Jonathan Still, ballet pianist
Music, dance, IT, trivia. Not necessarily in that order.
When you first start teaching (whatever your subject), it’s tempting to think that nobody’s learning unless you’re talking. The truth is, an awful lot of the most significant and deep…
Put on a tape or CD – of anything – and practise setting exercises aloud with the music. Marking an exercise in tempo is a musical & motor skill which…
Sometimes it helps to give directions, count or talk gently in the rhythm and tempo that you want while the music’s playing. This gives pianists a rhythmic framework within which…
If you’re stuck for what kind of music to use for a particular step, think about how those steps appear in the repertoire, and what kind of music accompanies them.…
Some pianists have a misguided view about what is “suitable” for ballet class (e.g. that you have to improvise in a pastiche classical style with no dynamics and no rubato,…
It’s easy to ‘read’ a rhythm, metre or tempo when it’s shown in body movements (e.g. swinging, knee-bends, side-to-side movements of the torso or head and so on). To indicate…