ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ljubica777

About Ljubica Stojanović

Ljubica is a 1st prize-winner of over 20 national and international competitions. She is a concert pianist and piano teacher at The London Piano Institute

Coping With Stress In Practising/Performing

2022-10-31T12:57:37+00:00

With this article, I would like to share a few things that I found extremely helpful over the years- when it comes to coping with stress. Performing and practising can be highly demanding, and synchronising everyday life with the discipline of piano playing can be a true challenge. It is important to distinguish different types of stress in different fields of music making, so I will focus mainly on the quality of practice time as that is a good base for any further topic. The difficulty in maintaining a quality practice session stems from several aspects… the amount of work that [...]

Coping With Stress In Practising/Performing2022-10-31T12:57:37+00:00

Practising Piano Techniques – Part 2

2022-08-30T20:37:26+01:00

Hello again and welcome to part 2 of practising techniques! If you haven’t already checked out part 1, please do so as I shared some of the practising principles that I find super important. We covered the essence of concepts like searching, listening, identifying the problems and repetition. All of these concepts are somehow a core of practising any instrument. What I would like to further focus on is again both practical advice as well as a general concept. 5. Physical Awareness I find that physical awareness is often overlooked as a concept. Maybe more so with teaching children as they [...]

Practising Piano Techniques – Part 22022-08-30T20:37:26+01:00

Practising Piano Techniques Part 1 

2022-08-30T20:36:33+01:00

Practising is a highly sensitive topic. In my experience as a teacher and a performer - there are thousands of ways to do something on our instrument. Finding those shortcuts that make everything efficient and better,  with true clarity that can later turn into a method - proves to be a challenge. Let’s first examine a little bit what practising is. When we say “I have to practise “ - we already automated the action, I have to be by the piano (or any other instrument) and do some work. I find that some essential understanding of what work needs to [...]

Practising Piano Techniques Part 1 2022-08-30T20:36:33+01:00

10 Reasons (Out Of 100s) Why Concert Attending Is Really Important For Musical Development – Part 2

2022-07-05T10:20:34+01:00

Part 2 In part 1 we covered the essence of what listening to classical music live could mean to us- physically, emotionally, chemically etc. Here are some more reasons why it is a wonderful experience to visit live performances. 6. It Sustains Culture Even though classical concerts might not be everyone’s favourite night out - it is certainly important to send the message that we need culture. And the best way to do so is to, of course, attend performances and show our support. Culture is holding our society together and by actively taking part in live performances (as audience) we [...]

10 Reasons (Out Of 100s) Why Concert Attending Is Really Important For Musical Development – Part 22022-07-05T10:20:34+01:00

10 Reasons (Out Of 100s) Why Concert Attending Is Really Important For Musical Development – Part 1

2022-04-25T15:25:41+01:00

Music Came Before The Language Music is not consumed just for fun as it might seem now, at the present time. Netflix, cinema, a night out... Music has changed its role drastically, in this century specifically. If we try to imagine our life without it - at first it wouldn’t seem that bad. Maybe it would be strange to exercise without music, or we frequently wouldn’t understand the context of a specific movie scene as many movie directors heavily rely on music to tell us the emotion of the scene. Imagine weddings, celebrations, birthday parties... the fact that music is everywhere [...]

10 Reasons (Out Of 100s) Why Concert Attending Is Really Important For Musical Development – Part 12022-04-25T15:25:41+01:00

Choosing Repertoire for Performances

2022-04-14T08:31:11+01:00

Choosing Repertoire This is a very interesting topic that could dictate a lot on how we progress and how we discover our strengths and weaknesses. Many performers today have chosen to stick to performing works by one or just a few composers. This allows a complete dedication and sinking into the depths of a specific language and style. On the other hand, we have performers who like to discover as they play - as they grow as musicians, finding new pieces and challenging themselves by immersing themselves into the unknown. What I find interesting is how the repertoire we chose shapes [...]

Choosing Repertoire for Performances2022-04-14T08:31:11+01:00

Joy of improvising and 7 day challenge!

2022-01-19T21:33:36+00:00

Improvising on piano - Part 2 Hello music lovers! In part 1 of this article, I wrote about the importance of composing and improvising on piano. If you haven’t yet - check it out. We discussed the very beginnings of structured improvisation. It is easy and anyone can do it. It might not be the most comfortable at first but it is definitely beneficial, fun and progressively better the more we do it! I suggested that the first steps of structured improvisation could be through imitation of what we hear and variation of some of the components in that material. In [...]

Joy of improvising and 7 day challenge!2022-01-19T21:33:36+00:00

Importance of improvisation & composing in musical development

2022-01-19T21:41:20+00:00

Improvising on piano - Part 1 When we mention improvisation and composing to an averagely educated instrumentalist, both of these concepts sound scary, to say the least. The problem with music education is that it focuses on the bare minimum so to say: it provides music literacy and basic knowledge of playing a specific instrument. It takes a long time to become a healthy-sounding performer- so it is no wonder that this is the case. When we combine other activities in life; obligatory education, homework, commitments of all sorts - practising the piano every day seems plenty as it is. The [...]

Importance of improvisation & composing in musical development2022-01-19T21:41:20+00:00

Performance anxiety

2021-10-11T14:37:44+01:00

Performance anxiety is a psychological phenomenon - it is fear about one’s ability to perform any task. It can happen in many fields of work or in other life situations but here we will focus on public performing in classical music. Anxiety can manifest itself in variety of ways. Nuances range from lighter symptoms such as elevated heart rate, sweaty palms, to the more severe ones; muscle spasms, hyperventilation, experiencing blackouts, puking, just to name a few. I would like to discuss some ways that helped me tackle my performing anxiety as I personally experienced many layers of it - total [...]

Performance anxiety2021-10-11T14:37:44+01:00

Sound as a central part of music making – Part 2

2021-07-19T14:41:28+01:00

Dear pianists! In the previous article we have covered how to start developing your sense of sound and aware sound production. I also shared some practical tips that personally helped me and some of my colleagues. Please do consider this article inseparable to part one! Just to refresh the previous topic - practical tips included the following: recording yourself, mindfulness, visualisation, among many other advice. In part 2 I would like to focus on the physicality of piano playing - specifically in relation to sound production, more than any other correlation (articulation, stylistic approach, or technical issues... those topics will be [...]

Sound as a central part of music making – Part 22021-07-19T14:41:28+01:00
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