Nima Farahani

I have taught piano for sixteen years, and for the last nine of them almost only to adults — people who played as children and stopped, people who never had the chance and have decided it is now or never, and a few who need a certificate for a music degree application. The one thing they share is that they do not want to be taught like eight-year-olds, and I do not.

Lessons are built on the music you actually want to play. We start with technique because there is no way round it — hand shape, weight, reading — but within a month you are working on a real piece, cut down to what your hands can do this week. I record the difficult passages slowly for you to practise between lessons, and I expect the practice: half an hour a day does more than three hours on Friday.

For ABRSM candidates I run the syllabus properly — scales, sight-reading, aural — and I will tell you honestly which grade you are ready for. I teach in Persian and English, in the studio in Vanak or over Zoom with a second camera on the keyboard.