Where Piano Playing Retirees Get Information and Encouragement
Keeping a beat is important, but so is playing the right notes and adding adequate expression. But keeping the beat is possibly the most important aspect, for a number of reasons. The first reason why keeping the beat is important, is that it maintains the flow and integrity of the piece of music. This is … Read more
Some music is written badly and it is not because the quality of the music is particularly bad. I am not imposing my personal opinion here, it just that some music is not written well. Actually it is more accurate to state that some music is transcribed really badly. If you have every heard a … Read more
This can be a bit tricky to work out whether you should follow the fingering or not on any given piece of music. On top of this, everyone also seems to have an opinion on what is best practice, so here is what I think should be the case. First of all, if you have … Read more
In some ways it is the easiest thing in the world to quit when things get tough and it is no different when you are learning to play the piano. It is easy to forget that hard does not mean impossible, hard just means that it is challenging. I know I am preaching to the … Read more
Piano teachers have traditionally been thought of as hard task masters who were generally mean. I realize that in the past, this reputation was well earned. There have been many tales of piano teachers absolutely demanding that scales had to be practised to complete perfection or there would be consequences. I have also heard stories … Read more
Yes, you read correctly, the topic for today is about the deaf Scottish Percussionist. I first heard of this lady many years ago. Her name is Evelyn Glennie and she wasn’t born deaf – she started going deaf at the age of 8 and gradually lost her hearing until the age of 12 when she … Read more
I know it seems like I am stating the obvious here, but it really is important that you learn what you enjoy listening to. Usually, if you thoroughly enjoy listening to a particular piece of music, you are going to enjoy learning it and playing it on the piano. So many times we can get … Read more