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Best Student Duets with Just 5-fingers from Diabelli

by Tim Topham

If you haven’t yet introduced the duets of Anton Diabelli to your teaching studio, you are missing out on some of the best student duets for beginner and intermediate students. In fact, as long as students can read a 5-finger position in C Major, they can at least play the first couple of these pieces. Diabelli ... Best Student Duets with Just 5-fingers from Diabelli

08/29/2022 Read more

The Inner Circle Has a Fresh New Look

by Tim Topham

What could you accomplish in the Inner Circle?

05/27/2019 Read more

Hybrid Piano Review: Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid GP500

by Tim Topham

There is little doubt now that the future of the piano is going to be digital.  While there will always be a place for acoustic pianos, the lines between digital and acoustic are blurring more and more.  Just as in other areas of disruption, where digital has triumphed (and even become better than acoustic) eg. XYZ, the ... Hybrid Piano Review: Casio Celviano Grand Hybrid GP500

10/11/2017 Read more

Why You Should Be at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Convention in 2017

by Tim Topham

Join Us at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Convention In this live Facebook video, Tim Topham chats with Carly McDonald about why you need to be at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Convention in 2017. It is running in Adelaide between 10-14 of July. Both Carly and Tim will be presenting at the event. For more information ... Why You Should Be at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Convention in 2017

05/18/2017 Read more

Teaching piano with rhythms

by Tim Topham

Practising in rhythms is, without a doubt, my No 1 practice tip for students! Why? One simple reason: it reduces the amount of time that they need to spend practising repetitive sequences such as scales and scale passages, arpeggios, broken chords and any kind of fast quaver or semiquaver movement. Students will be able to ... Teaching piano with rhythms

06/04/2011 Read more

Best of AMEB Manual List – Level 2

by Tim Topham

Continuing my previous post… here are my suggestions of the best pieces on the AMEB’s manual list from Grade 5 – 7 (and one from Grade 8 which I haven’t had as much experience with yet). There are heaps more that are probably fantastic which I haven’t yet found, so please educate me with suggestions ... Best of AMEB Manual List – Level 2

05/26/2011 Read more
 

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Piano Practice Challenges

by Tim Topham

Here are a few ideas I use with my students for how to practice effectively. I constantly have to remind them that just repeating sections over and over is about the least effective way of learning new material. The main goal of these techniques is to avoid the often pointless “start at the beginning and ... Piano Practice Challenges

Deliberate Practice

by Tim Topham

My summer holiday reading this year centered on a book called Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin (highly recommended). The really positive revelation in this book is that the ‘most talented’ people in the world in any pursuit only get there by masses of hard work and ... Deliberate Practice

05/24/2011 Read more

Piano Video Game Music

by Tim Topham

If you teach boys in particular, you have no doubt had students requesting to play pieces they’ve heard from computer games – Super Mario, World of Warcraft, Zelda, Mass Effect – are just a few that come to mind from my experience. Video game music is pretty popular with my teens. Computer game music is ... Piano Video Game Music

Best of the AMEB manual list – level 1

by Tim Topham

It’s sad that so many teachers stick only to the AMEB grade books when there is so much great music out there, and quite a few gems are already listed in the syllabus under the “Manual List” for each grade. The only problem is, unless you learned those pieces when you were a kid, it’s ... Best of the AMEB manual list – level 1

05/23/2011 Read more

Teaching piano practice: Just 0.3% of a student’s week? You’re kidding right?!

by Tim Topham

How to teach piano practice Have you ever calculated just how little time you get to spend with your students out of their total working week? It’s a fascinating and insightful exercise and its result should dictate much of what we do with students during lessons. Last year, I read a fantastic book called “The Practice Revolution” ... Teaching piano practice: Just 0.3% of a student’s week? You’re kidding right?!

05/16/2011 Read more