Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales
As winter sets in, enveloping everything in its frosty embrace, we can find it challenging to stay motivated and inspired. The shorter days, longer nights, and biting cold can make it tempting to hibernate until spring!
The human response, across cultures and continents, has long been to make space and create opportunities for communities to come together: shared festivals and feast days that brighten our darkest months.
Musicians have always had a significant part to play in vibrant community life, and for piano players this is a time of the year in which our Active Repertoire may thus feature prominently in our music-making…
Winter Repertoire
Our Active Repertoire is the music that we can play with confidence, with fluency, and with musicianship. If this is a new turn of phrase, you can read more about it here to understand the concept more fully, and learn why it is so important.
I believe that every piano player should have an Active Repertoire, but surprisingly few players are able to simply sit down at any piano, and play music they love, sharing it with others confidently. And during the Christmas and Winter season, this shortcoming can often be more obvious than ever.
In addition to the music that we have been preparing for an airing at school concerts, piano clubs, church and other local events, it is wonderful to have pieces that we can confidently enjoy sharing while relaxing with family and friends. And as the holiday season approaches, it is likely that we will want to include some easier, fun music and festive songs alongside our more usual repertoire choices.
So now’s the time to prepare, and you can begin by downloading your FREE Active Repertoire Sheet for the Winter Season below.
There’s no catch: this resource really is completely free, no strings attached, no hoops to jump through before you get it! Simply click here to access the Winter Repertoire sheet and download it:
Using the Sheet
As usual, the Winter Repertoire Sheet begins with some space to list the pieces you most enjoy playing, and can perform to a standard that you and your listeners will enjoy. Play one or more of these Active Repertoire pieces daily at the start of your practice, making sure they remain at their best. And see how your confidence will grow!
The Winter Repertoire Sheet also includes space to list other pieces you want to continue working on: music that isn’t quite yet ready to share yet, but which you are finding rewarding to practice, and hope to be able to include in your Active Repertoire in the coming months.
And as ever, there’s space to list any scales, studies, or other exercises that you want to keep using, working on, and which underpin your core technical and musical foundation.
The lower half of the Repertoire Sheets changes with each season, and for the Winter, there is space for you to list those Christmas pieces with seasonal resonance, which you could perhaps play at parties and gatherings.
In case you are looking for new music to add here, check out Pianodao’s Christmas Shortlist, where you will find updated recommendations of the latest and best seasonal music from beginner to advanced level, including everything from traditional carols, to calming reflective piano solos, to Boogie Woogie and Jazz versions of popular songs.
Goals for the coming year
The final box on this year’s Winter Repertoire Sheet allows space for you to write in goals for the New Year. Take time to reflect on these, and discuss with friends, other pianists, or your teacher/mentor if you have one.
Winter is a season of contrasts, where the starkness of the landscape is softened by the promise of new beginnings. In this quietly confident and hopeful season, remember to make plenty of time to rest and reflect. In the silent stillness of winter, it is healthy to foster fresh intentions and resolutions for the future.
Above all, make time for Your Piano Pathway this Winter. Make piano practice a continuing ritual, a meditation, a refuge from everything that seems bleak, and an opportunity to cultivate mental and physical resilience. And above all, have some fun playing!
Playing like the Winter Sun
Cherish the music you play. Dazzle with the easy! Stop thinking in terms of levels and progress, and start thinking about reaching the soul. Play like the winter sun…
Wisdom for the Winter
There is a real danger that our over-exertion in the early winter leaves us physically depleted, mentally and emotionally exhausted, and more susceptible to infection, illness and a general sense of feeling “run down”. Let’s take stock…
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