ABRSM Publishing Ltd 2025-09-17T09:48:41Z

Last November, my flute case smelled like defeat. I’d spent hours in that drafty practice room, fingers stiff from cold, while a robotic metronome click-click-clicked like a mocking judge. Playing alongside prerecorded piano tracks felt like shouting into a void—my phrasing drowned, my dynamics ignored. The disconnect wasn’t just technical; it was emotional. I’d finish scales feeling lonelier than when I began.

Rain lashed against the studio window as my reed felt like sandpaper against trembling lips. I'd been butchering Mozart's Clarinet Concerto for 47 minutes straight, each cracked note echoing louder in the empty room than the metronome's judgmental tick. My ABRSM Grade 8 loomed like execution day, and the piano accompaniment track on my ancient CD player kept rushing ahead like it was late for dinner. That's when my professor slid her phone across the music stand. "Try this," she said, "before yo

Rain lashed against my attic window as I glared at the sheet music for Handel’s Sonata in F Major – Grade 5 ABRSM mocking me from the stand. My metronome’s robotic tick-tock echoed the sinking feeling in my chest. For weeks, I’d been wrestling with the allegro’s triplet passages, my flute sounding like a distressed teakettle whenever I rushed ahead of the pre-recorded piano track. The disconnection felt physical; muscles tensing as I strained to match an unyielding tempo, sour notes piling up li

The conservatory audition loomed like a thundercloud over my summer, casting shadows on every waking moment. Last Tuesday at 2:37 AM found me in the peculiar hell only musicians understand – fingers cramping over Weber's Concertino, the metronome's robotic ticking mocking my stumbling semiquavers. Sweat glued the reed to my lower lip as I choked through the chromatic run for the seventeenth failed attempt. That's when my phone buzzed with notification: "Clarinet Companion updated tempo-matching

ABRSM Flute Practice PartnerThe OFFICIAL ABRSM Flute Practice Partner is a simple way to make practising pieces for your exams more musical, enjoyable and fun. Use Flute Practice Partner to practise with the piano accompaniment, the flute part in isolation, or the duo ensemble recording. The app wil

Clarinet Practice PartnerThe OFFICIAL ABRSM Clarinet Practice Partner is a simple way to make practising pieces for your exams more musical, enjoyable and fun. Use Clarinet Practice Partner to practise with the piano accompaniment, the clarinet part in isolation, or the duo ensemble recording. The a