We’re currently taking a break, but here are some highlights and links to our most popular content and events from the last year.
Festive Greetings & Christmas Gifts!
Festive greetings and a special Christmas gift for our readers!
The Online Academy Turns Five!
The Practising the Piano Online Academy turns five in October 2021! Thanks to the support of our readers and subscribers, the site has grown significantly over the last five years. Our content library now features over 1000 videos and we’ve developed several value-added offerings, including our highly popular online events programme and practice clinics. During the course of the month, we will be celebrating by publishing various content updates and making a selection of popular videos from our premium content library freely available. Click here to sign-up to our mailing list for updates on new and free content! Recent Highlights The following are some of the highlights from new content published over the last year: Practising – New videos featuring practice tips from William Westney, an email course on how to start learning and practising a new piece and the next part in our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum. Technique – Several modules on how to use exercises by Hanon, Czerny and Berens, in addition to more resources on mastering scales & arpeggios. Learning Pieces – Our repertoire library grew significantly with video walk-throughs of over 100 pieces from all levels. We also kicked-off a new series called Beethoven on Board which will ultimately feature detailed videos on each of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas! Performing & Exam Preparation – Our project for the 2021 & 2022 ABRSM piano syllabus was completed and now includes videos for pieces from all grades and several supplementary videos with tips on preparing for other aspects of an exam. Online Workshops & Practice Clinics Our online workshops programme has featured over fifty events and has proven to be very popular. These events provide a live, interactive way to learn about various topics with opportunities for questions and answers. The […]
Summer Sale 2021!
Summer Sale 2021: Get up to 40% off online events and various piano playing and teaching resources!
Take Your Practising to the Next Level!
Our online events line-up for our Piano Day 2021 festival includes two interactive practising workshops. These sessions are designed to give you a hands-on, interactive experience in applying Graham Fitch’s practice tools in your daily practising and within the context of pieces that you play or are learning.
Building Speed, Inventing Exercises & Get Feedback!
The next showcase for our #pianoday2021 festival line-up includes online workshops on building speed, inventing exercises from your pieces and a chance to get feedback on your playing!
Playing Softly, Keeping Going & More…
Our biggest ever online events programme kicks off on Friday 26th March. We will be providing further information on the various events in the run-up, starting a showcase of an initial selection from the programme. In these sessions, William Westney demystifies the technique of playing softly, Ken Johansen shows how to keep going no matter what when sight-reading and Graham Fitch takes us back to Haydn’s visit to London! Please see further details for each event below or click here to view the full programme. Click here if you haven’t attended one of our online events before and would like to find out more about how they work. Keeping Going, No Matter What! Friday 26th March @ 15:00 – 17:00 GMT In sight-reading, we are often told to maintain a steady pulse and keep going, no matter what happens. But when confronted with confusing-looking rhythms, technical difficulties, and other challenges, it can be difficult to keep our rhythm regular and accurate. In this online workshop, Ken Johansen shows how to find a suitable tempo in sight-reading, keep the beat going even in challenging circumstances, and how to avoid common rhythmic inaccuracies. We’ll discuss several techniques that help us to find and solve rhythmic difficulties before we play, so that our sight-reading will be more comfortable and successful from the first reading. Examples will be drawn from all levels of difficulty, from easy to advanced, including several pieces from the Read Ahead curriculum, as well as a preview of Part 4 of the Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum, soon to be added to the Online Academy. Click here to book your place. Making Good, Healthy Sound – Even at the Softest Dynamic Level Friday 26th March @ 17:30 – 18:45 GMT Although it may seem like a simple matter, playing softly can […]
Piano Day 2021 Festival
The 29th of March is Piano Day 2021 and we’re celebrating with a festival featuring our biggest ever line-up of online events and workshops! Piano Day Weekend Festival Taking place from Fri 26th – Sun 28th of March, the programme comprises ten sessions on various topics, including: Presentations by William Westney on the technique of playing softly and Ken Johansen on rhythm in sight-reading Two further interactive practising workshops based on our popular “hands-on” workshop format A “Fantasy Analysis” by Graham Fitch on Haydn’s “English” Sonata (click here for Graham’s Fantasy Analysis of a work by Brahms) A special lecture / performance by Harpsichordist Jory Vinikour followed by a workshop by Graham Fitch on Baroque style A chance to perform and get feedback on your playing (or observe) in a performance workshop with Graham Fitch …and much more! Tickets can be purchased for individual events or you can save 20% by purchasing combined “weekend pass” for all ten. All events will be recorded and links to recordings along with any relevant resources will be provided to ticketholders shortly after the festival. Further information on how our online events work is available here. Please click here to view the full programme and booking details. Online Academy subscribers are also entitled to a 40% discount on all events, including the weekend pass (Click here to find out more about the Online Academy or click here to sign-in for your discount to be applied if you are a subscriber). Other Special Offers & Updates We will be making other special offers available as part of our celebrations and providing updates with further information on scheduled events in the run-up. Be sure to sign-up to our mailing list here for further information and notifications!
How to Start Learning a New Piece
Sign-up for our free email course on how to lay good foundations from the outset when learning a new piece.