Heart of the Piano Podcast

E39: Interview with Tim Topham: legend of the piano education community!

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Tim Topham is a legend in the piano education world, his podcast “The Integrated Music Teaching Podcast” is a who’s who of the most interesting & creative piano educators. It was a huge honour to chat to Tim about his new book which advocates and provides a framework for delaying reading music with beginner piano students.

This episode is not just for piano teachers though, I’m sure everybody will be interested in our chat which includes topics such as common preventable weaknesses that most piano students have, the history of improvisation and freedom from the written note in classical music, the problem with method books, and more…

Tim Topham is a legend in the piano education world, his podcast “The Integrated Music Teaching Podcast” is a who’s who of the most interesting & creative piano educators. It was a huge honour to chat to Tim about his new book which advocates and provides a framework for delaying reading music with beginner piano students.

This episode is not just for piano teachers though, I’m sure everybody will be interested in our chat which includes topics such as common preventable weaknesses that most piano students have, the history of improvisation and freedom from the written note in classical music, the problem with method books, and more…

Key Topics Discussed:
  • Delaying reading music for beginner piano students, often for the first 10 weeks or more
  • Developing musicality, creativity, and curiosity from the very first lessons
  • Typical problems when students are taught to read music right away, including lack of singing, improvisation, playing by ear etc
  • Tim’s new book “No Book Beginners” which provides a framework and detailed lesson plans for teaching beginners without method books
  • The importance of singing, rhythm, improvisation & playing by ear before introducing reading
  • How Tim’s approach can work alongside other methods such as Piano Safari
  • Adapting these creative teaching strategies for older and adult students
  • The “sound before symbol” learning theory behind delaying reading music
  • The website resources that complement the lesson plans in the book
    • Links:
    • Top Music Pro website: topmusic.co
    • “No Book Beginners” book: topmusic.co/book
    • Music Learning Theory: giml.org
    • Tim’s podcast: topmusic.co/podcast
      • Notes:

      The intro/outro music is my jazz arrangement of the Rachmaninov Adagio from Symphony #2, you can watch the whole thing here if you like: https://youtu.be/hMqREAngb4s

      I have availability for online students at the moment- if you’re interested, do get in touch using the contact page at http://HeartOfThePiano.com

      I promised some links to the best podcast episodes in the outro-

      • this is probably the best place to start:
        • https://heartofthepiano.com/e34-we-discuss-the-4-most-important-psychological-skills-you-need-to-practise-at-the-piano-to-be-deeply-musical/
        as it sums up many of the strategies that come up most frequently with my students
      • This strategy has instantly transformed the playing with some of my students, the difference is like night & day! https://heartofthepiano.com/e35-tension-release-we-discuss-the-5-psychological-skill-you-need-to-practise-at-the-piano-to-be-deeply-musical/
      • Some very powerful strategies in this episode that can make a huge difference to the quality of our playing, and how we deal with nerves & pressure: https://heartofthepiano.com/e28-self-determination-theory-for-pianists-how-it-can-unlock-improve-your-musicality-and-help-you-deal-with-performance-anxiety/

        • And here’s a link to my YouTube playlist of my tutorials and performances of UK exam board pieces:

        https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0sZ0MK31wvKeCOH_ZFADgaZkgzyPJvw3

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        Heart of the Piano PodcastBy Bob Rose
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