How many times have you heard this phrase? A fair few, I would imagine. It may be true for some activities, perhaps those where grit and determination are necessary in order to achieve the desired outcome. But this phrase certainly does not apply to the activity of playing the piano. Yet, increasingly, pianists suffer from…
Tag: Tendonitis
Painless Piano Playing Part 3
Today’s article is the third, and final, in a series written for Piano Professional Magazine, the UK publication of EPTA (or the European Piano Teachers Assocation). This technique article was featured in their recent winter edition. It focuses on painless piano playing, a subject about which I am passionate! I hope you find it of…
Honest Insights and Some Forgotten Exercises
British concert pianist Nick van Bloss has written the third guest post in my new series. Technical exercises often receive a bad press by pianists, teachers and students alike, but, practised carefully and diligently, and with the help of a talented teacher, they can be extremely helpful for building various aspects of piano technique. In…
Guest Post: Andreas Eggertsberger speaks out about Focal Dystonia
I first met Austrian pianist Andreas Eggertsberger in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) last November, when we were both presenting at the UCSI University Piano Pedagogy Conference. I was fortunate to catch Andreas’ fascinating presentation which focused on this little known condition. Injuries are frequently considered a taboo subject for pianists, and tend to be surreptitiously swept…
Guest Post: A Young Pianist’s Journey
Today’s blog is a guest post written by my student Amy Reynolds. Amy (pictured below) came to study with me a year ago, and together we’ve enjoyed quite a journey. Here, in her own words, she explains how we went about obtaining her dream, which was to study the piano at a British music conservatoire….
Melanie Spanswick 