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How Real Is It? Piano Playing in Cinema

How best to celebrate International Piano Day after nearly a year of pandemic-induced isolation? I suspect I am not alone in admitting that I have consumed an alarming amount of film and television recently, so I had the idea to turn on the critical part of my brain and take a deeper look at how…
ABRSM vs Trinity: Exam Board Syllabus Review 2021

2021 will see the launch of a brand new piano syllabus from the two most widely known exam boards: ABRSM and Trinity College London (TCL). Both exam boards boast significant updates to their syllabuses, more so than what we are used to every two years from ABRSM and every three from TCL. This sexennial event…
A Handy Guide for Video Lessons

Students are all encouraged not just to continue with their lessons during the isolation period, but to throw themselves into their piano playing. Government measures banning non-essential travel mean that one-to-one piano lessons are no longer possible. Fortunately, we live in a time where the technology to teach over the internet is stable, secure and…
10 Famous Compositions in E major/C-sharp minor

10. Frédéric Chopin: Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54 The fourth and last of Chopin’s scherzo’s is the only one one to begin and end in a major key. Accordingly, the tone is considerably lighter then its determinedly grim predecessors. 9. Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Trumpet Concerto in E major Though Hummel was a prolific pianist in…
10 Famous Compositions in A major/F-sharp minor

10. Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6 Does this piece really belong on a list of compositions in A major? Though it is titled Sonata in A major, Prokofiev is up to his usual tricks and refuses to establish a stable tonality. It is the first of what has become known as the Three War…
10 Famous Compositions in D major/B minor

10. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Prelude in D major, Op. 23, No. 4 This piece may not be as well known as the G minor prelude from the same set, or the C-sharp minor prelude from Op. 3, but its simplicity and lyricism make it recommended listening for anyone who is just discovering the music of Rachmaninoff.…
10 Famous Compositions in C major/A minor

10. Franz Schubert: Fantasie in C major, Op. 15, “The Wanderer” Let no-one say that pieces written in C major are easy! The Wanderer is widely considered to be Schubert’s most technically demanding piece, to the extent that the composer himself had difficulty playing it! It is performed here by Alfred Brendel. Honourable Mention: Ludwig…
Sound Production

The sound of a hammer hitting a string which is then amplified by the soundboard is the sound that every piano student must become tuned in to. Each time the strings of a particular note are struck they produce a spectrum of overtones that are unique to that particular piano. The ability to manipulate this sound…