Playing, or Practising?

Hello again!

We all like to play piano pieces through from start to end. However if we are learning a piece by playing it all the way through then it can be counter-productive.

When learning a piece and encountering difficulties which cause you to slow down or stop, it’s important to isolate those difficult bits and practise them separately. Try repeating the difficult bit using hands separately or playing slowly with hands together. Do this until the section becomes more easy to play.

This method ultimately saves you time and helps you to learn the piece quicker!

World Piano Day 2023

The 88th day of the year is known as World Piano Day (because the full-size piano has 88 keys), here’s Vivaldi – Concerto 2 Violins & Lute to celebrate.

Play with more empathy and touch?

This is a quick tip to suggest a way to become more ‘in touch’ with the music you are playing.

A lot of us play a little mechanically, mainly because of the amount of practice we have to put in. It’s sometimes easy to forget to approach the music in a heartfelt way.

However, try this. Ask yourself “What does the piano think of me?”

It may or may not make a difference for you. But for those it does, what a difference it makes!

Why Scales and Exercises?

Exercises can be the least attractive element of learning to play the piano. They can be mechanical and repetitive and to a lot of people fairly meaningless.

However, exercises build technique. They promote the muscular growth and flexibility and dexterity to prepare you for the more difficult pieces.

Exercises need to be approached proactively rather than reactively. That is, get involved, listen carefully. Measure yourself against these three principles:

Am I playing smoothly?
Am I playing on the beat?
Am I playing with an even tone?

The last one, which means “am I playing the notes so that none of them sound too loud or too soft,” is the biggest challenge you’ll face when learning to play. Regular exercises help to meet that challenge.

August 2021 – ‘normal’ service resumed

With the relaxation of government restrictions lessons are once again taking place at our home. If you are a past student and wish to ‘get going’ again, or a new student perhaps wanting to try out piano lessons then kindly call 07834 188918.

Scarlatti Sonata in A major

Another Scarlatti sonata, this one is tranquility itself.

Scarlatti – Sonata in F minor

Domenico Scarlatti wrote 555 pianos sonatas. His birth/death dates were the same as Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750.) I love Scarlatti, his sonatas are a constant source of discovery. This one in F minor is a personal favourite.

Mozart – Piano Concerto 23 in A major (K. 488) Adagio

This is the beginning of the Adagio where the piano introduces the main theme. Depending on your view, it is beautiful, sad, contemplative, a mixture of all or something else.

One well-known concert pianist said: I will play this theme for the rest of my life and still not discover all of its depths.

The 50% practice routine

A bit of homespun advice about your piano practice:

Each practice session begin with a scale and arpeggio. Choose a different key each time. Remember to play smoothly, in time and with an even tone – these are the 3 things to look for. I appreciate this is not an attractive task (you can make it attractive and look forward to it.) However it builds strong technique. Exercises are not exactly an attractive proposition but if you want to improve then it’s a habit that needs to be cultivated. Someone once told me that to create a habit it takes 21 days, so try it… so for the next 21 days do your exercises before anything else.

When we play the piano to play we often do 2 things: a) play for pleasure, go over our favourite-of-the-moment pieces, and b) practice new ones. I can’t emphasis enough that if you want to advance and play more challenging and beautiful pieces you must spend at least 50% of your practice time working on new pieces. Call it “the 50% rule” if you like and please try it. At each practice start with exercises, then practice the new pieces, then finish off with the things you love.

Online Piano Lessons

The Coronavirus pandemic makes humans think creatively and in this case offer online piano lessons. Having done some testing we’ve found the best solution for sound and video quality is to use Skype.

One-to-one lessons via Skype are available for existing students. Please contact me if you’d like to keep rolling!