I’ve just come back from an amazing weekend at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025. I watched Faithless played on the Friday night (20th June) which was an incredible end of the night on the main stage. During the set, I was struck by an old song I haven’t heard for years with a great melody. I actually think I’ve heard the Paradiso Remix version before and not the actual song....
I’ve been away from recording progress recently but despite that, I have been keeping up with my Piano practice and learning. My excuse for not recording is mainly due to the jump in complexity from Grade 1 to 2. I’m also concurrently working on three pieces, Mozzie (this), Écossaise in G and Moderato since I last posted Anglefish. Here’s where I’m at with it so far. The Journey After “completing” Angelfish this was a much bigger jump for me....
Here is my first recording of an ABRSM Grade 2 piece 🐠 titled Angelfish. My tutor gave me this as one of the three Grade 2 pieces I’m currently working on. This piece is from the ABRSM 2021 & 2022 Piano Grade 2 syllabus (List C, No. 2) written by Anne Crosby Gaudet. As always, it’s very much a work in progress, but I wanted to share and document my progress so far....
I recently created a simple web-based tool to help visualize piano chords as part of my ongoing piano learning journey. The Piano Chord Explorer was built to quickly visualize chords for another project I’m working on, but I thought it might be helpful for others learning piano and music theory. The Tool The Piano Chord Explorer is a simple web application that displays piano chords and their inversions with sound playback....
The third ABRMS grade 1 piece I’ve been learning is a peice titled Fresh Air by Andrew Eales. Again another unpolished performance but getting the notes and rythmn mostly right. As with all grade 1 peices I’ve learnt so far, I know I still have work to do. The biggest issue being my dynamics and articulation. The Journey At first glance this looks like an easy peice (and of course, it is as it’s a grade 1) but there are a few things that kept catching me out....
I’m sharing my second recording of a ABRMS grade 1 piece 😱 titled Sneaky Business by Martha Mier. My tutor gave me this as my second piece to learn. This is from Jazz, Rags & Blues, Book 1 and is part of the ABRSM 2023 & 2024 Piano Grade 1 syllabus. Again it’s by no means a polished performance but happy with the progress and will continue to work on it but also move on to other piece....
I’m sharing my first recording of a ABRMS grade 1 piece 😱 titled Allegretto in C by Anton Diabelli. My tutor gave me this as my first piece. This is “No. 3 from Die ersten 12 Lectionen, Op. 125” and is part of the ABRSM 2023 & 2024 Piano Grade 1 syllabus. I’m not sure if it’s in this years 2025 syllabus? It’s by no means a polished performance but I felt it’s good enough to move on to other pieces now....
I’ve been a life long consumer of music and I love pretty much all genres. Music really hits me emotionally. I love live music, blessed with the Isle of Wight Festival and the local music scene here, and visited many orchestras and music venues over the years. Despite this, as a kid, I never really explored music. I just consumed it. I had a school borrowed acoustic guitar for a few weeks but that was it....