Piano lessons in school will be finishing by 20th December. View your rearranged lesson times. Other than students at Upton Heath who will have a lesson as normal on Tuesday 14th Dec, you will only have another lesson if your name is on the spreadsheet or if you have a lesson booked on the diary.

Lessons will start again and follow a regular schedule in the New Year from Thursday 6th January, 2011.

Lesson times for Chester Catholic High will be updated after 16th December. Please see the on-line timetable or log in to the diary to check for updates!

Events leading up to Christmas 2010

16th Dec: Listen out for some “wrong” notes on Radio 4′s Afternoon play at 2:15pm – Will Hay playing some piano moments in  “Chequebook and Pen”

17th Dec: Neston Ecumenical Singers Christmas Carol Concert at St. Winefride’s Church, Little Neston starting at 7:30pm (featuring “Snowflakes” by Graeme Hopson)

18th Dec: Chester Cathedral Choir Christmas Concert at Chester Cathedral 7:30pm

18th Dec: An alternative Nine Lessons and Carols at All Saint’s, Hoole 7:30pm

22nd Dec: BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong live from Chester Cathedral on BBC Radio 3 at 4pm

24th Dec: Nine Lessons and Carols at Chester Cathedral 3pm

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“As the frosty mornings are starting to set in and christmas parties are getting booked up, it’s time to prepare some festive music so today I’m looking at what is available. So many books are promoted as ‘easy’ piano music or ‘easy to play’ but ‘easy’ is such a relative term.

One of my favourites which truly is about as ‘easy’ as you can get is The Easiest Tune Book of Christmas Carols. Despite being in it’s fiftieth year of publication it is still one of the best. Whilst it isn’t decked with brightly coloured pictures like some of the more recent editions of christmas carols, it is easy to read, easy to play, the fingering is sensible and points where the pianist must change hand position are clearly marked with an apostrophe though the edition is designed to reduce the need for changes in hand position where possible.

The left hand parts are also very simple and guitar chords are also given.

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For more advanced pianists, Pam Wedgewood’s JAZZIN’ ABOUT Classic Christmas arrangements are more challenging but particularly fun when played alongside the backing CD in this new edition. One of the arrangements which is most popular with my students is “Christmas Jingle”, a medley of Jingle Bells and We wish you a merry Christmas that switches between straight 4/4 time and 3/4 Jazz Waltz.

Christopher Norton uses five well-known carols in Carol Jazz as a ‘jumping off’ point for jazz-related variations. These arrangements offer the more advanced pianists a chance to develop their own improvisation skills following a suggested routine.

The words are by the American, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The composition came about late in 2008 as a result of an annual competition organised by The Longfellow Chorus promoting the poetry of their founder. Graeme Hopson, the composer of this setting was a finalist in the competition with this work.

The score is available direct from the composer or from SibeliusMusic.com

The snowfall motif in the piano accompaniment delicately flutters throughout the snowflakes’ journey described in the lyrics until the ‘troubled sky reveals the grief it feels’. The harmony takes an anguished turn at this point as the heart rate of the choir members increases whilst the parts get a little more challenging to pitch! Effervescent tranquillity returns along with the carefree snowflake motif as the third verse draws to a close with whispered revelations to wood and field.

Seasons greetings to all my students and podcast listeners. The Christmas episode of the piano gallery podcast takes a seasonal dip into the archives featuring:

Nikita – Jingle Bells
Lucy – Silent Night

both recordings are from the 2006 Christmas Concert at Chester Cathedral and as a variation from solo piano fayre, my school choir; St. Clare’s, sing Follow That Star.