Will Hay

Blog

  • 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!

     

  • Celebrating Success at Step One

    LCM Music ExamsFollowing the second entry I have submitted to the LCM exams, Dominic came away with a distinction (86/100) in his Step 1 Piano Exam and was very keen to share some of his favourite pieces from the exam in this video.

    Step One Exam Success

  • March: Month of Concerts

    Instead of organising one end of term concert for my students this term, there will be five! Four of the concerts will be taking place in schools during the school day and will be an opportunity for EVERY piano student in that particular school to take part in a performance. As usual, I will also be inviting some of my students to take part in the end of term “Playing Together” Charity Concert which will be held at All Saint’s Church , Hoole.

    The concert listed below in bold are the piano concerts. I have also included some details of a few other concerts in which I will be taking part this month for information!

    12th March – Upton Heath – 9am

    15th March – Saighton – 10am

    17th March – CMSYC Spring Concert, All Saint’s, Hoole – 7:30pm

    24th March – NES Spring Concert, Neston Parish Church – 7:30pm

    26th March – St. Werburgh’s – 10am

    27th March – St. Oswald’s – 2:45pm

    31st March – “Playing Together”, All Saint’s Hoole – 11am

    3rd April – Nave Choir Passion tide Devotion, Chester Cathedral – 7:30pm

    As a taster for the forthcoming series of concerts, the video clip below features the talented Year 3 Pianists at St. Werburgh’s taking part in their own concert at the start of this term.
    [powerpress]

  • Sea-side composition

    An update on the Sea Idylls Composition Project 2012

    v1.1 of the video template is now available. The format and structure remains unchanged but the video track now includes some moving images amongst the sequence of stills.

    To use the updated video template in your noteflight composition, you need to delete the current video from your score, then copy and paste the new template URL ” http://youtu.be/hQd0TtVF38w ” as a video track on your sea idylls score.

    I am really pleased with the amount of effort going into the current composition project. There are 31 scores currently in progress, many are nearly finished and will soon be ready to record the audio and render the final videos.

    Starting this coming week, I will be incorporating listening activities into the curriculum I teach in piano lessons. The listening material will be available through an evernote shared folder which students can access on their iPods/iPads etc. Visit the folder link above on the device and it should open the link in Evernote and give the option to link to your evernote account so that it is always easily accessible within the app. Listening for the rest of the term will be around the nautical theme to fit around the Sea Idylls project and thereafter will be tied in with the theme of study/composition project for the term.

  • Playing Together – 31st March 2012

    The next “Playing Together” concert is due to take place at All Saint’s Church, Hoole starting at 11am on Saturday 31st March 2012.

    Ticket sales for the concert will continue to support a student bursary at Kampala Music School. Tickets are priced £3/adult and £1/child and can be purchased in advance using the paypal button below or may be purchased on the door.

    The programme will feature a variety of solos, duet and piano-based ensembles performed by students and friends of Will Hay Piano Tuition

     

    Ticket type