24 November 2020 Don’t Make These Mistakes When Learning To Play The Piano

Don’t Make These Mistakes When Learning To Play The Piano

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As we continue to stay at home more, are you looking for more things to do in the comfort of your own home? 

Learning to play the piano can give you hours of enjoyment, and a lifelong love of the arts. 

Yet many people attempt to learn on their own. Thanks to the internet, you can find all kinds of training that can help you get started and improve your playing. If you choose this route, there are a few mistakes players make that can grow into bad habits that impact your playing. 

Fingering and hand movements

Most people assume you sit down and play; fingering and hand movements come naturally. That’s simply not true. Your bench should provide you with a comfortable seat, one that allows your hands to flow naturally by your side. Your wrists should be slightly bent, without overexerting your arms as you play. Each finger is meant to connect with the keys in a certain way. If you attempt to do this without focus, you won’t learn in such a way so that you can continue improving over time. You’ll have to unlearn bad habits to grow and play more difficult pieces. 

Piano placement

At a time where everyone is home, finding the time to play can be difficult. You might be tempted to stick your piano in the basement, or in a corner in a room people seldom visit. Out of sight is also out of mind. Your piano should be in a place you’re comfortable spending time in. You should place it in a room where you’re more likely to sit down and play. 

Sticking to a routine

Routines help us get more done in our busy days. Practice included. While you don’t have to play every day, it is important to create a regular schedule to ensure your ability starts to increase over time. Don’t focus on time – being rigid with 30 or 45 minutes of practice can lead to feeling overwhelmed. Instead, make it a goal to sit down at a specific time and establish goals for each session. Give your kids a goal to practice while you make dinner, for example. You can listen and be involved in your child’s learning while doing a chore you have to do as well. 

Relying only on yourself

While you may wish to start playing the piano through online videos or working on beginning books yourself, don’t discount using a teacher to improve what you do. Whether live or online, individual or group coaching, it’s always good to have an expert weigh in on how you’re doing. It can make your success happen that much faster, just by tweaking small steps as you make them. 

Are you learning to play the piano this year? 

What’s helped you become a better piano player?

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2 April 2016 What Parents Should Know About Piano Lessons

What Parents Should Know About Piano Lessons

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Parents understand that whatever activity they put their child into, they will need practice along the way.

If they join a play, they will have regular practice to learn their part.What Parents Should Know About Piano Lessons

If they take up soccer, they will have regular practice to absorb the strategies.

In most cases, you can sit back and watch them in action from the sidelines, see them making progress, listen to the interaction between coach and teammates.

But that doesn’t work as well for piano lessons. If your child wants to learn how to play the piano, you drop them off and pick them up, without understanding what goes on behind closed doors. If you’ve never been through the process yourself, it’s difficult to understand your role in the entire process. But as a parent, there are many things you can do every day to help them enjoy the piano and improve a little more each week.

Your child needs help establishing a routine
The most important aspect of learning to play the piano is to help them develop a structure. For young children that have shorter attention spans, 20 minutes every day will beat out 30 minutes three or four times per week anytime. These short bursts can help them focus in on learning while avoiding the burnout that comes from extensive repetition. Even if you don’t understand music, you can still be there to help them organize their time wisely, practice things according to the teaching plan, and find ways for answering the “I’m stuck” questions that invariably come with learning something new. Be a part of this process every step of the way. Remember; their piano teacher is there for you to ask questions of too.

Your child needs encouragement
Learning to play the piano is difficult. It’s not something that will come easily in a short period of time. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming; that’s when they need your guidance the most. Show them you’re there every step of the way. You can listen to practice sessions. You can attend recitals with enthusiasm. You can invite friends and family to attend, showing you enjoy what they are doing and take pride in their performance.

Your child needs a positive practice environment
The daily routine should never be about cramming in everything to make sure it fits. It should never be about moving rapidly from one thing to the next to make sure you have time for it all. Instead, piano practicing should be a relaxing time, a time for enjoyment. It’s not just practice, it’s learning to enjoy and create beautiful music. Accomplishing the next scale or moving to a harder piece of music isn’t the goal if they don’t enjoy the process.

Your child needs a piano that’s enjoyable
Playing the piano is more than understanding where the notes are. It’s about the enjoyment of the music that comes from within. Even the youngest of players will experience making beautiful sounds. If you choose an instrument that gives them the joy of creating music, one that sounds good to their ear, they will be more fulfilled with the process.

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18 April 2015 Is Piano Easier To Learn Than Other Instruments?

Is Piano Easier To Learn Than Other Instruments?

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As a parent, it’s important to expose your child to many different things. And for many reasons, introducing them to the art of creating music should be at the top of the list. But what instrument is best for a young learner? Is piano easier to learn than other instruments? Or should you introduce guitar or violin early on, and wait for more complexity later?Is Piano Easier To Learn Than Other Instruments?

There are many thoughts and rules on when to introduce an instrument. And in a lot of cases it does come down to personal choice. If a child has her heart on being a great piano player, that alone can give her the motivation to become one. It works the same with any instrument out there.

But if you had to pick one instrument to begin with, one to learn on, is piano the “easiest” choice?

In general, the piano makes a great starter instrument for a number of reasons.

Overall, a piano is an easier instrument to play for young children when compared to its string counterparts. To make a sound on a piano, you simply have to press a key. On a guitar, you have to strum at a string (often holding a pick) and simultaneously press down on a string with your other hand. Similar functionality occurs with other string instruments, such as a violin. This two handed coordination can be difficult for some children, and can allow them to become frustrated early on. Which means in many cases they quit long before they realize the fun in producing music.

When kids start playing, they imagine themselves on stage like their favorite pop star, or strumming out a tune in a similar manner to the gaming world. When it doesn’t happen as quickly as they anticipate, they can lose interest. To make those sounds on a guitar, a person has to learn chords and lead techniques that won’t come in the first little bit of practice. And in fact, it can be very difficult for little hands to master these techniques early on. With a piano, even complex songs can be simplified so a beginner can play tunes they recognize, which can provide them more motivation to carry forward.

The piano is more comprehensive for learning music. Piano music involves both treble and bass clefs, and allows you to play both melody and accompaniment. Instruments like guitar only use the treble clef, and trumpets or flutes will only express melodies. If a child decides to take their music skills to the next level, and pursues music in college, most will have to take some piano because of the complexity involved. The piano provides for a more comprehensive view of how music works. And many students express that they wish they had pursued piano from an earlier age, to help them with a more thorough understanding as they grew.

So is piano easier to learn on then other instruments? While it could be debated, it is true that piano overall will give them a more comprehensive appreciation for the music they make. And isn’t that the goal anyway?

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18 October 2013 Staying Motivated While Learning to Play the Piano

Staying Motivated While Learning to Play the Piano

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Staying Motivated While Learning to Play the Piano

The piano is a timeless instrument that has been played by many throughout the past several centuries. It remains as one of the most difficult instruments to learn, but it appeals to the masses in a way no other instrument has done. Due to this, many people worldwide introduce their children to the piano at an early age to ensure that proper posture and technique is utilized.

Staying Motivated While Learning to Play the PianoTips for Keeping Your Piano Inspiration Going

Although a most desired instrument, piano enthusiasts begin to lose inspiration and motivation once they realize how difficult the instrument is to learn. However, here are several tips to take into advisement while learning the piano to keep the inspiration and motivation alive:

Tip 1 – Hire a piano teacher or expert to teach new techniques.

Nothing helps more than having someone harping over you several times a week to ensure you are practicing, no matter how much you do not want to do so. It will be vital for all learning pianists to hire a teacher at some point so they can get proper advisement and become the best pianist possible.

Tip 2 – Never set a deadline.

Practicing for a while each day is the best method since, as they say, “Practice makes perfect.” However, never practice to a set time. Instead, try establishing goals that are more meaningful – practice scales five times, and play through newest song three times. When you get the motivation to play each day, play for as long as you want. This ensures you never get exhausted of the piano and it will always be an enjoyable experience. The piano should be an outlet to relieve stress, not a cause of stress.

Tip 3 – Play songs that interest you.

Finding songs that you enjoy playing will make the experience more positive. Pianists never excel when they work on masterpieces that they do not pour their heart and soul into it. Beethoven and Mozart, two of the most popular pianists in history, only made masterpieces that they felt were adequate and enjoyable for them. Following in their footsteps implies playing music from the soul, not what you think will “impress” people.

Tip 4 – Never Worry About Making Mistakes

Piano is not an easy instrument to learn and mistakes are bound to happen. When you begin training, expect to make a fair number of mistakes. Practicing enhances your overall playing style and lessens the number of mistakes made. Live by the quote, “Practice makes perfect.” The longer you train and practice on the piano, the less mistakes you will eventually make.

Patience is Key

The more patience you instill within yourself while training on the piano, the more motivated you will be to play every day. Ensure to never play longer than you can manage and just keep in mind that you are human. You will lose interest for a few days, you will make mistakes and you will master the piano on your own terms.

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18 September 2013 3 Myths about Learning to Play the Piano

3 Myths about Learning to Play the Piano

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You have the perfect room in mind in your home for a piano. You’ve always dreamed of owning one.

Yet even though you can’t wait for the piano to make its entrance into your home, even more importantly is the thought of actually playing it. Sure, you took a few lessons as a kid. But those quit once you jumped into other extracurricular activities and the homework pile started to grow.

3 Myths about Learning to Play the PianoNow that your dream piano is making its entrance into your home, maybe now is also the perfect time to start up the lessons again so you can learn to play the piano. Yet can you do it as an adult?

Learning how to play the piano can be a challenge for some people. Whether you are a beginner or someone who hasn’t played piano in years, learning can be frustrating.

Sure you hear a lot of reasons why people can’t pick up the piano – the myths are hard to ignore. But do they hold any validity? Are they true?

Here are some of the top myths about learning to play the piano:

Myth #1: You have to learn how to read music first.

Truth: Some people think that they have to learn how to read sheet music before they can even begin playing the piano. The truth is that the best musicians learn without learning the actual keys or notes first. They learn by improvisation and listening. Learn the basic chords. When you know just a few chords and grab on to the rhythm by ear, you can learn to play simple music without ever having to read it.

Myth #2: You play piano with your fingers.

Truth: You actually use the weight of your arms to play the piano. Believe it or not, you can relax and let gravity do all of the work for you. When you use the weight of your arms, you are able to control the loudness and softness of the keys with ease and precision. While your fingers do a lot of the work, they can only strike one note at a time. The key is to play with your upper body, and you will be able to play groups of notes.

Myth #3: Practicing means learning a piece from beginning to end.

Truth: While this is certainly practicing, you are not really doing it in an efficient way. While practicing is all about repetition, playing is about flow. You can express yourself through the music, but this comes after practicing. So you don’t have to learn a song from beginning to end and play it perfectly. By practicing slowly and a little bit at a time, you can graduate to playing in no time.

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