I published an article which was originally written for EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association) last year, and was published in the Piano Professional Magazine. This article focused on resolving tension at the piano. Many of you have subsequently contacted me asking for a few tips regarding tension, to remember whilst practising. So…
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…
15 Top Tips for Successful Sight-reading
Last weekend’s blog post featured the first article I wrote for the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA), which appeared in the Piano Professional Magazine (Autumn 2013 edition). Continuing with this theme, the following article was published in the Autumn 2014 Piano Professional (pages 20-22). It focuses on Sight-reading. We all know how important it is to be…
Ten Top Tips for Effective Memorisation: The Memory Game
This post comprises the first article I wrote for the Piano Professional Magazine (Autumn 2013 edition, Pg. 22-24), which is published by EPTA or the European Piano Teaching Association. I hope these suggestions and ideas might be useful to those studying for their diplomas or teaching memorisation to students. There is a helpful PDF download at the…
Between the Notes
An overriding issue for many students is the need for ‘breathing space’ during a performance. This is seemingly such an obvious point, but it’s one which is often challenging to put into practice. Space can be created in many ways; both in the approach to a performance as well as actually between notes and phrases of a…
Absolute Articulation
I have spent much of the last month adjudicating at various amateur music festivals around the country. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable job; I get to visit all different parts of the UK, and also hear a wide variety of piano playing. Standards vary of course, from young, inexperienced beginners to incredibly accomplished performers. Whilst it’s…