Articles

How to get the best out of a music competition

A practical approach to competition prep: clarify musical priorities, teach useful feedback language, and train students to respond constructively to adjudication.

Improve Your Teaching with My Music Studio: The Tools That Boost Learning and Reduce Admin

How My Music Studio’s digital tools reduce admin friction, lighten your cognitive load, and directly improve lesson quality and student progress.

Preparing for a Performance: How to Beat Performance Anxiety

Performance nerves can derail even well-prepared students. In this lesson, I used creative strategies—like stair running, deliberate wrong notes, and noisy distractions—to help a student learn to perform confidently under pressure.

The Simple Fingering Trick That Changed Everything

A simple way to approach fingering for scales at the piano.

Roll the Dice: How a Simple Tool Can Transform Music Practice

9 Practical Ways to Use Dice in Music Practice

Is Your Student Really Listening?

All about engaging the ear to improve sight-reading, technique, and memory. I explore how aural modelling and singing can transform a student's relationship with their instrument, especially for pianists who tend to focus on reading.

How to Build Performers, Not Just Practisers

Using variable practice to develop stage-ready musicians. This post focuses on variable practice—changing tempo, dynamics, rhythms, or even the environment to prepare students for the unpredictability of performance.

The Better Way to Practise (That Your Brain Will Resist)

Interleaved and variable practice techniques for instrumental progress. This post unpacks why traditional "blocked" practice feels productive in the moment but fails to deliver lasting results.