Fermata – Page 2

A Piano Teacher’s Foibles

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

Which of the incredible teachers in this picture would you like to sign up to have piano lessons with?

Finding the “right” match can certainly prove challenging for some. Writing in a recent issue of Pianist Magazine, Warwick Thompson sagely advises:

“A teacher is actually a human being, surprising as that fact may sound, with foibles, prejudices, blind spots, strengths, and wonders within them.
If those foibles and wonders don’t align with yours, it doesn’t mean you’ll never progress at the piano. It simply means you’ve had the wrong teacher (or rather, to spin the mirror, it means your unfortunate teacher had the wrong student).”

Relief all around, then!

The Year of the Snake

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

Since ancient times, the Chinese have followed the lunar calendar, New Year coinciding with the first hint of Spring in the northern hemisphere. New Year’s Eve 2025 falls on 28th January, which heralds the start of Spring Festival, culminating two weeks later with the Festival of Lanterns on February 12th.

The years are traditionally named after the twelve symbolic animals of the Chinese zodiac. These are multiplied by the ‘Five Elements’ of traditional Daoist cosmology to create a 60 year cycle. Following on from the Year of the Dragon, we are about to enter the Year of the Wood Snake.

Regardless of how we view ancient beliefs and customs, it does us no harm to reflect on our lives and progress using the cycle of the seasons and calendar of old traditions as a simple tool.

The Schumann Effect

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

In his Advice to Young Musicians, the composer Robert Schumann wrote,

“Consider it an abomination to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.”

At face value, these are pretty strong words, implying we cultivate a reverence for music notation and rigidity in performance. In his exposition of Schumann’s thoughts, however, the cellist Steven Isserlis wisely suggests,

“Schumann’s general point here is that we must avoid inappropriate additions or alterations to the musical text… Some composers have left us specific instructions, which we have to follow to the letter; others, particularly in earlier periods, have left most of the interpretative decisions to us. In much baroque music it is almost essential to add ornamentation at times; composers would have expected it.”

‘True Fun’ at the piano

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

Piano teacher discussions can sometimes assume the appearance of a boxing match between, in the one corner, experienced stalwarts who stress the point that learning the piano should be a serious business, and in the other corner, teachers keen to emphasise inclusion, and the need for learning to be ‘fun’.

Finding common ground, most of us neither want playing the piano to be cast as laborious, nor as lightweight. But can’t ‘fun’ be a serious business?

In her outstanding book The Power of Fun (2021), award-winning science journalist and author Catherine Price gives a lengthy but glorious exposition of what she calls ‘True Fun’, and to my mind she resolves the confusion.

In this short Fermata Series reflection, I am going to share and comment on a few highlights...

Your New Piano Journal

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

Keeping you own Piano Journal is an idea that is so simple it seems obvious, yet so powerful that it could transform your piano journey in the months and years ahead.

In my book How to Practise Music, I wrote the following to suggest adult learners keep a piano journal:

“Older learners often like to keep their own journal in which they write a more reflective account of their practice journey, which may or may not be shared with a teacher. These can be excellent tools for structuring practice sessions, probing for solutions, or looking back on previous work.”

It is a suggestion I unpacked in more detail in my article Keeping Your Own Piano Journal, which fascinatingly proved to be one of the most popular posts ever published on this site.

That article includes an explanation of what a piano journal is, what the benefits of keeping one are, how to get started, and questions that you might wish to reflect on in your piano journal.

I won’t rehash the answers given in that article, but I want to let you know about a new gift book from Edition Peters, a simple but gorgeously presented notebook which could be the ideal repository for your reflections and tool for piano journaling over the next year.

Your unique voice

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

When considering the great pianists who inspire me the most, I often wonder what qualities make their playing stand out as a unique and important legacy, and usually answers come quickly: the emotional depth and meaningful insight in their interpretation elevates their performances above the ordinary.

How can we develop our own individual, personal voice at the piano, speaking on behalf of composers, but with our own unique dialect?

The curriculum comes first

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections 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.

Facing our Fears

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections 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…