Right From the Start

Right From the Start gives pianists a practical, step-by-step blueprint for starting any new piano piece.

Many pianists begin new repertoire by diving in at the keyboard and reading through repeatedly. While this can be useful for getting a first impression, it can also lead to embedded mistakes, awkward habits, unreliable passages and hours of practice spent fixing errors rather than making music.

The overall result is a learning process that feels slower, more frustrating and less musical than it should. The notes seem to take forever to learn, the piece develops unevenly and, even after a lot of work, it may still feel insecure or fall apart in a lesson or informal performance.

Right From the Start shows you what to do during the crucial early stages of learning a new piece. Through a simple five-stage process, you will learn how to connect with the music, develop an artistic image, make sense of the score, organise your practice and begin with tools designed specifically for those first practice sessions.

The result is a more focused, musical and effective way to begin new repertoire. You will develop a deeper knowledge of your piece from the outset, avoid common early pitfalls and give each practice session a clearer sense of purpose and direction, laying the groundwork for a more satisfying musical result later on.

Designed to be used alongside a piece of your own choice, the course gives you a process you can apply straight away and return to whenever you begin something new.

Start your next piece the right way: Buy now for £47 or access the course as part of an Online Academy subscription.

What you will learn

Using a combination of video lessons, worksheets, practical activities and repertoire examples at various levels, the course will teach you how to:

• Connect with the music and develop an artistic image before touching the keyboard
• Manage early read-throughs so they help rather than hinder the learning process
• Look through a new score and identify the features that make learning easier and more efficient
• Make key early decisions about fingering, simplification, sections and priorities, helping you avoid common pitfalls before they become embedded problems
• Know what to practise and when, so each practice session has a clearer focus
• Approach trouble spots in a way that helps you resolve them before they derail your progress
• Use early-stage practice tools that help you build consistency and meaningful progress
• Keep music making present from the beginning, rather than treating expression as something to add later
• Develop a reusable process you can return to whenever you start new repertoire

Together, these skills help you approach the early stages of learning with greater clarity, focus and musical awareness, instead of simply playing through and hoping the piece improves.

The Right From the Start Blueprint

The course is built around The Right From the Start Blueprint, a five-stage process for approaching any new piece:

• Discover — form a musical image and connect with the character of the piece
• Understand — recognise patterns, structure and key features in the score
• Prepare — make the first decisions about fingering, simplification and sections
• Organise — identify priorities, trouble spots and what to practise when
• Begin — use early-stage tools to build focused, consistent progress

Is this course for you?

This course will be especially valuable if you:

• Feel unsure where to begin when you open a new score
• Tend to start by playing through repeatedly and hoping the piece will gradually improve
• Find that learning the notes takes longer than you would like
• Spend a lot of practice time fixing problems that could have been avoided
• Have pieces that feel promising at first but later become stuck, patchy or unfinished
• Feel disappointed by the results you get from the time you spend practising
• Have experienced pieces falling apart unexpectedly in lessons or informal performances
• Want your practice to feel more focused, organised and rewarding
• Want to stay motivated and inspired through the early stages of learning, rather than getting bogged down in note-learning and corrections
• Want your work on a piece to lead to more than just the right notes, with a result that feels expressive and personally meaningful
• Teach piano and would like a structured approach students can apply between lessons

By focusing on the crucial beginning stage of learning a new piece, the course helps you make better first decisions and set yourself up for stronger long-term results.

How the course works

Right From the Start is a flexible self-study course that you can start at any time and work through at your own pace.

The course includes:

• 15 core video lessons and numerous across five main sections
• A guided email pathway to help you apply each stage of the process to a piece of your own choice
• Worksheets, activities and downloadable resources
• Supplementary video demonstrations showing how the ideas apply to repertoire at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels

Designed to be completed over approximately three to four weeks, the materials can be worked through at your own pace with no fixed schedule or time limit. You can return to them whenever you begin a new repertoire project.

Pricing & access options

Choose the option that works best for you:

Buy the standalone course

Get lifetime access to Right From the Start for £47 and return to the blueprint whenever you begin a new piece.

Buy Now!

Access with Online Academy membership

Right From the Start is included with an Online Academy subscription, alongside our full library of 1,000+ video lessons, articles and resources, subscriber discounts, live events, practice clinics and many other benefits.

Subscribe and access the course or click here to find out more about the Online Academy.

Join us and learn how to start your next piece the right way!