The following article was first published on Pianist Magazine’s website a few months ago as part of my ongoing ‘5 top tips’ series. Singing. It can be a useful tool for pianists, or any instrumentalist, to help shape phrases, particularly when practising slower cantabile-style nocturnes, where it can encourage us to pay closer attention to…
Tag: Piano Students
Top Piano Practice Tips: An Interview
UK-based Marcel Zidani is a concert pianist, teacher, and composer. He runs a large Facebook group called Adult Piano Beginners (click here to join) which currently hosts over 44,000 members, and it was this group that proved the original inspiration for my own Facebook group, Adult Piano Returners (click here to join). Marcel is also…
Piano Pedagogy Spotlight: An Interview with Chenyin Li – Part 1
I’m continuing the popular ‘Piano Pedagogy Series’ on my blog today featuring the first of four substantial interviews with Chinese concert pianist and teacher Chenyin Li. Chenyin enjoys a busy concert career and, since 2011, has contributed to nearly 90 CDs and dozens of video performances as the exclusive pianist for Pianist Magazine. She is a piano…
Summer Coaching at the RAM, RSL Awards, and More
Today’s post is a ‘round-up’ of my work over the past couple of months. Book projects are coming to an end for this current year. I have two more to be published before 2026. The first is a beginners’ book for ensemble playing. This is (probably) the final book in my Snapchats duets & trios…
Interpretative Guidelines: Rami Bar-Niv
My guest writer this week is pianist, teacher and author Rami Bar-Niv. Rami has written many articles for this website and today’s focuses on interpretation. You can read more from Rami by clicking here. A good start is the balance between brain and heart, which is pretty good advice for life in general. Brain is…
Piano Pedagogy Spotlight: An interview with Frank Huang – Part 4
This is the fourth and final interview with American pianist and professor Frank Huang. In Part 4 he discusses his love for and approach to teaching. Why do you love teaching? What is your teaching philosophy? As a piano professor, it gives me great satisfaction and fulfilment to motivate, encourage, and empower students towards developing…
Music & Drama Education Expo 2025
I’m looking forward to the Music & Drama Education Expo in London next week. This two-day event is held every year and has been through several transformations since its inception twelve years ago. According to its website, the Expo consists of ‘a mix of practical workshops, CPD sessions, seminars and networking for music and drama…
5 Top Tips for Developing Legato Octaves
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…
Teaching Observations: The ARSM Diploma
I’ve written on several occasions about piano performance diplomas and you can read my ‘Teaching Observations’ series, where those blog posts are housed, here. The ARSM piano performance diploma exam is not a new test, having been around for several years already, and it was originally intended to ‘bridge the gap’ between the Associated Board…
Master Classes with Dame Imogen Cooper
It’s the start of a new academic year and as it’s been a while since I posted a master class, I thought the following might be just the ticket to inspire a fruitful term’s work. Filmed in the Performance Hall at the Royal College of Music in London on January 30th 2024, this class was…
Developing A Flexible Piano Technique: Hal Leonard Webinar
Piano technique can be problematic for many students. Questions surrounding this aspect of piano playing are more frequent than any other in my experience, and this is certainly true in my Adult Piano Returner Facebook group: if you have a Facebook account but have yet to discover this group which now has 31,000 members, click…
A Keynote Speech and an Asia-Pacific Adventure
On June 29th I embarked on my largest and certainly longest book tour to date. This one had taken considerable preparation and financial support from both Schott Music and Hal Leonard Australia. These trips are usually fun, inspiring, fascinating and educational, and this Australasian extravaganza was nothing short of amazing. The tour started in Singapore…