Struggling with scales

One of the most important things I realised when I started teaching the piano ten years ago was the value of time I had invested myself (however reluctantly at the time) in learning scale patterns. They really are one of the fundamentals of piano technique upon which much of the repertoire is built. Making it …

New Arrival

Happy New Year! First announcement of the year is that I am now a daddy. Eleanor Felicity was born on 2nd January weighing 8lb 10oz. She is a gorgeous little girl (not that I’m biassed at all) and seems to enjoy vying for attention with Geoffrey and Ruxpin when she isn’t draining her mother’s milk! She …

Autumn Leaves Project

This term, my students have been creating a backing track for an Autumn Leaves video I made. Most have chosen to use a drum track and record a performance of their piano piece along with the drums. This provides the extra challenge of playing in time with the drums! We have used Tape Machine and …

Waterfalls Project 2014

 Waterfalls Project 2014 Starting this half term, I am running a studio-wide composition project; “Waterfalls“. Object: Compose a piece of piano music, 96 seconds in length, titled “Waterfalls” to reflect/accompany the video. There are three different types of waterfalls featured which may each be represented differently in your composition. You may want to team up with a partner …

6 concerts in 8 days…

The next student concert series will be taking place at the beginning of March 2014. The title will be “River and Rainbow”, a pastoral countryside theme for springtime. The theme is inspired by some charming compositions of Walter Carroll who published a number of books of these delightful pieces over a century ago. These compositions will …