Archive for the ‘Piano’ Category

If you have to nag your child to practice the piano, I have news for you. There’s something called the Battle of the Piano and you’ve already lost.

The Battle of the Piano is the time honored process whereby a child is either deemed a success at the piano or not.

Some children make it. They number 10% of all kids who try.

Some children don’t make it. They number 90% of all the kids who try.

The moment your child’s interest in piano lessons starts to wane, usually due to a lack of creativity on the teacher’s part, you have entered the Battle zone.

After what I call the “honeymoon,” where a child finds piano rather fun and interesting, there comes a moment of reality, when the child realizes subconsciously that the teacher has no tools OTHER THAN REPETITION.

The one tool of the non-creative piano teacher is repetition, mindless and numbing.

Such repetition is fine for an adult who is determined to play Beethoven, and is willing to pay the dues to do so. But for a six year old, it is a crushing regimen, a fact borne out by the 10%-90% statistics.

When a child’s interest in the piano wanes, they are surely headed for quitting if the teacher’s only tool is repetition.

As your nagging increases, the child becomes more and more alienated from the piano, until subconsciously the child blames the piano for your nagging. They can’t hate you for nagging, you’re Mom, so they hate the piano instead.

Mind you, all the while you’re unknowingly paying this teacher to make your child hate the piano, and you’re adding to the stress with your entreaties.

You ask the teacher for advice, after all, you’re paying them, and I guarantee you their only suggestion will be that the child practice more. That’s the one tool they have.

It’s as if your child hates broccoli, and the chef’s solution is to serve even larger portions. That chef knows nothing of child psychology and human nature.

Look at it from the child’s point of view. This crossfire of negativity from you and the piano teacher can have only one inevitable result, and that is the emotional destruction of the child’s desire to play.

Nagging won’t help. Nagging is a huge part of the problem, not the solution.

The child simply follows human nature.

What is the solution? A rule of thumb is to listen to your child.

Don’t think that going and observing a lesson will be any indicator of your child’s progress. The teacher, your employee, will be putting on a performance and your child will be terrified that you will be displeased.

Listen to your child. Go for a few weeks and see if it gets better. Keep listening to the child and ask them how they feel about it, and be sympathetic. Draw them out on exactly why they don’t like it. Assume they might be correct and get them to describe the lesson, perhaps request a comical reenactment to put them at ease and make them give you more details. You’re on their side.

Then, if the child’s attitude persists or gets worse, you have two choices.

First, try a different piano teacher. Spend your time talking to local people and find out if there is someone who specializes in children and has a reputation for making music fun for your age group. Find out which teachers are disciplinarians and avoid them, especially with younger kids.

The only other alternative is to give in to the child, and let them quit. It may actually be a better solution than allowing the bad feelings in the lessons to continue. Try a different instrument, switch to guitar, trumpet, drums, anything.

Or take a break from lessons and try again later when you’re sure a better teacher can be found. Find out what things the child finds fun about musical instruments. Go to a store and try out musical instruments.

Let them try a variety of instruments until they find one that suits them, and at which they seem comfortable and willing to expend at least a reasonable amount of effort.

Music lessons for children should be an enjoyable experience, and if it’s not, there’s something wrong.

The number one rule is to never force a child to learn music. Ever.

If you force them, I guarantee you they will end up hating it.

by John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2008 Walden Pond Press

The majority of piano companies began in foreign countries, such as Japan or Germany. Baldwin Pianos, however is a 100% American company, founded right here in the US.

From Humble Beginnings
In 1862, a music teacher named Dwight Hamilton Baldwin began a small retail company in Cincinnati. The Baldwin company sold pianos and organs, but at the outset, was only for retail. However, all that changed in 1973 when Baldwin formed a partnership with one of his employees, Lucien Wulsin. Together, the two men expanded the company, setting up little shops in various cities.

By 1980, the partners weren’t satisfied with simply selling other manufacturers’ instruments and began to design and plan their own. A year later, the first Baldwin upright piano appeared on the market and four short years later, they had also come out with a grand piano.

Moving On
In 1899, both Baldwin and his wife died. They left their share of the company, 80%, to a church, but it was quickly bought up by Baldwin’s business partner, Lucien Wulsin. Under his leadership, the Baldwin Piano Company thrived and a year later, a Baldwin grand piano garnered the Grand Prix award.

Despite the fact that radio appeared and the Great Depression hit causing many piano companies to go bankrupt, Baldwin not only managed to continue on thanks to an emergency fund that had been gathering for years, the company actually began to do sound research. With the help of the University of Cincinnati, Baldwin worked on investigating new techniques for sound-production.

Pausing for the War
Like other factories, Baldwin stopped producing pianos and focused on aircraft production, instead. It was something that many businesses were forced into, doing their part for the American war effort. This wasn’t a bad thing, however, since the techniques used to make wooden wings for aircraft ended up teaching Baldwin better techniques that would later be used to improve the construction of their pianos.

Once World War II ended, the economy was robust and Baldwin found itself in the middle of a rush of orders for organs and pianos. Churches were looking for new musical instruments after years of frugality and people wanted pianos in their own homes. It was an excellent time to be one of the few piano manufacturers that had made it through the Depression.

As time progressed, the company moved production further south, establishing factories in Arkansas and Mississippi before moving down into Mexico where costs were cheaper. New electronic organs were being produced now, as well and the company was doing very well. But it wouldn’t last for long.

In 1961, Lucien’s grandson, Lucien Wulsin III, took over the company from his father, Lucien Wulsin II. It would mark the beginning of a roller coaster ride for the small business that nearly ended in bankruptcy in 2001. Despite this, Baldwin pianos has bounced back and today is stronger than ever. They’ve produced over 1,000,000 vertical pianos over the years, established various patents, won awards for their fine piano construction and are bounding into the future with high hopes. Famous Baldwin Artists have included Liberace and composer Aaron Copland and it has been remarked that if Beethoven had the option of playing a piano, music would have changed drastically.

Continuing to produce handmade pianos, Baldwin is proving that it can stand the test of time. An all American company that has worked hard to maintain its original standards of high quality and constantly improving and expanding, Baldwin Pianos is certainly not giving up any time soon.

Do you remember the very first stories you learned as a young child? I bet you do. And most likely you learned them from your parents and caregivers who used song as a way to comfort, teach and entertain you. Yep! All those nursery songs about the alphabet, numbers, and eeeentsy-weeentsy spiders were using music to prepare your brain for speech. So forget all that left brain nonsense our parents were taught about music. When grandma was playing the piano, she was enjoying the interplay of both left and right brain activity. This is why learning to play the piano is so beneficial to children. It stimulates neural development, using all five of the basic creative skills. They include Seeing (or Visualization), Observing, Forming Analogies, Inverting, and Simplification. These are the same creative applications found in literature, art and science.

Just as musical stories helped your child establish a foundation of creative skills for language and math concepts, the reverse is also true. Literature, art, and science can help your child achieve their musical dreams! Below are examples of how this happens in piano.

Visualization – “What would it look like if you could do it?

Visualization is probably the most difficult creative skill to develop. Having a keyboard in the imagination, however, gives a powerful boost to piano students’ playing and note reading ability. So it’s worth it for students to spend time developing this creative skill. Here’s an example of how young piano students can start to do this. The piano has groups of two and three-black keys. There are three white keys around each group of two black keys. Ask your child in piano to close their eyes and pretend to draw two very large black keys in the air. Then while their eyes are still closed ask: “Can you see the white key of the left of the two-black keys? It’s a C. Can you see the one on the right? It’s an E. Can you see the one in the middle? It’s a D.” Keep this up throughout piano lesson sand soon your child will be able to visualize music, scales and chords, as well as hear them! Use visualization whenever your child is frustrated with learning something new in piano. Just ask, “What would it look like if you could do it?” This gets kids using their imagination and seeing possible solutions through their mind’s eye, just as stories do.

Observation – “Eureka! I never noticed that before!”

Observation is about carefully noticing the little things to find similarities and differences. For example, what’s the difference between staccato and legato notes, or an accent mark and a tenuto mark. Hey, is that a triplet or three eighth notes? Wow, this creative skill sure is important in playing piano! Students use this skill in learning piano when they ask? “How are these notes the same? How are they different?” Piano students use this creative process just as scientists do to find surprises in nature that were always there, waiting to be discovered. Remind your child in piano to use observation to overcome challenges in the music. You’ll enjoy hearing them say things like, “Eureka! I never noticed that before!”

Analogies – How to Gain Perspective/ Change Perspective?

Analogies are used to gain or change our perspective. Here are some examples of how analogies help piano students. To play legato, pretend your fingers are an eeeentsy-weeensty spider. Curve the spider’s legs and walk your fingers on the piano keys. To play staccato notes, imagine the piano keys are hot! To show your child how analogies can change our perspective, and teach us new concepts, try this: Sing the words to the song Amazing Grace to the tune from the television show, Gilligan’s Island. Go ahead. Sing it now. “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.” I bet that made you laugh )

Inverting – What would that look like if I turned it upside down?

Inverting also affects perspective by turning things upside down, or by taking things to extremes. Einstein did this when he obsessed over a beam of light and invented the theory of relativity. Einstein also loved music. Like his theory of relativity, many things we want to understand are counter-intuitive, including the piano techniques students need to play well. To tap into this creative function piano students can ask this question. “What would this look like if I turned it upside down?” Here’s a creative suggestion you can give your child for polishing a recital piece using this skill. Play the music backwards! Start with last measure instead of the first. Then play the last two measures, then the last three, then the last four, etc., until you reach the first measure. Then play the song all the way through and see how much better you can do it. This is a great way for students to thoroughly learn a piece of music.

Simplifying – “I’ve seen that some place before?”

Simplifying is how we find creative solutions to difficult challenges by eliminating what is unnecessary. Ever try too hard? Here’s a tip – Sometimes less is more. Before trying to re-invent the wheel, look back through the history books to see where this problem has been solved before by someone else, or yourself. Piano students can do this by asking, “Where have I seen this in music before?” “How did I play it then?” “What strategy can I follow to break this down and make it easier?” “What playing strategies has my piano teacher told me that I could apply here?” Or students can read a book to find out what other pianists have done.

So there you have it, piano parents. Five creative reasons to use literature, as well as art, science, and history to help your musical child achieve their piano dreams.

Raising children can be trying. At times so much so that it even tempts devoted parents to wonder, “How does the world manage to re-populate itself?” So keeping a sense of humor is really important. Here’s some crazy things kids say when taking piano lessons and practicing that parents need to be prepared to laugh at. Let’s start with the whining. Amazingly these are things I’ve heard young, beginning piano students say right after they have played a simple piece of music beautifully?

Student: “But it’s too hard.”

Parent: “It’s only too hard if you think it is.”

Student: “My fingers nails hurt.”

Parent: “We can trim your nails.”

Student: “Why do I have to look at the music?”

Parent: “Do you think I should look at the road when I’m driving?”

Student: “I’m thirsty.”

Parent: “I’m Dad.”

Student: “When can I play Fur Elise?”

Parent: “When you know how.”

Student: “When will I know how to play every song on the piano that I hear?”

Parent: “When you’re 18.”

Student: “Why do I need to play at home when I played piano at my lesson?”

Parent: “Because we can’t afford to play on your teacher’s piano every day.”

Here’s what parents of young children need to get. Kids whine. Everything your child complains about doesn’t mean anything. It’s kind of like my cat. He always stands at the door and whines, even when I just let him out. He will then whine by his food dish even though I just filled it up with his favorite kitty pellets. Why? Because it makes him feel secure to see me open the door for him one more time, and put a few more pellets in his bowl. Will he ever get tired of me opening the door and giving him more kitty pellets that he isn’t going to eat? No.

So don’t take your little kitten in piano lessons too seriously and in a few years they’ll be saying, “I can play the piano better than my parents, because I’ve been taking lessons and they didn’t get to do that.”

Piano playing is an art with unlimited possibilites. Pippi Longstocking made a remark in a film that can be used when you try to learn to play piano.

Pippi Longstocking is a nine-year-old Swedish girl in a series of children’s books. Pippi has red braids and is very unconventional, assertive, extraordinarily strong, and rich. She lives alone with a monkey and a horse in an old funny house. Her friends Tommy and Annika accompany her on her wild adventures.

One Christmas when she was alone in the house looking out through the window feeling lonesome her lyoung friends and the children from town came in a procession to her house surprising her with a Christmas present.

She was very happy when she saw them and when she opened the present she found a trumpet and immediately started to play on it.

One of the children commented: “I did’nt know that you played trumpet!”. Pippi answered smilingly: “Well, it is easier when you have a trumpet!”

Much wisdom there. It is easier to learn to play an instrument if you have an instrument. It is easier to learn to play piano if you have a piano. Do you have a piano?

What does it mean to have a piano. Let me explain………..

One of my cousins lived with her family in a small town in a small house. In the house was a tall black piano bought from a nearby amusement park. This piano was fascinating in one aspect.

It was fantastically out of tune!

When you played a melody on the piano it was like playing in different keys at the same time. My cousin living there never became a pianist. I don’t know if the out of tune piano put her off but it sure didn’t help her.

She learned one funny piano song at least and I can still remember the sound of it on that piano.

I think that you can say that a piano has to be tuned or it isn’t really a piano. All those beautiful and fantastic piano compositions are intended to be played on a tuned instrument.

I would suggest the following….

1. Have a piano. Meaning a tuned instrument. Make it a priority to have your piano tuned by a piano tuner or if you are adventurous, try to tune it yourself! Read about piano tuning on the net.

2. Buy a digital piano. It is always in tune but has other small disadvantages. It should have weighted key action to imitate the action of an acoustic piano.

When I was a child we always had our piano in tune but I guess it is quite common to find pianos that is out of tune around the globe.

I guess you can get used to playing on out of tune pianos but this will limit your progress and the joy you deserve to experience when you play piano.

Why is it easy to compose piano music?

Because you have to start from where you are. This should be fairly easy; Otherwise you have not started from where you are.

A suggestion is to start writing piano pieces for beginners in a progressive order. The idea is that as the pieces get more complicated for the player they will also become more complicated for you to notate and compose and you will subsequently learn as you write.

How is composing beneficial for your piano playing?

1. Your compositional endeavours will make you more and more aware of intrinsic musical subtleties in the music of other composers. When you start to think and feel like a composer you will also become a better performer as well. Performing is also a creative process similar to composing.

2. When you compose you will become a better sight reader.

I remember an assignment I had many years ago when I wrote the music to a musical. It made me aware of many notational problems I had not taken the time to solve for myself before.

When I started to play my piano music again I was astonished when realizing it was much easier for me to sight read complicated piano sheet music. The reason for this I concluded was my concentrated effort to notate my own piano music.

The process to play something with my fingers and and then try to notate the music on manuscript paper was so to speak a reversed sight reading exercise.

What about manuscript paper?

You can use a notation program or you can write on paper or use both approaches. I suggest that you start writing on paper the way that composers have done for centuries.

Composing piano sheet music by hand on manuscript paper is a cheap and effective exercise to learn the various sheet music symbols.

Very often I jot down musical ideas on ordinary white paper after drawing five lines by hand. It works fine if you can’t find your manuscript paper. You can buy manuscript paper for sheet music or print out your favorite format for free on the site http://www.blanksheetmusic.net

In conclusion, composing piano sheet music can become a natural part of your daily practice routine.

Spend half an hour a day composing your own piano sheet music and you will increase your musical knowledge and become an even better musician!

And remember; Composing piano sheet music is fun!