Search found 207 matches

by Celestite
24 Mar 2008, 15:11
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Inspirational piano music to listen to advice
Replies: 42
Views: 29800

If they like Deep Purple, how about Led Zeppelin? I don't know if it's still available but I have the piano score for Physical Graffiti and Stairway to Heaven works brilliantly on piano. You just HAVE to go to You tube and see Rachmaninov had big hands. As Gill says, it is hysterical - I cried laugh...
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 23:00
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Left handed trills
Replies: 19
Views: 20058

Hmm, proper teacher - what's one of them, then, Gill? Someone once commented I wasn't like any other teacher they'd ever come across. I'm still not sure whether it was a compliment or an insult! Anyway, on the subject of trills, the hand you play it with is irrelevant- there are a fair few occasions...
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 22:44
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: Piano Tuning fees in the UK
Replies: 41
Views: 31772

In 40 odd years of playing (ouch!) I have got through a fair few tuners, as you can imagine! The chap who looks after my 6'8 Bechstein is brilliant, by far the best tuner I have ever found and a jolly nice bloke to boot! He is Steinway trained, knows his stuff, travels absolutely miles and charges &...
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 22:20
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Inspirational piano music to listen to advice
Replies: 42
Views: 29800

Hi Silvermist How brilliant that you not only notice your son's enthusiasm but are keen to develop it - you'd be amazed how many parents I come across who think it is enough to deposit their offspring on me for half an hour a week and they'll just turn into the next Horowitz! Music, like children th...
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 22:07
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

I would be truly honoured, kind sir!
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 20:51
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

A certain irony has just occurred to me - this thread started out all about concentration - look how far we've meandered and strayed from the topic!
It amused me (little things etc) :lol:
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 11:11
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Fortunately, they can't hear the piano next door, but I wasn't playing then anyway. Just enquiring for my next opportunity to get to the ivories (which with this lot at home could be a while yet :( )
How's your playing going?
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 01:12
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

You can have the minors, dim and dom 7ths for free too
by Celestite
23 Mar 2008, 01:11
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Consider it done! Always struck me as a happy key :piano;
by Celestite
22 Mar 2008, 20:56
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: On its death bed
Replies: 24
Views: 21341

Or carp-eggios!
by Celestite
21 Mar 2008, 20:36
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Relearning the Piano
Replies: 7
Views: 10480

Hi Maco Good for you! I would echo Markymark and Sammick's comments and add that you will ultimately save yourself a lot of aches and pains by going to a decent teacher as posture is often a much neglected but vital element to playing the piano (or indeed any instrument) and you wouldn't believe wha...
by Celestite
21 Mar 2008, 20:26
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: On its death bed
Replies: 24
Views: 21341

Hmm. I wonder what music would befit a fishtank piano? Handel's Water Music is an obvious one, or perhaps Bach's Goldfish Variations. Trout Quintet..........
by Celestite
21 Mar 2008, 20:20
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

As Gill says, ask away! I am a font of all useless (and ocassionally helpful) information! It actually is nowhere near as complicated a process as it sounds and certainly nothing you should let put you off of your new found mission in life :)
by Celestite
21 Mar 2008, 20:17
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Hey Dave, I'm Queen of the Wafflers! If it ever becomes an olympic sport, I'm a dead cert for Gold! Good choice of pieces. How are you getting on with the ornaments in the Sarabanda? I checked out These Music Exams and you can download it from the download centre on the ABRSM home page. If it makes ...
by Celestite
20 Mar 2008, 20:38
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

I second that, Gill! Distance learning at its finest, eh? I'll have another look at the ABRSM website and check, but it's at the back of my mind These Music Exams is a downloadable pdf file. It may be that you have to have a candidate number to log in and download, in which case I'll get on to it fo...
by Celestite
20 Mar 2008, 10:42
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Hi Dave I'm fine, ta, about to go and do some practice while the little chap's with his childminder (me time today instead of tomorrow cos the hoards will be here!) Just a quick note about the ABRSM system. You choose one piece from each of the three sections for the exam and should be aiming to pro...
by Celestite
20 Mar 2008, 10:42
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Hi Dave I'm fine, ta, about to go and do some practice while the little chap's with his childminder (me time today instead of tomorrow cos the hoards will be here!) Just a quick note about the ABRSM system. You choose one piece from each of the three sections for the exam and should be aiming to pro...
by Celestite
20 Mar 2008, 08:06
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Brilliant! Thanks, Crescendo. Now I can stop doing my King Louis impression and start on "Trussssst in me" to occupy mini sprog!
by Celestite
19 Mar 2008, 21:52
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Yo Gill, of course we're still young and gorgeous :oops: (well, it's the thought that counts, in my case!) Good for your friend-I was classed as an elderly prima gravida at 37 so goodness knows what that made me at 45 second time round. On the subject of snakes, anyone know what the snake in Jungle ...
by Celestite
19 Mar 2008, 21:01
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Evening, Dave! Thank you for your kind comments :) For what it's worth, I know quite a few "mature" (as the medics so kindly put it) Mums, so much so I instigated the OFM club (Over forty Mums, not what you might have thought!) in a bid to preserve our sanities at the time my youngest arri...
by Celestite
18 Mar 2008, 23:26
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

We all be fine and dandy, thank ee kindly! Hope the same goes for you both. Good old Ronnie Corbett, remember it well! A mere 38? You are but a babe in arms! I may have a two year old in tow but I am a positively ancient 47 (ouch, there, I said it!) While I was practicing this morning it struck me t...
by Celestite
18 Mar 2008, 00:04
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: CONCENTRATE!
Replies: 58
Views: 40276

Hi Dave! Interesting you mention the meds. Years ago I was put on a cocktail of amytriptaline (or something like that!) and Prozac and the effect the Prozac had on my mental processes as far as the piano goes was phenomenal! I memorized the G minor Brahms Rhapsody in a couple of days in a way I'd ne...
by Celestite
15 Mar 2008, 20:29
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

I am absolutely certain Anglo Saxon is the ancient language of frustrated musicians in the pre Prozac days :oops:
by Celestite
14 Mar 2008, 20:21
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Evening Dave and Gill! How unfair is it that alcohol makes you utterly fearless but gives you a handful of left thumbs? My performance nerves always manifest themselves with the most dreadful shakes, not helpful in this profession, and I did once try beta blockers to combat this. They worked brillia...
by Celestite
14 Mar 2008, 15:06
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Ok, there is a centre in Worcester but there's loads of others as well so there may well be one nearer to you. Whereabouts are you (if you don't mind telling me - promise I'm a nice nutter, not a nasty one!)
by Celestite
14 Mar 2008, 15:00
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Oops, just seen the way I spelt arpeggios :oops: Senior moment alert!!
by Celestite
14 Mar 2008, 14:59
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

You are welcome! I somehow think Herefordshire would push the term "distance learning" a bit far! Funny you should mention Reiki but I was discussing it with some friends yesterday along with the idea of trying to find someone to teach us Tai Chi. Are you a Reiki master, then? Grade 1 (lik...
by Celestite
14 Mar 2008, 10:49
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Hi again Dave It will be interesting to see if you have the same problem when it comes to playing to a teacher. It's very common to make a complete hash of something you can play with your eyes shut when there's a teacher or anyone else listening. How about this as a mental approach? If you could pl...
by Celestite
13 Mar 2008, 21:28
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Hi Dave I echo Gill's comments on that one. What I have done in the past with pupils who have wanted a tangible measure of their progress but either not wanted to or not been able to raise the courage to take exams officially is to prepare them for the exam and then just given them a pseudo exam, or...
by Celestite
13 Mar 2008, 14:50
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Hi Dave
I'm fine,ta. Hope you are too.
Hope you meet with minimal resistance from Mrs B!
:D
What level do you play at, yourself?
by Celestite
13 Mar 2008, 13:58
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Absolutely! Good luck!
I'm taking a different tack with my husband. He has a lovely singing voice but is painfully shy so as soon as I can get my act together I'm going to book him some singing lessons so that we can run through some Schubert Lieder together.
Btw, I suffer his cats too!
by Celestite
12 Mar 2008, 23:41
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Sounds very much like my first husband, the difference being he'd come out with little gems like "Are you sure it's supposed to sound like that?" and "Do you have to make that row?" Most constructive from someone who was completely tone deaf!
by Celestite
12 Mar 2008, 21:44
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Absolutely-strike while the iron's hot! When I first met my hubby he decided he would learn to play the piano, something he'd always wanted to do. All was going well until we started living together and he stopped playing because he couldn't handle the idea of practicing in front of his piano teache...
by Celestite
11 Mar 2008, 21:51
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Quentin Crisp would be proud of me - my mother once asked if I'd moved the furniture round because the place looked so different, when all I'd done was a little dusting. When I do it, the whole world notices! When I was at college, it took two hours to practice the 144 different scales and arpeggios...
by Celestite
11 Mar 2008, 20:31
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Ah, Barking, I know it well! (I actually lived in Barkingside many eons ago - I kid you not!) In my vast experience of life and especially as a muso and a mother I have found sanity not to be all it's cracked up to be. It definitely pays to be two planks short of a full floor, imho! Congrats on mast...
by Celestite
09 Mar 2008, 16:02
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Hi Dave That is exactly how I view my piano - it's what I am when I'm not Mum! The only reason I don't listen to piano music is because invariably, when I put the radio on, it's playing something I used to perform when I was at college, which only serves to highlight how far things have slid in term...
by Celestite
07 Mar 2008, 20:20
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Well, since she wasn't playing Tinkle Tinkle Little Star, I think the answer would have to be no! It did conjure a wonderful mental image of people in the front row staring up at the artistes on stage!
by Celestite
06 Mar 2008, 23:44
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Good evening, Geminoz and Gill and thank you for your welcome Geminoz. Well, call me a wimp if you like (I answer to most things as long as they don't start with "Mum, he's doing .... "or "Mummy, I got snotty nose") but I'm afraid I just couldn't bring myself to go back to the Ho...
by Celestite
09 Feb 2008, 16:58
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

:lol: I'm just so glad the old lady was in a bed, not a rocking chair!
by Celestite
09 Feb 2008, 15:07
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Tutoring in a school
Replies: 5
Views: 9431

I know it's a while since you posted your enquiry but if you're still looking to increase your teaching practice, there is a very good website for music teachers. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post it here, so if I've broken any rules, I humbly apologise, please don't shoot me down in flames Mr Mod...
by Celestite
08 Feb 2008, 19:22
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Ooh yes! Indeed, we pride ourselves on what some might consider wierdness. Personally I prefer to think of it as uniqueness, but I have to say, yesterday's experience brought flashes of Psycho to mind!
by Celestite
08 Feb 2008, 14:28
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: I have 500 GBP for a piano - what will it buy me?
Replies: 25
Views: 23135

Point taken A440! But this was a tuner I'd known for many years and trusted, especially since I'd put a lot of business his way during our association, so it would not have been in his best interest to stitch my pupil or me up! The motto? Know your tuner!
by Celestite
07 Feb 2008, 22:38
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: I have 500 GBP for a piano - what will it buy me?
Replies: 25
Views: 23135

I can echo Openwood's experience with one of my own. It was years ago now, but I was asked to find a piano for one of my more gifted pupils (I love it when they ask me that - I get to play loads of different pianos without parting with a penny!) I just happened to be nosing around an auction rooms w...
by Celestite
07 Feb 2008, 22:14
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Hi Everybody Having been so supportive in my quest for motivation, I thought I'd fill you all in now that I have actually had my first meeting with a fellow teacher. I think the best way to describe the occasion is "surreal" ( I kid you not, I tell it the way it really happened!) When I ev...
by Celestite
05 Feb 2008, 21:25
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Ah, but at least you play for pleasure too and I'm sure your medley is infinitely better than the tuner I had who couldn't play a note but trained himself to play (sorry, bash out) the first four chords of a Chopin Prelude! Whereabouts are you based?
by Celestite
05 Feb 2008, 20:19
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Thank you so much for the words of encouragement, Gill - we must come from the same era of 21 year olds! I'm sure I've read somewhere that you're a piano tuner, haven't I? In which case I'm delighted you play as much as you do. I've got through a fair few tuners in my time and have yet to find one w...
by Celestite
04 Feb 2008, 23:44
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: short virtuosic romantic pieces
Replies: 8
Views: 12266

Chopin nocturne?
by Celestite
04 Feb 2008, 23:40
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Stuart Thank you for your encouragement. You read me very well! I am indeed of the "get it right" school, which is what leads to my frustration! I took perfomance as my major option when I did my BA in the early 90s and realise how unrealistic I am being expecting to be able to play like I...
by Celestite
04 Feb 2008, 20:50
Forum: Learning & Teaching Piano
Topic: Motivation
Replies: 65
Views: 41974

Thanks for the empathy, Samick, it's much appreciated to know I'm not the only one struggling with this! I've been teaching for over 20 years and I actually find it has the opposite effect on me in that it makes me yearn for the way I used to be able to play. Trouble is, by the time I get to put the...
by Celestite
04 Feb 2008, 20:36
Forum: Piano Advice
Topic: I have 500 GBP for a piano - what will it buy me?
Replies: 25
Views: 23135

Ditto Gill's comments :) It's why I favour the digital option over the worn out wreck but still think the lucky find "real thing" is the best outcome if you can take someone in the know with you,