Pam Wedgwood is one of the UK’s most established educational composers, recently winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Art of Piano Education Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2024. We caught up with her recently to ask a few questions submitted by our Faber Music Teachers’ Community.

 

Do you prefer sharps or flats?

I have always preferred flat keys – probably due to my earlier career as a brass player when almost all brass instruments are built in a flat key!

 

What inspired you to start writing your own music?

I have always been interested in composing from about the age of 11. My first piece was written for my school band – a march which sounded like bad Handel! Later on, when I was teaching, I felt the need to write accessible melodic pieces for my pupils. Many found the classical repertoire uninspiring, especially in their teenage years, but arrangements of pop songs were also far too difficult. My first collection of Jazzin’ About seemed to fill the gap – they even started to practice!

 

Do you have a favourite key and mood?

I naturally have a real instinct to write in minor keys! This of course will depend on the title and mood of the piece.

 

Do you have a favourite piece that you have written, and why?

This is a very difficult question to answer! There would be several. Because I am a total romantic, I quite like Just a Memory from After Hours Book 4: Fantasies for solo piano. There is always a reason behind the mood and style of my pieces, this I like to leave to the player’s imagination!

 

What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting out as a music teacher?

Never fall into the trap of putting pupils through the grades one after the other. This produces stress from the student and nearly always the parent! This also narrows their concept of repertoire and doesn’t encourage them to learn about other styles and possibilities in music! Sight reading also suffers in this situation.

I would also say: Never be afraid to jump out of your secure box of repertoire and explore the wealth of music in all styles on offer.

And finally: Try and make the lesson an enjoyable and stimulating experience and certainly never give them too much to learn in one week. Children are so busy these days trying to fit everything in. Their music lesson should be a sort of relaxation in the week, although you must offer incentives along the way!

Putting up a progress chart in your studio can be a great incentive. I would choose a theme for the term – maybe fruit or veg – then list out the names and after each lesson award either Strawberries and Cream for excellent work or a Sour Lemon for not much progress and enter it onto the chart next to their name. This worked well as no-one wanted a sour lemon next to their name!

 

What would be your ‘desert island disc’ – a song or album that you could listen to on repeat?

JS Bach features very much in my listening – in my view one of the greatest composers of all time! I love the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations in particular.

I also love film music – John Barrie’s score for Out of Africa is a favourite.

And finally, I couldn’t do without Billy Joel! I just love his story writing, as well as the music of course. If I had to choose one song, it would have to be Piano Man!

 

 

And finally… a question from the Faber Music team!

 

What inspired your upcoming publication, Piano Dreaming?

I wanted to try and compose in a totally different style for this collection, creating a more minimalist mediative feel. All 10 pieces are written in a thought-provoking, neoclassical style, with each one taking you on a dream-like journey. I hope you will enjoy playing these pieces as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

 

Thanks to everyone who submitted a question, and to Pam for taking the time to answer them! If you want the chance to submit questions for our next Ask the author series, make sure you are signed up to the Faber Music Teachers’ Community.