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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 >>
Doubles
Doubles (or triples!) is a way of addressing challenging patterns within passages where we have a string of fast notes of like rhythmical values (e.g. semiquavers) by playing each pair of notes twice (or more). Mozart - Var. 1 From 12 Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, maman", K. 265 Nielsen - Snurretoppen (No. 2 from Humoreske-Bagateller, Op. 11) ... Read >>
Inventing Exercises from Your Pieces - Repertoire Examples (1)
Beethoven - Sonata No. 27 in E Minor (Op. 90, 1st mvt) Beethoven - Sonata No. 27 in E Minor (Op. 90, 2nd mvt) Resources & links Open domain editions for... Read >>
Inventing Exercises from Your Pieces - Repertoire Examples (2)
Chopin - Étude Op. 10, No. 12 Chopin - Étude Op. 10, No. 12 (Cortot Exercise) Chopin - Étude Op. 10, No. 12 (Cortot Exercise) ... Read >>