Active Repertoire

Summer Repertoire Project

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

Summer is here, and as John Kirkwood puts it in his book The Way of the Five Seasons (2016):

“Following the rapid upward growth of spring, it is as if nature is now reaching outwards to fill as much space as it can.
Like a ball tossed in the air which reaches its apogee before descending, summer is the highest peak of growth when things can grow no further, and seem to hang in mid-air for a time, celebrating the fullness of expansion.”

As nature “reaches outwards to fill as much space as it can”, we too step into a larger vista, embracing the season with outdoor events, barbecues, social gatherings with family and friends, summer courses, camps and festivals.

Spring Repertoire Project

Active Repertoire Project

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

The Spring season is a time of dynamic reawakening and renewal. That which has remained quietly dormant is reborn, joining the fresh abundance of new life. I’m surely not the only one who finds this the most vibrant and beautiful time of year!

There’s perhaps no better time for embarking on exciting new piano projects, but let’s also remember to give our perennial Active Repertoire a fresh ‘spring clean’.

Our Active Repertoire is the music we can play with confidence, fluency, and expression, for our own and others’ enjoyment, and preferably from memory.

Through my teaching, and here on Pianodao, I encourage players to always have three or more pieces that are performance-ready, and to support this goal I offer a quarterly project sheet for you to freely download:

Spring Repertoire Project Sheet

Our Active Repertoire is our point of peak strength as pianists. Even so, some pieces can become tired and worn, in need of refreshment, while some others we might simply want to replace.

Winter Repertoire Project

Active Repertoire Project

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

As winter sets in, enveloping everything in its frosty embrace, we can find it challenging to stay motivated and inspired. The shorter days, longer nights, and biting cold can make it tempting to hibernate until spring!

The human response, across cultures and continents, has long been to make space and create opportunities for communities to come together: shared festivals and feast days that brighten our darkest months.

Musicians have always had a significant part to play in vibrant community life, and for piano players this is a time of the year in which our Active Repertoire may thus feature prominently in our music-making…

Autumn Repertoire Project

Active Repertoire Project

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

Pianodao’s popular Active Repertoire Project nudges and reminds us to develop a set of three or four pieces which we can play with confidence, fluency, and expression, for our own and others’ enjoyment, and preferably from memory.

By making this a top priority, we can:

start our practice sessions positively, with music we enjoy
more quickly memorise our favourite pieces
overcome our anxiety and feel more at ease playing to others

The Autumn Repertoire Sheet is FREE to download, and includes the regular spaces to list pieces to continue enjoying, as well as space to keep track of new projects and core technical work. Click here for the download:

Autumn Repertoire Project Sheet

What Can You Play?

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

One of the major stumbling blocks for players is that we too often feel that we are struggling, making little progress, and perhaps just haven’t got what it takes to become a “good player” (however we define what that is).

To enjoy playing an instrument, we need to move beyond this negative self-talk. And I suggest that one of the most easy and powerful ways we can achieve this is to adjust the balance between working and playing during our personal piano time.

Which brings us to the question,

“What can you play?”