Sight reading is something that most of us find tricky! However, there are certain tips and techniques that are helpful in helping you navigate through a piece of music that you have never seen before. Rather than read the music as a series of abstract notes there are ways to see patterns in the music. If you know your music theory, scales and arpeggios then you are even more prepared. Regardless of the technical difficult of the piece the techniques are always the same.

Learning a new piece of music can be daunting. However, with patience and sustained practice, meaningless blobs eventually blossom into beautiful music. The problem, more often than not, is patience! If we rush the first stages of of learning a piece we tend to get stuck at the ‘blobs stage’ and then the music can never really blossom. It is so important to work through the foundations and correct stages to learning music to get the best results and ultimately enjoy playing beautiful music.

Decision fatigue really robs you of productivity. Although I don’t naturally tend towards routine and strict timetabling there’s no doubt that some sense of structure is beneficial. Without any regularity in your habits its so easy to waste time debating what to do with the time you have. I find that I become stressed and can’t make wise decisions because I’m bombarded with so many things that need to be attended to and I can’t allocate tasks on reflex because I’m so bewildered with so many decisions - and then you don’t work consistently but neither do you relax properly either. I got my coloured pencils out and created a fluid timetable that allows me some aspect of spontaneity whilst still keeping a sense of purpose and structure. It really clarified my thinking!

An enforced rest has turned into a blessing in disguise. Although the abrupt halt to my tuition series wasn’t my choice it has really helped me to take the time to refocus and to find to energy. It seems that, as all things are changing, now is a good time to take stock and reconsider the direction my tuition series could take. With ABRSM releasing new music theory in practice books and new exams for the theory taking place, now is a good time to have taken the time to re-think my goals. There’s no doubt the rest has done me good!