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How to Earn Sheet Music Rebates with Sheetmusicplus

by Tim Topham

What are Sheet Music Rebates? I’m sure most of you are aware of the excellent array of music available both in print and download format from www.sheetmusicplus.com, however, are you aware that you can actually benefit from your students’ purchases through the website via their “Easy Rebates” program? When I have sheet music recommendations for ... How to Earn Sheet Music Rebates with Sheetmusicplus

11/15/2011 Read more

More cool music for the boys – Sonny Chua

by Tim Topham

With a firm belief that instrumental teachers should spend at least an hour a week listening to and playing through new repertoire, I thought it worth sharing with you the music of Sonny Chua as definitely worth your research time. Sonny Chua is a Malaysian-born, Melbourne-based piano teacher and composer who writes music that will appeal ... More cool music for the boys – Sonny Chua

09/07/2011 Read more

Hal Leonard Adult Piano Method

by Tim Topham

If you teach teenage or adult beginners, check out this book! I’m not usually a fan of using method books with my students as I like to pick repertoire from all over the place in order to give them as varied an introduction to music as possible. However I recently found this fantastic title at ... Hal Leonard Adult Piano Method

08/23/2011 Read more

Nikolai Kapustin – the crossover jazz music keeps coming!

by Tim Topham

Since being introduced to the music of Friedrich Gulda at the APPC conference in July by Jovanni de Pedro, I stumbled upon another fantastic and, it seems, undervalued crossover jazz/classical composer: Nikolai Kapustin. Kapustin has been active as a composer since the late 1950s though he has only become known in the West during the ... Nikolai Kapustin – the crossover jazz music keeps coming!

07/27/2011 Read more

Jazz for Classical Pianists by Freidrich Gulda

by Tim Topham

During the recent Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference in Wagga Wagga, I was lucky enough to attend a lecture/recital by American-based pianist Jovanni de Pedro who introduced an enthusiastic crowd to the exciting and fun music of French “crossover” pianist Friedrich Gulda. I’ve already promoted a couple of youtubes of his music, but I wanted to ... Jazz for Classical Pianists by Freidrich Gulda

07/24/2011 Read more

Teaching Boys Piano – Repertoire Ideas

by Tim Topham

Most of my career has focussed on all-boys education. I believe there are many merits to single-sex schooling, especially when it comes to the arts. However, this is not a post about co-ed versus single sex schooling, rather it’s about repertoire that I have found resonates really well when teaching boys. In my experience, boys ... Teaching Boys Piano – Repertoire Ideas

06/07/2011 Read more
 

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Best of AMEB Manual List – Level 2

by Tim Topham

Continuing my previous post… here are my suggestions of the best pieces on the AMEB’s manual list from Grade 5 – 7 (and one from Grade 8 which I haven’t had as much experience with yet). There are heaps more that are probably fantastic which I haven’t yet found, so please educate me with suggestions ... Best of AMEB Manual List – Level 2

05/26/2011 Read more

Piano Video Game Music

by Tim Topham

If you teach boys in particular, you have no doubt had students requesting to play pieces they’ve heard from computer games – Super Mario, World of Warcraft, Zelda, Mass Effect – are just a few that come to mind from my experience. Video game music is pretty popular with my teens. Computer game music is ... Piano Video Game Music

05/24/2011 Read more

Best of the AMEB manual list – level 1

by Tim Topham

It’s sad that so many teachers stick only to the AMEB grade books when there is so much great music out there, and quite a few gems are already listed in the syllabus under the “Manual List” for each grade. The only problem is, unless you learned those pieces when you were a kid, it’s ... Best of the AMEB manual list – level 1

05/23/2011 Read more

Online Sheet Music Resources

by Tim Topham

I often get asked where I go online for music. There seems to be so much free music on the web, it’s hard to know where to start looking (and it’s often hard to tell which sites are legal!). Here are the places that I go for sheet music online: Classical/Out of Copyright/Famous Tunes: IMSLP Library ... Online Sheet Music Resources

05/16/2011 Read more