Will Hay

Author: Will Hay

  • 5-finger Fur Elise

    For some beginners, five-finger arrangements of popular pops and classics prove to be more motivational than lesser known tunes serving purely as exercises.
    5 finger scoreThis simplified version of Beethoven’s Fur Elise for the absolute beginner requires only a slight change of finger in bars 9-13 where RH finger 4 moves from D# to E and RH finger 5 moves from E to F. At bar 14 the fingers return to their original position.
    Changing the metre from three to four eliminates the need for a pickup bar and though it elongates the rests, it is an easier rhythm to feel and play along with the backing track below.

    To download the backing track you will need to right-click on the download link then click save as…

    Fur Elise Backing Track

    Fur Elise Backing Track (100bpm)

  • Piano Teaching Schedule – Autumn 2009

    The new term is underway and piano lessons will resume the normal schedule from Sunday 6th September 2009-17th December 2009. This means that lessons in schools will be starting from 7th September.
    Half term dates: 24th-31st October 2009
    Check the google calender for any updates to visit days.

  • Piano Points Results – Summer 2009

    At the end of the term, the top 10 total piano points achievers are as follows:

    1. piano-points-cupAlice from Tattenhall Park with 43 points,
    2. Sophie from St. Oswald’s with 42 points,
    3. Emily from Tattenhall Park with 41 points,
    4. Beth from St. Werburgh’s and Jacob from Ellesmere Port Catholic High with 38 points,
    5. Sophia and Kate from St. Werburgh’s, Louisa from Queen’s and Joe from Waverton with 36 points.

    This means that at the next concert the piano points cup will be presented to Alice from Tattenhall Park.

    47% of students have achieved the target 28 points for the term and will be receiving a certificate at the beginning of September.

    The top 5 Average points achievers for the term are:

    1. Alice from Tattenhall Park on 3.91 points per lesson,
    2. Louise from St. Werburgh’s on 3.89 points per lesson,
    3. Mollie from St. Oswald’s on 3.88 points per lesson,
    4. Beth from St. Werburgh’s on 3.80 points per lesson, and
    5. Emily from Tattenhall Park on 3.73 points per lesson.

    65% of students have managed an average of 3 or more points per lesson.

  • Letter from Fiona Carr, Kampala Music School

    Dear Will and all your students,

    Thank you very much for the very generous cheque of £300 that you have sent for a KMS bursary. We really appreciate all the hard work you put into performing at two student recitals. We do trust you really enjoyed performing and putting the recitals on and that you enjoyed meeting and hearing Terence Ayebare.

    Your money will go out to Kampala soon and a student will be allocated to you and information about him or her will be sent to you.

    Thank you once again.

    Best wishes,

    Fiona

  • Summer Piano Lessons

    As you are probably aware, I don’t normally teach over the summer holiday but as quite a number of people have asked this year I have decided to make some days available if you would like to keep up with piano lessons.

    The days when they will be available are
    Tuesdays 18th, 25th August and 1st September

    Contact me if you would like to have summer lessons on the latter Tuesdays in August.

    Normal teaching schedule will resume from 3rd September.

    pianolessonagreement

    Teaching Fee Increase and Piano Lesson Agreement

    As you may be aware from the last newsletter, I will be increasing my fee slightly from September to £24/hr for lessons at my home and £28.50/hr for lessons in school or at your home.

    I will also be asking all parents to sign a piano lesson agreement which acknowledges my ’24 hours notice’ lesson cancellation policy. I haven’t actually changed any of the details of this and they are currently printed on the back of every invoice but I thought it would be fair to ask everybody to sign it at the start of the new term, to confirm that they agree to abide by it.