His Honour Judge Cardinal presides over Birmingham's Star Chamber, otherwise known as the Court of Protection. Disregard this eminent Christian, and you can be put in jail without a hearing, without access to counsel, and with no opportunity even to contact an MP. His eminence knows the law better than I do, and no doubt thinks himself entirely justified, although throwing someone into jail for five months without access to advice does rather preclude the possiblity of appeal. Some of us might think that a son and daughter could care for their father better than Birmingham City Council. The case has come to its inevitable conclusion with the death of the gentleman, but heaven preserve us from Judge Cardinal's protection (for the avoidance of doubt, he is a lay reader with the CofE, and not RC). I await the knock at the door.
Dame Fanny Waterman is probably the most distinguished piano teacher in the country, and one of the best ever. Here she is on top of her form, explaining Beethoven to young children in terms of his other work, getting into the deepest meaning behind a simple note change from F to Eflat in Clair de Lune, and using this understanding to explain technique. I bought for a pound or so at a boot sale her Merry Christmas Carols, which she describes as being "arranged for easy piano."
Except, it's not so easy. There are no (verbal) notes on any of the carols, just fingering marked above quite a lot of the notes, and this fingering is very often not the easiest, and hence most natural, way to play a particular note. It very often involves a movement of the whole hand, for reasons that are sometimes only apparent one or two bars later. Do it Fanny's way, and the later notes fall into place. Don't, and you find your hand needing to make a big and unnatural jump that makes phrasing very difficult if not impossible. This is counter-intuitive, and my wife offers the view that life is counter-intuitive. Discuss... Still, it would be much better if Dame Fanny were to write some notes explaining what she does and why, as she does on You Tube, or even videoed some lessons doing this for all of her materials. "Do as I say," is not always enough if people don't understand why.
PS. I´ve started to work on Mozart´s variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Dame Fanny´s fingering principles are the key to being able to play it at all. I think she has another book to write.