I taught my first piano lessons as a teenager, teaching a friend of my younger sister. I don’t think I was very good. I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing and the lessons didn’t last long. I didn’t teach again until after I’d graduated. I then got a few jobs as a visiting piano teacher at various schools, teaching up to 12 lessons a day. I only teach a few pupils now, as and when it suits me and, after over 30 years of teaching, I've learned a few things:
Some thoughts on what motivates a composer to write music. “Late Beethoven, it’s a load of rubbish isn’t it?”. So began the viva voce exam marking the end of my 3-year degree course. Late Beethoven, for the record, is not a load of rubbish. But it’s not an easy listen, often difficult to understand. And I had to say something convincing to the panel of examiners who knew that it wasn’t rubbish but wanted to hear what rubbish I’d come out with to defend it. A few years later,
