Pianissimo!
The first time I heard Vladimir Horowitz in recital his vast dynamic range and the incredible array of sounds and colours he managed to produce from the piano made a…
It’s All in the Mind!
As part of this short series on tension I would like to explore how our mental state affects our performance, and suggest ways we can improve what is going on…
A Matter of Pressing Concern
Graham Fitch gives advice on how to avoid tension and offers a very practical solution to the age-old problem of keybedding!
Decaffeinated Practice
This is the first post of a short series on tension. Today I will be talking about how to play with full communication without allowing musical and expressive tension to…
Piano Teaching for the 21st Century Short Course
In conjunction with EPTA, Lucinda Mackworth-Young and myself are presenting a short course at the Leeds College of Music at the end of March. There are still a few place…
Visualisation for Performance Anxiety
How often have we heard it said after a performance that didn’t quite hit the mark: “But I can play it perfectly well at home”? When we play for ourselves…
Special Offer – eBooks on Kindle and iBooks Stores
We’re offering over 60% off the first volume of each part within the series on the Apple iBookstore and Amazon Kindle until 14/02. Click here to visit our catalogue and…
Memory Tips: Transposition
When I was a student at the Royal College of Music, part of my course was a weekly class called "Keyboard Harmony" that dealt with such musicianly skills as harmonisation…
Memory Tips: Using the Other Hand
There is a philosophy that says muscular memory is so fickle that it is not to be trusted for memorised performances at all - know the music deeply enough on the mental…
Memory Tips: Using One Finger
When we learn to walk at the toddler stage of our development, we are gradually forming the neurological pathways that will make the activity automatic. Once we are able to…