Duets with Diabelli

Anton Diabelli was an Austrian composer and publisher, and a contemporary of Beethoven.

Through a Melbourne-based piano educator, Tim Topham, I've only recently been introduced to Diabelli's duets, some of which are very much suitable to beginner-level pianists.  In my (and Tim's) opinion - they're great!!!!!  I think they are an excellent way of introducing students to classical repertoire, where the finished product belies the degree of difficulty in the "primo" (in this case beginner student) part.

If only for fun, I'll be introducing some of the Diabelli duets with all of my beginner students.

Orff Schulwerk

Last Friday 6/10, I and ~20 other piano teachers attended a full day workshop on the Orff Schulwerk music teaching "approach" (NOT a method!!!), using the new Trinity College of London piano exam pieces.

In a sentence, the approach takes each element of music - rhythm, melody, texture, harmony and form- which are taught separately using a variety of techniques that don't all use the piano e.g. listening, speech rhymes, singing, percussion, dance, etc.  This is underpinned by a "natural learning process" that mirrors the progression we all go through as we learn our oral and written language: listen - sing - play - read - write.

The workshop was very interesting and enjoyable - and highly participative!! - and contained a range of techniques for further investigation in my teaching.  The holistic and flexible principles embodied in Orff Schulwerk are very consistent with my strong belief in learning music holistically, using the piano as a vehicle.

New Australian Piano Recording

Yes, I'm one of those old-fashioned guys who still buys CD's...

The ABC have just released "Into Silence" by Australian pianist Tamara-Anne Cislowska and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, an album of piano & orchestra works by four Baltic composers born "behind the Iron Curtain" either during or just after WWII - including Henryk Gorecki (if you haven't heard his "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs", go to YouTube RIGHT NOW!!!) and Arvo Part (his "Spiegel Im Spiegel" is the most well-known piece on this album).

A very different and very beautiful album of classical piano...