Will Hay

Category: Piano Teaching

  • “Going Places” – Concert Series

    The theme for the piano concerts this term is “Going Places”. Concerts have been organised for the following dates:

    12th Nov – Upton Heath 910am
    13th Nov – Saighton 11am
    16th Nov – St. Werburgh’s 910am
    17th Nov – All Saint’s Church, Hoole 11am
    19th Nov – St. Oswalds 910am

    The concerts will feature mostly themed solos and duets and may also showcase some ensemble and composition work carried out during the term. They will conclude with the now customary sing-along video item which this term will involve children from every school taking part, thereby unifying the series.

    The concert at All Saint’s Church is open to anyone to attend and tickets are £3/£1, continuing to support the Kampala Bursary.

  • New ABRSM Piano Syllabus – Grade 1

    It is with great pleasure that I can announce the new ABRSM Piano Syllabus for 2013-2014. The pieces can be used in exams from January 2013 until Easter 2015. I have produced a playlist of demonstration videos of the Grade 1 Pieces so far and intend to produce more as time permits…

    My favourite selection I think would have to be A3 – Das Ballett, B3 – In a boat and C2- March though I am also fond of the C3 Chatanooga ChooChoo piece and have been since I first heard it played from a cassette tape in my youth! Only time will tell as to which pieces prove most popular with my students.

    It was fun recording the pieces this morning and I couldn’t resist putting an out-take on the facebook page from when Geoffles decided to jump in on the action!

  • “Creatures Great and Small” Student Concert Series

    The banner above links to “The Geoffles Daily“, a daily photoblog of my kitten Geoffrey following his antics since he came to live with us on April 13th. The daily photos from the photoblog automatically syndicate to a facebook page and an evernote folder!

    Appropriately, the concert series this term will follow an animal theme with the title “Creatures Great and Small”. The school concerts will showcase the talents of my piano pupils within each school with a range of solos, duets and own compositions and each will culminate with this term’s multimedia collaboration project in which a number of students have taken part along with members of the Chester Music Society Youth Choir.

    Parents of the children involved are cordially invited to attend the concert in schools and everybody is invited to the final concert in the series taking place at All Saint’s which will again be supporting a Kampala Music School piano bursary with audience tickets priced at £3/adult and £1/child.

    St. Oswald’s, Mollington – Friday 15th June at 9:15am

    St. Werburgh’s Primary – Monday 18th June at 9:10am

    Saighton School – Friday 22nd June at 9:10am

    Upton Heath Primary – Monday 25th June at 9am

    All Saint’s Church – Saturday 30th June at 11am

    A concert preview video below features excerpts from the Spring Concert Series earlier this year.

  • Creatures Great and Small

    My Piano Tuition theme this term is “Creatures Great and Small”. For the studio composition project however, I will not be making a video. Instead you must choose three contrasting animals from either Pets, Farmyard, or Jungle categories and compose either a suite of three short pieces featuring the three animals or one piece which features the three animals in relating themes.

    I was really pleased to hear that one of my youngest students had already pre-empted this composition project when she showed me her dinosaur composition yesterday, having chosen to represent three different dinosaurs, two of which I’d never even heard of before!

    Watch out for the weekly listening task in the Evernote listening folder following Saint-Saens’ famous “Carnival of the Animals” suite.

    The term will culminate with  the Summer Charity Concert which will take place at All Saint’s Church, Hoole on Saturday 30th June at 11am concluding with another “multimedia spectacular” which is currently in preparation!

     

  • National Learn to Play Day

    When planning the forthcoming “Playing Together” concert at All Saint’s Church in Chester, I hadn’t quite realised the significance of the date, 31st March, 2012. However it seems like an excellent opportunity to encourage anyone to come along to the concert, be inspired by some musical performances and then head down to their nearest Dawsons store to try a free “taster” lesson on an instrument!

    National Learn to Play Day has been organised by Music for All, the charity of the national musical instrument industry in partnership with the Musicians’ Union, Arts Council England’s “Take it Away” scheme, musicteachers.co.uk and Musicradar.com

    “Playing Together”
    Playing the piano can be a somewhat solitary experience which is why for a year now, I have been actively encouraging my piano/keyboard students to engage with other musicians at the piano, playing duets and trios and with other instruments in small ensembles. Students are also encouraged to take part in composition projects on my Noteflight Classroom which can result in performance in tandem with music technology!