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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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Graham Fitch
Graham Fitch, based in London, maintains an international career not only as a pianist, but also as a teacher, adjudicator, examiner, lecturer, writer and commentator on piano playing and musical subjects.
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Learning a complex piece each hand alone before putting the hands together is a strategy favoured by the majority of piano teachers. While it is of course possible to practise a fugue hands separately, this misses the point. Rather than working hands separately, I advocate strands separately (playing each line... Read >>
Graham Fitch Practising
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<h3> <a href="/content/pages/164-warm-ups-revisited?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">A Body / Mind Approach</a></h3>In this two-part video lecture, William Westney re-thinks warm-ups and demonstrates an effortless process that takes only a few minutes to ensure successful daily practice.... Read >>
William Westney Practising
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Graham Fitch Practising
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Lona Kozik Practising
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<h3> <a href="/content/pages/144-advanced-sight-reading-curriculum-part-2?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">Flexibility</a></h3>To give an interpretation of a piece we have never seen before requires flexibility and demands a willingness to accept wrong notes, technical stumbles, and botched details, in the greater interest of maintaining rhythmic cohesion, following the broad outlines of the score. The second part of our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum... Read >>
Ken Johansen Practising
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The Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum is derived from nearly twenty years of experience teaching the freshman sight-reading class for piano majors at the Peabody Conservatory. It consists of an extensive collection of annotated scores dealing with every aspect of sight-reading, together with detailed suggestions on how to practice. It covers everything... Read >>
Ken Johansen Practising
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<h3> <a href="/content/pages/184-advanced-sight-reading-curriculum-part-3?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">Playing by Ear</a></h3>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 >>
Ken Johansen Practising
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<h3> <a href="/content/pages/132-advanced-sight-reading-curriculum-part-1?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">Eye Training</a></h3>Sight-reading begins with sight. Before the inner ear can begin to imagine the sound of a score, before the mind can start to decode the patterns it detects, and before the body can translate these sounds and patterns into physical gestures that transform written notes into music, the eyes must... Read >>
Ken Johansen Practising
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<h3> <a href="/content/pages/174-advanced-sight-reading-curriculum-part-4?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">Rhythm</a></h3>Rhythm is perhaps the most important element in sight-reading and is the subject of the fourth (next) part of our Advanced Sight-Reading Curriculum. Using simple, effective practice methods and carefully-selected pieces with annotations and guidelines, we work on keeping a regular pulse while tackling challenges such as recognising underlying rhythmic... Read >>
Ken Johansen Practising
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Introductory videos on how to approach and organise your practising for more productive and rewarding sessions.... Read >>
Graham Fitch Practising
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This series of articles will describe how to deconstruct a score and use skeleton practice by way of a number of examples. New articles and examples will be added on an ongoing basis therefore please do watch this space!... Read >>
Graham Fitch Practising
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 >>
William Westney Practising
Making Friends With the Notes
<h3> <a href="/content/pages/240-making-friends-with-the-notes?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">A Two-Stage Practice Process</a></h3>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 >>
William Westney Practising
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 >>
Graham Fitch Practising
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 >>
Graham Fitch Practising
Luxuriant Piano Playing
<h3> <a href="/content/pages/178-luxuriant-piano-playing?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">A Wellness Philosophy and Practice</a></h3>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 >>
William Westney Practising
Separate Practice
Learning a complex piece each hand alone before putting the hands together is a strategy favoured by the majority of piano teachers. While it is of course possible to practise a fugue hands separately, this misses the point. Rather than working hands separately, I advocate strands separately (playing each line... Read >>
Graham Fitch Practising
Practising for Long-Term Results
In this video, William Westney demonstrates a remarkably easy technique for mind and body to truly “digest” (and remember) what we’ve practised.... Read >>
William Westney Practising
Warm-Ups Revisited
<h3> <a href="/content/pages/164-warm-ups-revisited?bundle_url=online-academy&last_viewed=true">A Body / Mind Approach</a></h3>In this two-part video lecture, William Westney re-thinks warm-ups and demonstrates an effortless process that takes only a few minutes to ensure successful daily practice.... Read >>
William Westney Practising
Slow Practice
If you’re serious about playing the piano, there’s no getting away from slow practice. It is a cornerstone of our work from the beginner stages right through to the advanced level, and a practice tool also used by professional pianists and seasoned virtuosos all the time. In this section, ... Read >>
Graham Fitch Practising