Frode Heggelund
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What was your piano journey like before joining Ridley Academy?
“I started playing organ when I was about 8 years old and followed the municipal music school until I was about 18.
I had some nice teachers and enjoyed my time with the organ. Though, I never had any serious thoughts about it—it was all for fun, and I was just enjoying the moment.At this time, I mostly played classical pieces from Bach and Mozart, as well as other calm melodies from Rolf Løvland.
I considered my playing okay, but it wasn’t great—just sufficient for me to feel mastery.Before starting university, I bought myself a Roland E68 because the organ was too big for my small apartment.
The instrument was funded by playing in a few weddings, but this was nothing I enjoyed.
I didn’t feel ready, and I just got the gigs pushed on me by my organ teacher, who had double-booked his own.Between the ages of 18-23, I experimented a bit with composing and made around 20 melodies—nothing awesome, but enough to have fun.
I also tried a private music school but quit after a very short time because I didn’t have any fun.At 28, I bought a Roland FX-8, my first meeting with weighted keys, and it has been my main instrument ever since.
Though, for the last 20 years, I have only been playing songs I already knew by heart and had not learned anything new—until I started at Ridley Academy.”
What were your biggest struggles with learning piano?
“I don’t feel like I have had any struggles because I never had any high goals. Though, I have always felt like there has been some basic knowledge about scales missing which have prevented me from improvising or understanding some basic dynamics of the songs.”
What methods of learning have you tried in the past?
“Municipal music school and later a local private music school.”
What made you decide to join the Ridley Academy? Was there a moment when you thought, “I have to try this”?
“For me, it’s all about having fun, and when I saw Stephen Ridley I thought, wow, this person has so much energy and is so much fun. I was certain that I would get bang for the bucks with his program even if I had all this prior experience.”
How did the lessons compare to traditional learning?
“The main difference is how the Academy pumps up the students so we feel like we can do anything before we start. I have to say that this part was brilliant, I felt so confident I would get somewhere even before I started touching the piano.
The second difference is that all the videos are ready for you to take on in your own phase, and it goes through everything so I learned all the basics I was missing from earlier in a short time.
And then there is the mentoring program which is completely personalized as well with group sessions. The brilliant part of this is that it brings everyone together with regular competitions where everyone pumps each other up with nice comments. It gives a kind of boost that I don’t think I would have gotten in any other music education.”
Was there a specific lesson, exercise, or breakthrough that changed the way you played?
“I realized how much improvement I could get from hand yoga. Previously I had some precision issues when playing “Marsz Turecki” by Mozart, but after doing the hand yoga for a little while it felt much smoother.
The scales lessons also gave me huge improvements as I did not know how the scales worked earlier, I could only play from notes and never cared about the key, it was all flats and sharps to me.
The circle of 5th lesson put all the pieces together and everything made sense. I have no idea why I was never taught the circle of 5th before, it’s brilliant.”
Tell us about your winning performance—what song did you play, and why did you choose it?
“I wanted to do my own version of What a Wonderful World for the What a Wonderful World challenge, and my original plan was to sing. However, all I could see outside was trees of white (full of snow) and ice roses too, which could have made a nice twist to the lyrics, but I figured “icing down” the “lyrics” would have ruined the whole song so I soon left that approach. Instead I found a cover by Francesco Parrino on youtube which I liked a lot, and as it was the most viewed cover, I figured it was a high chance it would spark an emotion in the listener.“
How did you make it your own? (Style, emotion, outfit, stage presence?)
“I changed the beginning and the ending of the song, as I wanted something softer in the beginning and a more expressfull ending.Though, I have to give my coach, Carlos, much of the credit for the ending as he led me in the right direction. The main part of the song was left unchanged from Parrinos note sheets because I had a strong liking for it, but I tried to add more dynamics throughout the song by playing around with the softener pedal and doing minor tempo changes here and there.”
How has your playing changed since joining Ridley Academy?
“I play with more confidence, and I have a stronger understanding on what to do when asked to improvise (though I still have a lot to learn in that department yet)”
Has this experience helped you outside of music—maybe in confidence, creativity, or discipline?
“Definitively, my best takeaway from the Ridley Academy is the growth of confidence in a general setting, not only at the piano.”
What’s next for you? Do you have any new piano goals or dreams?
“ I would like to explore singing while playing next. I was thrown into singing by the challenges although I have never been singing before. Nevertheless, it felt good and this is where I feel I have the most potential for growth, and by just doing small things it makes me feel very happy even though I have a long way to go.”
I’ve seen some incredible submissions from you over the past year—what did it feel like to finally win Mentorship Student of the Month with this last performance?
“ Thank you, I love to play around and have fun with the challenges, they always generate so much positive feedback from everyone in the academy community, which has been driving me harder and harder every time. It felt very good to stand up and say how much everyone’s love had contributed to the win and to point out how much the positive feedback contributes to everyone’s growth in the academy.”