Pianodao

ADHD • A Pianist’s Guide

Education Strategies • Andrew Eales
Clinical Expertise • Louise Eales RMN, NMP

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, has become a hot topic of discussion in recent years, the apparent explosion of both child and adult diagnoses much commented on in the media and society at large.

This article has been cowritten with my wife Louise, who has three decades clinical experience working with children, and latterly adults, who have ADHD. She is now an advanced practitioner at ADHD 360, a leading private ADHD diagnosis and treatment clinic. We gratefully acknowledge that the Clinical Director has peer-reviewed this article prior to its publication here.

For my part, I have lived with this condition for a lifetime, only belatedly recognised and formally diagnosed in my fifties. ADHD has had a huge impact on my piano journey.

Our shared aim is to provide pianists and educators with a unique, relevant, and practical perspective which combines Louise’s clinical expertise with my personal experience, and which specifically addresses the challenges those with ADHD face in the practice room, piano lesson and at live events.

The article which follows addresses many common questions, explaining what ADHD is, its causes, history, the signs and symptoms. We then go on to apply this to piano practice, lessons and performance, offering strategies to help those with ADHD and their teachers. Finally, Louise outlines the process of diagnosis and available medications.

Download This Article as a Printable PDF

Pooches at the Piano

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

The slower pace of the summer break is a great time to catch up with music that has been waiting patiently in my review backlog, and this week I have been enjoying the elementary to intermediate pieces in the latest book from Anna Robinson, the fabulously named Pooches at the Piano.

You may remember Anna Robinson from my previous reviews of her intermediate collection Notes from a Neighbourhood (read the review) and easier Cats on the Keys (reviewed here). The new Pooches at the Piano offers a progressive selection of compositions that are suitable from Grades 0 – 3.

A British-born pianist and teacher now based in Melbourne, Australia, her pieces are inspired by the legacy of the great Walter Carroll, and as he did a century or so ago, she writes imaginative tunes that are as rich in pedagogic content as they are inspiring to play.

Pooches at the Piano can be seen as a companion volume to Cats on the Keys, and as with that collection it is inspired in part by her own pet pooch, Lily, who is featured in the photograph above, admiring the book.

For me, one of the highlights of Notes on a Neighbourhood was the opening piece Dizzy Dog, which was dedicated to Lily, “who loves to roly-poly to chromatic scales”. It’s great to have a whole collection with a canine theme, so let’s find out more…

Prokofiev • Visions fugitives

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) is unquestionably among the great composers of the solo piano repertoire, as well as one of the most important innovators. As Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts assert (in their Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, fourth edition, 2014):

“Prokofiev developed an individual, percussive style, which was probably the most signifiant innovation in piano technique since Chopin. His percussive manner is uniquely blended with a lyric element frequently accompanied by strong dissonance, yet his basic arsenal of figuration stems directly from the nineteenth century. Influences of Russian folk song are evident in his melodies and energetic rhythms.”

To this impressive list of qualities, I think we must also add Prokofiev’s contrapuntal genius, clarity of musical texture, profound affinity with the instrument, biting wit, and of course remember that he composed some of the twentieth century’s most remarkably memorable and widely recognised melodies.

With the relaxing of copyright restrictions, we can happily anticipate that the available catalogue of Prokofiev piano music in print will rapidly grow in the coming months, raising the quality and increasing the choice of editions, as well as improving access to the composer’s less well-known pieces.

Dominated by the nine Sonatas, this astonishing body of work also includes more than 100 smaller pieces, as well as the composer’s transcriptions of his famous orchestral works. Edition Peters have been quick to reissue legacy editions, but perhaps more significantly, Henle have begun to bring out brand new scholarly urtext editions of the most significant pieces, so far including the Seventh Sonata and the virtuosic Toccata Op.11.

Among these releases, Henle’s new edition of the seminal masterpiece Visions Fugitives Op.22 is the subject of this review…

Beauty Within Imperfection

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Recently, my wife Louise had a minor kitchen accident which resulted in her breaking my favourite tea cup. As she tells the story:

“So I broke Andrew’s favourite teacup.
I felt I should make him a new one in pottery class.
It lists a little bit but it works!
Andrew said that it’s the best thing that anyone has given him. He then went on to say that most people would’ve given up and started again once they noticed the listing.
Clearly I’m not most people!”

As you can see from the photo, my new cup is a thing of great beauty! But as Louise admits, it’s hardly perfect from a functional point of view. The listing perhaps doesn’t look serious, but when pouring tea into the cup it’s quite obvious that when one side is full to the brim, the other is but two-thirds full.

The beauty of my new mug is in its imperfection, its quirkiness, its vibrant personality, and its energy.

Adrian Lord • Elements

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

I have been a fan of Adrian Lord’s music since he sent me his Piano Meditations collection a couple of years ago, which I reviewed here. His follow up, Piano Postcards, impressed me still more, and has already proven popular with adult students.

Although self-published, Lord’s music books are among the most luxuriant I have ever seen, and are an aesthetic delight in every sense, right down to the packaging he personally sends them in (which students and friends of mine have also commented on, so it’s not just me!).

The latest book to arrive in the usual metallic blue padded envelope, Elements is an anthology of ten pieces, bringing together the two easiest from each of Lord’s previous books and adding in two new compositions. The aim has been to produce an easier collection, accessible and suited to intermediate players.

Time for an Afternoon Nap

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

“Done well, there’s something special about a nap. A short sleep during daylight hours is a moment of quiet in a world of noise… for a while, you can switch off.”

Ceci Browning, The Quiet Art of Napping

I am going to let you into a secret: whenever I can, I take an afternoon nap. I have even programmed space for it within my teaching schedule.

It’s not simply that I am getting old, convalescing from an illness, or even because I am lazy, but because I find it makes a significant difference to my overall wellbeing, mood, and productivity.

Ben Andrew’s Piano Scale Books

Educational Resources

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

The name Ben Andrew will ring a bell with many, due not least to the inclusion of his beautiful piece Snowflakes in The Joy of Graded Piano grade one book (find out more), as well as his Grade 5 theory workbooks from Hal Leonard.

Ben Andrew’s latest is a set of three scale books for players at Grades 1 to 3 levels. Yes, you read that correctly: scales books.

But stick with me, because these surprisingly affordable but gorgeously presented full-colour books offer a complementary approach that may well help elementary learners over the initial hump of learning basic scales, and might just make scales and arpeggios practice more enjoyable for all…

Why The Classics Still Matter

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

When considering a pupil’s stated musical interests, an expectation can easily take hold that they are unlikely to be interested in playing classical music. But as the great composer and educator Zoltan Kodály wisely cautioned:

“Let us take our children seriously!
Only the best is good enough for a child.”

A commitment that “only the best is good enough” should ensure that music which is second-rate or pedagogically weak stays on the shelf.

Meanwhile, the core classics, while not exclusively “the best”, surely (and by definition) have continuing educational importance. And if piano teachers don’t enthusiastically communicate the many glories of our repertoire, who on earth will?

Our work as piano teachers fundamentally involves expanding the horizons of each student’s musical knowledge and experience, taking them to territory they are unlikely to explore without a competent guide.