Ready, Set, Play!

Fit 4 Piano is developed by one of New Zealand's leading pianists and pedagogues, Associate Professor Dr. Rae de Lisle with the goal of effortless and healthy piano playing. Fit 4 Piano is intended as a resource for pianists, teachers and students alike. While not a method, it contains technical ideas and exercises that Rae has found most useful over a lifetime of teaching. By establishing movements that are natural from the beginning of learning, progression though the grades is uncomplicated, rewarding, and pleasurable for both teacher and student.

Books & Courses by world renowned piano pedagogue Dr. Rae de Lisle

Discover Effortless Piano Technique

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Fit 4 Piano Video Course

Comprehensive piano technique lessons for students, teachers and professional pianists

Meet the team

Dr. Rae de Lisle

Founder of Fit 4 Piano

Dr Rae de Lisle, MNZM is one of New Zealand’s foremost piano pedagogues. Formerly Head of Piano at the University of Auckland, she has produced many outstanding students, most notably John Chen, first prizewinner of the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition. Since then her students have won all the major piano competitions in New Zealand and have also been prizewinners internationally in the Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition, the Bradshaw and Buono Competition in New York, and the Perrenoud Foundation International Piano Competition. She received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the University in 2011 and, in the same year, the Marie Vandewart Award for outstanding service and commitment to fostering the love of chamber music in New Zealand.

Rae’s groundbreaking PhD research into focal dystonia, the most devastating of musician’s injuries, has resulted in specific concepts about instrumental retraining which have led to presentations and keynote speeches throughout the world. For many years Rae has been researching methods of piano technique, interviewing more than 40 international pianists and pedagogues. Her experience in teaching students from the very beginning to international competition winners, as well as her own studies with renowned pedagogues Brigitte Wild (student of Claudio Arrau), Cyril Smith (student of Rachmaninoff) and Maria Curcio (student of Artur Schnabel) gives her a unique perspective on the development of injury-preventative piano technique at every level, from the beginner to the advanced pianist.

Melody Deng

Senior Instructor

Melody Deng is a pianist, lecturer, adjudicator, and a passionate piano educator. Melody has presented in national and international Piano Pedagogy Conferences, and lectured in University of Auckland and University of Waikato on piano teaching. With more than ten years of professional teaching experiences behind her, she is proud to have nurtured many students who became life-long music lovers and musicians.

Melody completed a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with First Class Honours under the tutelage of Associate Professor Rae de Lisle. Prior to studying with Rae, Melody suffered repetitive strain injuries (RSI) due to poor posture and technique. The steps of rehabilitation involved daily practice of careful learning of the exercises from Fit 4 Piano. Under Rae's guidance, Melody was able to make a full recovery and later on completed a Master's Degree in Piano Pedagogy researching strategies in teaching musical expressiveness. Melody demonstrates the workout exercises in this course.

What Fit 4 Piano Readers Are Saying:

“​I was one of the first to obtain the e-book and then the hard copy (which I love!). I immediately devoted one to two hours a day to gradually work through the exercises in the book; step by step over four weeks...The transformation that happened in my own playing over these four weeks, I experienced in my ensuing concerts. I felt better pianistically than I had for years, with the constant full-time university teaching I had been doing and consequent hugely reduced practice time. Since this time, I have been teaching the exercises to my students both in technique classes, and in weekly lessons supporting the repertoire they are studying. The direct remarkable development in their ease, fluency and their sound at the piano has been hugely gratifying and confirming. Whether you are teaching first-stage beginners, intermediate, advanced or concert-level pianists, whether you are a piano teacher wanting to keep up your playing or a concert pianist looking to keep yourself in finest form, in my experience the exercises in this book work for everyone.”

Katherine Austin - concert pianist, head of piano studies at University of Waikato

“What a vast knowledge lays in this work. The ability to watch the videos and read text, as well as see the exercises is invaluable! Congratulations on such an achievement!”

Irina Gorin - Internationally renowned pianist and pedagogue

“I've just been looking through Rae's new book, Fit 4 Piano, all about being, you know, Fit 4 Piano, and I'm especially loving that I can watch videos and demonstrations of *every* strategy, right away. And the illustrations are drop-dead gorgeous. Fantastic strategies, analogies, exercises, ideas, applications, everything. ”

Elissa Milne - world leading composer and teacher

“So for teachers looking for a new, innovative, colourful and different resource book, Fit 4 Piano must certainly be explored... highly recommended, Fit 4 Piano will be an invaluable resource for all piano teachers and students and will be a great asset for candidates preparing for various teaching exams. ”

Rita Crews - review from The Studio Quarterly Magazine

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