Piano Lessons in Birmingham

The existence of Youtube is a great resource for me……..students can go home and listen to whole albums of potential pieces and decide on their own which they would like to play without having to take up lesson time. Almost every popular solo, duet and trio piece has been recorded by the wider public and so is available for listening
Not every recording is ideal and mimicry is not to be encouraged but it does give students a good idea as to the sound world of the pieces they are choosing.

Spotify is a great resource for the more established piano repertoire, including some of the later graded pieces, available on a phone it provides instant access to differing recordings and interpretations. You can very quickly compare tempi, pedalling, ornaments, articulation, dynamics etc……………..What a great tool!

Both Spotify and Yotube have become essential parts of of teaching and learning for students in their very different ways.

Here’s the room I teach the piano in.

The piano room is colourful with the bright and happy sound of the Yamaha acoustic piano. There are some presents from pupils on top of the piano.

There’s also a very comfortable chair for parents or guests to relax and listen, and just sometimes … there’s a dog or cat sitting in the corner!

Normally I teach in slots of 30 minutes, sometimes in 45 or 60 minute slots if required for higher grades and theory study. The 15 minute slot is a relatively new experiment to start off younger pupils and it has proved to be a great success.
I now have 10 pupils taking lessons in this format and it is very successful and enjoyable for the younger pupil and for myself. All of those taking the shorter lessons played in the concert and played beautifully.
I look forward to teaching many more youngsters in this time slot and giving them a gentle but strong start to their learning journey.

A very lovely set of Piano and Theory results set us up nicely for the Summer Concert. This was on July 6th at St.Augustine’s Church in Edgbaston.

There were 36 players, youngsters mostly but with some very brave adult learners thrown into the mix. Pupils played on their own, in duets and in a trio. Two young ladies played their own compositions which was a real treat.

The half-time refreshments were very welcome and gorgeously provided by parents as is always the case.
Once again the concert was a great success, down to the hard work of all pupils and their willingness to get out there and perform.

A big thanks and congratulations to all those who took part including all the helpers that sold tickets, made tea and cleared plates etc.

Last term, 3 pupils successfully took Theory exams and 10 took Piano exams. The latter group included a grade 8 pupil who has now completed the full complement of piano grades, many congratulations to her.

The theme for this year’s programme cover is Wombles and Wimbledon, we always have a number of themes, including a sport, last year’s was very obviously to do with the Olympics, this year I wanted to do the Tour de France and yellow jerseys etc but was told it was too obscure!!!!!
So, we have the recycling Wombles and the timely tennis of Wimbledon instead. The concert coincides with this tennis extravaganza.

The Summer concert will be on July 6th this year at St Augustine’s Church in Edgbaston, we will have a concert of solos, duets and trios on the piano and hopefully a few other instrumentalists and singers. We normally have 30+ performers, both adults and children who not only greatly entertain us but also provide gorgeous goodies for the interval.

The theory exams will be on Saturday 15th June and piano exams during the week beginning July 8th. The Summer Concert therefore provides a great warm up for exam performance.

Theory exams are tomorrow, good luck to all those sitting them at Edgbaston High School!

The Concert date has changed to July 14th, we will all be gathering at St. Augustine’s Church again for piano fun and cakes. As well as the piano playing on show we hope to have some singers, cellists and a sitar player. Should  be greatly enjoyable as always with around 30 pupils chosing to play this year!

The summer piano exams are not far away…..just before the concert this year….for this session there are 3 grade3 pupils, 1 for Grades 1, 5 and 8 which will hopefully provide lots of variety for the examiner.

There are some slots available both of the 1/2 hour and1/4 hour variety…please do phone and enquire if you are interested as an adult or a parent. For adults there is much greater choice if you can attend lessons during the daytime.

I myself am currently playing for my own pleasure a very cheerful and upbeat Mozart Piano sonata and one of the many ‘Songs without Words’ by Mendelssohn.

On the singing front I am learning a group of Christmas Carols..rather bizarrely…. for a cd recording to take place in September. The City of Birmingham Choir is releasing its first CD just in time for Christmas.

Fantastic spring weather greets us here at the beginning of March. To match the Spring energy I have some dates for your diaries….

The Summer Concert is pencilled in for July 7th 2012, in the usual gorgeous location of St Augustine’s Chruch, Edgbaston.

Spring Piano Exams will take place on March 31st, I have 11 pupils doing exams that day, Good Luck to All.

The Summer theory Exams will take place on Saturday 16th June at 10am.

I currently have a small number of slots available for lessons these include :

Tuesday   4.15         1/4 hour slot

Weds       5.30           1/2 hour slot

Thurs      5.30           1/2 hour slot

There is also some flexibility around later times such as 8pm on a number of evenings which would suit older children and adults.

These have proved very successful and popular, I currently have 5 young ones having 15 min lessons.

It is proving popularand successful, so successful that one of the 4 year olds who started in January played a duet in the concert with her mum.

The length of time is just enough for them to do some good constructive work on the keyboard plus some beat clapping or developing some listening skills. The children are still fresh at the end of the lesson and seem to be very happy play at home and return the following week.

A quick note on the concert, this took place on August 2nd, it was a great success, with excellent performers and performances, plus the usual gorgeous range of cakes and savouries.

There are many pictures and videos to follow in the next few days.

Just a few details  – there were 26 performers, including a cellist and a singer, we had an audience of around 70-80 people and have managed to raise 120  pounds for charity, I usually send the funds to the WSPCA.

We had exam pieces, famous tunes, duets and trios. There were 8 fantastic adult performers, some of whom were beginners and some more experienced players, the age range was 4 – 75!!!!

The really important effect of the concert is that in the following lessons,  all those who played are full of enthusiasm about the pieces they can learn in the future that they had heard in the concert.

For those who are terrified about the concept of playing in a concert, it is not compulsory, I have another 10 or so pupils who chose not to play, which is absolutely fine:)