• Course Dates
    September 18, 2026 6:30 pm –
    September 20, 2026 4:00 pm
  • Observer Pass
    September 19, 2026
    11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Jackdaws Piano Tutor Stephen Marquiss

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Level: All
Fee: £375

Reimagine Your Playing: Release the Music

with Stephen Marquiss

Stop fighting the piano and start finding your flow.

What if the secret to piano mastery isn’t more practice but a different mindset?

Stephen’s approach was born from his own journey as an adult pianist moving from technical frustration to effortless facility. Drawing on the revolutionary principles of Abby Whiteside, he guides you to find your “emotional rhythm”—a whole-body coordination that starts in the torso and flows to the fingertips.

Do you long to perform confidently from memory or play expressively at any level? This course invites you to bring your “challenging” repertoire and discover a gentle, transformational path to piano mastery. By spotlighting “Elephants in the Practice Room,” we move beyond drills and dogma to dissolve technical barriers through deepening self-awareness.

The Approach

  • Whole-Body Mastery: Learn to play by “ear” rather than rote memory, engaging your entire body—from torso to fingertip.
  • Cross-Disciplinary Wisdom: Incorporates insights from martial arts, dance and physical fitness to rethink piano technique.
  • Genre Fluidity: Transcends classical traditions to find a “route in” to any style of music you aspire to play.

What to Expect

This course combines 1-to-1 coaching with collaborative group activities. We will draw broad, transferable principles from the individual challenges you face, ensuring everyone leaves with solutions appropriate to their experience level.

You will learn:

  • Transformational Practice: Fresh focal points to replace aimless, repetitive practice.
  • Self-Diagnosis: Tools to identify and dissolve technical blocks with self-awareness.
    Performance Power: Concrete strategies for confident playing and memorisation.
  • The “Holy Grails”: Holistic methods for mastering dynamic control, phrasing, articulation, balance and more.

Gain the confidence and coordination to finally play the music you love.

Please bring “works in progress” and/or examples of pieces, styles or genres you long to play but haven’t found a “route in”. There will be opportunities to perform “completed” repertoire to the group if you wish, but this won’t be the focus. Suitable for all levels of experience.

We asked our course leaders to answer a few questions about their course and teaching:

  1. To feel empowered to realise their own interpretations fluently and expressively
  2. To find fresh solutions to previously unsurmountable difficulties
  3. To discover joyful, efficient practice processes at all levels of experience

“I’ve always loved and prioritised working with amateur musicians. As the Founder of Frome Symphony, Frome’s lively amateur orchestra, I co-built a joyful, inclusive musical community. The most important elements in musical progress are a love for music and an open mind. One’s level of experience – or the complexity of the repertoire – is of no consequence.”

“My teaching style is gentle, inclusive, inspiring.”

“My interests outside of music are qigong, walking and photography.”

Some course feedback:

A fabulously engaging tutor with a light touch…

An enlightened approach…

A game changer!

A born teacher and musician…

Generous, playful and extremely engaging…

Read more about what participants say about Jackdaws Courses.

A £100 deposit is required to secure your place on this course. The balance of fees, including accommodation, is due 3 weeks before the course start date.

You can also buy an Observer Pass for this course. The Observer Pass entitles you to attend on SATURDAY from 11am–1pm as an observer only and costs £10. This can be redeemed against a subsequent course booking. Places are limited. More info and terms and conditions here.

Details Price Qty
Attendee - Deposit £100.00 GBP  
Observer Pass £10.00 GBP  

Venue:  

Venue Phone: 07880 091066

Address:
Jackdaws Music Education Trust, Great Elm, Frome, BA11 3NY, United Kingdom

Description:

Course Information

Is this Course right for me?

The answer is probably yes as we welcome musicians of all abilities and backgrounds on our courses but if you would like to find out more before you book please read about our course levels, or email or call our office manager Karolyn on 07880 091066 / music@jackdaws.org and she will be able to offer further guidance.

If you are still unsure then maybe consider one of our “Try before you buy” Observer Passes which enable you to come and see one session in action.

Full Observer places may also be bookable for a whole weekend subject to availability. Call / email the office for more information.

Please see our General Course Information pages for further details and schedule information.

Our Courses are for adult musicians (except where stated) and take place at Jackdaws in Great Elm, near Frome in Somerset. The Course Fee includes all tuition, meals and refreshments at Jackdaws. Courses take place in the main studio, with Steinway piano, and generally follow a masterclass format. There are several practice rooms here, too.

Repertoire

For Voice, Piano & Wind courses; participants are usually requested to prepare 2 – 3 pieces in advance. We will ask you to provide a repertoire list for the tutor (& accompanist) ahead of the course.

For Ensemble courses; direction will be given by the course leaders.

Accommodation

If you require B&B, we can arrange that for you; accommodation fees are payable in addition to the course fee.

Meals and Refreshments

Lunch, Supper and morning/afternoon refreshments will be prepared on site by our dedicated Cooks.  If you are vegetarian/vegan, or have a food allergy, you must let us know in advance, so that our cooks can plan the meals for the weekend accordingly. We are ‘allergy aware’, but we rely on participants letting us know if they have specific food allergies. Please also let us know if you carry any emergency medication.

By booking onto a Jackdaws course you agree to abide by our Terms and Conditions and understand the Privacy Policy regarding our handling of your data.