My Background
Hi! I’m Natasha — a pianist, piano teacher and composer with 18 years of piano teaching experience. My love for the piano began at the age of 8, when I started having regular lessons. By 11, I was competing in piano competitions and festivals across Europe, winning a number of prizes, and I completed all of my ABRSM exams up to Grade 8 with Distinction.
At the age of 14, I was awarded first prize at the International Steinway Competition, with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of performing in front of 2,000 people at the famous Laeiszhalle concert hall in Hamburg, Germany. I went on to obtain a Bachelor’s degree (First Class Honours) in Music and an MMus in Piano Performance.
Whilst still at university, I was encouraged by the Head of the Music Department to begin teaching — and this ignited my passion for helping people fulfil their goal of expressing themselves through the piano. I have been teaching ever since. I am an enthusiastic, patient and encouraging teacher who will work with you to achieve your piano goals, whatever they may be.
My aim is to encourage independence so that my pupils can sit down at the piano one day with any piece of music they wish to learn, and not need a teacher to show them how to play it. I therefore believe that learning how to read music properly is incredibly important in progressing with your piano playing. In my experience, I have found that when the foundations of reading and understanding the music are not secure, there tends to be a high dropout rate around Grade 3 - 4. I therefore like to make sure that my pupils are always working on being comfortable with reading music and learning new repertoire.
I place a lot of emphasis on good piano technique, something which is vital when learning to play the piano. This is why people who tend to learn via watching online videos tend to only be able to progress up to a certain point, and then find themselves to be “stuck” and unable to progress beyond a certain level. Having good piano technique means knowing how to place your hands correctly on the piano, sit with good posture and have freedom of movement. It is important to encourage a relaxed style of playing with no tension in the arms or hands. If one holds too much tension it can feel incredibly difficult to play more advanced repertoire and prolonged tension can lead to pain and even sometimes injuries such as tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive strain injury.
