You may know the feeling: a piece seems to be going well at home and you feel like you know it, only for the wheels to fall off when playing it in a lesson or performance. Or perhaps learning a new piece takes so much effort that by the time the notes are in place, you have little time or energy left for shaping the music.
Often, the issue is not how much time you’ve spent practising, but how you approached the learning process in the first place. When the foundations of a piece are not laid securely, weak spots and cracks tend to appear only later – especially under pressure.
Building Firm Foundations is a short, guided course with Graham Fitch on how to approach the early stages of learning in a way that in a way that reduces wasted effort, strengthens memory and gives you a more reliable basis for performance.
Through self-study lessons, a hands-on live workshop and a follow-up session for questions and feedback, you’ll learn practical, reusable tools for building a piece on solid ground from the beginning – whether you plan on playing with the score or from memory. You can work on a piece of your own choice or select one from the free score bundle included with the course.
Benefits
- Know exactly how to begin learning a new piece, rather than relying on trial and error
- Speed up the learning process and get better results from your hard work
- Spend more time on interpretation and music making than note bashing
- Discover tried and tested tools that you can apply to any new pieces you learn in future
- Feel more secure and confident in your lessons and performances
How it works
This short course combines flexible self-study with live expert guidance. You’ll receive:
- Video lessons, notes and exercises to work through in your own time
- An understanding of different memory systems and a simple, highly effective approach to analysis
- Practical tools for learning more securely, efficiently and musically from the outset
- A live interactive workshop on Saturday 2 May, where Graham will demonstrate how to apply the ideas in practice
- A follow-up session on Thursday 28 May for questions, troubleshooting and feedback
- Replay access if you cannot attend live, plus the opportunity to submit questions for the follow-up session in advance
You will also receive a free score bundle, along with a bonus video library showing the tools in action across a wide range of musical examples.
This is not just about getting one piece off to a better start. It is about learning a method you can carry into every new piece you tackle, so that your work holds up more reliably, your playing feels more secure, and performing becomes a more rewarding experience.
Join us and build your next piece on solid foundations!
Missed it? You can now sign-up and work through the full course in your own time!
Although the live course has now concluded, all of the materials have now been compiled into a self-study course. This means that you can still benefit from the full experience at your own pace, whenever it suits you.
This is not simply a collection of videos, but a structured journey designed to help you approach learning a new piece with greater clarity, security and confidence from the very beginning.
What’s included:
- Over 50 detailed video lessons covering the early stages of learning a piece
- A guided email pathway that walks you through the course step by step
- Practical demonstrations and numerous musical examples
- Downloadable worksheets and exercises to help you apply the ideas to your own piece
- Additional tools for the next stages of learning a piece, including building muscle memory
You can work through the material in sequence, following the same journey as the live participants, or revisit individual sections whenever you need them.
👉 Sign-up and start building your next piece on solid foundations!