piano
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Piano exams — in bare feet! It’s Queensland!
I’ve been entering my students for performance exams. They play their pieces while their parents video them. The angle of the video is quite specific, both hands and both feet must be visible. The parents then send the video to me, and I enrol the student under my teacher code, and upload the video. I… Continue reading
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What the World Needs Now — Wookie video
Wookie LOVES being on my lap at the piano. This is so nice to do. It really might become a regular feature. Of course I can’t play much, but really, who cares? Wookie will end up taking requests I bet. 🐾 Continue reading
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The Grande Dame arrives
Last week I wrote about my Beale going to a new home. Well that sure did happen and I was texting photos like this to Hanna saying, “They’re taking it now!” Later, she sent back… I’ve said before that buying the Beale felt like putting down roots in Australia – I wouldn’t buy an acoustic… Continue reading
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Love in the mistakes
I am learning the Debussy piece and thinking of a memory posted on Facebook a while ago by my friend Ann. She recalled going to sleep each night as a child, listening to her mother play their piano. Ann said her mother always played one song. There was a difficult part near the end and… Continue reading
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Adding the bridge to Ode To Joy
Last week M’s lesson was the first part of Ode To Joy – described in Ode To Joy For My Special Girl which she played with her preferred left hand. She was really pleased about it! Today’s she is getting the middle bit. I drew lavender to show it’s different, before returning to the main… Continue reading
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Ode To Joy for my special girl
I drew something for my special girl M. She needs really big notation without manuscript lines and we’ve already gone through a few Primer level books, so I’ve been drawing notation for her with watercolour pencils. I ask her about her life and then use her words to make a song about her breakfast or… Continue reading
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Reshaping the hammers of my Beale piano
I started to learn piano when I was six, and we lived in London. When I was seven we moved, and the lessons stopped. There was a gap until we settled in Hampshire. The third piece of big furniture my mother bought, after beds and a dining set, was a second-hand upright piano for me.… Continue reading
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I bought a Beale piano!
In April, I bought an upright piano! After moving around the world for decades with different digital pianos, I’m finally settled enough to own this big old, magical wooden box with 1,200 moving parts. Now, I am home. I drove all over Brisbane and the Gold Coast checking out pianos advertised on Gumtree. When I… Continue reading
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Soft Core in the morning
I woke at 4.30am with Reno’s song Soft Core in my head. Was still mentally humming it ten minutes later. So here I am with a big cup of coffee, at my piano, headphones on. It’s daybreak and I’m inspired, but will pay for it later. Continue reading
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The Für Elise arrangement is now on MuseScore’s website
MuseScore suggested I upload my original MuseScore file onto their website so that other members can use it! Yay! Here it is. Für Elise arranged for pre-grade learners by joanna.funk Continue reading
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Für Elise arranged for pre-grade learners
I just did something and am quite pleased about it so I thought I would share it. My student Sasha wants to play the first part of Für Elise at the Excellence Expo which will happen at her school in September. Sasha is a pre-Grade learner so I arranged it for her using Musescore software.… Continue reading
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Jeff Usher, jazz pianist VIDEO
Everyone has heroes. Jazz pianist Jeff Usher’s is the maverick genius Thelonious Monk. The uncompromising quirkiness of Monk’s music just blew Usher away. Continue reading
About Joanna
Joanna is British Australian. She worked mainly in financial news in London. In her forties she moved to her parents’ birthplace, Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. She became a pianist at the Jesselton Hotel in Kota Kinabalu and wrote a blog about musicians, which was popular among Sabahans at home and abroad. The blog was turned into a coffee table book when the Ministry of Tourism and Culture expressed interest. Joanna came to Australia in 2012. This is her second blog.
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