Piano Creativity digest — 22rd March 2024

What I've been reading and writing this week

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What I’ve written this week:

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What I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Andrew Eales wrote a thoughtful post about how to get back on track when you’re feeling lost in your piano development that reminded me that we sometimes have a tendency to neglect parts of our development because we’re too focused on one goal. He mentions that creative exploration is a good way to re-find our pianistic selves

• On a related topic, I really enjoyed listening to Amy Chaplin’s Piano Pantry podcast on “What to do when your students don’t practice”. Amy’s point is that we have a tendency to view lessons when a student hasn’t practised as a bit of a trial, but actually they’re a great opportunity to do some broader exploring — including through improvisation

• Composer Wendy Stevens wrote a couple of interesting posts on ComposeCreate about writing lyrics for elementary piano solos

• Nicola Cantan hosted an interesting YouTube chat about exam boards in general and MTB Exams in particular. MTB are the board I use when my students take exams and her positive experience is similar to mine

• Nicola, Wendy and Amy have all been at the MTNA Conference this week, and from their posts, it looked so much fun! I had never attended music teacher conferences until fairly recently when I attended EPTA Deutschland’s conference in Berlin, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it — maybe I’m becoming the kind of guy who goes to conferences?

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Good to know:

• There’s currently a 15% off sale on all products at www.ForrestKinney.com. Use the code “SHAREJOY”. If you’ve not used Forrest Kinney’s materials before, they are wonderful. I’d recommend starting with the Duet and Solo books of Create First.

• You can already register your interest in entering students in this year’s Compose Yourself, the UK composition festival for young pianists. Highly recommended!

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What’s in my drafts folder:

• 3 elementary Easter-themed composition activities that your beginner students will love

• The New (Old) Normal: composition and improvisation don't belong on a pedestal, they belong to everyone

• Creative activities to introduce Allegretto, op. 125/3 by Anton Diabelli: a popular classical piece on the ABRSM Grade 1 syllabus

• Interested in improvising, "Carnival in Rio" style? Julian Lambert's free backing track for William Gillock's wonderful piece is a great opportunity to get creative with Latin rhythms

If you’ve got a topic you think I should cover, please let me know! You can email me at hello@pianocreativity.com or leave a comment below.