William Hay

Exam times for the forthcoming sessions are below. All the times have now been posted. The venue is Stanley Palace, Watergate Street, Chester. Times are as follows:

(Saturday 10th December, 2011)

DANIEL 11:30am
SHEA 11:42am
RUTH 11:54am
MATTEA 12:06pm
AMELIA 12:26pm
BETH 12:46pm

(Thursday 15th December, 2011)

DOMINIC 9:30am

Please try to arrive at least 10 minutes before your allotted time.

Best of luck in your exams!

I can confirm that the next concert will take place at All Saint’s Church, Hoole starting at 11am  on Saturday 3rd December 2011 and will last no more than an hour. Tickets will be on sale £3/adult. £1/child in aid of Kampala Music School. Contact me for more details

The concert will include a ‘multimedia spectacular’ with audience participation featuring  this song so make sure that you can sing the chorus!

I used to produce a paper newsletter featuring the dates for forthcoming piano exams and concerts along with other important information however this has now been superseded by the e-newsletter facility on the blog to which all of my students should be subscribed . It also gives me the opportunity to draw your attention to other professional activities in which I am currently engaged. I can heartily recommend the forthcoming Fauré Requiem performed in the Quire at Chester Cathedral by the cathedral choir. As a member of the choir, this is one of the highlights of the year, singing the requiem in the correct liturgical context and is a great chance to hear a delightful  performance of a well known choral treasure! (see the video clip below)
I will post more precise details of exam times as soon as they are available. In your lessons this half term, I will be introducing some Christmas repertoire as I am planning that the recital this term might have a decidedly christmassy theme as well as audience participation and multimedia participation from the Chester Music Society Youth Choir! More information about the concert will be posted a little nearer the time…

Below are some important dates for your diary:
30th October – 1830: Fauré Requiem – Chester Cathedral Choir, Chester Cathedral
2nd November – 1700: ABRSM Theory Exam – Bishop’s High School
6th November – 1900: NES Songs of Praise, Parkgate URC
1st December – Autumn Leaves Compositions Due
2nd December – 1800: St. Oswald’s PTA Christmas Fair, Mollington
3rd December – 1100: Christmas Charity Recital, All Saint’s Church, Hoole
10th December – ABRSM Exams at Stanley Palace
10th December – 1930: CMSYC and Preludes Christmas Concert
13th December – Last lessons for the term at St. Oswald’s, Mollington
14th December – Last lessons for the term at Chester Catholic High
15th December – LCM exams at Stanley Palace
16th December – 1930: NES Christmas Concert, St. Winifride’s, Neston
17th December – 1930: NES Christmas Concert, Parkgate URC, Neston
21st December – End of Piano Teaching Term
24th December – 1500: Nine Lessons and Carols – Chester Cathedral Choir

This video clip from a couple of years ago shows a movement of the Requiem being performed in the Cathedral Choir Christmas Concert. The Requiem in it’s entirety will be performed in a more intimate setting in the quire of Chester Cathedral on 30th October at 1830. Admission free!

Since the start of term I have been using a variety of flashcards intensively with my students to improve note recognition in sight reading . It has proved to be popular with my students as they can compete to see who can accurately read and play the notes in a shortest space of time. Some of them have even made their own set of flashcards so that they can practise using them outside lessons and get ahead of the competition. Filipa was keen to show me the cards she had made at home and having worked with them at home she was able to shave 5 seconds from her reading time the following week!

If you don’t fancy making your own flashcards, there are a number of different sets available. I have reviewed their relative merits.

 Jane Bastien Flashcards - These are the cheapest and probably the best value flashcards on offer. They cover a wide range of notes including ledger lines as well as intervals and key signatures but no notes with sharps or flats.

Chester’s Flashcards - Whilst these are the most expensive, they are also larger in size than the others and laminated, making them easier to handle, quicker to flash and more durable. They don’t offer key signatures or notes on ledger lines however.

Hal Leonard Flashcards - Though cheaper than Chester’s Flashcards, Hal Leonard offers a similar size and quality of card to the Jane Bastien set but also offers cards with per defined rhythms which can be useful for composition activities. The types of card in this set are also colour-coded, however key signatures are not included in this set.

Over the next half term I am running a composition project in which all my students are entitled to take part.

The composition entitled “Autumn Leaves” must fit with the video and could take the form of a backing track or a song. There is a score of the appropriate length already set up on my noteflight studio with the associated video.

The composition does not necessarily have to be realised in notational form within noteflight however it must be able to be performed in synchronisation with the video.

It must be in ternary form, having two contrasting themes (prompted on the video template by the Autumn Leaf and the three trees).

It must be completed and submitted by December 1st. The winning composition(s) will be shown/performed at the next concert on Saturday 3rd December, 11am at All Saint’s Church, Hoole.

An example score with synchronised video by A. Student is shown below: