Holiday Courses in Tranquil Sunny Cornwall

Combine learning about how a pianos works and its relationship with the technique of piano playing or combine learning ballet and having a holiday in beautiful sunny Cornwall.

The holiday part will be spent seeing some of those special hide away places usually only known to the locals.

This piano course has been designed at the request of piano teachers and people who have said they would like to develop a greater understanding of the Technique of Piano Playing in relationship to the how the Piano Mechanism works; and the enormous importance of how it should be adjusted if we are to produce the sound we require.

We would like your Holiday Course to be enjoyable and a happy memory. The courses are not ridged and can be tailored to suite you.

Holiday Piano Courses

Some of the Subjects covered will include:

The meaning of technique.
How to get the brain to control your limbs and muscles to produce the sound you require.
The Three Phases in Playing a Note.
What is the technique required from the pianist to produce a singing tone, and what do we require from the piano to allow us to achieve that sound.
Arm weight and six different ways to use it.
Accuracy of tone and the link between, music, technique and the mechanical piano.
How to use your finger, hand, arm and body.
The use and misunderstandings of forearm and hand rotation.
Preparation of groups of notes.
Fingering.
How to play staccato and legato.
50 Individual technical details you should be perfecting when you play a scale.
The use and misuse of forearm rotation.
The lateral movement of the thumb.
The Phrase; the shape of a note; and its relationship to the front and back of the beat.
What causes tension and how to eliminate it.
Practising.
Pedalling.
Interpretation.
Performance.

Holiday Ballet Course

The course combines learning ballet and having a holiday in beautiful sunny Cornwall.

Great fun, interesting, and a good way to keep fit.

The courses are given by Nicola Pinkham who went to the Royal Ballet School and went on to dance with the English National Ballet in the worlds most famous theatres, like the Royal Albert Hall in London; to dancing with Nureyev at the Lincoln Centre New York; Russia; China; South America and many other places. She has taught ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and for The Royal Academy of Dancing who also invite her to travel to different countries giving Summer School Master Class Lessons.