There are few things more exciting at the piano than starting a new piece. Learning music you love is, after all, one of the great pleasures of playing: discovering something new, getting to know it and gradually making it your own.
Then you put the score on the music stand…
Where do you begin? With notes, patterns, fingering, technical challenges and musical questions all competing for attention, there can be a lot to take in. Without a clear process, it is easy simply to dive straight in and deal with each problem as it appears.
That is exactly why we created Right From the Start. Our new course provides a clear, five-stage blueprint for beginning pieces with greater clarity, direction and musical understanding.
Five Stages for Starting a New Piano Piece
Instead of simply opening the score and starting to play, the course takes you through five purposeful stages:
Discover
Begin by getting to know the music before detailed practice starts. Listen closely, explore its character and begin forming a clear idea of how you would like the piece to sound.
Understand
Survey the score and look beneath the surface. Identify structures, patterns and important landmarks that make the music easier to understand and give direction to the work ahead.
Prepare
Lay the groundwork before repetition starts to establish unhelpful habits. Explore the score through sketching, choose fingering, simplify difficult material and break passages down where necessary.
Organise
Turn what you have discovered into a practical learning plan. Divide the piece into manageable sections, identify priorities and decide how to organise the work ahead.
Begin
Put your plan into action using sound learning principles from the outset, including slow practice, separate-hand work and practising in sections, while avoiding common approaches that can make pieces harder to learn later.
Together, these five stages form The Right From the Start Blueprint: a repeatable process you can return to whenever you begin new repertoire.
More Than Just Learning the Notes
The aim of Right From the Start is not simply to help you learn notes faster.
Musical understanding can (and should!) form part of the learning process from the beginning.
The clearer your sense of the piece, its structure and the musical result you are aiming for, the more purposeful your practice can become. Rather than learning the notes first and thinking about interpretation later, musical intention begins to shape the work from your earliest encounters with the score.
The result is a more structured, thoughtful approach to learning repertoire – one that brings greater clarity and direction to your practice while keeping music at the centre of the process.
How the Course Works
Right From the Start guides you through the process step by step, combining video lessons with practical activities and guidance to help you apply each stage to a piece of your own choosing.
You work through the process with your own repertoire, building an approach that you can use not only for your current piece, but whenever you start something new.
Start with one piece. Build an approach you can take to every piece that follows.
Get Access to Right From the Start
Right From the Start is available as a standalone course for £47 and is also included with Online Academy membership.
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