Category Archives: Practising

How to Practice for the beginner pianist

Posted on October 1, 2018 by

This week I have been creating practice charts for many of my beginner students. They are tailored to the age and ability of each students, and how (if?) they are progressing. This example is roughly what I wrote into their … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, Piano, Practising | Tagged | Leave a comment

Questions, questions

Posted on September 23, 2018 by

I was trying to motivate a young pupil to SUCCEED in getting through a line of her piece without being frustrated and over-faced by the size of the task. We were sweating our way through the last line of ‘Train … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, Lessons that have happened, Piano, Practising, talking to yourself | Tagged , | Leave a comment

34/60 Christmas is a time for sudden progess

Posted on November 14, 2017 by

At this time of year I switch to focussing on Christmas Carols. With careful choice of book, many of the students will make great gains in confidence and motivation. As well as choosing “off-the-shelf” books, I’ve also transposed carols into … Continue reading →

Posted in Cello Teaching, Keyboards, Piano, Practising, Sight Reading | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

31/60 Hoovering and Swooping

Posted on November 7, 2017 by

  When the children in the choir slide between every note in the song… It is quite hard to break them of this horrible habit. Every time there is a leap between two notes they slither from one to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Class Teaching, Lessons that have happened, Practising, Songs | Tagged | Leave a comment

23/60 Teaching by Finger Number/Note Letter

Posted on October 15, 2017 by

Please don’t. I think it is is such a BAD idea… What has provoked this post, is taking on a number of young piano students recently. They turned up with numbers written over EVERY SINGLE NOTE in their pieces. Ugh. … Continue reading →

Posted in Lessons that have happened, Practising, Theory | Tagged | Leave a comment

95/100 Scales – Start at the top

Posted on December 27, 2016 by

Here’s a thing; Suppose the brain is like a battery, that runs out of energy when it is used; When your student is playing a scale, especially if it is a new one, (and I’m talking piano here because that’s what … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, Practising | Tagged | Leave a comment

85/100 Intentional Learning

Posted on December 8, 2016 by

That sounds a bit serious… But I mean that kind of practising when you first work out, and then work at, exactly what has to happen to manage to play the right notes. Let’s take this extract from the A2 … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, Practising | Tagged , | Leave a comment

76/100 Carols for cellos – with flats!

Posted on November 24, 2016 by

I’m teaching several groups of young Grade 2 cellists at the moment, covering for a colleague. All the groups are wrestling with the intricacies of B flat and E flat major scales – the novelty of “first finger back” on … Continue reading →

Posted in Cello Teaching, Practising | Tagged | Leave a comment