Posts Tagged ‘Learn Piano’

We all need to dream and to believe that one day our dreams will come true. But without a plan for success, our dreams are unlikely to materialize. The dream of learning to play the piano is no different. Even young students, however, can learn to set goals and take responsibility for their success. Helping your child keep a piano journal is an easy way to start them thinking about how they will bring their musical dreams to life. Follow the guide below to help your child in piano map out a simple plan for success, and see how easy and beneficial keeping a piano journal can be.

Example: I want to play the piano like my grandpa. He’s awesome!

How do I want to see myself in one year?

Example: Playing well at my Spring Recital.

In Two years?

In Five to ten years?

What can I accomplish toward my piano dream this week?

Example: Learn the new piece my piano teacher assigned G Major.

Are there specific goals that will help me achieve this objective?

Examples: Memorize Five-Finger Hand Position in G; Name each note; Identify difficult passages and; Play over these areas in the music many times.

What are some good habits I need to develop that will support my piano goals?

Examples: Set aside a specific time to practice each day; Avoid distractions while practicing, such as television; Tell friends I can play after I finish practicing my piano lesson; Attend my piano lesson with my teacher each week.

Planning to follow through with good habits that support our goals is how dreams are achieved.

Want to learn how to play the piano, but don’t want to spend a heap of time learning how to read sheet music?

Learning piano doesn’t have to be as heard as you may believe it is. If fact if you start by learning chords it is actually quite simple.

That’s understandable. Learning piano doesn’t have to be the hard chore so many believe it to be. In fact, it can be quite easy IF YOU START BY LEARNING CHORDS!

If you learn piano this way it is so much easier – and you stay motivated as you see the improvement so quickly, than learning how to read notes on a page. This is because we are creating the music ourselves.

Once you have your chords down, you are then able to explore your piano in a way that would never have been able to before. Many piano players do not believe that they have the ability to improvise, but this is not true. If you have the desire, then this is all you need. And once a student takes the plunge they are hooked!

To learn piano without years of lessons is not as hard as you would think. All it requires in the time and ability to learn a few simple chords and then create music by experimenting with those chords.

However if you are looking to be a classically trained pianist you are going to have to learn how to read music, but if you are just wanting to learn the piano, chord learning is perfect.

So you’re ready to take your piano learning online and you realize that for ultimate convenience and learning at your own pace that online piano lessons are the future, right?

Well, that’s a great idea and I think it’s one of the best ways to learn piano mainly because you don’t need to schedule your time around a private tutor (who costs a fortune wherever you live).

However, before you download a piano course you must make sure you don’t waste your time and money on a real dud, and believe me there are quite a few to wade through before you find a piano course that’s worth bothering with…

In just a moment, I will show you how to find the right piano course to download and how I have singled out the chaf from the wheat, so to speak.

“What’s the worst that can happen if I download a piano course that’s no good?”

Actually, quite a lot of negative repercussions can happen as a result of a shoddy download. Let’s have a look at what happens when you pick the wrong online piano course:

1. Time wasted

Goes without saying really, that the time it takes to download and install, then actually get up and running with the program is a total waste if the piano course is utter junk. Plus, it is extra hassle to un-install it all and of course it wastes more time in doing so.

Plus, a bad online piano course will take longer to learn what you need and want to learn on the piano, so you have to think of that side of things too. This could equate to years of needless struggle, so beware!

2. Bad habits

Sure, you might be inclined to stick with what you’ve been lumbered with, but just like learning to drive, learning from a bad online piano course could leave you with a bad foundation in terms of the theory and also the techniques. These are actually difficult to reverse after a while.

3. Wasted money

This is obviously the main one, and although most online piano course downloads should offer a refund, be careful as believe it or not, some of the lesser known and more shady companies online will make it harder for you to get a refund, hoping you’ll just give up trying after a while (I’ve had this happen to me many times, and yes, I gave up on a few…)

Either way, here’s a few pointers for finding a piano course online that’s right for you:

1. Who’s teaching it?

Credibility is very important, so make sure the teacher is someone who knows what they are talking about.

2. How’s it being taught?

Multiple modalities (video, text, audio) are important, because we all learn in different ways. Having all these modalities in the piano course makes it much easier and quicker to learn to play piano like a true pro!

3. Guarantee

Is there a solid, long guarantee in place? When it comes to a program that will take you more than a couple of days to absorb, you need to know that the guarantee will last more than a couple of days (or weeks in fact). The last thing you want to find out is that there’s a problem with the 7th lesson, 3 weeks later and the guarantee has run out.

4. Caters for multiple skills levels

If you’re a beginner, you don’t want to try and learn jargon aimed at professionals, and vice versa. A good piano course will masterfully bring you up the learning curve of playing piano without leaving you in the dark at any stage. A good course will also allow you to jump in easily at the level you’re at, but still be able to teach you everything you’ve still to learn.

If you follow these guidelines, you’ll be able to find and download a piano course that’s more than suitable for your needs. There are of course other aspects to consider, which we detail in our exclusive online piano course review here.

That should help you uncover the flaws to some of the most popular online piano courses, helping you to make a wise decision without falling into the common traps above.

Every child has their own internal speed limit for the piano. This is the pace at which they can comfortably learn the piano.

It is different for each child. Because one child learns Beethoven’s Fur Elise in five minutes doesn’t mean any other child will be able to do so as quickly.

A wise piano teacher is always testing their students, not for scales and abilities but for mood. It’s more important to make the child comfortable than to rush into new ideas.

A child who is happy and comfortable at the piano is far more likely to eventually accomplish what the piano teacher wants. The trick is for the teacher to be patient and move slowly enough that the child does not feel overwhelmed.

Since the main object of piano lessons is usually to make the child read music, it is important for the teacher to have a strategy for achieving that.

Thus, in between reading music, a piano teacher should play fun piano games when the child becomes fatigued with reading music. In my experience, younger children get tired of reading music in about five minutes. If you exceed this limit, you will have a sluggish student, for the mental exertions required to read music deplete kids of their energy quite quickly.

Keep using this bait and switch scenario. Start with a little work, when it becomes drudgery, as evidenced by the child’s mood, immediately switch to a light-hearted musical game.

When this game is finished, move back instantly to the problem that was exhausting them, and let them have another try. They will be refreshed and will make a little progress.

Don’t forget: the speed limit for hard work at the piano is five minutes.

Exceed it and you will have an exhausted child.

Obey it and you will be able to string those five minute periods into a musical education.

When you teach piano, you are using your own talent to spread the beauty of music to others, which is a wonderful thing. Here are some tips to help you to learn how to teach piano to students.

The very foundation of how to teach piano is in understanding that every student will be different, and each person will learn at their own pace. It’s easy to get into a routine when you are teaching music and to forget that not everyone will learn through the same routine or at the same pace, but it’s best to avoid this approach and tailor your lessons to each individual’s learning abilities.

To begin to teach piano there are some essential tools of the trade you will have to have on hand.
A whiteboard can help you to teach through activities, and will aid your students in learning notes, rhythm, etc. You will also want to have some rhythm sticks, which you can use to help your students learn rhythm. Along with these tools, you will want some good music lesson books, preferably those that contain a variety of ability levels so that you can match each student with lessons for their level.

If a student has no previous experience in playing the piano, you will want to start to teach piano to them by having them learn and practice some basic chords. Along with the chords, in the beginning your student will also have to learn about hand position, piano keys, as well as notes and scales. When you teach piano a general lesson guideline to follow may include:

o A warm up period: At the beginning of each lesson, the student should warm up before going over what they learned during the previous lesson.
o Evaluate the student’s progress: As the student is warming up and playing what they were taught during their previous lesson, you can evaluate their progress and decide if they are ready to move on to the next lesson.
o Introducing a new lesson: If the new lesson is especially difficult, you may find it helpful to teach piano lessons in blocks. Show your student how to play in separate blocks, learning each one before moving on to the next.
o Whiteboard lessons: After practicing lessons at the piano, spend some time with your student using the whiteboard. You can go through a variety of activities that can aid them in understanding rhythm and notes. During your whiteboard lessons you can teach your student rhythm, note naming, notes and values.

When you teach piano at the end of each lesson, always ensure that your student leaves feeling as if they have achieved some measure of success.

If you’re looking to download piano lessons then it’s important to realize that there are many online piano lessons and guides that do more damage than good. Let me explain how…

Firstly, if you’re not sure what criteria you should be using to find reputable and worthwhile piano lessons then you’re going to add frustration, wasted money…and further more, you’ll be wasting a lot of your own time as a result.

The following criteria is what I used to conduct my exclusive piano lessons review and you should find this very useful when looking for your perfect piano lessons online…

1. Who is teaching the lessons?

The more experienced the teacher, or creator of the lessons, the better. This will allow for easier learning curves.

2. Are the lessons adaptable to your needs?

If you’re a beginner, you’ll want beginner lessons obviously. However, anybody who wants to learn to play piano or simply improve their current skill level needs the room to do so. This means that it’s more cost and time effective to get a course that caters to your porgression, instead of having to hunt down a new lesson each time.

3. Is there value for money?

Although you can get random piano lessons online, you’ll be hard pushed to get an entire step by step guide. If you’re looking for the one-off lesson to brush up on one particular aspect of your piano playing, then that’s ok. But when it comes to consistent learning and solid skills, an entire course is always the best option.

If you’re ready to learn properly, make sure the course you download has plenty of learning aids, as this is almost the industry standard of online piano guides today. Such aids would be video, audio, books and other training tools to help with the whole learning process.

4. Are you protected?

It’s tempting to jump right in with a course, but before you go ahead and download piano lessons make sure the lessons are backed by a full money back guarantee, and not just for a couple of weeks but for at least 60 days. This will give you a good chance to try the lessons out and see how you get on.

If you follow these tips, you’ll be sure to find piano lessons online that are worthwhile downloading and actually teach you the right piano skills, so you can reach the level of piano playing that you’ve always wanted.

Before you download your next piano lessons online, you may wish to do a side by side review a few of the more popular piano lesson programs first.

Ultimately, if you follow these guidelines, you’ll be able to find and download a piano course that’s more than suitable for your needs. There are of course other aspects to consider, which we detail in our exclusive online piano course review here.

That should help you uncover the flaws to some of the most popular online piano courses, helping you to make a wise decision without falling into the common traps above.