Paul Barton is a pianist and teacher I’ve been following for some time on YouTube. He is an Englishman who now lives and teaches with his wife in Thailand, of all places. I found out the following about him from his studio website:
Paul Barton has a post-graduate diploma from the Royal Academy of Arts, London. He graduated with the Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Award for Figurative Art. He’s interested in classical and contemporary piano and studied part-time at the Guildhall School of Music, London. Paul taught piano at Ayton School, England, and privately in France. He’s given recitals as soloist, including St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London.
None of the above is at all surprising given the effortless ease he has performing Chopin’s hugely challenging Winter Wind etude, or for that matter, a lightning fast Flight of the Bumblebee! Interestingly, I have noticed that he has recently upgraded to a Feurich grand piano having conducted most of his earlier tutorials on a tiny Yamaha upright.
Not only is Paul a great performer, he makes fantastic YouTube piano lessons, often responding to viewers’ emails with yet more tutorials specially produced for them! More than that, the quality of the production of his videos is brilliant. His content is full of piano teaching tips for both teachers and students alike.
Related: 10 Ways to Use YouTube in Your Piano Studio
Here are my favourite Paul Barton clips – make sure you spend some time watching them as I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of them, even if he is teaching pieces you’ve played and taught a million times. His videos are also a great resource for advanced-level students.
On playing fortissimo/pianissimo:
Practice techniques for the “hard bars” of Etude Op 10 No 1:
Winter Wind tutorial:
Great summary and intro to Chopin and tutorial and his Fantasie-Impromptu:
There are heaps more available from his YouTube channel.
Conclusion
YouTube really is a fantastic way to engage your students and to get some great piano teaching tips. It can also help you to increase your piano teaching productivity and of course, make your lessons fun. The options really are endless, as are the benefits for your students.
Finally, through YouTube, you can actually get your students learning musical concepts and theories away from simply looking at sheet music. Tutorial videos are a great way for your students to start learning about potentially tricky musical theories.
Make sure you check out this podcast for more information on teaching this way:Â Podcast Episode 9: Paul Harris on Simultaneous Learning.
Please leave your comments in the section below.
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18 Comments
Do you know in what age he started to play the piano?
I’m a pianist and teacher (with an MM in piano performance) and I find his tutorials so utterly priceless!! Especially his tutorial on Chopin’s g min ballade!! Love this man!
Are you also a Artist? as I googled your name and it came out with some paintings and portrait….
How can I purchase/get free piano music for vivaldi’s largo concerto in D major? What you had on YouTube was a wonderful tutorial but I am having trouble finding a copy of the music. I will pay for it.
Thank you in advance for your help
YouTube is a great place to find piano tutorials. Good to know about Paul Barton’s videos. Have you ever looked at other online products outside of YouTube? We are the creators of http://www.ripbeat.com and would love to see how we compared with other products. Good blog post. Thank you.
I have seen in you tube he is not worst than the elite of pianists. But why he don’t give concerts. Why is not famous? On you tube are exibitions non lessons! Can explain someone why he didn’t became famous?
I don’t think he’s chosen to be a performer, Richardre. He lives in Thailand and enjoys that life obviously!
yes I know that from the web. But about his choose you can’t know that. I found incredible there are a lot of modest pianist that are perfomer and some excellent reduced to post his videos on you tube!!!
It does’t make sense to make a list of qualities represented by Mr. Paul Barton. He’s, simply, a multidimensional genius…
Agreed!
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Please notify me! Paul Bazalgette of any follow up comments on what I said re Paul Barton
It was good to read your appreciation of Paul Barton. I first saw Paul on a British News program called “Nationwide”. He was only about twelve years old but he being celebrated accross the nation’s airways because he was clearly a prodigy at painting and drawing. As a 14 year old budding artist myself, I was mesmerized by his abilities. Five years later, when I was a student at The Royal Academy of Art in London, a 17year old guy came to the school who soon showed so much talent that I flippantly suggested to him that “they aught to do a whole segment on you on the program Nationwide.” it was then that I found out that he had already been featured on the program and was, indeed, the same Paul Barton that I had seen and admired those years before. We became dear friends and, in fact, he was actually sketching with me outdoors in Leicester square in London when I met the woman who was to become my wife and mother of my three children. We went our seperate ways but, all these years later, for me to discover online that he is also a genius on the piano, has left me permenantly in awe of him. He is truly a genius in his spare time! We have happilyreconnected. Sincerely, Paul Bazalgette
Hello! It is good to read Paul Bazalgette’s comments above. I have been a tremendous admirer of Paul Barton for about two or three years, via Youtube. He is a wonderful piano teacher, his lessons are a joy to behold, and his modesty is lovely. I am a piano teacher myself, but my technique was never at the level that Paul demonstrates! All I knew about Paul Barton until reading the comments above was that he was a marvellous teacher and player, who had ‘up-sticks’ to Thailand to rehabilitate abused and injured elephants. I did not know that his main talent is in Art. Wow. What an amazing person. One of my very favourite living pianists is Stephen Hough, who is also extremely talented as a writer, composer and artist. How on earth can some people possess so much talent?? I have nearly finished reading Hough’s novel. ‘The Final Retreat’, which is excellent. Later on today, I shall search out Barton’s tutorial on Chopin’s ‘Winter Wind’, which I have not seen yet. I would love to have dinner with Paul Barton and discuss things musical and matters pedagogic . . .
Yes! Me too. He’s based in Thailand so I’ll have to plan a holiday there. thanks for the comments 🙂
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