Didsbury Piano

17/12/2025

I was so proud of my young pianists at our Christmas concerts. They played with such focus, confidence and festive spirit - a real pleasure to watch 🎹

Well done to each of them, and I hope you enjoy this little reel!

23/10/2025

'My Favourite Things' - we rapped their favourite foods, wrote out the rhythm and then 'gobbled them up' one by one so eventually they only say 'and' and 'yum'.

This powerful little activity develops sense of pulse, connects sound to sight by notating their rhythms and highlights how effortless rhythms can feel when we use lyrics.

Plus they loved seeing everyone else's favourites!

06/09/2025

My beginner students love playing pieces that sound sophisticated!

I just composed a reflective teacher duet part to play along with “Swans on the Lake” from Piano Safari. 🦢🎹
It’s such a beautiful way to make early repertoire sound rich and expressive.

I'm excited to introduce this to my students in their first lesson of the term next week 😊
Listen to it here 🎶

13/07/2025

All set ready for our summer concerts today!

With 1 cool cat to close the show! 😎

A fab end to our year!

Thank you so much to all our wonderful performers and their lovely families 🤩🥳🎶🎹

18/07/2024

Last Saturday I decided to play a solo at my student concerts. No one wants to go first, so I would take one for the team and take that spot.

I found an epic arrangement of Sweet Caroline by Josh Burniece, since England were going to play in Euros finals after my concert - it was good of them to schedule it to not clash with us 🤣

But this meant I had now given myself a tight deadline of 24 hours to learn a hard new piece. Excellent idea....

As I sat down to play, I felt quite nervous. Negative thoughts crept in. Most of the audience were friends and parents from my own children's school where I teach.

Straight up, I simply hadn't played it enough times to feel really assured, and it was quite tricky.

Understandably, my pesky inner voice set off with nagging doubts.
"What if they thought it was bad? And then I'd still have to smile and bow at the end!"
"Will they think I was showing off?"
"This is ridiculous to be nervous, at a
student concert!"

In the end, it went pretty well. I went back to my mantra:

Play every phrase with intent.

To do this I had to focus so much on the next phrase of the music, that I quickly sent that pesky inner voice packing. I forgot about the audience judging me and yes, I really started to relax and enjoy myself.

You can watch a bit below.

I'm glad I did it. I love playing piano - what better way to share that love with my students?

It reminded me so much!

1) Be a do-er and a try-er. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone from time to time is what helps you accomplish more.

2) There will always be someone better than you. Do it anyway. (Similar mentality for park run!)

3) If you want to feel relaxed with a tricky piece, get it properly learnt WEEKS before the recital!

4) It can be properly, properly scary to play solo for your friends and family in a concert. We always go for takeaway after our kids do a concert to celebrate their bravery!

4) Grand Pianos are very handy things to hold onto if you feel a bit wobbly for your bow!

04/07/2024

My 20th year of teaching piano is drawing to a close!🎉🎉 Some beginnings and endings:

This week - inaugural concert of our new Pianorama ensemble at Manchester High School for Girls - 9 young pianists 😁 They smashed it!

Today - final lesson with my 18 year old Alice, who I've taught since she was about 6 😭

Next week - final lessons with all my Yr 6s at West Didsbury CE Primary School West Didsbury CE Primary School - a very special year group to me, as we've grown up alongside them as as a family 😍

Sunday 14th July our end of year concerts at Christ Church, West Didsbury - the 22nd concert 🎶🎶🎶

A fab new Roland digital piano to complement the beautiful Schimmel acoustic I bought when I moved to Manchester 20 years ago. Thanks Jonathan at www.ucanplay.org.uk for fantastic service.

Looking forward to welcoming 12 new students in September! 🎹🎹

20/05/2024

https://didsburypiano.co.uk/piano-lessons-at-west-didsbury-ce-primary-school/

16/07/2023

2 end of year recitals done! Here's the before shot, me ready to welcome our 31 fabulous pianists and families today! 🎹🎵

Thank you to Rev Anne at Christ Church, West Didsbury for everything again, you are so welcoming every time!😊

We have also raised over £100 for Emmie’s kitchen to support their kindness to families with children staying at RMCH, by bringing Friday night takeaways🙏

23/05/2023

19/05/2023

A simple velcro strip to display our boomwhackers and brighten up the music room at school.
Today we tapped out pentascales patterns and rhythms. Beginners see straight away how the tubes get shorter as the pitch goes up.

Also a good way for pupils to remember to fetch the next pupil- send them to pass on a boomwhacker and they don't forget about it the second they leave my room!

21/03/2023

Technique teaching tool - colour changing lights! Can you make Beethoven glow green with envy? Or will he be red with rage?

Then we switch roles - student operates the remote control and we see if they can spot when my hand shape goes wrong! Cue lots of giggles.

In today's technique focus with a year 5 pupil we focused on hand shape : keeping a level and loose wrist, well supported bridge of hand and natural curved fingers all whilst playing a bit further up the keys for when the thumb is on black keys.

Taking the yawns out of technique work with mood lighting!

16/03/2023

I'm definitely not the composer in the family, but I surprised 2 students today with a piece I wrote for them today. ❤️❤️ The look on their face to see their dedication.
They were more impressed it was typeset than anything - "wow, how do you get the notes to go on the page?" 🤣