Reach

I'm currently fully booked but can recommend Andrea and Mikaela.

We have a couple of rare mid-term spaces coming up. If you have been considering tutoring and would like to know more please do get in touch.

I share this with my English students because it's a great example of why you need to vary your sentences.

I’ve loved this forever…

I've had the privilege of working with Lucinda at the BKA summer school. This approach has transformed my music teaching.

https://www.musicteachermagazine.co.uk/content/feature/spreading-the-kodaly-approach?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4MPFz0LkFJq3ra7m-5iO6iuvh3d93J7O2uHWr4Pry7OmP0Fqf172BM8lLLCQ_aem_O9Z9sMP33wwJ26D1cXOQVQ&sfnsn=scwspmo =1750150815-1

Spreading the Kodály approach - Music Teacher Zoltán Kodály's achievements in teaching singing still resonate loud and clear, and have borne fruit in the shape of a Europe-wide Hub in which the National Youth Choir of Scotland is a pivotal partner. David Kettle reports

I heard another teacher saying that sometimes his students’ parents felt like their children weren’t getting “proper” homework, and they couldn’t help them, unless it was a “real” written down piece of music.

So I was thinking: what would be five points I’d *really* like my students’ parents to know about practice?

🔥 When teachers set listening as a homework, it’s not just something to gloss over. It’s not just an “add-on”, particularly where rote pieces (ie learnt by pattern, sound, focus on colour and technique etc) is concerned. It’s FUNDAMENTALLY important. Like….imagine your school sending your child home with a reading book in English, but they’d never heard English spoken at home? If your child is going to be studying a rote piece, it’s terribly, terribly difficult for them to learn it if they haven’t spent days being absorbed in listening to it.

🔥 Practising the piano isn’t playing through pieces. It’s working on technique; improving dynamics; working on small, small sections to learn them, internalise them, get them better. One of the best practice methods, even when a piece has been learnt, is slow practice. Ah yes - and getting your child to audio record themselves playing and listen back can be a very useful learning experience for them!!

🔥 When you want your child to play “something they know”, you hear a piece of music you like. We see a score with notes not yet learnt, rhythm patterns never experienced, five part chords when the student is still learning to coordinate two hands, extended hand positions that the child has never experienced and will detrimentally affect their developing hand alignment; in short, a bunch of new learning concepts that would cause cognitive overload and overwhelm. Trust your teacher to have the pedagogical experience to provide the next little rung in the learning ladder that ensures maximal progress. Then, the student won’t even need a teacher to show them; they’ll be able to learn independently!

🔥 Learning the piano is NOT just about learning to read music. Notation is only one part, and is just a graphic representation of sound that the student learns to read *for themselves* with guidance. So practice assignments are likely to involve lots of different aspects of learning, all equally important.

🔥 When your child turns up at their lesson saying they’ve not practised because they’ve got a new hamster/ had their piano under the decorating sheets / been out with Auntie Marjorie all week at the haggis festival…. just know that your piano teacher is silently weeping inside / having a mental breakdown / planning to set up a pet shop in Milton Keynes / wondering if one bottle of red wine will suffice with dinner.

Which is the most effective day of the week to practise?

Which day is your lesson? In my view, it’s the day AFTER that. This is the time when everything is fresh in your mind; any comments on interpretation will still be fresh; any new learning can be begun to give adequate time for its progress during the week; any technical issues can be addressed and implemented immediately; lesson notes following the lesson can be reviewed and any clarification sought; any listening can start to be carried out in order to feed musical development.

The worst thing you can do?

To leave the piano alone for two or three days after the lesson. Points are forgotten; unless detailed notes have been taken by the pupil both in a notebook and on the score, aspects of learning will be forgotten. Muscles will not be developed; impetus will be lost. Worse still: the learning will feel hard-going, and is less likely to be undertaken with enjoyment.

When the bear from Beavers comes to your piano lesson!

Had a tech nightmare this week.... please could any of my current parents WhatsApp me the name of their child. Thank you.