Opinions • Guest Posts • Interviews
Pianist Rose McLachlan will be performing as a special guest at the MK Piano Celebration 2024, with a programme that includes Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy, and music from the 22 Nocturnes for Chopin by women composers anthology that she commissioned.
In this interview I catch up with Rose to discuss her musical journey thus far, and find out more about her programme…
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Following the launch of ABRSM’s 2023-24 syllabus, Edition Peters built on the success of their regular Grade 8 Piano Anthology series by issuing anthologies for Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. At the time, I noted:
“Whatever one thinks of graded exams, there’s no denying that the ABRSM piano syllabus offers a stunning and helpfully progressive view of the rich and varied piano repertoire. And if their own publications open too small a window through which those wondrous joys might be discovered, the widescreen presentation Edition Peters offer with these anthologies must surely be welcomed with the broadest of smiles.”
With the advent of the 2025-26 ABRSM syllabus, which I have reviewed in depth here, Edition Peters (now under the roof of Faber Music) have returned with a new set of anthologies to supplement the latest syllabus.
It should be noted that there is a one-year overlap of syllabi, meaning that the older anthologies will (alongside ABRSM’s own piano exam piece books for 2023-24) remain valid until December 2025.
But what of the new anthologies? Here as always is my first in-depth look at them, including a detailed comparison between the ABRSM and Edition Peters books. For those on a budget, which is the better purchase, and why? Let’s find out…
Continue reading Edition Peters Piano AnthologiesSupporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales
In the latest issue of Music Teacher magazine, three teachers who I very much respect team up to reflect on current trends in grade exams, and in particular whether “populism is killing progression”, and whether current syllabi are helping teachers to “get the fundamentals right”.
I was particularly struck by this from the ever-brilliant Murray McLachlan:
“Whether boards care to admit it or not, they have a huge responsibility to ensure that grade requirements present a balanced selection of material that will add and guide pedagogical progression for those customers they serve who are primarily or even exclusively exam-oriented. There should be no loopholes or easy options that take away from this surely essential mission.”
I think he makes an important point that ABRSM, Trinity, and the rest need to consider with care.
But in all fairness, are teachers perhaps at times in danger of blaming exam boards for our own failings? Because, whether we care to admit it or not, they have long stressed that their syllabi are not designed to deliver a complete instrumental and vocal curriculum.
Continue reading The curriculum comes firstSelected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Recognised the world over as one of our most prolific and successful composers of contemporary repertoire for developing instrumentalists, Pam Wedgwood was recently awarded the Art of Piano Education Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her significant impact on piano education over the course of her career.
Rather than resting on her laurels, Wedgwood now returns with a brand new collection of enchanting piano pieces for intermediate players. With Piano Dreaming she has branched into fresh musical territory, bringing us an album of 12 original pieces in a “neoclassical style”.
Let’s see whether this new collection is the dream…
Continue reading Pam Wedgwood • Piano DreamingSupporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales
Halloween is a time in which popular culture celebrates the macabre, but for pianists, our most destructive fear is often not an irrational terror of supernatural gremlins, but the panic that fills our hearts at the thought of stepping out on stage, approaching a looming grand piano, and performing to an audience.
I have recently written about the positive benefits of performing, but what about the anxieties that many need to overcome in order to do so? In this companion piece, let’s consider the terrors that must be overcome in order to give a confident performance…
Continue reading Facing our Fears
Selected and reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews
With Autumn in full flow, a flurry of new Christmas releases inevitably arrive, prospective additions to the already well-stocked Pianodao Christmas Shortlist of sheet music suitable for all ages, levels, and playing styles.
Leading the way in 2024, Simply Christmas is a collection of 24 new arrangements of traditional favourites, billed as for Easy Piano Solo and suitable for late elementary to intermediate players (around UK Grades 2-5).
What makes this collection truly stand out from the crowd is the quality of the arrangements by Christos Tsitsaros, which are exceptional. Read on to find out more…
Continue reading Simply ChristmasSelected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Heather Hammond is well established as one of the most prolific and respected composers of educational piano music, and her publications for EVC Music (which include Grooves for Piano Dudes reviewed here and Ballads Without Words reviewed here) include much of her best work.
Of the latter, I wrote:
“Here is an album that will surely be a “quick win” with players at upper intermediate level who want to play music in a lighter style, but with emotive melodic content.”
It is neither a surprise that it has proved to be a popular success, not that Hammond’s latest publication is a much-anticipated sequel…
Continue reading More Ballads Without WordsSelected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews
Reviewing David Hall’s superb music theory primer There’s More to Playing the Piano back in 2021, I noted that most theory publications are structured around the specific (and not always particularly useful) grade exam requirements, and suggested that:
“For those who simply want to understand notation and written music in a way that’s useful and relevant to today’s piano players, the market has long been wide open. Finally we can welcome a simple textbook which is clear, concise, and of practical benefit. “
That book has subsequently proved hugely useful to the various learners I have recommended it to, and I continue to receive messages of thanks from other teachers who discovered it through this site.
How brilliant, then, to tell you about Hall’s follow-up publication, There’s Even More to Playing the Piano, which is billed as:
Continue reading There’s Even More to Playing the Piano“An introduction to advanced music theory with practical keyboard activities and video links for each topic”.
