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I’ve spent the last four weeks carefully examining the ABRSM 2027–2028 Piano Syllabus. Listen to find out what’s changed, what I think of the repertoire choices, and why this syllabus raises important questions about the future direction of ABRSM piano exams. Should students be able to take an ABRSM piano exam with only one classical piece? What does an ABRSM grade now represent? And what role should ABRSM play as one of the world’s most influential gateways into classical music?

The Heart of the Piano podcast is back! In this return episode, I dive deep into my ‘Grand Unified Theory’ of scales & arpeggios. This is a radical masterclass that breaks down the biomechanics of technique into basic ‘building blocks’ which every student can combine in unique and personal ways- and also addresses the hidden psychological barriers in adult students which prevent the acquisition of good technique. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced player, this episode will transform how you approach scales & arpeggios!

In this episode, I dive into the mind-blowing world of ChatGPT’s brand new voice AI feature, where I have hilarious, shockingly human-like conversations with some of history’s greatest composers! These experimental chats are not only educational but packed with unexpected humor and personality. Join me as I explore the incredible capabilities of this revolutionary technology. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to chat with iconic figures from the past—laughing along the way—this episode will leave you both entertained and amazed! Tune in for a fascinating mix of music history, cutting-edge AI, and plenty of laughs. Show Notes This episode is also available as a YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/0SG290DMZbw These are the custom instructions I gave to ChatGPT- after this experiment I might add something like “be opinionated, don’t be afraid to be controversial, don’t try to be diplomatic, give specific examples of everything you talk about” 😂 “When you are role-playing as a musician or composer, think about how this person’s personality and character was described by others, then really amplify and exaggerate these qualities in the way you speak- the goal is an exaggerated caricature. Also, speak English with a really exaggerated caricature accent that reflects where the person was from. To keep conversations interesting and entertaining, bring up personal autobiographical details wherever possible. Speak as if to a friend, so not overly formal. Use humour on a level appropriate to the person you’re roleplaying as. If the person has negative traits and character, please feel free to indulge this”. 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

An exploration of the challenging but crucial conversations surrounding diversity and representation in classical music education, framed through a personal cautionary experience. Drawing from recent events in the industry, topics discussed include: – The importance of open dialogue about race and gender in music – Challenges in representing diverse composers in educational materials – Navigating sensitive discussions in music education – Lessons learned from attempting to address these issues – Broader implications for inclusivity in classical music Links: This episode is also available with video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UXQ1gPeO9ek White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism- Robin DiAngelo: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/566247/white-fragility-by-dr-robin-diangelo/9780807047415 Useful study notes on ‘White Fragility’: https://library.fiveable.me/key-terms/hs-ethnic-studies/white-fragility A must read extract in The Guardian from Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race YouTube video Music Theory and White Supremacy by Adam Neely: https://youtu.be/Kr3quGh7pJA A talk by Philip Ewell on YouTube- a useful introduction to his work: https://youtu.be/q1yYR-VLpv0 My podcast review of the 2021 Leeds Internation Piano Competition: https://heartofthepiano.com/e21-leeds-international-piano-competition-the-leeds-2021-review/ Fiona Sinclair’s (CEO Leeds International Piano Competition) Leeds University presentation on gender inequality in music competitions and in the profession as a whole: https://www.youtube.com/live/xtdpAVyJzVg?si=sOp3PWG5_T_rCB-R&t=2801 A couple of news links concerning possible preferrential treatment for women in the Leeds International Piano Competition: https://slippedisc.com/2024/09/exclusive-how-the-leeds-piano-competition-is-rigged-for-equality/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/19/female-pianists-favoured-men-major-competition-rules/ The new AI tool which creates incredible podcast episodes- Notebook LM’s new Audio Overview feature: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/google-s-new-ai-audio-generator-lets-you-make-a-stunningly-real-ai-podcast-without-a-mic-here-s-how-to-try-it 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 Transcription: Have you ever found yourself hesitant to discuss issues of race or gender for fear of saying something wrong? When we feel unable to talk about these issues freely, resentments and tensions can build up. Movements like Black Lives Matter, along with recent events in the UK, have highlighted how crucial it is to have these conversations. It’s obviously a contentious topic, but when conversations are stifled—when we’re afraid to discuss racial issues honestly for fear of being ‘cancelled’ or vilified—this creates a pressure cooker environment. As a result, when people of colour speak out about inequalities and push for change, white people can react in exaggerated, overly defensive reactive ways rather than perhaps listening with an open mind. Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility introduces the concept of this knee-jerk defensive response to healthy debate on race, which often serves to quickly shut any conversation down. DiAngelo explains that these defensive reactions—which can include anger, fear, emotional outbursts, and withdrawal—aren’t about being a ‘bad person’ but are ways people can avoid the discomfort that comes with talking about race. This means that often, despite good intentions, these kinds of defensive responses can actually serve to maintain the status quo of racial inequality by shutting down meaningful conversations about race. Another book, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by UK author Reni Eddo-Lodge, sums up a lot of the frustration that people of colour experience when trying to discuss racial issues… personally, reading these two books in particular have really resonated with many of my experiences. Now, just to give you a little bit of context here, I don’t often talk about this, but I’m basically not white. It doesn’t come up a lot these days because, for many reasons, I don’t seem to stand out as much as ‘different’ anymore. Part of this is because Britain has become much more multicultural, and perhaps some of it is because, for whatever reason, I look more ‘white’ as I get older. So from time to time, when I bring up my ethnicity, people say to me, “I had no idea you weren’t white”. But when I found myself having frustrating conversations about race, the difficulties made so much more sense once I came across the concepts in the books that I just mentioned. I think it’s important to emphasise that the whole point of these books is not to make white people feel more defensive about talking about race, and the point is not to make white people feel attacked. This is the very problem those books are trying to solve, to highlight how we as a society need to be able to have these discussions openly without fear of being judged. Now, the world of classical music and classical music education in particular has been grappling with issues of racial and gender representation in recent years. At one end, there are academics such as Philip Ewell, who talks about a deep-seated ideology of white supremacy within the world of classical music. Adam Neely created a great YouTube video called Music Theory and White Supremacy discussing some of these ideas. I personally disagree with a lot of what Ewell says, but the topic is layered and nuanced, and he does make some valid points that are worth considering if you take the time to read his work carefully. Anybody who goes to classical music concerts will immediately notice the almost total absence of audience-goers who are not white. Could part of the reason for this be that non-white composers are rarely featured in concert programmes? Speaking personally, this absence did bother me when I was young. I was totally unaware that there were plenty of composers who weren’t ‘white’, and the strong perception that the world of classical music was basically for ‘white people’ did unsettle me. Now, I want to be absolutely clear: this does not mean that I think we should cancel Western classical music—I love it deeply! The Western classical tradition is really important to me. Obviously, the history of classical music does have roots in European composers working within a certain culture, but we now have the power to influence future audiences by taking a more broad and inclusive historical view. If we make an effort to promote more composers of colour and women composers—even if this doesn’t reflect the historical proportions of those composers—it could be key in growing classical music audiences and encouraging more diverse composers in the future. Long time listeners to my reviews of exam board syllabuses (or syllabi for those who prefer that word!) such as ABRSM, Trinity and LCME know that I have been passionate about the need to represent more women and non-white composers for this reason, and in recent years there has been noticeable pressure for all musical educational establishments including exam boards and music publishers to increase their diversity and address these issues around racial and gender representation. Some recent piano exam syllabuses—in fact most of them—have been doing an excellent job in discovering and sharing some real gems by hitherto obscure women composers and composers of colour all the way from the Baroque era to the modern age. So it’s not that they didn’t exist– but yes the majority of composers were white men. And it is a very difficult balance to try to decide how much we want to celebrate and honour a deeply valuable tradition with all its biases, and how much we can now selectively highlight the hidden minority women and non-white composers to shape the direction of the future world of classical music. The issue of positive discrimination surfaced in an interesting way just a few days ago at the concerto finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition, one of the most prestigious events in the classical piano world. It runs every 3 years, and you can listen to a podcast review that I made of the previous competition, the link will be in the shownotes or in the description of the YouTube video below as well as many other links and links to interesting articles on all the things I’ll be covering today. So, after only men made it through to the finals in 2021, the CEO of the competition Fiona Sinclair set out a series of initiatives to address this gender imbalance. These included training for this year’s jurors, as well as commissioning academic studies into gender imbalances at international piano competitions. She gave a fascinating lecture on this subject at Leeds University which you can find on YouTube, again links will be in the shownotes of the podcast episode or in the description of the YouTube video. However, there was quite the controversy just before the recent finals when major news sources spotted some clauses in the instructions to the jury members that give women competitors preferential treatment in some circumstances. You know, it’s one thing to try to tackle the problem of what was described as “male dominance” in the world of professional concert pianists, but is giving women pianists preference in a major competition to try to redress this balance going too far? Now all these issues that I’ve discussed so far intersected a few months ago when I published a podcast review of a set of books called The Joy of Graded Piano. I was asked to review this series of pian

Please check the shownotes for timings (at HeartOfThePiano.com) if you just want to listen to the review for one particular grade

In this thought-provoking first part of a two-part review, I explore the new books and discuss how ABRSM are navigating the complex landscape of music education in a changing world. Join me as I delve into the challenges and opportunities presented by this new syllabus, which is sure to spark lively debate within the piano community. Part two will review the individual grades.

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...

Check the shownotes for timings if you just want to listen to the review for one particular grade

The most radical and indispensable piano syllabus ever! This will either be incredibly exciting for piano teachers & students- or highly controversial. Either way, it’s a must-own. In this episode I discuss some of the many controversial issues that this new syllabus raises, and give you a detailed verdict on these new books. Part two will review the individual grades.

Cheryl is back for a masterclass on how awareness of musical tension and release can make huge changes to our playing, and demonstrates that we absolutely need to learn to learn to feel it in the body before we can successfully apply it to our piano playing

My friend Cheryl is back to chat about and get a deeper understanding of the practical ways in which we can become truly great pianists by bringing the psychological skills I've demonstrated in recent episodes into our learning and practising

An epic review (with music audio clips) of ABRSM's hotly anticipated foray into pop music! I'm holding ABRSM to a high standard so I'm quite critical, but I do also look for what there is to enjoy in these books. Listen to this episode to find out if you should buy them for yourself or recommend them for your students!

This fourth skill is immensely practical, maybe some of you might think it's a stretch to call it a 'psychological skill', but I notice that it's totally normal for most of my students to have issues with putting this into practice as- like in meditation- we have to practise choosing where to place our awareness in any given moment

The third in a series looking at the most essential mental habits to practise at the piano that will give you the quickest and most profound progress. These are the things I refer to constantly when I'm teaching, and covers aspects of musicianship that almost all teachers consider unteachable- considered to be innate qualities in talented students. But I can show you how to develop this natural musicianship. I think we can all struggle with this third skill at times, and it's for this reason that we really need to work on it as much as possible, and will make a massive difference to the quality of your playing and performing

A must-listen review (with music audio clips) of 3 books of jazz piano sheet music from Nikki Iles & Friends published by ABRSM covering from initial grade up to grade 8 and beyond. A detailed look at highlights and 'weak' pieces with audio clips from each book starts at 36:30