Review: My Seaside Notebook (Angeline Bell)
My Seaside Notebook is the fourth in Angeline Bell's piano 'notebook' series published by Editions Musica Ferrum. Hot on the heels of My Lyrical Notebook, My Quirky Notebook, and My…
Digital Music Exams: A Realistic Performance Experience?
Over the past five years, digital music exams have continued to evolve, gain traction and grow in popularity, not just with students, but with teachers, parents and schools. As I've…
Review: These Sweet Days (Nancy Litten)
As I played through these pieces, I breathed a happy sigh. We all need a reminder - teachers and students - that sometimes, we can find such enjoyment and pleasure…
Review: Graded Piano Anthologies, Grades 5-8 2025-26
I'm always a little wary of published books whose focus is primarily on repertoire for music exams. Exams don't feature hugely in my teaching, and there are still many teachers…
Review: Piano Dreaming (Pam Wedgwood)
Piano Dreaming is a brand new publication from one of the world's most popular composers for the educational market, Pam Wedgwood. Earlier this year, Pam won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement…
Review: The Musical Notebook
Released just in time for your Christmas list, Edition Peters' The Musical Notebook may be every music-lover's dream. The Musical Notebook is a high quality, hardback A5 notebook, containing 160…
Concert Review: Birmingham Bach Choir, The Rainbow Comes & Goes (November 2024)
In many respects, this concert was never going to be easy, as we and a small, but appreciative audience of other music-lovers battled Storm Bert, the German Market and the…
Finding the music in the words: song settings of poems by L. M. Montgomery
The Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery is best known for her novels, particularly Anne of Green Gables. Anyone who has read her fiction will have come across her beautiful descriptions of…
Review: Piano Grades are Go! Grades 4-5 (Victoria Proudler)
I have been eagerly waiting for the next volume in Victoria Proudler's Piano Grades are Go! series to appear, and if you have too, you won't be disappointed. The two…
Review: How to Sight-Read (Paul Harris)
I love to sight-read! ...and yes, I can feel you groan as you read that! No one ever really taught me to sight-read, I just seemed to pick up the…
Review: ABRSM Piano Syllabus 2025-26
The new ABRSM Piano Syllabus seems to come round alarmingly quickly. It often feels as that no sooner have I reviewed one, the next one drops through the letterbox. The…
Concert Review: Birmingham Bach Choir Summer Concert (July 2024)
As the early-evening sun streamed through the beautiful stained glass windows, the high church surroundings of Birmingham’s St Alban the Martyr provided the perfect setting for a splendidly adventurous programme…