Let’s address something that terrifies many adult piano learners: playing from memory. The idea of sitting down at a piano without sheet music and playing a piece start to finish from memory feels…

I need to tell you about the worst practice session I’ve ever had. It was month ten of learning piano. I sat down to practice a piece I’d been working on for weeks…

Let me tell you about my first three months of learning piano. Week 1: Practised every single day, sometimes twice a day. So excited!Week 2: Still daily practice. Feeling great.Week 3: Missed Tuesday…

Most adult piano learners practice terribly. I know because I was one of them. For my entire first year of learning piano, my “practice” consisted of sitting down, playing through pieces I was…

“How long will it take me to learn this piece?” If I had a pound for every time I’ve asked myself this question, I’d have… well, quite a lot of pounds. It’s probably…

Right, confession time: for the first year of learning piano, I didn’t keep any kind of list of what I’d learned. I just… played things, moved on to new things, and forgot what…

Right, let’s talk about something that I absolutely got wrong for ages: how to actually learn a new piano piece. When I first started playing, my “method” was basically this: get the sheet…

Right, let’s talk about Johann Sebastian Bach. The composer every piano teacher will tell you is essential. The composer whose music appears in every piano curriculum. The composer who, if we’re being honest,…

Right, confession time: I spent my first two years of piano learning exclusively playing classical music. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin – all the usual suspects. And I loved it. But there was this nagging…

Let’s be honest about something: when you’re learning piano as an adult, there’s a certain appeal to pieces that sound absolutely brilliant but aren’t going to take you six months to learn. You…