January 2025
As some of you may know, I am BIG on New Year’s Resolutions - and launching this blog was one of my top priorities this year, as well as giving up drinking energy drinks (which I am absolutely smashing by the way).
I wanted to create something where I could share all my musical experiences, my students’ achievements, all my projects and ideas for future projects. I’m hoping to show you all the massive variety of things a working musician can get up to - showing why this vocation is so very rewarding if you are prepared to put in the hard work!
So - what have I been up to in January?
I went back to “work” on Sunday 6th, when my band Bovidae and I made the looooong journey down to Camden to perform our first ever London gig, at the wonderful venue The Dublin Castle. It was particularly treacherous as we had about five inches of snow in Sheffield - but we took it steady and made it home in one piece around 5am the following morning. It was a great gig and for a cold Sunday night just after Christmas we had a surprisingly good turnout. Paul arranged for the gig to be professionally filmed so watch this space for the video!
Myself, Danny (drums), Sam (violin) and Paul (bass) introducing London to our brand of experimental progressive metal
Teaching-wise, a huge welcome back to all my students after the Christmas holidays - although I had a lovely break I am genuinely glad to be back, nagging you all to remember the dynamics and to ‘practise, practise, practise!’
I have also had a couple of my own lessons already this year, with my amazing teacher Heidi. I’m working on my Grade 8 Piano Accompaniment exam and all the supplementary materials have now arrived in the post - the amount of work is a bit overwhelming but, as I’m always telling my students, playing the piano is something you never ‘complete’ - there is ALWAYS something new to develop. I am a very deadline-motivated person so setting goals like this is the best way of ensuring I continue to improve as a pianist.
The violin and piano repertoire I am learning for the exam is so beautiful - please check out Vocalise by Rachmaninoff and Minuet from Sonata in E minor by Mozart (K304) if you’re interested! All being well, I’ll be able to share videos of myself and Sam performing these pieces later in the year.
2025 has got off to a great start in terms of composing for me - I managed to complete my fifth piece for my collection of compositions based around the theme of water - it’s called ‘The Rainstorm Begins’. I’m still undecided what I am going to do with these pieces once I finish them (I think I need about two or three more to balance out the set) - but the first step will of course be to learn how to play them properly. I am not sure if it is a common thing for composers to write music that is too difficult for them to play, but for me it certainly seems to be the norm. I know they aren’t impossible though - it will just take time and a lot of hard work. I would love to one day be able to share with you all some lovely recordings of all my ideas, once I can do them justice!
The year ahead…
I have been going through my 2025 calendar setting the dates for lots of music related ventures - get these in your diary now!
Summer Recital: 28th June 2-3.30pm and 5-6.30pm
Winter Recital: 13th December 2-3.30pm and 5-6.30pm
Level 1 Notation Course:16th 23rd Feb 2nd March 2-5.30pm
Level 2 Notation Course: 4th, 11th and 18th May 2-5.30pm
Piano Performance Sessions (for over 18s): first Friday of every month 7-9pm - first session of the year 7th February
I have lots more ideas for group activities including some crash courses in the Summer Holidays, so watch this space!
And finally - please welcome Octavia the Octopus to the studio! This was a lovely birthday present to me from a friend, and she has already proved to be very popular with my younger students. Thank you to everyone who helped with suggesting names for her!
Thanks for reading - I’ll be back next month with updates on my first notation course and piano performance session of the year, a report from Bovidae’s next gig (in Manchester) and hopefully many more exciting plans for the future!
Until then, keep practising!
