Compose Yourself! – the online piano composition festival is back for a second year, providing an opportunity for all UK-based young pianists to be creative. We’re delighted to welcome composer Alison Mathews as our guest blog writer to introduce the festival. COMPOSE YOURSELF! Alison writes… When the festival was co-founded by myself and Lindsey Berwin, […]
Do you want to introduce jazz piano to your students? Or maybe you’re interested in finding out more about jazz piano for your own personal musical development? Curious Community Manager, Hannah O’Toole shares some of her favourite teaching activities and resources at all levels to get you started. 1. CREATE FIRST DUET & SOLO EDITIONS […]
Do you have piano students who enjoy being creative? This week on the blog, we are delighted to welcome composer Alison Mathews to talk about Compose Yourself! the online composition festival for UK pianists aged 5-18. But first, a little about Alison and co-creator of the festival, composer Lindsey Berwin… ALISON MATHEWS Alison is a classically trained […]
Welcome to our end of year roundup; in this first part we are looking back at what we’ve been up to over on our YouTube Channel. YouTube is still a fairly recent addition to what we offer and during 2019 we’ve been consistently adding videos on a regular basis. Sally’s Tuesday Teaching Tips can all […]
You know those piano lessons that feel really, really good? Where both you and your student feel completely fired up and energised by the end of the lesson? Think back to these lessons and consider about what mades them so successful. For me I have pinpointed these lessons to be the ones when I stop […]
It’s sad to say but we’ve come to the end of The Curious Improvisation Symposium! This final blog of the series summarises, with links, all that we have covered previously. Thank You! First of all we’d like to say a HUGE thank you to our 12 contributors: Andrew Higgins, Bradley Sowash, Carol Matz, Christopher Norton, […]
‘What are your top resources for improvisation?’ This was the question we asked our symposium contributors for this, the penultimate week of The Curious Improvisation Symposium. We really wanted them to share some of their own resources as well as some of their favourite books and ideas. They have all come up trumps and you’ll […]
How do you eat an elephant? It’s a question that we often pose at The Curious Piano Teachers. It’s also the reason why Ed the elephant travels everywhere with us – along with elephant sweets! The answer is of course that you start with one bite at a time. Some folks might start with the […]
Where do you get your improvisation inspiration from? What are some of your favourite places to go for a stimulus? We asked the contributors to The Curious Improvisation Symposium this very question and, as you might have come to expect from the series, there’s something here for everyone! ANDREW HIGGINS When teaching students I use […]
Have you tried to improvise yet? Have you taken that first, vital step to give it a go? If you’re struggling to get started I want you to stop reading right now! Grab your diary and schedule 3-4 five minute appointments with yourself over the next week. These are your improvisation slots – your moments […]