Notespinner

Thoughts on composing, teaching and performing music, by Fergus Black

image

YouTube piano resources

There was a while when I felt obliged to make recordings for students, to help them learn new pieces. But now, there is a wealth of professional material available through YouTube

One has to tread carefully however: there are still a lot of amateur recordings - both in the quality of sound, the quality of the picture, and of the instrument, and of the performance. There are too many learners keen to shoot their attempt on a phone, using an electronic piano. Here are three sites, that I can recommend:

9pegasus9

9pegasus9 Camera shot from above the pianist's hands, so you can see what is going on, as well as hear it. These are professionally produced videos with an excellent piano sound, that would be worth a paid subscription. After the performance, there is other useful stuff - individual hands played slowly, advice on what to focus on, help with scales etc. There are recordings of most ABRSM pieces from the Selected Pieces (no alternates) for Grades 1 to 5.

Alan Chan

Alan Chan Alan has made a number of recordings of all ABRSM piano pieces, (as well as violin, flute and clarinet!), for all grades, and other pieces - the best ones follow the sheet music as he plays. Sound is a bit variable, but he has apparently recorded every piece for every grade, including the alternates. An indispensable resource! Many thanks, Alan.

N.B. There is so much material on Alan's channel, that you are probably better simply searching on YouTube for "ABRSM Grade " and the composer and a snatch of the title, and choosing Alan's recording from the many that come up.

University of Iowa - School of Piano Pedagogy

University of Iowa - School of Piano Pedagogy These recordings, for the most part professionally produced with good sound, are not linked to any UK exam course, but there is an immense amount of educational material here. Shot from a distance, so you can't always see the detail of the hands or feet, but usually with professional sound. These performances are mostly of demonstration quality - something for the student to aspire towards.

There are many others out there: Jane, for example has recorded a large number of pieces at extremely slow tempos, so that you can see how to play - I used Jane for the Chopin Prelude No.1. David Barton has a good tutorial on the Chopin.

All free! Thanks, people.



HEADINGS:

TAGS:

Please click on the buttons below to visit my other music web sites.

image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image

We use cookies for the best online experience. By using this website you agree to the cookie policy.