We’re delighted to announce that we’ve partnered with Anacrusis to bring their innovative sight-reading curriculum, Read Ahead, to the Online Academy. This partnership will see the addition of a comprehensive set of sample materials for sight reading added to the Online Academy. The materials can be used as stand-alone sight reading exercises or with optional apps that add further interactive functionality. What is ReadAhead? Read Ahead is an exciting new program that helps piano students to improve their sight-reading ability. This unique curriculum is based on an extensive collection of carefully ordered compositions with related exercises and quizzes that help students develop the mental and tactile skills necessary for fluent sight-reading. How does it work? The syllabus is divided up into levels based on difficulty. Each level is comprised of a number of articles which in turn each constitute one day or a practice session’s worth of material. Articles contain several exercises and sample sight reading pieces. The pieces can be used “as-is” on screen or downloaded for printing purposes. The experience can also be enriched by using accompanying apps for iPhone or iPad. Interactive exercises on each day are identified in both the article and the app with the following icons: Touch exercises introduce patterns or technical issues that will be encountered in that day’s practice. This icon indicates a Memory exercise. Touch it on the corresponding day page in the app to practice a passage while training your short-term memory and decoding skills. Read Ahead exercises are complete pieces of music for sight-reading. Instructions, quizzes and tips on how to read them more effectively can be found in the app along with a built-in metronome preset to the correct tempo for each piece. In the iPad app, the music disappears in […]

We hope all of our readers have had an enjoyable Festive Season and are being treated well by 2017 so far! We’re hard at work preparing new content and resources which will be announced next week. Until then, here’s a summary of popular posts and Online Academy articles from 2016: Blog posts: “But it Takes Me Ages to Learn a New Piece!” The Speed of No Mistakes Securing a Fast Passage Enjoying Ultra-Slow Practice No Stopping! Online Academy articles and resources: Walkthrough of Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C Minor (1) Ergonomic Fingering for Scales and Arpeggios (1) The Art of Pedalling – The Sustaining Pedal (1 & 2) A Crash Course in Music Theory – Welcome! Technical Exercises and Regimes – Finger Exercises (3) Technical Exercises and Regimes – Introduction (1) Chopin Mazurkas – Walkthrough – Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4 Aria in F – Walkthrough Slow Practice – How and When to Use Slow Practice A Crash Course in Music Theory – Back to the 18th and the 17th centuries In addition to the above, the most popular videos on the Online Academy were the Sustaining Pedal and Lucinda Mackworth-Young’s Beginning to Improvise. A number of the Online Academy articles listed above are available without registration and you can also register for free to view an additional five articles (no credit card required). Click here to find out more about the Online Academy or click here to visit the site, view free content and to subscribe.

We’re pleased to announce that a number of new resources for elementary musicians and their teachers are now available via the Online Academy. As mentioned in a previous post, we decided to start off by picking a few sample pieces from the early grades in the new ABRSM syllabus and creating walkthroughs with downloadable, printable worksheets that players can take with them to the piano to guide them in their practice. The first example was JC Bach’s Aria in F from the Grade 1 syllabus. The next piece featured is Handel’s Sonatine in G from the Grade 3 syllabus. Also under development are worksheets which serve as a creative way to introduce a new piece to a learner. The first two examples feature pieces in the ABRSM syllabus that are arrangements of folksongs or well-known melodies – When the Saints (Grade 1) and The Piper o’ Dundee (Grade 2). The worksheets can be assigned by teachers a week or so before introducing the arrangement as it appears in the exam book. In addition to resources featuring specific pieces, we’ll be adding other material aimed at the elementary level, including: General tips for exam preparation The Practice Tools adapted for beginners A guide to elementary level scales and arpeggios Click here to view an index of the available and forthcoming content in these series or click here to find out more about the Online Academy. ***   ***   *** The Practising the Piano Online Academy If you enjoyed this blog post, then you may be interested in The Practising the Piano Online Academy. Building on my blog posts and eBook series, it takes my work to the next level with a comprehensive library of lessons, masterclasses […]

The Practising the Piano eBook series was originally launched in 2012 and has been read by thousands of pianists all over the world. We’ve been working on publishing revised editions in conjunction with the development of the Online Academy and are pleased to announce that the complete series is now available via our catalogue. The revised editions feature a number of enhancements and updates, including: New supplementary content Numerous content updates and refinements A printable PDF download option and additional download options for PC and Mac Various formatting improvements Enhanced video streaming via Vimeo Improved download speeds from upgraded hosting infrastructure Full series catalogue Part 1 – The Practice Tools Practising the Piano Part 1 is a foundation course on practice methodology or what could be called techniques of learning. It shows you how to organise your practice sessions for maximum effect, enabling you to learn new pieces quickly and efficiently. It also provides a number of specific practise tools which will improve your confidence and the overall quality of your playing. Click here for more on Part 1 >> Part 2 – Mastering Piano Technique Practising the Piano Part 2 provides a comprehensive treatise on the subject of piano technique from an overview of different schools and traditions through to an extensive listing of technical exercises. Video demonstrations and precise written instructions with exercises accompanied by manuscript show exactly how to overcome technical difficulties with skill and panache while avoiding common pitfalls that lead to tension and injury. Click here for more on Part 2 >> Part 3 – Scales and Arpeggios Practising the Piano Part 3 is a comprehensive guide to scales and arpeggios. It features numerous video demonstrations, exercises, practice suggestions, resources and interactive tools to make […]

With just two days to go until the launch on Thursday (22/09), we’re busy putting the final touches on the Online Academy website. We’ve also been adding lots of new content to the material from the beta-launch, including: A detailed video walk-through of Chopin’s beguiling Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 68, No. 2 Additional articles on using “Deconstructing the Score” to learn new pieces and tackling Polyrhythms An essential 5-minute warm-up routine from Penelope Roskell with video demonstrations of easy and effective exercises in the Healthy Playing section A walk-through of the 1st movement of Ravel’s Sonatine to accompany an Annotated Study Edition on the work More content in the pedalling series, including another video featuring the “damper cam” to demonstrate the concept of “flutter” or “fractional” pedalling The launch of the Online Academy is just the beginning as we will be adding content on a continual basis thereafter. The next round of content we’re working on at the moment includes: Walkthroughs and Annotated Study Editions for a number of pieces including Chopin’s C# Op. Post. Nocturne, Mendelssohn’s Variations Sérieuses and Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca Articles on new topics that we haven’t covered before such as improvisation and applied theory Further videos in our comprehensive series on the art of piano pedalling More videos demonstrating the practice tools in context, starting with the feedback loop A series of articles on spread chords If you’d like to see more, we have prepared a brief, guided tour of the features which you can view in advance of the launch here: Subscription options The following subscription options will be available following the launch of the site: Free trial – Register for free (no credit card required) and access up […]

Following the launch of the Online Academy beta site, we’re now hard at work preparing the site for launch and therefore thought we’d take this opportunity to share a “sneak preview” of what is coming… Content The beta site already contains over 35 articles and 30 videos, including: A number of videos which form part of a series on piano pedalling featuring demonstrations, musical examples and a “damper cam” to provide an in-depth treatise on the subject A series of text articles including musical excerpts and video demonstrations on the art of piano fingering by author Penelope Roskell Video introductions to Graham Fitch’s Practice Tools, starting with The Three Ss Initial articles in a series which shows you how to tackle those pesky polyrhythms with videos and downloadable worksheets A series of articles which show how to use skeleton practice to approach learning popular works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Chopin. We’ll be adding lots more content in the run up to launch and on an ongoing basis thereafter. Content still to come includes more articles and videos on healthy playing, a series on how to improvise at the piano, a “crash course” in practical theory, extensions to the technical exercises library, more walk-throughs of popular pieces, additions to existing series and articles featuring new topics from our surveys. Features The beta site is also fully functional and provides a number of ways to browse, search and interact with the content outlined above. We’ve also added a useful “bookmark” feature which enables you to bookmark a page for easy access at a later stage: Home page with featured content, browse, quick search and bookmarks Advanced search with filters for category, sub category, […]

Graham is currently away and will be back in the beginning of September. In the meantime, if you’re looking for some summer reading, here’s a listing of the most popular posts on Practising the Piano this year so far: Speed of no mistakes But it takes me ages to learn a new piece Securing a fast passage The three little pigs Enjoying ultra-slow practice ***   ***   *** Online Academy Launched! We’re pleased to announce that The Practising the Piano Online Academy has been launched and is now available! Click here to find out more or click here to visit the site, view free content and to subscribe.