Remembering Warwick Nixon

It’s not often that I would write following on from having performed at a funeral. Perhaps a wedding, given that the occasion might be somewhat happier.

However, yesterday - Monday 2nd December - saw myself and my writing partner in crime - lyricist Lesley Creasser Guymer - bidding a very important character in our lives his final farewell at Birches Crematorium in Northwich.

For those who need a little background, myself and Lesley have been working on a musical adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story ‘Morella’ - and have been for well over a decade.

Having staged a successful condensed production (that in additional to having been fleshed out, has been rewritten several times!) back in 2014 at King Edward Street Chapel as part of Macclesfield’s Barnaby Arts Festival, we decided that the way to go ‘fully fledged’ was actually to record the entire concept album! No mean feat.

Thanks to some people who we already knew as well as the Internet, we managed to cast almost all of the parts, calling once again on the services of Micheal Daws as our male lead and welcoming back Eddie Melling, Tom Blackwell, Rosie Carlisle and Patsy Phillips to the cast. The Internet was on our side too, as we welcomed Rosanne Priest and Alex Allison.

A name familiar to me yet unfamiliar to ‘Morella’ - Nicky Evans - was gladly welcomed, whereas Lesley had her own similar input; a friend of hers who she didn’t realise had such as good baritone. Warwick Nixon.

Of course, back then we were recording at the Old Saw Mill in Congleton and we leaped at the chance to bring Warwick down and try him out in the role of Lead Sailor - a very important part as - whilst only small - sings perhaps one of Lesley’s most personal works: “Song o’ the Sea”.

He already did justice as not only was he cast, but we demoed all of his parts. He appears in just five songs - one of which is a mere cameo line! Yet he was enthusiastic about it right through.

Towards the end of 2023 we were glad to welcome Warwick back to put down his final recordings, though evidently as a result of his then newfound enthusiasm to sing (courtesy of us, I am led to believe!) his much more recent experience at singing in a choir plus singing lessons surprised both of us at how much his voice had come on. Much more confident and altogether richer.

Warwick recording the final tracks in 2023

Whilst it’s fair to say that Warwick himself was keen to do them all again as he wasn’t 100% happy - Lesley and I felt a similar way (though we felt much more of it was usable than he did!).

And that was the last time I personally saw him, however his mark was very much left.

Cycling back round to yesterday, I was called upon to accompany the Biddulph Male Voice Choir - with whom he sang - to perform two pieces: “Mansions of the Lord” (from ‘We Were Soldiers’, I believe) and “African Prayer”. Whilst the first piece is much more inkeeping with what you may expect at a typical funeral - even a non-religious one such as Warwick’s, “African Prayer” brought a tremendous energy to the room that was contrasting and brilliant in its own right. The choir did him proud, and I can only imagine the sense of completion that they would have found had Warwick been there with them delivering his low - but very powerful - tones.

As I have been sat over the last couple of weeks listening and re listening to the songs that were recorded by Warwick for ‘Morella’, it is clear that he cannot be replaced. His voice will be used on the final album and will be cherished by us and all those who loved him.

Thank you Warwick for all you did for us, and thank you for believing in the project.

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Reflecting on Piano Practice and Progress in 2024

Today is 30th November, which means that Advent begins tomorrow. The countdown to Christmas!

And with Christmas in full swing, it’s natural that for many of us our practice sessions may go out of the window!

Even when they are ‘in the window’, we can become distracted by excitement at what’s to come.

Maybe next Saturday you’re going out for a Christmas work’s do and that’ll be on your mind for your whole practice session.

The week after that you’re going to the Christmas markets the day after and you’re just super excited!

Maybe the week after that your practice session is a little…worse for wear…thanks to the…Mulled Wine or the...Bailey’s Hot Chocolate.

Not to mention Christmas week itself - notoriously a laaaaaaazy week, and one in which barely anything gets done. Aside from cooking Christmas Dinner and one mammoth washing up chore  on the big day (and then relying on heaps of leftovers to sustain yourself for the rest of the week), everything from practice to homework to housework to exercise becomes kind of…seconded!

But that’s fine, because we’re going to get ahead of the game.

If you’ve been learning since last year or prior then you’ve already got the entirety of 2024 under your belt up to now anyway, and if not you’ll still have plenty to be going off.

So step one into reassuring yourself in a few week’s time when the climax - and anticlimax - of Christmas hits is…

Write Down Five Piano Practice Wins You Have Achieved in 2024

The term ‘win’ is, of course, subjective. One person’s development of a fluid scale might be another person’s walk in the park, so they may consider an extremely intricate passage from a specific piece of music as a win. You will find, however, that there will be much progress in your piano practice in 2024 as you write them down.

Don’t be afraid of getting into the nitty gritty, either.

For example, you could write:

“I am very pleased that I can now perform a confident D major arpeggio”,

…but why write something generic like that when you could also write:

“I can now descend my arpeggios as confidently as I can ascend, and my evenness and tempo has dramatically increased and improved”.

If you’re not already keeping a homework or practice diary, this may be a good sign to start one as looking back, you’ll realise how far you really have come!

If you love learning the piano regardless of the external influences of life, then practising may not be an issue for you going forward. However, if you’re struggling to focus amid the excitement of the festivities, consider a rethink. Rather than neglecting practice, try to

Make Your Piano Practice All About Christmas

It’s a similar principle to doing a jigsaw puzzle: if you’re doing a jigsaw of a picture you don’t actually like, you’ll be less motivated to do it.

Obviously the theory is you like the things you are learning when it comes to piano, but if you’ve a jigsaw puzzle on the go and somebody buys you a nice, shiny new one then that immediately becomes more interesting and your motivation goes away from what you’re working on and towards the more ‘current’ one.

This is also true of practice: If you feel that the music you are learning isn’t fully honouring the feel that you wish to feel in your current situation, make it work!

Think how exciting it is when you switch on a radio station in December and all the Christmas songs start being played! It’s such a refreshing change, even if the stations are usually quite good at playing a mix.

What songs would get you in the mood?

Perhaps a traditional song or a carol?

Maybe a Christmas pop song? (A dying breed, I know…)

Maybe some classical Christmas, such as Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’.

Maybe just a non-festive but seasonal piece, such as ‘Let It Snow’ or Chopin’s ‘Winter Wind’ Etude (not for the faint hearted, mind…)

The point is, music is incredibly powerful at depicting just about any feeling, emotion, sensation, thought or idea that you can throw at it, so whatever you’re feeling excited about outside of the practice room…music has your back and there will be something to reflect this inside the room too.

If you need some inspiration to get you in the mood for something festive or - in this case - wintery, here’s me performing Debussy’s Prelude No. VI: Des Pas Sur La Neige - which translates as ‘Footprints in the Snow’. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for piano tips, tricks and more videos of me showing off like this! ;

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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#musiclesson #pianolesson #pianoteacher #musicteacher #pianopractice #christmas #christmaspiano

Five Tips for More Comfortable Hands in Piano Playing

It seems like only a fortnight ago that I published this blog about getting your hand position more comfortable.

Wait a moment - it was only a fortnight ago!

Well anyway, it seemed logical that at some point in the not so distant future I ought to expand on that, so here goes!

Why?

Because - of all my pupils of all ages and standards - the one thing that seems true of every…single…one…is this tendency to make playing a piece of music way more strenuous than it needs to be!

Unnecessary finger gymnastics are already a thing as my previous blog explored, but in this blog I explore five different points that really ought to be employed when you are playing piano…and if you do, you’ll start to experience much more comfortable playing because your hands and fingers will be much better in sync!

Featherlight Touch

If we were to use a simple pentascale to demonstrate, I would ask you to play and assess the dynamic of what came out. When I say dynamic, ordinarily I’d be referring to volume (is it soft, is it loud etc.) but consider now the harshness in comparison to the volume you are playing. Even when deliberately playing loudly, you don’t want it to be shrill and resonant. You shouldn’t flinch in discomfort; certainly not with a monophonic (one note at a time) passage such as a pentascale!

This is where we need to try and develop the ‘featherlight fingers’ - where we can play across all dynamics but with minimal adjustment to how we actually play. Playing music softly or loudly shouldn’t be differentiated in visible terms i.e. if you muted a video of me playing a soft then loud piece of music, you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference from my fingers alone.

To begin practising featherlight touch, always start with pieces or exercises you’re comfortable with and play them by allowing the fingers to fall onto the keys with just enough pressure to actually play them. If this sounds obvious, check with yourself that you’re already doing this! If so - fabulous! If not, rethink your technique slightly. You don’t want to be pressing keys down with stiff fingers because this will not only sound static and potentially uneven, but it will be uncomfortable for you to play for long, may result in wrong notes (tension in one finger can lead to another finger unwittingly following suit) - not to mention pieces that span a lot of keyboard will be more of a challenge because you won’t be developing enough fluidity to move your hand or wrist to reach higher or lower registers / notes.

If you struggle, don’t get into the habit of repeating over and over because you’ll just start to incorporate that frustration back into your playing. Make sure your touch is gentle and you are pleased with the sound coming out (both dynamically speaking and in terms of evenness) and then experiment with different dynamics but without stiffening those fingers up again.

Press and Release Tension When Playing Piano Keys

When you play a note on the piano, the second you hit it the job is done. If you keep the note held down, that note is going to sound how it’s going to sound. Everything you control about it is purely from the way you strike the key in the first instance: dynamic, tone, hitting the correct note etc.

The piano (and other percussive instruments) is a bit of an oddity in this regard. Most stringed instruments (especially bowed), all woodwinds, brass and singing (obviously!) all maintain a certain amount of control. With a violin, you can develop tremolo on a long note after you’ve sounded the note, as you can with a flute, not to mention that with this or a brass instrument such as a trumpet you have to always be in control of that note for as long as you need it to sound i.e. be giving even breath for its duration.

Yet with piano, the beginner’s curse is that they will strike the key with a certain tension such as in the point above…and then keep that tension going throughout the duration of that key being depressed.

At the time of writing this (2024) acoustic pianos have not developed into the realm of tremolos, vibratos and other such weird and wonderful effects (what an extraordinary day that will be!)…so we can safely assume that once you’ve hit the key, the only thing you have to do is keep the note held down if you want it to keep sounding.

You do not have to be pushing hard into it!

You do not have to shake your hand around once it is played!

Being a pianist - or any musician - requires quite enough well placed tension and hard work without you unnecessarily adding to your list of trauma by creating effort where there needn't be!

Experiment with Fingers

I’m very big at not feeling the need to use fingers as written on a score as verbatim, however they do provide the 99.9% favourite way of performing a piece.

Why?

Usually because it’s the most comfortable or most logical, depending on how the fingers are expected to move throughout the piece.

Yet as much as I like to enforce the idea, some of my pupils like to just bring their own fingers into the game right from the off!

And even when performing something that’s not scored out, it’s worth experimenting with the fingers you are using.

Always…think…logically!

My golden rule is that a major third (four semitones) is the biggest interval you should play between any neighbouring fingers. For example, if you are playing C - E, it is fine to use fingers 3 and 2 in the left hand / 2 and 3 in the right hand, but if you shift that from C - F…don’t even try! 3 and 1 in the left hand or 1 and 3 in the right hand would work much better!

The purpose of experimenting with this is to find combinations that work best for you, but even my golden rule above isn’t immune to being broken.

For example, I’d hesitate using fingers 5 and 4 in the left hand to play a major third under any circumstance.

Think about the spacing of a chord or group of notes you are playing (if you are playing a short burst of melody, consider playing all or as many of the notes in that bar / passage at the same time in one hand to create a…er… ‘chord’, for want of a better term!) and then relate it to the shape of your hand. Consider where the bigger intervals are and which ones would be most logical for you to leave gaps between and how big:

The finger numbers are written here anyway, but let's assume they're not. Read on...

For example: in the above bar from Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’, the right hands notes are C - E - A - B.

C - E is a major third and, as mentioned above, I’m more than happy to play these with neighbouring fingers - especially because A and B are a little higher above them! So I’ll use 1 and 2 in the right hand.

E - A is a perfect fourth, so there’s no way I’m going to try and stretch from finger 2 on the E to finger 3 on the A…as I’ve seen people do! Instead I’m going to use finger 4 on the A, leaving a logical gap between fingers across that perfect fourth, and finger 5 will sit nicely on the B.

Of course, if your hands don’t stretch as freakishly far as mine (I believe I am, in fact, not of Earth…) then you will need to incorporate some wrist action to get the most fluid effect. But that is the next point…after this following point…

Patience and read on…

Avoid Scrunching!

To be fair, this point kind of follows on from the previous one regarding experimenting with fingers, but it is in its own right a reminder to familiarise yourself with the most basic distances between notes i.e. tones and semitones.

I know you know what they are by now, but get used to them from a physical distance point of view!

Pentascales (scales full stop, in fact) are fabulous for this because they are formed wholly of these intervals (major and minor seconds), but sometimes when we practise a piece of music - especially when it’s not in a key we’re particularly familiar with - we forget this and scrunch our fingers together.

Maybe it’s a defence mechanism - a completely illogical one like ducking your head when an eagle flies over at one of those demonstrations or closing your bedroom window at night because you heard a noise that sounded like a burglar was…already downstairs - or maybe it’s just the lack of certainty that means you try and pull everything close so it can’t stray.

Use scales and pentascales to your advantage here and keep practising and familiarising yourself with how consecutive notes feel so that you can easily slot them in to a piece of music when you need to.

Use the Wrists to Encourage Comfortable Hands when Playing Piano

Ah, finally, the aforementioned point about the wrist that we’ve all waited for.

Actually, I’ve written a whole blog dedicated to wrist action and exercises so I’m not going to delve too deeply into it, but ask you now to try and visualise what it actually looks like and how it connects to your hand.

Following years of medical training that I…never had…I can confirm, thanks to a quick Google search (the same Google that gave me a one week prognosis because I had a spot on my nose) that the wrist is a condyloid joint, and now that you know how well qualified I am, you can believe me when I say that that’s like a ball and socket joint but the deluxe model! (Perhaps somebody with actual medical knowledge can comment on this post an explain it in much better detail!)

Point is…it’s incredibly flexible, yet I’m continually seeing people trying to play with flat hands at all times and this will only take you so far; a few basic pieces and exercises that don’t change position much. The wrist is needed to be able to make jumps, play fluidly and more - so don’t neglect it! This is one of the crucial things to help your hands be more comfortable when playing piano, but work through all of the above points and your technique will improve!

For a video recap, see below. And subscribe to me on YouTube for more videos like that, short little tutorials and sometimes videos of me showing off!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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#pianoteacher #pianolesson #pianotips #pianist #learnpiano #beginnerpiano