Piano Lessons in Birmingham

I gathered five of my adult piano pupils one evening recently to play, listen and talk to each other about some beautiful piano music, and it was a lovely musical evening – a warm and friendly journey of shared piano experiences.

Some pupils were able to warm up for their November exams, while others chose some of their favourite music to play. We each gave a short introduction to our pieces – some facts about the composer and the style of the music – so we learned about the music we were hearing. And amongst friends, if a particular phrase was interesting, or still difficult to get just right, each player could cheerfully stop for a moment to discuss it with the group, pick up some new ideas, and then continue.

One pupil performed themes from the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky – and brought a very special book for us to see that illustrated the Nutcracker story.  Two other pupils were due to play some Baroque music, so I prepared a few key facts about ‘The Baroque Suite’ which I shall post after this entry. The Baroque Suite is very important to the Piano repertoire, so I hope I conveyed some of its glorious character… many of the official exam pieces are of course from the Baroque era!

After the piano playing, a lovely evening spread was provided by Carol our kind hostess. The whole evening was such a success, that we have already decided to have another evening after Christmas – the theme will be music from the Romantic period of music history. Perhaps a date around Feb 14th would be suitable.