: free course in 48 lessons
Touch and tone
- Playing with arm weight
- Mastering dynamics
- Making the melody sing
- Balance between the hands
- Forearm rotation
- The wrist: breathing and phrasing
Pedalling
- The sustain pedal: basics
- Syncopated (legato) pedalling
- Half pedal and flutter pedal
- The soft pedal (una corda)
- The sostenuto pedal
- Historical pedalling
Advanced technique
- Chords: precision and tone
- Octaves
- Leaps
- Trills and fast ornaments
- Double notes: thirds and sixths
- Fast repeated notes
- Preparing for the great études
How to practise
- Slow, deliberate practice
- Chunking, hands separate, starting from the end
- The metronome ladder and rhythmic variants
- Interleaving, spacing and planning
- Mental practice away from the piano
- Memorising securely
- Performing: nerves, mock performances, recording
Sight-reading
- The principles of sight-reading
- Reading by intervals, shapes and patterns
- A sight-reading routine that works
- Advanced sight-reading: two staves, simplifying, accompanying
Pianist health
- Warming up wisely
- Spotting and releasing tension
- Preventing injuries
- Breaks, session length and lifestyle
Posture and body
First gestures
- Five-finger positions
- Legato: connecting the notes
- Staccato and articulation
- Finger independence
- Thumb under and finger over