- Home >
- browse >
- Practising >
- Practice Tools
Practice Tools
Selection
Looping
To make ourselves thoroughly comfortable with a tricky passage, it can be helpful to practise it “on a loop”, repeating several times. With each repetition we aim to finesse our sound, to feel loose and free in the body and to correct any unwanted accents, wobbles or dings. Chopin - Waltz in E minor, B.56 Beethoven - Sonata No. 30... Read >>
Inventing Exercises from Your Pieces - Introduction
This set of videos will help you come up with creative ideas for inventing your own exercises within your pieces to solve problems and master challenging passages. Debussy - Arabesque No. 1 from 2 Arabesques Resources & links Open domain editions for the works featured in this video are available via the following links: Debussy 2 Arabesques ... Read >>
Deconstruction - Repertoire Examples (1)
Schumann - No. 1 from Kinderszenen, Op.15 Debussy - Arabesque No. 2 (from Deux arabesques, L. 66) Schumann - Knecht Ruprecht from Album für die Jugend, Op.68 Resources & links Open domain editions for the works featured in this video are available via the following links: Schumann Kinderszenen,... Read >>
Skeleton Practice
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 >>
Practice Strategies & Approaches
Introductory videos on how to approach and organise your practising for more productive and rewarding sessions.... Read >>
How and When to Use Slow Practice
I have noticed some folk think they are beyond slow practice – that’s something only beginners do. Far from it! One of the twentieth century’s great pianists, Sergei Rachmaninov practised so slowly that even his colleagues didn’t recognise the piece. This was not music he was learning from scratch, but something he had performed many times and was practising slowly in order to keep it in good shape. 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... Read >>
Developing Speed
Now that you've learnt your piece at the "Speed of no mistakes", how do you go about increasing the tempo to performance speed? Many pianists use the incremental metronome method in which the metronome tempo is gradually increased for a passage. However, there are much better ways to build speed! This video introduces a few highly effective methods for increasing tempo whilst avoiding tension and retaining accuracy. Schubert -... Read >>
The Practice Tools Lecture Series
Without an understanding how to approach practising the piano, day-to-day practice can often be unfocussed and unproductive. In this series of video lectures, I identify and explore various practice tools that will help pianists of any level get the most out of their time spent practising.... Read >>
Miming
Miming, or "shadow" practice, is a silent piano technique where the pianist deliberately prevents the keys from sounding—either by lightly touching or partially depressing them—to develop finger control, internal hearing and independence between hands or voices. Chopin - Étude Op. 25, No. 1 Clementi - Sonatina in C Major, Op. 36 no. 3 (1st mvt) ... Read >>