Beethoven Review

I've had some lovely comments about this recording. I don't think I'm generally one to 'blow my own trumpet', but I was delighted with the following review of the Beethoven Bagatelles at Sussex Musicians' Club  from Dr. Simon Jenner, so thought I might share it. :) Belatedly, a big thank you to Yuri Paterson-Olenich for inspirational teaching, on these pieces and in general!

"Pianist Joe Ward’s rendering of Beethoven’s last set of Bagatelles Op 126 – more unpredictably jagged than even previous sets - was simply the finest Beethoven playing ever seen here. Ward’s hammering precision nailed the last, two prestos enclosing an andante cantabile, wayward, full of tigerish leaps to fracture the left hand. It’s no disrespect to Ward to say he’s upped his game in every performance, but nothing prepared us for this which would grace any concert hall."

http://www.sussexmusiciansclub.co.uk/

Beethoven Bagatelles

Here's a recording of me playing Beethoven's op. 126 Bagatelles live at Brighton Unitarian Church for the Sussex Musicians' Club. The recording makes the well respected but aging Bluthner there sound oddly like a fortepiano, but overall I was very pleased with how this went, a couple of slips aside. It's a great set of pieces and I've really enjoyed working on them.

Recording of me playing live in concert at Sussex Musicians' Club on 25 February 2017.

Practice tips

I'm very grateful that over the years I've learnt more and more about how to practise pieces, and to my mind there's nothing more valuable to learn for a pianist. Here are my tips:

1) Try to keep mentally and physically relaxed at all times when practising. Practising when you're wound up is actually harmful rather than beneficial, so take a break if you get frustrated and come back to it, maybe to a different piece or different part of the piece.

2) Think of different ways to practise. There are always more different ways than we initially think of, such as playing just the harmonies of a piece (this really gives you a feel for its structure), dividing up different parts differently between the hands, playing in different octaves and different keys, 'miming' one hand while playing the other at normal volume, as well as classic things like very slow practice and separate hand practice. Finding a new way to practise a piece or a difficult passage is far more worthwhile than repeating the same kind of practise on a piece over and over again!

3) Quality of practice is more important than quantity. Admittedly there is an element of repetition involved in practising, but don't just work through a routine, or play through mindlessly - always keep thinking about the music, what it means and how it should sound, and whether there are other ways you can approach the business of practising!

Thank you

Thanks to everyone (a lot of you!) who's offered feedback on the website - seems to have gone down very well! A big thank you to my brother George for his expertise in helping to set this up - I knew those geeky skills would come in useful one day... and to Rebecca Mothersole for the lovely photos, which a lot of you have commented on.

Had a great time last weekend at Lancing College on a piano course. A couple of really inspiring lessons from Yuri Paterson-Olenich, working on Beethoven's op. 126 bagatelles, and from what I saw and heard the teaching from Evgenia Startseva and Gareth Owen was of an exceptional standard too. Lovely to see familiar faces from previous courses and lots of new faces too! Sure to be a great week's course in Hungary in the summer... The website's here: http://zongora.weebly.com/

Website launch

Very excited to finally get this website launched! It's four years now since I came back to Brighton after working for two years as an academic researcher in Dublin, and thought I'd try teaching the odd piano lesson and going back to some accompanying work as an alternative to working in the academic world. Since then I've worked hard at developing my skills as a pianist and teacher and built up the work I do, and now I'm delighted to be making a full time living in music, working with lots of lovely pupils, singers and instrumentalists. Practising in the mornings, teaching, coaching and accompanying in the afternoons and evenings, working from home and also cycling around Brighton to work elsewhere, getting exercise, fresh air and social interaction as well as engaging with great music - there can't be many better ways to earn a living!