thoughts on piano teaching and beyond
It's that time of year again. The start of the new academic year and a new teaching term for private piano teachers. Many of us are organising our teaching diaries, planning lessons and welcoming students back to regular lessons, hoping that some if not all have done some practising over the summer holiday..... Sadly, some… Continue reading Respect
This, the third book by Murray McLachlan's for Faber Music on piano technique, takes a more leftfield approach to piano playing and piano technique, tackling esoteric, psychological and philosophical issues such as visualisation techniques, inspiration, musicians' health and well-being (including dealing with performance anxiety), career development, and encouraging independent learning and interpretative decision-making. This non-traditional… Continue reading The Psychology of Piano Technique – Murray McLachlan
It cannot have escaped the notice of many of those inside the piano teaching profession that a noisy and at times acrimonious debate is raging, once again, over the sensitive issue of touching students, specifically children, as a pedagogical device in the course of piano lessons. I am not going to go into the specific… Continue reading A question of touch
Much of my teaching is based on visualisation, a technique I learnt from my first teacher as an adult pianist and one which I use daily with my students and my own practising and playing as a way of engaging and stimulating the imagination to produce music which is expressive, vibrant and personal. (Read more… Continue reading Say it Play it
This is an expanded version of a letter by Frances Wilson which appeared in The Guardian on 29 May 2017 As a piano teacher and pianist, I was rather troubled to read this article in The Guardian in which the author, Hugh Muir, admits to having been put off continuing his piano studies by the… Continue reading It’s not just about grades
Routine or “autopilot” practising can kill one’s enjoyment and productivity at the piano. Practice can become strained or monotonous because it’s too often primarily directed by a preconceived idea and too exclusively goal- or result-oriented. This can lead to frustration and a feeling that you are not progressing as rapidly as you would like to.… Continue reading Creative approaches to practising
despite the best efforts of a sympathetic and well-organised teacher, many students feel consumed with anxiety when approaching their music exams
There has been a lively and thoughtful response to an article which appeared in The Guardian on 27 March in which the author declared that notated music is "a cryptic, tricky language – rather like Latin – that can only be read by a small number of people". The author, Charlotte Gill, who is neither… Continue reading Dispelling the myth of difficult
ABRSM has today (29 March 2017) launched a recruitment drive for ‘Teacher Voices’, its new customer feedback panel. The music education organisation is looking for 500 teachers from a wide range of backgrounds from across the UK to take part in a series of online polls and surveys. The results and insight from the feedback… Continue reading ABRSM launches teacher feedback panels
A Piano Teacher Writes... 