Lets say your child announces they want to play soccer. You sign them up for a soccer team and you head to your first meeting. There they supply you with the list. So you take it out and start buying everything on the list. Team uniform – shorts, shirts, socks. A practice ball in the appropriate size. And of source a great pair of soccer shoes that help you run and play better.
You would never think of having your daughter show up in a pair of her Mary Jane shoes. She’d fall down and hurt herself. So sticking with the appropriate equipment is mandatory – you understand it and you comply.
The same thing applies in the music world.
When your child announces that she wants to start playing the piano, you do your due diligence and find out what its all about. You find a local piano teacher that is willing to start piano lessons every week. You’ll also need to invest in a piano and the music required by the teacher.
Next comes shopping. And sticker shock. Pianos are how much?
For many people, the sticker shock wins out and they look for ways around investing in a piano. “Who knows if she’ll even like it,” they think. “Won’t one of those digital keyboards work at first until we make sure she likes it?”
It makes no sense to spend hundreds of dollars on soccer uniforms, lessons and games, equipment and practice gear, only to refuse to buy the proper shoes for your daughter to play in. Its setting her up for failure from the start.
Likewise, not buying the proper instrument for her to practice and train on is setting her up for failure right from the start.
There is more to learning how to play the piano then learning which finger goes on which key. Piano is all about sound and acoustics. Its making the connection to what you’re reading on the music, to how your fingers connect with the keys, to the sounds you are producing. If she isn’t producing a quality sound, frustration sets in. And the desire leaves.
If you’ve invested in a digital piano just to see if your child “will stick with it”, you may be setting them up for failure right from the beginning.
Don’t face sticker shock alone from looking at a few price tags online. Instead, come into the store and partner with us. There are many options for you to get a quality piano at a price you can afford. There are new and used options. There are ways to start out with a lower investment, knowing you can trade in and move up if your child continues in the future. You can learn the difference between different types of piano.
And more importantly, you can learn and hear the difference.
With just a few tips, you’ll be giving your child all she needs to move forward in a rewarding way, making music with one of the most popular instruments in the world today.
