Posts Tagged ‘Piano Teacher’

Many of us have childhood memories of being bored out of our minds as we were forced to start our piano lessons for beginners. We would practice all week, just to go back to our piano teacher and show how little we really had improved. Well at least that is the way I remember it. Hopefully you were a bit more disciplined than I was! I just remember thinking of my lessons as a chore and not something I really enjoyed doing. My oh my, how times have changed.

Today there is a new way to learn to play the piano and many other instruments. The online instruction business has exploded and many people are finding that learning through the use of an online course works for them. The online world offers many ways to learn and they range from books, software, audio recordings and ultimately even video instruction.

People love the idea that they can learn and practice in their own homes, on their own time schedule. There are no commitments to weekly appointments with a music teacher. Another benefit is that one can learn as fast or slow as they wish. In other words, you work at your own pace. As a former music teacher I have been particularly interested in the online courses in particular. I genuinely feel like these courses have opened the world of music up to anybody with access to a computer.

Beginning piano lessons are being taken by young and old alike. You are almost never to young or old to start learning how to play! The piano is a very stimulating instrument and the amount of enrichment into your life from playing one is staggering. Add the modern day keyboards into the mix and you have a virtual orchestra at your fingertips. The electronic keyboards often incorporate “instruction modes” into their programming. That’s right, the keyboard itself can actually teach you how to play itself. Now that is exciting!

Once you decide you want to learn to play the piano, you will need to decide how you are going to receive your instruction. This is probably the most difficult step in the process. As I stated, many courses are available and it can be tough to figure out which course best fits your individual needs. I have personally investigated many of these courses and I write more about them on my piano student blog.

I encourage you to pursue your dreams of playing the piano. It is easier than ever before to learn, and you won’t need to spend a fortune on private lessons to do it. Imagine the joy you will experience when you sit down at the keyboard during your next family get together, your family gathered around the piano as you lead them all in you’re your favorite songs. Now those are lifetime memories.

Vaughn Nichols

There is no better time than the New Year to begin piano lessons. If you have been thinking of enrolling your child in piano lessons, don’t wait because piano lessons are so valuable for children. Parents know this, but a common excuse given is “We haven’t found a piano teacher yet.” Don’t let this be a stumbling block to enrolling your child in piano lessons. Below are a number of options that will result in your locating the piano teacher that’s right for your family. Just go down the list to find some options you probably haven’t thought of yet, and get your young child enrolled in piano lessons for the New Year.

o The easiest way to find a piano teacher in your area is to expand your area! The Internet is a great way to find information about piano lessons and piano teachers, as well as home piano lessons and resources. Do an internet search for “piano lessons for children” or “piano resources”. Here you’ll find internet resources available immediately to guide you in supporting your children in piano lessons at home. You can also do an internet search of “Piano lessons for children + your home town” to locate music instructors in your area. Check their websites to learn about them and call any that interest you.

o Check with your local sheet music store. Your local music store is a common location where music instructors leave their business cards for shoppers to find them.

o Look in the phone book under Music Instruction and call for interviews. Check the listings in your area. Today you even do this online. Make a list of questions you want to begin with such as location, and cost. But don’t stop there. Ask for an interview for you and your child to meet the teachers in person to get an idea of how the teacher will relate to your child. The person you are looking for should go out of their way to make your child feel comfortable and send a message that says, “I would love to be your piano teacher.”

o Send an email to your friends requesting their knowledge about piano teachers in your area. Referrals are the most common way parents locate piano teachers. Since we trust our friends, we trust their opinions. If after all of the above you are still unsure about choosing a piano teacher, ask your friends for a little help. Piano teachers really appreciate it when their students send them referrals, so this is a good way for your friends to say thank you to their child’s piano teacher for a job well done.

Start at the top of this list and work your way down. I guarantee you’ll find plenty of options to get your child started in piano lessons for the New Year. Remember, you don’t have to wait until another school year rolls around. You can begin today!

Learning to play the piano is about more than learning the names of notes. Students and parents have a variety of different piano methods to choose from. All teach the basics of playing piano. The differences lie in their respective emphases and their suitability for particular age groups and learning styles.

* The Suzuki method: This method of teaching piano originated in Japan in the mid 1900s. Shin’ichi Suzuki realized that children have the innate ability to learn whatever language is their “mother tongue.” This includes languages that are considered very difficult to learn when taken on in adulthood. Suzuki reasoned that children can learn to play an instrument in the same way. Like being immersed in a language from the moment of birth, immersion in music could also be instilled this way. Suzuki developed his piano curriculum in a manner that addressed the whole child. He desired to develop children who were not only skilled musicians, but noble citizens as well. In addition to formal lessons, the Suzuki method focuses on immersing the child in a musical culture. This includes listening to quality music at home, attending professional concerts, and meeting with other musicians. Of children who grow up learning the Suzuki method, a large percentage enters into careers in the music industry.

* Music for Young Children: This method is unique in that it incorporates parental involvement. Rather than merely dropping off a child at a lesson, parents actively participate in the child’s lesson. MYC builds upon the natural curiosity of a child by exposing children as young as three to different musical styles. Children are guided in exploring differences between types of music. Children are also encouraged to create their own compositions. Listening skills are stressed in MYC. It uses a multi-sensory approach to reinforce the concepts taught in class.

* The Bastien method: This method contains curriculum for both the child and the adult beginner. This is advantageous for those who never had the opportunity to take lessons in childhood. This method is not generally recommended for children younger than seven. It emphasizes good technique from the very first lesson. However, some professionals have criticized this method because of its over-emphasis on the five-finger method of playing. Students who study Bastien exclusively tend to learn to read notes more slowly than with other methods. The Bastien curriculum does incorporate graphics and colors that appeal to children. Students who are exposed to this method should also be taught other methods as well.

* The Alfred method: Similar to the Bastien method, there is curriculum for both the adult and child beginner. The method has been around since the early 1900s. Alfred has kept up with the times by expanding its curriculum to include software and CDs. Like Bastien, this method isn’t suitable for very young children. The method emphasizes intervals and chord progressions. Like Bastien, the tendency for students is to lag at learning to read notes. This curriculum may be best combined with other methods for a more rounded piano study.

* The Schaum method. This method has been around since the early 20th century. John W. Schaum began teaching piano during the depression era. Eventually he founded his own music school. His teaching method focuses on sight reading, theory and proper technique. It also encourages music appreciation and introduces classical music beginning at the very earliest levels. The Schaum method is suitable for children of all ages.

In part one of this two-part article, we discussed the benefits and drawbacks of using tuition books to learn how to play the piano or keyboard. In part two we will look at piano software courses. Why they are so popular and how they compare against tuition books.

The benefits of piano software courses

The immediate benefit is that you can get it so fast. If you find a piano course you want and it’s located on the other side of the world in another country, no problem, you can download it to your computer in a matter of seconds.

Piano courses include audio and video files which can explain, as a piano teacher would, the things that on you own, you might not quite grasp and you can get a video file to explain things to you as many times as you wish until you understand it. It’s like having your own personal piano teacher with you all the time.

The drawbacks of piano software courses

It’s difficult to find any drawback with these courses. I could say the cost, because they are more expensive than tuition books, but most, if not all of them have a money back guarantee. I suppose the only drawback is that initially you need a computer to download the course and to play the audio and video files and obviously a printer to print out your songs to play on your keyboard or piano.

Conclusion

If cost is an issue then tuition books are a good option, but you must learn the basics first. Software, in my opinion the absolute best way to go, with help from audio and video files your more likely to succeed. Whatever method you choose enjoy you piano playing. As soon as you have played your first song, you will get greedy for it. There really is nothing like sitting down at a keyboard and playing a piece of music, and its not as difficult as you might imagine.

If you’re a piano teacher trying to get a child’s hand to assume the classic “flat” position, you’ll have noticed by now that most children have some difficulty achieving that “correct” position.

In fact, children’s hands adopt a variety of strange positions when put on the piano, almost all of them painfully awkward and comic.

I’ve learned this because I do not teach hand position at first, and thus have had an opportunity to witness perhaps every variation in hand position that kids can naturally come up with.

There is the classic position I call the “bug crusher,” in which the two thumbs play a key each, but the rest of the hand droops below the plane of the keys.

Or the most popular and natural position, which I call the “pointer,” in which the two index fingers are poised, at the ready, in position to take a jab at the keys from various angles.

Strangely enough, the piano keyboard was designed with human hand in mind, perhaps more than any device ever created by the mind of man, except perhaps the glove.

You can achieve a perfect hand position with any child just by playing the following game I call “Hobbita-Jobbita.”

Sit or stand and have the child shake their hands vigorously, loose at the wrists, just letting the hand fly around free.

I like to have them say, “Hobbita-Jobbita” while we do it, a nonsensical sound which seems to go with the rather silly act of shaking your hands at arms length.

In the middle of shaking, stop suddenly, and very gently grab the child’s wrist and say, “Look!” You will see for a split second the human hand in absolute relaxation, and what you are trying to do is to get the child to observe what their hand looks like as a result of this silly game.

Remember, what’s important is that the child observe their hand in that perfect relaxed position, even if only for a second. Get them to acknowledge it.

Suddenly, something will happen: the child will tense their hand, and the fingers, limp a moment ago, are now as stiff as breadsticks.

In fact, we play the game several times, and I try to get them to leave their fingers like “wet noodles,” rather than like “breadsticks.”

I’ll tell you right now that kids love to stiffen their hands into “breadsticks,” just to see the piano teacher cringe. Laugh. It’s a game.

The second stage of the game is this: we play “Hobbita-Jobbita,” until they are seriously able to keep their fingers limp.

Then, and this is the crucial step, guide their loose hand to the piano keyboard, quickly, before it loses the relaxed shape, and put it in C position (C position is where the right hand thumb is on Middle C.)

It will take hundreds of times, perhaps, of playing this game for most children to get the idea, and they will joke and suddenly tense their hands many, many times, just to be impish. Laugh. It’s a game.

But eventually, happily as well, children will find a relaxed hand position by themselves using this method, and here is the magical part: every child I have taught this game plays habitually and without reminding in a perfect hand position, because they have been led, through games, to see that it is the best position.

Be warned, your patience will be tried, but you will be rewarded with that perfect hand position that many teachers slave to foster in their students. In fact, many teachers alienate the student on this issue alone, with constant reminders and browbeating.

There’s not a problem in beginning piano that can’t be solved with a creative piano game.

By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2000 Walden Pond Press. Visit http://www.pianoiseasy.com to see the fun PIANO BY NUMBER method for kids.

If you’re an adult who is thinking of taking up the piano, then I want to congratulate you.

Why?

Because many adults seem to think that you must start when you’re a child, if you’re ever to make any progress with learning piano. And it simply isn’t true.

So with that out of the way, what’s the best way for an adult to go about learning piano?

Well, the best way to learn the piano is to find a good piano teacher. This is the common advice, and it is usually the best option for most people. But its also the most time consuming and expensive.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other options for you to chose, if adult piano lessons isn’t something you have the time for, or can afford.

The first option I would recommend to you is to take some online piano lessons. There’s some great products out there on the web, which are very high quality, and also as good as having a real life teacher sitting next to you. These products often include videos and audio as well, which really speeds up your learning.

But if that’s an option that you’re not keen on, you can always get some adult piano lesson books. A quick look on Amazon should reveal plenty of books that will get you on the right track. Although something to be wary of when learning from a book, is the fact that you can’t actually see what to do like you can in a video or real life. This means you can easily learn things incorrectly, which can hold back your learning as you become more advanced.

Another option is to find videos and DVDs that teach piano. There’s plenty that cater specifically for adults. By learning this way, you can actually see what’s happening, which means it will be faster and less confusing to learn new music and techniques.

I hope this quick overview of the different ways you can learn piano as an adult will inspire you to find the method that works best for you. And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t learn piano as an adult, because it simply isn’t true!