Dominant and Diminished Sevenths
I've recently posted some Learning Guides to practising Diminished and Dominant Sevenths for ABRSM Grade 8 piano.
The most important thing to do when you practice
What is the secret of successful practise? Don't play the wrong notes! Does that sound simplistic? Bear with me.
Why practise piano scales? … and arpeggios!
What are benefits of scale practice, and what are the best ways to practise scales? The Aristocats knew: "Every truly cultured music student knows,
You must learn your scales and your arpeggios"
YouTube piano resources
There was a while when I felt obliged to make recordings for students, to help them learn new pieces. But now, there is a wealth of professional material available through YouTube
Piano Teaching for Advanced Instrumentalists and A-level students
If you are an A-level (or prospective A-level student), who needs to improve their keyboard skills, then here is a possible syllabus that I would suggest, with resources for the first year of lessons.
Piano Scales for exams
There are too many scales in ABRSM piano exams: far more than for other instruments - and I have sat across the table from the chief examiner and told her so. Why are there just scales and arpeggios and not technical exercises, as for other instruments?
Ornaments
It seems to me that there are two problems with ornaments: technical and visual. The technical aspect is not just that students can't get their fingers around ornaments on the piano
Music exam boards go head-to-head
Which exam board should aspiring musicians follow? Which has the best syllabus? and which has the best structure?
A Review of Piano Sight Reading Guides
The best way to improve your sight-reading at the piano is to play a lot more music, and have a teacher guide you about what you are doing right, and what you are doing wrong. But there are lots of books on the market that can help.
How to Sight-Read at the piano
This page is a note about how I teach sight-reading. I've posted it as a matter of public service. Usual disclaimers about no responsibility taken if it doesn't help you, or makes matters worse!
Top Ten Tips for Adult Piano Beginners
Here are the Top Ten Tips for adult beginners learning the piano, from an article that appeared in Pianist (the magazine) August-September 2003 by Jocelyn Abbott.
Piano Fingering
I constantly re-iterate "Pitch, Rhythm, Fingering" when students start to learn a new piece: it helps their learning. Pitch and Rhythm alone are not enough.
