Back in November I had the privilege of playing piano for David Weale’s ‘The Skipton Choir’. They had a recording day at Christchurch that lasted the whole day – an opportunity to put down ten of their favourite songs for posterity. I had an absolutely lovely day, culminating in a meal at Calico Jack’s where I was able to get… Read more »
The Problem(s) It’s great, isn’t it, that you can download the chords and TABs for pretty much any popular song you can think of? There are loads of wonderful TABs websites, such as Ultimate Guitar, where users contribute their transcriptions of song accompaniments. There are really two problems, though: Often the chords and TABs given are pretty inaccurate. This is… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Songs with Good Piano Accompaniments
I think it’s fair to say that piano is a versatile instrument and as such it’s possible to translate the accompaniment parts of lots of (the majority of?) songs into a recognisable arrangement for it. But, some types of songs work better than others. For example, piano is particularly good as the backing to ballads if performing as a soloist… Read more »
At the weekend I was at a friend’s birthday party when the inevitable question popped up: “Can you teach anyone to sing?” As usual, this question was followed up with a statement that I hear people saying all the time: “I can’t sing. I’m tone deaf.” Once I’ve reassured them that everyone can sing, I would usually go on to… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Some lovely student feedback this morning
Here’s what my new student, Keri, sent me in an email over the weekend: Hi Damian, I had to message you to say my Mind. Is. Blown. What a massive difference it makes taking an intentional breathe rather than just singing whilst breathing like you do naturally when talking. Already, I can hold the notes better because I’ve got enough… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Primary School Teacher Resource: Classic Assembly Songs
I’ve recorded a whole load of ‘classic’ assembly songs from the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s, in the traditional style with piano accompaniment and posted them as a YouTube playlist. There are also lyrics on screen for you / the kids to follow. These are fun to listen to from the perspective of nostalgia, but could also be used by primary… Read more »
Practise scales the right way Over the years I’ve found the students expect to start each lesson with a series of exercises – more often than not, scales. This is especially true of people who have previously been taught by someone else. My view is this: that not every lesson / practise has to start in the same way, and… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Update & Nostalgic School Assembly Songs
YouTube Recording Project Partly as a bit of fun (but also to help increase my web presence), I have recently started a little project recording songs that we used to sing at assembly at school. There are loads that people will be familiar with from the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. I’ve been playing them on piano and uploading to YouTube… Read more »
Hope everyone’s looking forward to an extra day off on Monday. For me, this effectively means that my normal 5 days of teaching will be compressed into 4 days. And, the upshot of this is that the coming week’s slots are all FULLY BOOKED up. Do keep coming back to this blog each Saturday morning for a list of the… Read more »
