I’ve been musing on the topic of students learning and preparing a small amount of repertoire thoroughly as opposed to studying a much larger number of pieces in a perhaps more ‘laid-back’ fashion. This is a perennial subject, especially amongst adult returners, and is often quite a controversial issue. A common question in my Facebook…
Tag: Teaching Observations
Teaching Observations: Shifty Shoulders
Earlier this week I had an appointment for my three-yearly mammogram. There’s nothing vaguely interesting about this event, but, for me, it’s a more stressful undertaking than for many because exactly fifteen years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was fortunate because the cancer was caught early and I’ve been able to make…
Teaching Observations: Fingering and Annotating Scores
Recently I’ve been working with a couple of students on a particular piece from my series Women Composers – A Graded Anthology For Piano. Both students, who are adults, are preparing it for a diploma exam. As this piece isn’t on the syllabus, it will form part of their ‘own choice’ exam repertoire, of which…
Teaching Observations: A Professional ‘Sound’
Many will know that I taught at the 2021 Chetham’s International Piano Summer School; you can read my blog post about it by clicking here. This course provided a great opportunity to meet and chat with all types of students, but particularly the adult amateur player. I teach few adult amateur students, as most of…
Teaching Observations: Piano Courses For Young Pianists
Over the past few years, several of my younger students have expressed a desire to participate in a summer course, and I’ve always been supportive of what I consider an extremely useful extracurricular activity. Those who have attended have invariably improved their playing, sometimes substantially. The opportunity to play regularly with new or different teachers…
Teaching Observations: A few thoughts about piano competitions
I’m fortunate to enjoy most aspects of my work. I hesitate to say ‘job’ as being a musician is so much more than that. It’s most definitely a vocation. As expected with any type of work, some parts of my ‘job’ are more interesting than others. Adjudicating, or judging piano competitions, is a favourite element…
Teaching Observations: Piano Exams For All?
Today’s post is about piano exams. I’ve written about this particular topic on numerous occasions, but, as ever, teaching the piano is a process, for the teacher as much as the student, and it’s a process where our thoughts are constantly changing and evolving. My views here are based purely on my own experience as…
Teaching Observations: Marmite
You’re quite right in thinking that I’m not a food writer, and marmite is, of course, a rather dark, thick, sticky, potent, yeast-based paste that we spread over, well almost anything. You either love it or hate it. Apologies to vegetarians and vegans who will, no doubt, prefer Vegemite! In this post, the marmite connotation…
Teaching Observations: Food For Thought
Today’s teaching observation might seem rather off-topic. Regular readers will know that I usually stick to writing about playing the piano, but occasionally I like to highlight a particular subject that has either had a significant impact on myself or my students and is, therefore, worth writing about as it may just be of help…
Teaching Observations: Prepping the Score
Today’s post is the last on my blog until the end of July, as I undertake an exciting trip to the Far East for my publisher Schott Music, giving piano workshops for teachers, public and private classes and lessons for both teachers and students, as well as talking about my books. But before I go,…
Teaching Observations: Favourite Fellowship Piano Diploma Repertoire
Today’s article is the final post in my diploma mini-series. I’ve previously explored repertoire options for both the Associate Diploma and Licentiate Diploma exams, and you can read my articles about here and here. The final exam in the diploma trilogy is the Fellowship diploma; the ABRSM’s fellowship exam is the FRSM and Trinity College…
Teaching Observations: Favourite Licentiate Piano Diploma Repertoire
Due to the vociferous and appreciative response from readers regarding my article featuring Associate Diploma Repertoire (which you can read here), let’s now turn our attention to the next diploma, the Licentiate exam. This is the second diploma in a group of three. Most music examination boards in the UK offer these diplomas. They are…