8 August 2015 Taking Up The Piano At Any Age Can Be Beneficial For Your Brain

Taking Up The Piano At Any Age Can Be Beneficial For Your Brain

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As a parent, we want to expose our children to the right activities. We want to set them up for success with everything they do. We want to expand their knowledge, try a little of everything, then help them make the right selections to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

The power of a music background is obvious almost from the moment you hear of it. We’ve all heard of theories like The Mozart Effect. Yet pushing a child into something that may be a little different from the norm can sometimes be difficult. If “the gang” is all hanging out on the soccer field, what motivation does a child have for sitting in front of a piano?Taking Up The Piano At Any Age Can Be Beneficial For Your Brain

Yet piano playing isn’t just for kids; that’s what extends its power throughout a person’s life. The more scientific research is performed, the more is discovered about the benefits it can have from childhood through old age.

Health benefits are numerous and include things like:

  • auditory improvement
  • increased cognitive skills
  • improved coordination

The therapeutic value in not only included in playing the piano, it can be equally as valuable to listen to piano music.

  • It has a pacifying affect which helps reduce stress
  • It can maintain a level of mental engagement
  • It can improve language skills, including listening, reading, verbal fluency and memory

And as an afterschool activity, it can give your child the extra stamina they need to do even better in school. Piano playing has been shown to increase test scores, improve SAT scores, even help with both reading and math related technical skills. Yes, music majors are often highest in their class when it comes to moving into pre-med related studies.

Its not just a passive exercise, it is an interactive experience.

For all of these reasons, playing the piano provides a wealth of benefits, no matter what age each member is in your family. It all starts with owning a piano, and having it available to play and practice at any time. Take some time today to visit and find the perfect instrument for you.

Filed Under: Piano Lessons, Piano Playing Tagged With: ,
26 November 2014 Making Piano Playing A Habit For Life

Making Piano Playing A Habit For Life

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“We become what we repeatedly do.” ~Sean Covey

Motivation, expectations, and foundational habits; all are needed in order to become a great piano player and enjoy it in the process.

Though in this case we’re talking about playing the piano, the same characteristics can be applied to any new direction you’re taking in life. Good habits lead to success, which leads to happiness. At its root is the process of forming good habits. The better you become at putting something new into your life, the more you’ll make it stick and be happy with the results.Making Piano Playing A Habit For Life

Yet as a human, I’m sure you realize that saying (or reading) this and actually accomplishing it are two different things. Saying you want to be a great piano player, for instance, and building it into a successful habit are two different things. Life gets in the way, and before you know it, weeks have flown by with no action taken.

Its hard to make piano playing a habit under those circumstances.

If piano playing is truly important in your life, or in the life of your child’s, there are a few things you can do that will put the odds in your favor.

Be 100% Committed

If piano playing is a part of your child’s future, you have to commit to making it a part of your life. That means taking the good with the bad, the fun with the not-so-much fun. You can’t approach it with the attitude of doing it as long as its fun. Invariably your child will burn out, whine and complain. Its your job to keep them motivated, and look for ways of making it fun.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

What makes a child better at addition or multiplication tables? Practice. What makes someone a better swimmer? Practice. Piano playing is no different. You can’t sit down and play a popular tune your first time at the keyboard. It takes practice to learn the notes, and practice to learn how to combine notes into a song. The more you practice, the better it will sound, the more fun you will have.

The Ultimate Purpose

Practicing should never be overwhelming. In fact, the true purpose of practicing is simply to get it down to a routine. When you first start, the hardest part is putting it into your life. Practice should always be about establishing a healthy habit of putting it into your life. Five minutes a day every day at 3 pm is much better than playing a scale a few dozen times once per week. Practice is the health way of bringing this new talent into your life. Once it becomes a habit you enjoy, then you can build other key points into the routine – scales, playing songs a number of times, etc.

Provide Encouragement

For an 8 year old boy, 1 minute of practice may be a huge accomplishment. Recognize the effort put into practice and encourage him for what he’s accomplished. Tell him you recognize how much he’s improved. Tell him how good of a job he’s doing. Tell him you are impressed with his attitude towards playing every day. All of these can impress on your child the desire to want to take the next step, and build on skills already developed.

Filed Under: Piano Playing Tagged With: ,
27 September 2014 Tips For Relearning The Piano After Not Playing For Years

Tips For Relearning The Piano After Not Playing For Years

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Sometimes we overlook the simple pleasures we took for granted as kids.

Remember when you could sit down and play the piano, relax and enjoy music for awhile with nothing else to do? Then work and family priorities set in, and with a million things on your plate, the goal of creating music slipped by the wayside

Its easier than you think to pick up piano once again.

Start SlowlyTips For Relearning The Piano After Not Playing For Years

No matter how much playing you did years ago, this is a new venture at this point in your life. Create small goals that are doable, rather than jumping in full force.

Start with a piano; do you have a quality piano to play? If you still own the same piano, yet its been tucked into a corner of your home for years without a second glance, it may need a little refurbishing to get it into quality playing condition. A simply tuning may not be enough, but it’s the best place to start. Work with a reputable piano tuning and restoration company to find out the current quality of your piano, and what it will take to bring it back to working order.

Then set aside a little time every day to practice and play. Your hands, your arms, even your entire body has to adjust to this new activity. Its easier to spend 20 minutes a day getting back into the swing of things than to sit down for several hours of frustration when you simply can’t find the notes the same way you once did.

Practice is what brought you to success the first time; its no different today. Your skills will come back quickly if you enjoy the process along the way.

Change With The Times

If you haven’t played in a long time, things have changed in many ways over the years. Your body has changed, and the way you deal with aches and pains. Likewise, piano technology and the way we approach the piano has changed over time as well.

This may be the time to work with a professional for a few lessons to get back on track the right way. If you are now used to sitting at the computer all day, how will this transfer over to the way you sit at the piano? You many need adjustment and refinement to make sure you are playing comfortably and in a way you won’t further injure yourself down the road. Are you doing all you can to be the best you can be? A few lessons can put you on the right track once again. When an instructor has experience with adults, they can make suggestions on how to keep up with the physical side of playing piano as well.

Structure Your Sessions

Twenty minutes of structured playing will do more for you overall than randomly playing pieces you like and ignoring errors you make or improvements to your overall ability. Start with warm ups, and ease your fingers and your hands back into playing mode. Play something you know well, for pure enjoyment. Give yourself a challenge; work towards something new.

By creating a plan and including all three structures into your practice section – warm ups, mastering something new, playing for enjoyment – you’re sessions will become fun instead of chore.

 

The key is to have fun, and enjoy playing the piano once more.

Filed Under: Piano Lessons, Piano Playing Tagged With: ,
13 September 2014 Piano Playing … A Lifetime Commitment

Piano Playing … A Lifetime Commitment

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So you’ve decided to take up the piano? Congratulations. Nothing can be as rewarding or as fulfilling as being able to sit down to the piano and play music. But also keep in mind that mastering the piano – any instrument for that matter – is not easy nor is it fast. It’s a long journey that can take a lifetime to master.

And that’s half of the enjoyment!Piano Playing … A Lifetime Commitment

If you’re expecting instant results after a week or two of practice, you’re sure to be disappointed. Because playing the piano isn’t something you can pick up from playing a game on the computer, or conquer with a master class in piano over a long weekend.

It takes work. It takes performance. And it takes action day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Enjoyment of the arts and fulfillment in your ability to play the piano does not come from rushed goals, tensed efforts, or the desire to quickly please your parents or win a competition. If your piano goals are to reach a certain expectation in a quick manner, you will be disappointed.

Part of mastering the piano comes more from having the desire to create beautiful music no matter what level you can currently play. It comes from the dedication to play again and again until you hear the musicality in what you are doing. Piano playing brings:

  • Joy to your life
  • Fulfillment in what you can do
  • Maturity in knowing you can stick with a project
  • Wisdom to help you grow as a person
  • Meaning to your life

At the same time, it does also take sacrifice and compromise. You have to continue when you just aren’t feeling it; have faith that you will reach your goals when it feels like you never will.

Mastering piano is not easy … there is a long road ahead. But we believe the road is one well worth traveling; one that will grow and help you define who you are throughout your life.

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The Piano – A Way To Inspire You

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The Internet is filled with YouTube videos that are circulated by the millions. Shared on Facebook, sent via email, and talked about with friends over lunch.

What makes something awe-inspiring is to see something that you never have experienced before.

We see cat videos, dump tactics by people that should know better, or occasionally, something that makes us stand up and truly say wow.

I’ve found a couple videos that do exactly that.

The first – a boring task becomes something exciting that people just can’t stay away from. Who can resist playing the piano simply by walking up and down the stairs?

Next, watch Tom Hanks 25 years after the infamous piano scene in his movie Big recreate it with Sandra Bullock.

And finally, one of the most inspirational videos – how a young autistic boy took piano playing to a whole different level than we could ever imagine. Music, piano playing, and the brain. Its amazing what they can all do together. Watch and be inspired. I was.

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16 August 2013 How To Buy Sheet Music

How To Buy Sheet Music

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There are two ways to play the piano.

The first is to play by ear. By listening to a song or a selection of music, a person “hears” the notes and can sit down at the piano and pick out the notes. The song comes together simply by playing around with the notes until you get it right.

How To Buy Sheet MusicThe second was is to use a tool – sheet music – to determine what notes should be played in what order. By incorporating the knowledge of written notes and converting them to notes on the keyboard, you can quickly interpret any music out of the piano.

While most of us will never be geniuses when it comes to playing by ear, most of us can learn to play the piano by learning how to read sheet music and turning that into a melody on the piano.

Sheet music has been used my composers for well over a thousands years. To ensure songs and music compositions were passed down through the generations, people developed musical notes and notation in written format. Each piece of music was transcribed by hand until around the 1400s when the printing press was invented and put into use throughout the world. From the 1500s forward, sheet music has been circulated and now allows people to share their musical compositions with anyone so musically inclined.

Sheet music as a whole comes in a variety of different formats. You can find individual songs printed in specific instrumental renditions. Or you can find sheet music in books based on instrument and theme. Its common to find music in a variety of genres, from classical to orchestral, from modern to musical or film soundtracks.

Piano music is different than other instrumental music in that piano sheet music will have two staves connected by a space. The music to be played by the right hand is on the top staff, called the treble. The music to be played by the left hand is on the bottom, or bass staff.

Sheet music can be purchased in a variety of ways. Come in and select your favorite sheet music – we have a variety of options available.

Do you have regular piano lessons? Different piano instructors prefer working with different types of music. They can easily provide you with sheet music both for practice and for entertainment, to keep you playing long after your lessons are through.

And if you enjoy collecting, sheet music can be quite a valuable collection. Autographed books of sheet music are common among collectors. Autographed sheet music that comes from films or theater productions are often signed by the composer and performers, making them valuable in a variety of ways.

Have a specific need? Let us know and we can work to get you the music you are looking for. Another great option is to search on Google the precise music you are looking for, especially if it is older, out of date and print, or even falls into the collectible line.

Filed Under: Owning a Piano Tagged With: , ,
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