We will concentrate mainly on keyboard music, as that is the instrument the piece will be played on in your exam.

Firstly, let’s define some terminology, which should be also helpful for some of the other questions you will be asked about the same piece:

Harmony – for the purposes of these exams, just think of harmony as the types of chords used. Often it will be enough simply to state whether the extract you hear is in a major or minor key. The extract is likely to have a variety of major, minor and other chords (otherwise it would be very monotonous!), but the beginning and particularly the ending will usually tell you whether the overall key is major or minor. You aural test training with your teacher should be helping you hear the difference between major and minor.

When you need to go a little deeper:

• if the chords used for a piece or section remain within the scale of the home key (e.g. white notes only within a C major framework), it is called diatonic;
• if chords outside the scale are widely used, the term is chromatic.

In the last hundred years or so composers have used new combinations of notes and chords, which may at first sound strange to the listener. Such music can be described as dissonant (see the Twentieth Century section below).

Texture – just as an item of clothing can be heavy or light, plain or patterned, texture in music defines how much is going on (heavy or light) and what the patterns are. The pitch range is also important. For example a simple melodic line with an accompaniment that doesn’t go much below middle C could be described as a ‘light’ texture. Conversely, full chords including deep bass notes evidently produce a heavier, richer texture.

As for the patterns, there are two very important words with which you can impress the examiner:

Homophonic: essentially a melody with accompaniment

Polyphonic: literally ‘multi-voiced’, so that each line is independent and equally important. Imagine 2 or 3 voices, each of which has a turn to sing the melody. When it’s someone else’s turn, the other voices sing subsidiary material.

It must be stressed that the characteristics for each period as outlined below are only general, as there is plenty of variety in the music of all eras. But reading this article should prepare you sufficiently for the musical ingredients likely to be highlighted in these Associated Board exams.

Baroque

c.1600 – 1750

Main Composers: Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi

Baroque music can be relatively serious and complex, but its surface is often enlivened by plenty of decoration and ornamentation. There are many types of Baroque expression, ranging from busily flowing movements deriving from dance forms to grandly religious works.

Melody and Phrasing – phrase structures can be very clear (e.g. the themes you are most likely to know from Vivaldi’s ubiquitous ‘Four Seasons’). However, there is often a continuous flow in Baroque music, with repeated patterns and sequences, and with phrases and cadences merging seamlessly into one another.

Texture – the Baroque is the main period for polyphonic textures. There is also much homophonic music of course, but if the extract you hear is polyphonic and not dissonant, the chances are it will be Baroque.

Harmony – often very simple, but can sound more complex when the texture is polyphonic.

Dynamics – the keyboards for most of the Baroque period were only able to play at one volume level, so composers rarely wrote dynamics. If used at all, there are likely to be sudden changes from loud to soft and vice-versa, without crescendo or diminuendo.

Ornamentation – Baroque music is more heavily ornamented (trills, mordents, turns) than any other period.

Keyboard range – the smallest range of the periods you are dealing with, usually within 2 octaves either side of middle C.

Sustaining pedal – was not invented during the Baroque. Many modern pianists do use the pedal when playing Baroque music, but it would be unfair of the examiner to use pedal in music from this period!

Suggested Listening

Bach 2-Part Invention No.13 in A minor – Imitative (polyphonic) texture of 2 independent parts; continuous flow.

Handel Adagio, 1st movement from Keyboard Suite No.2 in F, HWV427 – Extensive ornamentation, flowing, homophonic.

Scarlatti Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K.1 – Largely homophonic but with imitative elements; busy repeated patterns; ornamentation.

Bach Prelude and Fugue No.2 in C minor, from “The Well-Tempered Clavier”, Book 1

• Prelude: regular repeated pattern; cadences blend into the flow; emotionally serious;  
• Fugue: a fully-fledged polyphonic piece with 3 independent parts or ‘voices’.

Classical

c.1750 – 1830

Main Composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert

The beginning of the Classical Period saw a reaction against the more lofty and earnest ideals of Baroque music. Now the aim was more to entertain, with a simpler and more transparent style. Later in the period, however, Beethoven and Schubert increasingly poured more personal emotions into their music.

Melody and Phrasing – elegant and balanced, with clearer sense of phrase endings. ‘Question and answer’ phrasing interspersed with rests is common (e.g the opening of Mozart’s famous ‘Eine kleine Nachtmusik’). Scale and arpeggio figurations are regularly used, and the mood is usually lively and cheerful.

Texture – light and clear textures, usually homophonic.   

Harmony – usually simple with lengthy diatonic passages. Major keys predominate. An exclusively Classical feature is ‘Alberti Bass’, where the harmony notes of the accompaniment are played one after another rather than together, e.g. C-G-E-G (lowest note C, highest note G).

Dynamics – more than in the Baroque, but still somewhat restricted and usually with sudden alternations of loud and soft rather than gradual changes. Beethoven and Schubert expanded the dynamic range, with more use of crescendo and diminuendo, as well as more sudden contrasts.

Ornaments – fewer than in Baroque music, but still common, especially trills.

Keyboard range – a little wider than before, but often with a bias towards the treble register.

Pedal – was just being developed in the Classical period. Likely to be used sparingly or not at all in your exam extract.

Suggested Listening

Mozart Piano Sonata in C, K545. 1st movement – Alberti Bass at the beginning; balanced phrases; light textures; scale and arpeggio figuration.

Haydn 3rd movement from Piano Sonata in G, Hob.XVI:27 – Lively, treble-oriented texture; ‘question and answer’ phrasing; simple harmonies; scale and arpeggio figures; Alberti Bass towards the end.

Beethoven Sonata in A, Op.2, No.2. 3rd movement – Even in this youthful work Beethoven is pushing the boundaries, with swiftly alternating pitches, contrasting dynamics and a harmonic swerve to the remarkably remote key of G# minor. But the clear phrase structure remains typically Classical. The constant flow of the central minor-key section is somewhat reminiscent of the Baroque, but the sudden accents are pure Beethoven.

Schubert Scherzo in B-flat, D593 – One of Schubert’s more traditional works, light in texture (except for the more sonorous middle section) and mood. The balance and clarity of the phrasing look back to the earlier part of the Classical period, but he also takes advantage of the piano’s augmented dynamic range by this time (1817).  

Romantic

c.1830 – 1910

Main Composers: Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky

Building on the trend towards self-expression pioneered by Beethoven, the Romantic composers found ways of increasing the emotional intensity of their music. The composer’s personal life was now more likely to be an inspiration, as were nature, paintings, literature etc.

Melody and Phrasing – melody is at the heart of Romantic music, and in general the melodies are longer, slower and more expansive than before.

Texture – almost always homophonic. A typical piano texture is an arching melodic line supported by a wide-ranging arpeggio figuration in the left hand. Textures tend to be thicker than in previous music, with plenty of big chordal passages and dramatic flourishes.

Harmony – richer and increasingly chromatic.

Dynamics – a significantly greater range than before, with much more use of crescendo and diminuendo. But sudden lurches from a whispering pianissimo to a thundering fortissimo (or vice-versa) are also common.

Ornaments – although much of the treble figuration is quite decorative, and trills are still used frequently, the other kinds of ornamentation centred around a single note, so typical of the Baroque and Classical periods, are rare in Romantic music.

Keyboard range – pretty much the full range of the modern piano, often used to powerful effect.

Pedal – the sustaining pedal is used extensively, particularly to retain the sound in lyrical passages where the accompaniment is ranging freely over several octaves.

Suggested Listening

Chopin Prelude in E minor, Op.28 No.4 – Rich chromatic harmonies; slow-moving melody; pedal virtually throughout; intense emotion.

Schumann ‘Erinnerung’ (Remembrance), No.28 from ‘Album for the Young’, Op.68 – Homophonic texture with a lyrical melody supported by chords and arpeggio patterns; extensive use of pedal; emotionally expressive.

Liszt Consolation No.3 in D-flat major – Wide-ranging arpeggiated accompaniment; long, arching melody; wide keyboard range.

Brahms Rhapsody in G minor, Op.79 No.2 – Rich, often chordal textures; large range of dynamics and pitch; extensive pedalling; grand emotional sweep.

Twentieth Century

Main Composers: Stravinsky, Schönberg, Bartok, Prokofiev

The breakdown of the old certainties of society at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, heightened by the tragedy of the 1st World War, propelled composers away from the lush magnificence of late-Romantic music into a leaner and often more aggressive style.

Melodies – the long emotional melodies of the Romantic period were dead. Now composers were more inclined to deal in short fragments (called motifs rather than melodies), whose notes often didn’t relate to each other in any traditional way.

Textures – a real variety; sometimes very dense, sometimes thin.

Harmony – the most progressive composers abandoned the traditional major-minor harmonic system. Sometimes there was no sense of key at all – the technical term for this is atonal. The best word to use in your exam answers is dissonant.

Rhythm and metre – can be highly variable, with frequent and sometimes disorientating changes of time signature and accents.

Dynamics – sudden, dramatic contrasts can be a feature.

Ornamentation – rare, but not impossible.

Keyboard range – the full range is of course available, although sometimes contemporary composers choose a restrictive range.

Pedal – can be extensive, but the style is often dry and percussive, with limited pedal.

As a general hint, even if the extract has elements that might seem to belong to other periods, if it is dissonant, it is most likely to be Twentieth-Century.

Suggested listening

Bartok ‘From the Diary of a Fly’ from ‘Mikrokosmos’ – Highly dissonant; no sense of traditional major or minor key; frequent changes of time signature and accentuation patterns.

Schönberg 6 Little Piano Pieces, Op.19 (especially Nos. 4, 5) – Atonal; rapidly changing rhythmic patterns; dramatic dynamic changes; little sense of traditional melody.

Prokofiev No.10 from ‘Visions Fugitives’ Op.22 – The performer is instructed to play “ridiculously”; deliberately grotesque harmonies; spiky staccato accompaniment; sudden interjections at much higher pitch; motifs rather than melodies.

Jazz

c.1910 – present day

Main Composers/Artists: Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Miles Davis

Your exam extract may be a jazz-influenced piece. The main ingredients of jazz are:

Swung Rhythms – where 2 normally equal notes, e.g. quavers, are changed to a triplet feel, with the 1st note twice as long as the 2nd. This can produce a lazy, mellow feel in slow music, and a springy bounce in faster passages.

Syncopation – where many of the melody notes and accents occur between the main beats rather than on them.

Extended harmony – the harmonic skeleton is usually a repeated and fairly straightforward pattern but the individual chords can be complex, with 9ths, 11ths and 13ths grafted on to the fundamental major, minor and dominant 7th chords. The almost infinite possibilities of how to distribute a 5 or 6-note chord are partly what gives jazz its harmonic succulence.

Improvisation – the art of jazz is based on the performers improvising over the underlying harmonic framework. Even when written down, it should sound spontaneous. One manifestation of this can be long melody notes alternating with rapid flurries (riffs).

Blue notes – jazz and blues are closely related, and blues has its own scale. The blues scale on C, for example, is C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb.

The main colours of this scale are the Eb, Gb and Bb (all a semitone lower than in a major scale) which can sound sad in slower music, and robust and defiant at faster speeds. Many jazz performers use blues riffs in their improvisations.

Ornamentation – grace notes (sometimes crushed acciaccatura style, sometimes slowly sliding) are common.

Suggested listening

Christopher Norton ‘Tiger Blues’ from ‘Microjazz’ – An excellent introduction to blues style: the right-hand part plays only notes from the C blues scale virtually throughout.

Gershwin 3 Preludes for Piano – Syncopation; spicy blue-note melody and harmony; slow grace notes (No.2).

‘My Funny Valentine’ from the film ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’, sung by Michelle Pfeiffer – This wonderful arrangement, by Dave Grusin, takes you beyond the scope of the exam extract you will encounter, but it is a great way to immerse yourself in the soundworld of jazz. Lush chromatic harmonies; frequent piano riffs including grace notes; blues inflections.  

Gershwin ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ – A more extended masterpiece in jazz idiom, great fun to listen to all the way through.

The post ABRSM Aural Test Style & Period Guide For Grades 5-8 appeared first on Piano Teacher North London.

Chopin’s extraordinary Ballade No.1 seems to inspire serious students of the piano, whether dedicated hobbyists or aspirant professionals, like no other single piano work. Its role at a pivotal moment in Roman Polanski’s 2002 film The Pianist has doubtless contributed to its celebrated status. More recently the sense of Zeitgeist around this masterpiece has been further enhanced by former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger’s book in which he outlines his endeavours to learn the piece against all the odds (Play It again: An Amateur Against the Impossible).

This article assesses the main recordings of the work available on YouTube, with the aim of helping you locate the most compelling performances. Given the range of richly rewarding interpretations on offer, from widely divergent artistic personalities, it’s clear that this piece of music truly inspires many of the world’s greatest pianists too. They are in good company: Chopin apparently told Schumann that this Ballade was his favourite among his own works.

Maurizio Pollini

Having long occupied an exalted place amongst interpreters of this work, Pollini is well represented on YouTube, mainly in recordings taken from ‘live’ performances. If Pollini is at his best when he combines his commanding brilliance with a sense of space and a willingness to yield to the more lyrical impulses of the music, one of these recordings is pre-eminent. This is indeed a magisterial account: granitic, turbulent when the music demands, but also with an enchanting sense of reverie in the second subject, truly faithful to Chopin’s sotto voce marking. Throughout the work Pollini’s phrasing comes in long, organic paragraphs, contributing to an inexorable sense of the work’s overall architecture.

Sviatoslav Richter

Richter is also well-served on YouTube, mostly via recordings of various concerts from the 1960’s. Richter’s interpretation remains fairly consistent across these performances. His introduction is restrained rather than consciously arresting, and leads to a subdued main theme, cowed with sorrow. In the midst of such a weighty reading, his rather insouciant way with the second limb of the second subject in the recapitulation (from bar 180) is rather quirky – hardly the con forza stipulated by the composer. But in general Richter is fully responsive to the unfolding drama, and the denouement is suitably demonic.

Vladimir Horowitz

Much less consistent are the various YouTube versions of Vladimir Horowitz, again from ‘live’ performances. The most impressive of these is a video of a Carnegie Hall concert. As might be expected from Horowitz, this is a big-boned rendition, but there are also many charming individual moments of lyricism and a delightfully teasing quasi-waltz (from bar 140). Even in this performance, though, there is sometimes an unwarranted heavy-handedness, a certain lumpiness in the phrasing and rhythmic relationships:

These less appealing characteristics are more pronounced on the various other Horowitz performances on YouTube. Indeed one version (posted by ‘boomzxz’) is nothing short of a travesty.

Arthur Rubinstein

The countless admirers of Arthur Rubinstein would cite the sheer individuality of his poetic sensibility as one of the crowning glories of his playing. His recording of the 1st Ballade, dating from 1959, certainly has those moments of insight, but some will feel that at times his rubato and tonal shading step across the border from revelatory to wilful. For example, the way he curtails the very first note of the piece or flattens out the triplet in bar 4 seem difficult to justify. Chopin was a perpetual revisor, and was on occasion even capable of sending substantially varied versions of the same work to his different publishers, so it would be ill-advised to argue for a frigid fidelity to the text in the performance of his music. However, he notated the rhythm of this Ballade’s introduction so precisely that it seems appropriate to adhere to his written intentions.

Alfred Cortot

Whatever are Rubinstein’s eccentricities, they pale into insignificance when set alongside Cortot’s performance. There is certainly something of the tortured artist here, and Cortot’s rhythmic liberties are at times so spasmodic that he could scarcely be seen as a prime contender. However, if one can disregard his distortions of Chopin’s text in, for example, the second subject, one can be drawn into a quasi-improvisatory dreamscape that is oddly intoxicating.

Lang Lang

Yet pianists from a bygone era such as Cortot don’t have a monopoly on extreme expressive freedom. The ‘live’ video of Lang Lang reminds us that not all today’s pianists are sanitized in comparison with their predecessors. Lang Lang allows himself more poetic (and sometimes textual) licence than most of his colleagues, past and present. There is fervour and panache in abundance; indeed the overall effect might be mesmerising to someone who had never heard the piece before. For those more familiar with the composer’s score and the general stylistic history of Chopin playing, some aspects of his interpretation are likely to be puzzling at best.

Claudio Arrau

For more convincing examples of rhythmic flexibility one might turn to Claudio Arrau. Of the many versions available on YouTube, recorded at various stages of his career, perhaps the most consistently fulfilling is one dating from 1953. Here, his way with the third phrase of the main theme (bars 12-14) or the apogee of the second subject (bars 79-80), to give just two examples, is very rubato indeed, but seems to fit perfectly in the context. Indeed, Arrau’s second theme in general is one of the most exquisitely contoured to be found anywhere. It is true that Arrau is less scintillating than many in the more bravura passages of the work, but this is a performance to treasure for the beauty and gravitas of its musical soul.

Martha Agerich

In many ways Martha Agerich’s interpretation is the polar opposite of Arrau’s, in her characteristic emphasis on the volatile, tempestuous aspects of the work. Yet Agerich also finds room for a winningly tender second subject. Another strength of this performance is the dazzling clarity of her fingerwork in the central section, giving a wonderful sense of caprice.

Evgeny Kissin

This Russian artist strikes a fine balance between respect for the score and apparent spontaneity. Individual phrases are lovingly sculpted and intelligently related to each other; this thoughtful approach shines, for example, in his very organic transition between the first and second subjects (from bar 36). There is much profundity in both main themes (although the slightly halting quality in the first theme is somewhat curious), and the central section pulsates with verve and playfulness.

Unlike many others, Kissin observes Chopin’s con forza (bar 180) in the recapitulation of the second subject, giving this section a great sense of élan. The main body of the coda is not utterly relentless; instead he withdraws at the beginning of certain phrases, both tonally and rhythmically. Rather than detracting from the drama, this seems to magnify the ultimate annihilation.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

In a studio version captured on video, Michelangeli offers an aristocratic reading, understated and seemingly effortless. There’s not much red-blooded passion here, and the performance isn’t free of his ‘left hand before right’ mannerism, but there are substantial compensations, notably an irresistibly languid second subject.

There are also various ‘live’ performances by Michelangeli (posted by ‘RabidCh’ and ‘incontrario motu’ among others) which are by no means carbon copies of each other, but in general he seems more emotionally involved and allows himself more expressive freedom (not always to the music’s advantage) than in the video recording.

Vladimir Ashkenazy

The main recording by Ashkenazy, taken from his Decca box set, has that emotionally searching quality that is one of the hallmarks of this artist. The main theme is mournfully ruminative, setting the tone for a performance full of pathos, perhaps sometimes at the expense of propulsion. Yet there is plenty of the requisite majesty and drama too, and Ashkenazy’s peerless tonal refinement makes for a deeply satisfying listening experience.

There is an earlier ‘live’ performance by Ashkenazy, recorded in Moscow in 1963. This has much more of the impetuosity of youth (it’s over a minute shorter), the expression is in general more overt and the ferocity of the coda even more seismic. The recording quality is admirably clear but shows its age in an occasional hard edge to the piano sound.

Murray Perahia

Perahia gives a powerful and insightful account. Some of the underlying chords in the first theme (especially in the recapitulation) are a little dry and obtrusive, but this is a minor quibble. This is a highly convincing performance, poised and intelligent, titanic when necessary but devoid of hyperbole. Other versions might be more captivating in individual aspects of the work, but few achieve Perahia’s cohesion, both in the relationships between individual phrases and the logic of the overarching structural framework. This masterful grasp of the musical narrative is perfectly illustrated, for example, in the transition (bars 188-194) leading to the final stricken intoning of the first theme.

Emil Gilels

Gilels has an imposingly strident manner in this work, sometimes to good effect, especially in an exciting ‘live’ performance from Leningrad in 1963. There are moments of melting beauty, but in general the emotions are conveyed quite forcefully, and sometimes the sound is a little too stark for the context, for example towards the end of the first theme.

Umi Garrett

There is a remarkable ‘live’ recording by the 14-year-old Umi Garrett. This is not just a question of gaping at a Wunderkind, and musing sagely if the child prodigy will be able to mature into a genuine artist. On the contrary, this is already a fully-fledged performance, full of artistic sensibility as well as marvellous dexterity, one with which to try a ‘blind test’ on your musical friends.

Jorge Bolet

Bolet is represented by a video recording, made late in his career, and indeed this performance has a distinct sense of a master looking back. Although many other pianists engulf us more remorselessly in the work’s turmoil, this performance is suffused with a haunting sadness that perhaps compels more deeply than some other more extrovert readings.

Andrei Gavrilov

Another performance of impeccable artistry comes from Andrei Gavrilov. From his suitably portentous introduction Gavrilov takes us on an absorbing journey through the work’s ever-changing landscapes. This is music-making of the utmost sincerity, and Gavrilov always directs his stupendous physical prowess to the service of the music. Towards the end of a titanic coda, his pronounced rubato and the sheer slowness of the final octave descent (perhaps too melodramatic for some listeners) crown the work with an epic fatalism. Unfortunately the rather muffled sound quality of the recording is not commensurate with the quality of the playing.

Krystian Zimerman

The opening bars in Zimerman’s hands immediately set the tone for a performance of great grandeur and finesse. Every musical gesture is delivered with great conviction. His rubato is highly idiomatic and his phrasing wonderfully nuanced, although he is less ethereal than some in the more introspective episodes, especially the initial statement of the second subject. The central A major statement of the second theme is toweringly imperious. Overall, Zimerman’s interpretation has a severity that seems entirely appropriate, no more so than in the main body of the coda which is relentlessly pulverising rather than frenetic, leading with gripping inevitability to a bone-crushing final catastrophe.

So who are the best interpreters of Chopin’s First Ballade?

With such a range of outstanding performances to choose from it is genuinely difficult to select one definitive version. The most poignantly lyrical performances are not necessarily the most riveting in the more magmatic or mercurial aspects of the work. Ashkenazy, Gavrilov, Kissin, Pollini, Perahia and Zimerman are amongst the most enthralling communicators of Chopin’s kaleidoscope of emotions. But if forced to take just one performance to the proverbial desert island, it would be Krystian Zimerman.

The post Chopin: Ballade No.1 – Finding The Best Interpretations appeared first on Piano Teacher North London.

Top Tips for Successful Piano Practice

Invaluable Insights for Aspiring Pianists

The question piano teachers are most frequently asked about practising is how much should be done per day. While this is important (and I’ll come to it later), the more fundamental question is about the quality of the practice. More progress can be made in 15 well-directed minutes than in a listless hour. Here are some tips on how to make the most of your practice time.

Always have a clear aim

If you eavesdrop on the practice of a top pianist, you might be surprised how much silence there is between the notes you hear, especially if the passage being practised and repeated is relatively short. Successful practising is often preceded by a few moments of clear thought (what am I aiming for?) and followed by an evaluation of the passage just played (how close did I come to that aim?).

Conversely, mindless repetition without a second’s pause of the same short passage, if the result is not improving, is worse than useless, as it reinforces an imperfect or inconsistent outcome.

So the trick is to pause between each attempt, assess how you have just played and have a defined goal for the next repetition (to maximise progress you may need to concentrate on a very small unit within the phrase – more of this below). The crucial thing is that the mind must be fully engaged to achieve the best results in the shortest time.

Isolate the specific challenge

As most teachers will confirm, many students have a tendency, when they stumble over a difficult corner in a piece, to go back too far (even back to the beginning) and try again, hoping the problem will be solved second time through. It almost invariably won’t be! Instead, for the quickest results we need to focus on the difficulty in a very localised way.

This principle applies even from our earliest steps on the piano. A short piece in a tutor book might move mainly in crotchets, but contain one bar of quavers. If you set a tempo suitable to the crotchets, but then struggle with the quavers, it’s necessary to work on the quavers first, initially at a reduced tempo. Once you can play the quavers securely and without hesitation, gradually return to the full tempo. Then start from the preceding bar (crotchets) and join it to the bar of quavers. Hopefully you can now make the transition to quavers smoothly and without slowing down. In case you can’t, be patient and go through the process again.

Focus on the smallest unit, then build outwards

In a more advanced piece, the challenge may be to achieve evenness of rhythm and/or tone in a rapid passage. In this case, pinpoint the uneven links (by listening very closely) and practise these many times at the full tempo with crisp finger strokes (always keeping mentally fully focussed!) in the smallest cells of 3, 4 or 5 notes, ensuring absolute evenness. Then add the one or two notes from immediately before and after, and continue to add small groups of notes until you re-establish the full context. If the difficult few notes become uneven again at any point, isolate them once more and build up again.

Incidentally, if the unevenness problem arises because of a weaker finger (normally the 4th) it is a good gymnastic exercise to finish the group of 3, 4 or 5 notes being practised on a firm and bouncy staccato on the 4th finger (imagine the key is hot so that your finger wants to spring off as quickly as possible). Repeating this many times might drive your family mad, but it is an effective way to activate and strengthen a weaker finger. This is of course best instigated under the supervision of a teacher, to make sure that the attack on the last note is made in a physically appropriate way (effortless power rather than powerless effort). In any case, stop immediately if you feel any tension or strain in your hand.

Always pay attention to your hand position too; it could be that slight adjustments of the angle of your hand, or its position with regard to the junction of white and black keys, can be very helpful. Again, it’s difficult to convey this adequately outside a proper lesson, but it’s something you can experiment with.

Alter the rhythm in fast passage work

Once you have worked on the most obvious difficult moments in a fast passage, as described in the previous section, this next practice method helps you to establish continuity. If the music moves in semiquavers, lengthen the first note of each group of 4 semiquavers, making it into a dotted quaver, then play the rest of the notes in the group at full speed, leading into the first note of the next group, where you pause again, and carry on throughout in this manner. So in effect the rhythm becomes a dotted quaver followed by 3 semiquavers throughout. It is also worth doing the same procedure starting from the third note of each group.

These exercises make your fingers work at the required tempo, but by prolonging one note in each group, this enables you to get your bearings, and listen more carefully for evenness. Once you can play the whole passage fluently in this way, you should be ready to join it all together as the composer wrote.

Increase the challenge, overcome it, then integrate it with ease

Let’s say, for example, that the problem is to execute a leap accurately and without rhythmic delay. The tempo is fast and the last two notes (or chords) before the leap are quavers. A good practice technique is to change the rhythm of the two preceding notes into a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver, so that we have to make the leap even more quickly (again, imagine the ‘semiquaver’ piano key is hot, and use it as a springboard to kickstart the leap). Just practise these three notes many times in this rhythm, with a supple hand and wrist, to increase your agility and accuracy on the leap itself. Once it is secure, gradually add the preceding notes, keeping the amended rhythm at first and then reverting to the original. By this stage it is likely you have mastered the difficult leap. If not, just repeat the routine until you do succeed.

This concept of artificially increasing a localised challenge and focusing on it very specifically, before re-integrating it, is very useful in helping us conquer many of the physical scenarios we face in piano music.

Practising with a metronome

Using a metronome to build up speed gradually in a fast passage is an time-honoured practice technique, and the many repetitions you will do are helpful in embedding the musical text firmly in the muscular memory. However, make sure there is no unevenness or awkwardness. If there is, practise first in the smaller units, as outlined above.

A paradoxical discipline

If we think of ‘discipline’ in terms of music practice, or indeed any other educational activity, we usually assume it’s about being diligent in doing enough practice before we can stop or relax. However, sometimes the opposite can be true, especially for more advanced and aspirational players. As practising the piano is (or should be) a highly concentrated mental and physical activity, not many people can regularly sustain constructive practice for more than an hour. For the serious pianist, it can be very tempting to keep obsessing over a difficulty, extending the practice session to well over an hour, especially if progress seems to be slow or non-existent. But in fact this is exactly the right time to summon the discipline to walk away for a few minutes. Eat a snack, do a little stretching. When we return to the piano, refreshed after the break, we are more lucid and so progress is usually much more rapid.

So … how much practice?

As promised, I now come back to this theme. The most important tenet is regularity of practice. Half an hour per day is much better than cramming 3 hours’ practice into only one day of the week. If you are sufficiently enthusiastic and have the opportunity to practise every day, that’s great. However, taking a day (or even two) off from practising each week is not normally a disadvantage; indeed it can help us focus the next day with renewed vigour. So ideally I would recommend practising five or six days per week.

As for how much practice to do each day, it’s only possible to give rough guidelines, as there are so many variables: e.g. age and aptitude, how regular and imminent the targets are (exams, concerts etc).

If we relate practice time to a graded exam syllabus (Associated Board or Trinity), and assume one grade to be taken every year, a good average would be 20 minutes per day for grade one, rising to about an hour for grade five, and to perhaps two hours for grade eight. For students of high attainment, the exams can be taken more quickly (e.g. three exams in two years), with broadly the same practice regime. In all cases, however, it is optimal to incorporate a decent amount of non-exam material to give a healthy variety to the musical menu. Viewing the exams as mere educational trophies to be charged through at breakneck speed can be artistically misguided.

If your ambition is to become a concert pianist, in effect the practice becomes a full-time job, so it would not be unusual to be doing six or more hours per day if you go on to study piano at a conservatoire. Although Artur Rubinstein quipped that he did most of his practising on stage, the reality is that to reach the artistic heights requires immense amounts of work. Even at this level, though, it’s important to take regular breaks. If you have been practising for an hour, and it’s still productive, that’s fine. If not, walk away for a few minutes.

To come full circle, and at the risk of repeating myself, the best practising is about setting specific objectives, and concentrating fully on achieving them, rather than watching the clock. If you are able to work consistently in this purposeful way, you are likely to amaze yourself with the rapidity of your progress … and still have time to spare!

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Should you do graded exams?

This is very much a matter of personal preference. The exams of the two main organisations (Associated Board and Trinity) are a well-established part of the music education landscape in the UK and Commonwealth countries. Many students find the discipline of such graded structures extremely useful, even necessary. Moreover, the exams give scope to develop listening skills (via the aural tests in particular) and general musicianship.

But such exams are not for everybody, and indeed there are plenty of countries worldwide which don’t have any similar kind of system and are perfectly capable of turning out top-class musicians. Adults in particular, who are not part of any competitive educational environment, might find the rigours of following an exam syllabus more of a hindrance than a help.

My own view

Personally I’m not a fan of the ‘conveyor-belt’ approach to graded exams, where the student simply takes one exam after another without any pause to explore other repertoire or musical avenues. This can lead to pianists with a rather narrow focus. So when I’m taking students through an exam system I prefer to give them a broader range of musical experience between the grades, without causing undue delay in the attainment of the exams themselves.

Other information

Sometimes teachers neglect the aural test and sight-reading components of the exams until the last minute, which can lead to unpleasant surprises in the exam itself! So I always make sure to start work on these elements early, and prepare thoroughly.

Apart from the graded exams mentioned above, I also prepare students for the A-level piano practical exam, and can indeed coach you for any exam or audition you require.

The Associated Board requires the student to pass their grade 5 theory exam before taking the grade 6 piano exam, and you can study for that (and any other) theory exam with me too. Although the grade 5 theory is the only official exam stipulation, I believe in introducing the main components of music theory from the early stages, as a knowledge of these aspects helps the student learn pieces more quickly and interpret them more effectively.

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