piano practice Archives - Page 2 of 2

by Tim Topham

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the VMTA’s “Clifford Lecture” given by Professor Gary McPherson from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, a brilliant speaker who never fails to engage, enthrall and challenge his listeners. The 2-hour presentation was based on some of his research into musical talent in adolescents, which he has been ... Are scales irrelevant?

by Tim Topham

One of the hardest things about effective, deliberate practice is knowing when to stop! Have you ever experienced this situation: You decide to work on a small phrase of your music, perhaps just a bar or hand position change to a tricky chord, only to find a few seconds later, you’ve already gone on and ... The hardest thing about practice is…not playing on!

by Tim Topham

What is focused piano practice? If you’re not exhausted after practising, you could probably focus harder and achieve more in less time. What do you think? How long do your students practise for? Sure, there are times when just playing through pieces is all you might have the time or energy to do, but if ... Focused Piano Practice: How to improve the value of your practising

by Tim Topham

In an attempt to keep my teaching current and to learn from what the masters did in the past and consider how this affects modern playing and teaching, I am forever reading articles and books by noted pianists and teachers. If there is one thing that they all have in common, right back to the ... How to practice away from the piano

by Tim Topham

Practising music is something we need to learn how to do and until we do, we will probably make some mistakes. This article highlights some of the most common errors made in music practice and tells you how to amend them. The result will be that you can begin to progress on your instrument with ... Do you make these mistakes in your piano practice?

by Tim Topham

All about metronome practice with students… Great article. It occurs to me that I’m occasionally guilty of telling students they need to use a metronome without having taught them how to use one. It’s the musical equivalent of handing someone a chainsaw and expecting them to cut down a tree. Pretend for a moment that you’ve ... Here, Have a Chainsaw! Metronome Practice | Piano Pedagogy Page

Plans & Pricing

by Tim Topham

I’ve recently begun using the analogy of Google Earth when helping my students plan their practice. For those of you who haven’t used Google Earth before, it’s a free satellite imaging program that allows a user to zoom in on any area of the Earth, starting with a view of the Earth as if you were in ... “Google Earth” Practice

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

by Tim Topham

Here are a few ideas I use with my students for how to practice effectively. I constantly have to remind them that just repeating sections over and over is about the least effective way of learning new material. The main goal of these techniques is to avoid the often pointless “start at the beginning and ... Piano Practice Challenges

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

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

by Tim Topham

How to teach piano practice Have you ever calculated just how little time you get to spend with your students out of their total working week? It’s a fascinating and insightful exercise and its result should dictate much of what we do with students during lessons. Last year, I read a fantastic book called “The Practice Revolution” ... Teaching piano practice: Just 0.3% of a student’s week? You’re kidding right?!