Pianodao

Rediscovering Piano Time

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

There are several reasons why I rarely review children’s method books. An important one is that I have found my views about a new method resource can change considerably after spending a year or two using it.

Time and again, though, I have found myself returning to Pauline Hall’s Piano Time, a series which has remained popular with my students and delivered positive results for nearly three decades. Children using this series with me have enjoyed learning and practising, developed confident reading skills, healthy playing technique, nascent creativity, and imaginative engagement.

There are shortcomings with any method book, of course, and it’s important for all teachers to recognise the weaknesses in their chosen series. Only then can we deliver effective teaching and identify necessary supplementary materials. For more advice, read my article The Problem with Method Books, which explores the issue in depth.

In the meantime, Oxford University Press have just published fully updated Third Editions of the three core books in the Piano Time series, along with an unexpectedly useful book of accompaniments. With brand new illustrations throughout, a host of fresh new pieces, freely downloadable audio, and gentle tweaks to further facilitate smooth progression, this is a very significant update, so there’s never been a better time to rediscover Piano Time.

Having used the series for so long, I feel appropriately qualified to unpack the revision for existing users, and encourage potential newcomers to have a look at this landmark best-seller afresh.

Essential Online Piano Education Resources

Educational Resources

Special Guest Review written by GARRETH BROOKE
Find out more: ABOUT PIANODAO REVIEWS

I am frequently approached by those who create and distribute piano educational resources online, keen to be featured on Pianodao. As I have yet to use these resources in my teaching, I am pleased that my brilliant friend GARRETH BROOKE has agreed to write this post as a companion to mine…

ADHD • A Pianist’s Guide

Pianodao Wellbeing • Mind, Body, Soul

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

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…