I’m posting this clip in honour of my super-keen adult student, Andy, who is learning a reduced version of this piece. He’s been having lessons with me for a year, and has only recently taken his Grade 1, but has a voracious appetite for learning new work and is not afraid of a challenge. For example, at his lesson today, eager to add more texture to the over-simplified left-hand part, he tried the full left-hand part, a series of arpeggiated semi-quaver figures. So, this post is for Andy, a very good friend of mine, who I’ve known since I was a small child, and for all keen and passionate amateur pianists – myself included –  who do it simply because we love it!

The Promise from The Piano (a film by Jane Campion, music by Michael Nyman)