I was very pleased to be able to write a review of the new ABRSM 2019 – 2020 syllabus for the excellent blog by Tim Topham.

Tim is an  internationally-renowned music educator, piano teacher, writer and presenter.

Through his blog and podcast  at timtopham.com, he regularly inspires more than 20,000 teachers across the globe to become better educators for their students.  He has also set-up an international community of dedicated and creative teachers – his Inner Circle – of which I am very pleased to be a member.

Readers of my blog will know my views on the place of piano exams in a musical education.  Whilst exams can be an excellent motivator for some students, too much focus on exams can be detrimental to the development of all-round musicianship and, at worst, can put a student off playing the piano altogether.  Many of my students choose not to go down the exam route and I will only enter students for exams when they are fully ready.  Please refer to my ‘Guiding Principles‘ for more information about my approach to piano exams.

You can read my review here.