The Journal
Stories & tips.
Long-form guides for Kenyan parents and students. Studio notes, trainer spotlights, and what we learn term by term at our Kikuyu campus.
Guides
Evergreen reference for parents and students.
Long-form pieces we return to ourselves — first-instrument decisions, exam pathways, what real progress looks like.
Ready for your ABRSM exam? How we check before you pay to sit it
ABRSM entry fees aren't small, and they climb with every grade. So before any Concerto student books an exam, we run an honest readiness check — a full mock under real conditions. If you're not ready, we say so. Here's exactly how we decide.
5 min read · 895 words
Piano vs Keyboard for beginners — what to buy in Nairobi, and why it matters
They look similar, cost very different things, and produce wildly different learners. A practical guide to choosing — and what we actually tell parents who walk into our Kikuyu studio with this question.
8 min read · 1,498 words
The ABRSM exam pathway, explained for Kenyan students and parents
Grade 1 to grade 8, prep tests, theory exams, performance grades — what the ABRSM ladder actually looks like in Kenya, what each grade asks of a student, and how to use exams as motivation rather than pressure.
8 min read · 1,412 words
From the journal
Studio notes & shorter reads.
Studio Notes
Why we picked ACK Immanuel Church, Kikuyu, as our home
We had three viable locations on the table in 2016 — two in Nairobi proper, one in Kikuyu. Here's why the choice that looked unconventional at the time has aged into the most obviously right decision the school has made.
Concerto Team · 4 min read
Performances
Notes from KMF 2026 — what we heard adjudicating the strings category
Two of our trainers spent three days adjudicating the strings category at the Kenya Music Festival's regional rounds. Here's what they noticed — about the level, the trends, and what the next generation of Kenyan string players is doing differently.
Concerto Team · 4 min read
Learning Tips
Why 30 minutes a day beats 3 hours on Saturday
Every term we have the same conversation with at least one family: the child practises three hours on Saturday and twenty minutes the rest of the week. Here's why we always recommend the opposite, and the small change that usually fixes it.
Concerto Team · 4 min read
Trainer Spotlights
Meet Sarah — our strings department lead
Sarah has been with Concerto since 2019 and runs our strings programme — violin, viola, cello and the small but determined ensemble that practises in the church annex on Thursday afternoons. We sat down with her to talk teaching, performance, and what she wishes more parents understood.
Concerto Team · 5 min read
Learning Tips
What we learned teaching through exam season 2025
Forty-three of our students sat ABRSM grade exams across the November 2025 and March 2026 sittings. Here's what worked, what didn't, and the three small changes we're making to our exam preparation routine for the next cohort.
Concerto Team · 5 min read
Studio Notes
The free discovery session — why every student starts with one
Before any student commits to lessons, they sit a free, in-person discovery session — it's how we place them with the right trainer, the right class and the right grade. After roughly 600 of them, it's still the most important thing we do.
Concerto Team · 5 min read
Browse by topic
Pick a thread to pull.
Click a topic to see every piece tagged with it.
More than reading?
The journal is here for the long decisions. When you're ready to start lessons, the first one is a free discovery session.