Playing for ballet class tips #3: Get yourself a fiddle book
Searching for petit allegro music “There are two parts of the class where you need more music,” the late Anatoli Grigoriev said to me after I’d played for him a…
Playing for ballet class tip #2: It’s all about the left hand, not the right
Nine times out of ten, the secret of being a good dance pianist is to concentrate on what your left hand is doing rather than your right. As pianists, we…
Playing for ballet class tips #1: Listen to yourself and the room
If you play for class a lot, it's easy to get into a habit of being so focused on what the dancers are doing, and what the teacher wants, that…
Advent calendar 2012: playing for ballet classes
It’s that time of year again when I try to blog for 25 days in a row for Advent, on something to do with dance and music. This year it’s…
The problem with reading online
Four years ago, I started an MA in music education at the Institute of Education in London. The first module was on the philosophy and aesthetics of music, and included…
Normal service resumed at last
After 10 days of mourning for the loss of nearly 10 years of posts, I’ve managed to recover my site after all. It’s cost me abou $70, but it was…