As the fog descended on a chilly November night outside, concertgoers packed into Bournville Parish Church - surely a near-sellout audience - for a light-filled programme from Birmingham Bach Choir.…
This post is part of my Quick Takes series - short, focused reviews that highlight key publications for teachers and players. I confess, Bluey has passed me by, though my…
Sight-reading has always fascinated me. It’s often talked about as one of the great mysteries of music-making - a skill that some people just seem to have, while others spend…
This post is part of my Quick Takes series - short, focused reviews that highlight key publications for teachers and players. At the beginning of September 2025, ABRSM announced that…
Graded music exams have a long history, and in the time they have existed - well over a century - they have been staunchly defended as much as they have…
Puppet Theatre is the latest collection from composer Jakub Metelka, and contains 20 miniatures for solo piano. Following his popular previous volumes, also published by Bärenretier, The Secret Garden, Little…
A musical theatre audition can be pretty daunting. Not only is there the performance aspect, and all the nerves which come with that, but they can also be unpredictable. Musical…
My Forest Notebook, a new collection of piano solos by popular composer, Angeline Bell, joins her four previous volumes: My Lyrical Notebook, My Quirky Notebook, My Seaside Notebook and My…
If you're a private music teacher, you might already be thinking about what holiday you'll be taking this summer, and which lessons you might be offering to students during the…
Alexis Ffrench has been described as ‘pioneering’. From early improvisations on the piano at the age of 4, to scholarships awarded for study at the Purcell School and Royal Academy…
In the past few years, I've written a number of blog posts about digital music exams, the most recent of which you can read here. When I share these, particularly…
2025 marks 21 years since I first entered a student for an ABRSM graded exam. I say ABRSM because, well, I've never heard of any other exam boards back then.…