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yourforte

Yes, I agree. I think string players have to have very good ears as well as accurate fingers. At least the notes are already there for you on the piano. I also agree that brass players have it (relatively) easy. Three valves or a slide, a good set of lips, and away you go...

yourforte

I've had a look at the little girl playing Mozzie. It sounded pretty good for someone of that age but I'm sure you can give it a bit of oomph, ebonyivory. And don't play it on your side...

yourforte

I agree entirely. When I was an undergraduate it was possible to do huge amounts of your degree in the history of music - which, as you say, was mainly essay based. A BEd would be even worse in that respect. I think these days it's even easier to get a degree in music without being particularly musi...

yourforte

I've often accompanied other instrumentalists too - and I agree that they're often unprepared for exams in areas other than the pieces. Yes, I've stood outside doors too.. I often wonder if it's harder to learn scales on other instruments. I mean you can see the sharps/flats on the piano. I used to ...

yourforte

Yes, I agree Descombes. I insist also that my pupils learn their scales inside out and back to front. Almost invariably I find my pupils realise that they have to learn their pieces very well but they often won't address the rest of the exam requirements. I give my pupils plenty of exercise in SR an...

yourforte

Well I would try to be Mr Perfect Piano Player if I were you. But you mustn't be put off by Mr/Mrs Non-Perfect Examiner is what I'm saying. Btw, have you played in front of anyone else apart from your teacher? Try to get some practice in front of an audience so you're confident that you can play thr...

yourforte

Beware of the subjectivity of the marking. I've found that some of my most gifted students haven't come out of their exams with distinctions. And some of my 'less able' students have. I once had a boy who got 141 for his Grade 1 and then 108 for his Grade 2. With no drop of quality in my opinion. Wh...

yourforte

I like playing it as a series of chords - it sounds nice and it does help with the memorising. The same goes for the Prelude in C major (WTC Bk 1). I think most Bach can be played slowly or quickly. It's always the mark of a masterpiece that the tempo doesn't matter that much. I often enjoy Bach whe...

yourforte

Just looked at the youtube clip, Moonlight. Yes, this is a good performance. The tempo is perfect. E

yourforte

I agree entirely Moonlight. Bach can sound wonderful even when it's played really too slow. I don't like it when Gould whips through Bach at the speed of light. You miss so much of the beauty of it. I'll check out the youtube link, thanks. E

yourforte

I think the length of particular fingers have a lot to do with it. I struggle with g, c, and f minors in the RH because my finger 2 is too short. My LH doesn't have the equivalent problem where the stretch between fingers 2 and 3 is a major 3rd. Yes, you have to adapt your fingering.

yourforte

Re: the Bach BWV 999 - I do use a discreet amount of pedalling - and yes, it's at the beginning of every bar. Actually there are numerous performances of that piece on classical guitar on YouTube. It sounds wonderful on guitar. I'm not sure whether or not it was originally written for the lute. It's...

yourforte

Well done on your Grade 1 Ebonyivory. Perhaps you should think about learning a few pieces before leaping onto Grade 2 straightaway. There are lots of books you can get to help you over the transition from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Grade 2, of course, is harder but, as the others say, each Grade does look...

yourforte

I was once diagnosed with clinical depression and put on Prozac, et al. So I sympathise with you whole-heartedly. It's strange that I got loads of flowers, boxes of chocolates, etc when I broke my arm, but nothing but embarrassed looks when I had depression. Oo, at the age of 39 you're just a spring...

yourforte

No, don't lessen up on your practising, Dave. Actually there are lots of posts on YouTube of people playing grade exam pieces that you might find useful. You clearly have the desire to learn - and that's what counts for most, I find. What makes you want to play the piano so badly? Did you want to le...

yourforte

Hi Dave, Life's okay thanks. I taught two adults this morning and two children. I must say, I do enjoy teaching adults. I'm now playing piano at my mum's nursing home. The manager says he wants to hear me playing 'things that people can whistle'. Frankly I want to tell him where to stick his whistle...

yourforte

Oh, I quite agree, Gill

yourforte

As a teacher I find it disheartening when pupils want to go from grade to grade without learning any music in between for relief. These pupils don't really learn to play piano but only learn how to play a few pieces. On the other hand, I do find that those pupils who go through the grades at a sensi...

yourforte

Oh, I forgot to add, whatever room my pupils wait in, there's always a box of tissues now.

yourforte

Quite right: it's just another room..

yourforte

I've had many a bad experience with my pupils and their bogeys. Some like to draw them back discreetly down the keys, some like to pretend they're not there at all, some deny that the bogey originally came from their own nose. Once, when I went back into the room where people wait for their lesson, ...

yourforte

I think it's more useful to be able to read and think in terms of keys.
Best, Elaine

yourforte

Some people are naturally good at sight reading but I've found as a teacher that everyone can get better if they really try. A lot of my pupils don't believe me and just give it up as a bad job but those of my pupils who really do take my advice and actually make a point of sight reading something e...

yourforte

Louttrim, you don't mean Fauré do you? All movements from his Requiem are beautiful and so is his Pavane and so is his Canticle.

Well I know it's an 'F', not an 'L' but it has three vowels..

yourforte

Dave! Grade 1 next year - well done. Which board are you doing? ABRSM? Have you started your pieces yet?

Yes, I never had Tubular Bells but, as I say, I've got the LP of Hergest Ridge. I must dig it out - I haven't listened to it for years.

How are you?

E

yourforte

Thanks Joseph - I'll look out for these too. E

yourforte

Bristol86, thank you for this suggestion, I'll look it up.

yourforte

Louttrim -

I'm still cogitating upon this one. You don't mean Rutter do you? I know that doesn't start with 'L' and I know it's only got two vowels...

E

yourforte

Descombes - mm, well, I don't like much contemporary classical music and I find most of it excruciating. So I don't like much of Schoenberg, Webern, Bartok, Messiaen, Boulez, Stockhausen, Maxwell Davies, etc, etc. As you can see, I'm not even talking about contemporary music, but more about 20th - 2...

yourforte

My goodness - 'Hergest Ridge' - I do have that on LP. I would never have remembered the name. Actually I'm in touch with a man in Texas who plays Glass on the piano. If you ever look watch stuff on YouTube then have a look at Frankenbosey's posts. He's only an amateur but he plays very well and he's...

yourforte

Does anyone know of any contemporary 'classical' piano music that's not excruciating on the ears? I'm desperate...
Elaine

yourforte

Oh and another one HAS to be Rachmaninov's Vocalise

yourforte

I find Mozart's Mass in C minor very moving - I don't know if it's the quality of the music that moves me to tears or the emotions that are being expressed in the Mass. The Farué Requiem is also very moving. And there are two George Michael songs that can move me to tears: (i) I Can't Make You Love ...

yourforte

Hi Moonlight - That's very interesting about the taste thing. When you talk about seeing colours in your head is it that you actually get sensations of the colours or what? And in connection with the taste - is it actually a taste you experience or just an imagined taste? No, I don't get a colour re...

yourforte

Oo, anything you have to say about keys being associated with colour will be avidly read by me. My thesis is about colour. And I've got to say that dark blue/purple is such a superior colour in its own right. I think one of my favourite pieces of music is Bach's Little Prelude in c minor (BWV 999). ...

yourforte

I need to get the DVD of that. It sounds really funny. Yes a spinal tap is most uncomfortable. It's more commonly known as a 'lumbar puncture'. The doctors insert a needle into your spinal column and then drain off your spinal fluid - and I think they get some fluid from around your brain too. I thi...

yourforte

I've never seen 'Spinal Tap' - although I've had one. D minor is a poignant key.

yourforte

Speaking of keys, does anyone have a favourite key? D flat major is my favourite key. I love to play in it and it seems to have a sumptuous, rich sound to me. I don't know why. I used to like E flat major best and that was my dad's favourite key too. He was a semi-professional musician and, although...

yourforte

Thank you everyone for your suggestions for the mnenomics. They all made me laugh. I was once told one for remembering the stave lines of the treble clef: 'Every Green Bogey Deliciously Flavoured'. And for the strings of a guitar: ' Every Armpit Does Get Body-odour Eventually'. Unfortunately it's th...

yourforte

Hi Nutroast - I like your name. I'm a vegetarian - are you? Yes, it's a more complete thing to say G major. But it helps you recognise chords and harmonies almost instantly too if you can think in terms of a key. I don't know if you've done any theory, but if you have, you'll know that by the time y...

yourforte

Mind you, I used to teach a woman who would play nothing but scales because she was frightened of anything else. That was a bit OTT

yourforte

No, I'm sure you're not an abnormal freak, Dave. I like practising scales myself; I know they're doing me good and yet at the same time you can think about what you're going to have for tea because they don't take up too much mindspace. Also, when you can't face the challenge of learning a new piece...

yourforte

Mm, I can't grasp why some of my pupils (I mean the adults amongst them) question the value of practising scales. Children, of course, often don't like the drudgery of them, but I don't understand why my adult students don't accept that musicians have been practising scales for hundreds of years (we...

yourforte

Ah yes, Dave, you've hit the nail on the head. Scale practice is not just good for your technique - building up strength, stamina and dexterity, etc - but it also gives you key sense and command. If you're very familiar with your sharps and flats from your scales it becomes second nature to reach fo...

yourforte

It' actually much easier to play the piano - or any other instrument - if you learn to think in terms of keys. Your fingers and mind both know what notes to reach for if you become very familiar with keys. You learn to read chords very quickly and can often anticipate what's coming next if you under...

yourforte

One of my adult pupils told me she'd got into such a fluster during her exam that, when she'd finished the whole horrible experience, she was so desperate to get out that she didn't think about the way she'd come in and walked directly through a door into the broom cupboard instead of leaving by the...

yourforte

Yes, quite right, Dave. I do feel kind of caught in between matters of conscience but my own desire (and need) to earn a decent living. Yes, yes, there are plenty of 'spoilt brats' having lessons just because their parents have a lot of money. They're blummin cheeky too. And it kills me when I see a...

yourforte

Well Darlington isn't that far from Whitby... Oh it gets on my nerves when people think we private teachers are out of order to expect to earn a decent living. I studied O level music then A level music then I spent 5yrs at university studying music - so, yes, I do expect to earn more than an untrai...

yourforte

Come North young man...

yourforte

Well I wish all roads did lead to Darlo... I agree with what Joseph says actually. I've started to charge for missed lessons and I don't do discounts for 'bulk' lessons either. I often find that the parents of more than one child who are having lessons also want a cheaper rate. I won't lesson my pri...

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