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 »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on 10 Things I Wish My Piano Teacher Had Told Me
1. There’s only one reason to play piano: for fun Every day I hear myself telling my students to remember the reason that they’re having piano lessons: because playing piano is supposed to be a thoroughly enjoyable way of enhancing your life! Playing piano should not become an extra job to squeeze into your day, a chore or something to… 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 »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Update: Resumption of Music Exams
Many of my students have been confused and perplexed by the various and changing arrangements for graded instrumental exams over the past year or so. For clarity, I have trawled through the info for the three main boards that my students enter and provide a little info for each below: ABRSM Face to face exams resume in June. From the… Read more »
One of the best things about teaching music on Zoom is that I end up having students all over the place. Just take tomorrow’s schedule: Guitar in Kent Singing in Hull Piano in Carleton Ukulele in Skipton Guitar in Cononley Guitar in Steeton Guitar in Shipley Guitar in Bingley Now that’s what I call variety!!
Private Music Lessons Across Britain I think we can all agree that this Covid pandemic is having a pretty negative impact on most of our lives, and an absolutely devastating one on some of the less fortunate people around the world. Certainly, we have concerns about how it’s impacting on our son – at his age he should be visiting… Read more »
Damian OxboroughComments Off on Update: In-person lessons delayed
Happy New Year Here’s to a bright, happy and healthy 2021! With this in mind, I’ve made the decision to delay all face-to-face lessons at my house until February. With the Covid-19 virus currently spreading faster than ever, and government tier regulations being tightened, I feel that it’s important for me to be part of the solution to this pandemic… Read more »
Damian Oxborough: A Winter’s Tale It’s my birthday today!!! So, please enjoy the video I recorded, then take a look at the info below… we’re doing all of this for UNICEF, and so I’d love it if you could support our efforts by pressing the button below and making a donation of whatever amount you’re able. Even £1 helps the… Read more »
A very brief update for this week because things are pretty much the same as they have been for the last couple of weeks in terms of lesson availability. Hopefully, there’ll just be a couple more weeks of lockdown (during which all my lessons will be exclusively on Zoom), followed by a return to normal service. This coming week, though,… Read more »
For the past few years, the most common repertoire request I’ve had from student pianists has been to play music by Ludovico Einaudi. People hear his music on television, often as a backdrop to adverts or trailers for TV shows – it’s real ‘mood’ music that uses trance-like repeating patterns to lull the audience into a relaxed state of mind…. Read more »
