Personalities I by Nikolas Sideris

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]Welcome. For this week's video, I thought we would look at this book here.

[00:00:06]Personalities by Nicolas Sideris.

[00:00:10]It's a collection of nine pieces.

[00:00:13]Each one dedicated to one of his past pupils.

[00:00:18]Nicolas Sideris, as well as being a music publisher and a composer, is also a piano teacher.

[00:00:24]And when he moved abroad, he had to say goodbye to some of his students. And that's what we're looking at now.

[00:00:31]Should we listen to the first five?

[00:00:35]There are notes in the book, which is great. Gives us a little introduction to each piece.

[00:00:40]The first one, Floating Unicorn Dreams, for Jessica.

[00:00:46]It's very high up on the keyboard.

[00:00:49]Everything is an octave higher than written.

[00:00:52]And we have the sustain pedal held down throughout.

[00:00:57]It's also really steady and slow.

[00:01:00]56 to 66.

[00:01:02]If I set my metronome to 60, >> [music] >> we have that kind of gentle tempo.

[00:01:22]Floating Unicorn Dreams. And notice how it plays with C major and >> [music] >> A flat major or G sharp major.

[00:01:39]>> [music] >> Floating Unicorn Dreams.

[00:01:51]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And those high held notes in the right hand, he asks us to play them as loud as possible, really make them ring out.

[00:03:09]>> [snorts] >> Our second piece is called the Knap Hill Blues.

[00:03:13]And Nicholas Sideras tells us that he taught in Knap Hill, in Surrey, and he wrote this piece between piano students.

[00:03:22]It's bluesy, it's got some held notes in the left hand that could make it a bit tricky, and it's got a swing feel.

[00:03:33]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I couldn't resist using a bit of pedal for the bond chord at the end.

[00:04:29]Our third piece, a piano in space. This one was for Frankie.

[00:04:35]We're told at the start that in space you can't hear sound, so it's an interesting title.

[00:04:42]Just like our first piece, the pedal is going to be held down throughout the whole piece.

[00:04:47]It's quite a reading challenge. There's lots of sharps and naturals and flats on the score. And it's got an interesting scale at the very end.

[00:04:55]What scale is it?

[00:05:31]>> [music] >> Our fourth The Adventure Begins.

[00:05:51]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> With a piece with a title like The Adventure Begins, you're then left wondering, how does the adventure finish?

[00:07:16]And our fifth and final piece is a romantic one. It's called Nostalgia. It was written for Josie at a rather slow pace, he's marked up at the top, and we're going to use the pedal in this one.

[00:07:28]The book is available either as a hard copy or a digital download.

[00:07:33]Um there are no affiliate links on this YouTube site, but I will put a link down below if that interests you. Nostalgia.

[00:07:58]>> [music] [music] >> Thank you for being with me. I post here on YouTube every week. If there's content might interest you and you haven't already, please consider subscribing. Take care. Bye-bye for now.