Schumann, Mozart, Muscle Memory & Double Notes
Our latest Practice Clinic recording features answers to questions on tackling double notes, pedalling, building muscle memory and tempo in works by Schumann, Mozart and Brahms.
Firm Foundations from the Start
Graham Fitch shares some tips and tools for developing other types of memory alongside muscle memory for greater security and confidence in performance.
Write it Out!
I first published this post way back in June, 2013, and it has been buried in the archives ever since. I decided to update it and republish after the subject…
The Floating Fermata
Graham Fitch explains how one of his favourite day-to day-practice tools, the Floating Fermata works.
Tackling a Programme
I had an interesting question from a reader in Australia, so this week I thought I would address the issue of how to learn a programme consisting of multiple pieces.…
A Tool for Memory Work: Tracking
Memorising a piece takes plenty of time and energy, and requires a strategy more sophisticated than simply closing the score after several weeks of reading it. Some memory work is…
Firm Foundations
A late, esteemed colleague who had amazing sight reading skills once told me he never read through more than once a new piece he was about to learn. It was…
Mirror Mirror On The Wall
I once had to do up someone else's tie and found the only way I could do it was to stand behind and pretend I was putting it on myself.…
Tools for Memorisation
Here is the second part of my article MIND OVER MEMORY, published last year in Pianist Magazine. Remember, everyone who has ever played the piano in public has had that horrible…