Hi all,

 

Hope you've all enjoyed a relaxing Easter break. Ours has been rather low key what with Lauren recovering from a bad chest infection/asthma related problems.

 

The children have now returned to school so I may be able to catch up on all the things that have been put on hold! I am hoping to complete my first set of lighthearted educational pieces in the next few weeks. Four pieces are complete; Truffle takes a stroll, Loretta plays the blues, John's new flute (featuring in the flute book only), and Sandra's new mini.

 

I'm still receiving lovely feedback from 'Songs for Claire' that was written towards the end of last year, with people emailing (even from New York!) to say they were brought to tears etc, or how it made them remember a loved one etc. It's a great feeling when the music gets the desired reaction, however Songs for Claire is a very personal piece for me, and was played from the heart on the recording, so I'm glad that came across and that other people can identify with it.

 

It's long until our exam session now, and I have quite a few entered this time. I'm hoping that everyone can go in fairly relaxed and just enjoy it. From personal experience, I've always found that I've done far better when I just go in to enjoy performing to the examiner. I always eat 2 banana's in the couple of hours leading up to an exam, and prayer helps too (no, seriously!!).

 

I'm enjoying building my piano skills and do hope at some point in the not so distant future to be able to offer myself as an accompanist for exams which should be beneficial as students will already have played with my accompaniment in lessons and it means we can be a little more flexible with exam sessions.

 

Keep up the practicing, but remember...qualitly practice is better than hours of mindless practice!