The Guest Book – Pianodao

Adaptive Teaching and Metacognition

The Pianodao Guest Book
Interviews • Opinions • Guest Posts

I’m happy to welcome back KAREN MARSHALL with a new piece for the ADHD Insights series. Her writing again reflects our shared focus on practical and thoughtful piano teaching…

Supporting neurodivergent pianists

Adaptive teaching has become an established principle across education in recent years and is widely recognised as an effective way of supporting neurodivergent learners. Rather than creating entirely separate lesson plans for pupils with additional needs, the aim of adaptive teaching is to adjust in the moment, or plan ahead so that every child can access a rich, rewarding curriculum.

But let’s be honest: as instrumental teachers, we’ve been doing this since the year dot! One of the great strengths of one-to-one music teaching is that we already provide every student with a bespoke learning experience.

Having spent years bridging the gap between classroom experiences and my private piano teaching, I often ask myself: how do we take these academic ideas and make them truly work in an instrumental lesson?

Post-Pandemic Piano Teaching

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In this insightful guest article, best-selling author and teacher KAREN MARSHALL points to the continuing challenges faced by those whose childhood and education were disrupted by the pandemic, and offers powerful hope that through piano lessons, we can help rebuild that generation…

The Long Shadow, Lost Learning, and the New Reality

Back in 2023, when the dust was finally beginning to settle on those surreal lockdown years, I wrote a series of blog posts about “Post-Pandemic Piano Teaching” for the previous Musicroom site.

At the time, many of us hoped, and I was definitely one of them, that by 2026, the phrase “things will never be the same again” would have been a distant memory. Perhaps we imagined we would be back to business as usual, with the fallout of those disrupted years safely behind us?

Yet, standing here today in 2026, the reality on the ground, both as a classroom music teacher and a private piano teacher, tells a very different story. The landscape didn’t just temporarily shift; it permanently fractured.

When I first examined “lost learning” a few years ago, I focused on immediate, obvious gaps: the physical absence of live performance, the technical difficulties caused by internet lag during online lessons, and a sudden drop-off in fundamental musicianship due to the rise of performance-only digital exams.

Personally, I treated it like an emergency to be managed with quick-fix, pattern-dense repertoire, and short-term interventions. What I perhaps didn’t fully anticipate was just how long the shadow of the pandemic would be, or how unevenly its impact would be felt across society.

David Jones • A Piano Journey

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DAVID JONES has enjoyed an enviable career as a pianist, educator, and music examiner. Currently Head of Piano at the prestigious Cheltenham Ladies’ College, he is also the founder and driving force behind The Thinking Pianist residential courses for adult pianists.

In this wide-ranging interview, I talk to David about the highs and lows of his career, the personal struggles and positive vision which inspire his work…

Ivana Gavrić • A Piano Journey

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IVANA GAVRIĆ has attracted international acclaim for her interpretations of a broad range of repertoire and storytelling programming, her playing described as ‘electrifying’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘impressive, insightful…ravishing’ (Washington Post).

And on the eve of the release of her sixth album, Throwback to Dance, it has been a pleasure to catch up with her for a chat about her piano journey so far (we first met when we both taught at The Thinking Pianist course last year)…

Rose McLachlan • A Piano Journey

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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…

Our Commitment to Music

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In this acutely observed and beautifully nuanced guest post, well-known pianist, educator and examiner PETER NOKE deftly explores the links between examination concerns and the musician’s timeless commitment to live performance and personal connection.

“We risk recorded playing from the bedroom or the front room becoming mistaken for performance, its sense of occasion, its vital exchange relegated to something only professionals do in large concert halls.”

Banner image: Ateneul Român Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest.
Photo credit: fusion of horizons

Podcast with Chris Woods

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Readers may be aware of the Music Education Podcast hosted by Chris Woods of The Chris Woods Groove Orchestra and brought to us by the Soundstorm Music Education Agency.

I was honoured to recently be invited to take part. Below, you can listen to a newly released Podcast in which the genial Chris talks to me about my recently published How to Practise Music, as well as having a more general chat about the important place of practice in our musical journeys…

Thoughts on the Art of Practice

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I am delighted to include this incredibly helpful post from the internationally acclaimed concert pianist, recording artist and teacher PHILIP FOWKE.

I had the pleasure of working alongside Philip on the faculty of the Thinking Pianist course, where he shared this very wise advice. I was delighted that he asked me to publish this article, that his words of wisdom might reach a wider, ongoing audience.