The Practice Tools Lecture Series

Quarantining

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Having identified those sections of a piece, or a programme that regularly break down when you get to them in a playthrough, put them into quarantine for a period of time. This includes sections that feel shaky or uncomfortable. Isolate these spots and give them extra practice time, perhaps in a separate 20-minute practice session or interleaved between other items in a routine practice session.

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Music at Sight

Sight reading is a skill you can develop, but you have to know how. This introductory course teaches the five skills you need to become an excellent sight-reader!... Read >>

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Read Ahead is an exciting program that helps piano students to improve their sight-reading ability. This unique curriculum is based on an extensive collection of carefully ordered compositions with related exercises and quizzes that help students develop the mental and tactile skills necessary for fluent sight-reading. This section features Level 4... Read >>

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Making Friends With the Notes

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William Westney presents a common-sense practising approach for achieving an underlying feeling of physical comfort and security at the piano. This powerful, proven strategy is easy to implement and frees us to play ANY piece of music freely, expressively and spontaneously. It can also lead to technical breakthroughs by thoroughly... Read >>

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Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum - Part 3

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Although playing by ear might seem to be the opposite of sight-reading, we read with our ears as much as with our eyes. The inner ear helps us to navigate a new score, predict what is coming and improvise when the eyes haven’t had enough time to absorb everything. The... Read >>

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Read Ahead - Level 3

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Read Ahead - Level 1

Read Ahead is an exciting new program that helps piano students to improve their sight-reading ability. This unique curriculum is based on an extensive collection of carefully ordered compositions with related exercises and quizzes that help students develop the mental and tactile skills necessary for fluent sight-reading. This section features Level... Read >>

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Read Ahead - Level 2

<h3> <a href="/content/pages/41-read-ahead-level-2?bundle_url=online-academy&amp;last_viewed=true">Sightreading for the Modern Musician</a></h3>

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Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum - Part 2

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In these excerpts from his presentation at NCKP 2021, William Westney shows that whether we are concert performers or beginners, we can all luxuriate in free-flowing, generous, comfortable, unfettered, and unforced movements that “feel great” at the piano.... Read >>

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Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum - Part 1

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Quarantine-Spots

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you have spots in your pieces that regularly break down you’re going to need to identify them and isolate these sections so you can do some quality, systematic practice on them. This process I call quarantining, and each extract... Read >>

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Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum - Part 4

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The Body - Wiser than the Mind?

When we make music we experience fascinating integration of body and mind. As essential as it is to master certain well-defined skills (just as athletes do) there can also be moments when we manage to "get out of our own way" – and everything seems to fall into place beautifully.... Read >>

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Mastering Polyrhythms

A polyrhythm (sometimes referred to as a cross rhythm) is the effect produced when two conflicting rhythms are played together and can prove very challenging indeed! This series of articles will help you tackle them in various ratios, starting with the simplest: two-against-three (2:3) or three-against-two (3:2).... Read >>

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Slow Practice

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Skeleton Practice

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Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum

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An Overview of the Practice Tools

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Separate Practice

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Teaching & Developing Sight-Reading Skills

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Practising for Long-Term Results

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