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Piano Lesson: How To Improvise The Classical Piano Way

Friday, September 25th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Peter_Edvinsson]Peter Edvinsson

Is it possible to improvise on the piano in a classical manner? This piano lesson will help you find out how to cultivate this art and the benefits you reap as a pianist!

Jazz piano improvising is an established art nowadays and much have been written on how to develop improvisational skills in this area.

What about classical piano improvisation?

Many of the methods used for learning jazz piano improvisation can be applied in classical piano improvisation as well.

Many composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, W.A. Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin and others were actually more famous for their improvisational skills during their lifetime.

Personally I have tried to develop this skill and I find it very enjoyable to improvise with classical piano pieces as a basis for creative trips.

I love to improvise in the style of classical composers trying to find myself somewhere among the notes. These special moments are a form of meditation. They clear my mind and also helps me as a composer to stimulate my creative abilities.

The most important reason for developing this skill is that it is fun and very enjoyable. If you learn classical piano improvisation you will benefit from it in many other ways too:

1. It will be easier for you to memorize classical piano sheet music as you will become more aware of what happens when you press down the piano keys.

2. You will find it easier to compose your own piano pieces in a classical piano style.

3. You can make up your own technical exercises on your piano on the go.

4. You will understand your piano better.

There are many ways to develop your skill in classical piano improvisation. Let’s see!

1. As soon as you have learned a piano scale try to use it by creating improvised melodies while playing chords or patterns with the other hand.

2. When you learn new chords try to create patterns to play with your left hand as you play improvised melodies with your right hand. A common easy left hand pattern is with the chord C:

C G E G C G E G

3. As you learn to play new classical piano compositions try to memorize beautiful or exciting passages in these compositions and play around with them and try to modify them and improvise over them.

4. Try to create classical melodies at the piano without stopping. In order to learn to improvise classical music you have to practice just that – To improvise classical piano music.

The most basic requisite in order to develop the skill of classical piano improvisation is that you want to learn this art and with this desire you will find ways to practice this art in all your piano playing.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your   free sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

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How To Learn To Play Piano Efficiently And Easily By Mimicking Professional Piano Players

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alex_Nguyen]Alex Nguyen

The best way to learn a language is to imitate native speakers. Likewise, the best way to learn the piano is to imitate professional piano players.

When you learn a foreign language, you try to converse with those who speak the language fluently. Hopefully, you’ll pick up the right intonation, phrasing, accent, and pronunciation. The more you imitate, the more fluent you become.

Learning the piano is no different. Music is a language. As such, it has intonation, phrasing, dynamics, etc. But the key to mastering the piano, like mastering a verbal language, is to acquire good habits from the start. This is why it’s important to learn from someone who has already mastered the language of piano. Many beginning piano students fall into the trap of learning by themselves without the proper guidance to master the fundamentals. The following pointers help to get beginning students into the right track to becoming competent piano players.

•    Seek out a good piano teacher who does not hesitate to let you imitate his/her skills. Ask yourself this question “is he/she going to teach me the necessary skills to become a well rounded player or is he/she just going to teach me the same old “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” like many other old school teachers do. If you go with self study, make sure you choose a system that emphasizes the imitation technique.

•    Learn the fundamentals – take your time to learn the basics. When you first learn a foreign language, you don’t try to converse in full sentences right away. You start out with one letter at a time, one syllable at a time. Then you put syllables together to form one word, and then you put words together to form sentences. Before long you’re able to communicate with your fellow students. Likewise, when you start out learning the piano, learn one hand at a time, then hands together; one chord structure at a time, then chord progressions. Simply and joyfully.

•    Choose a method that de-emphasizes note reading and encourages chord style playing and playing by ear. I’m not saying that you should not learn how to read note, but if you want to start playing hundreds of songs, start learning chord style piano. Chords are much easier to learn and master. With only a few chords you can play many pop songs pretty quickly. And if you are so inclined to learn classical piano later on, you can always focus on pure reading then.

•    Have fun or else – just because you are starting out learning the piano, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. This is important if you want to keep playing the piano for years down the road. Many students give up early because they don’t have fun. Unfortunately, traditional methods that teach rote memory and emphasize on sight reading tend to discourage this important element. Thanks to today’s technology and other alternative piano methods that focus on chord style piano playing, students learn to play and have fun from day one. Some online piano methods incorporate audio, video, and computer games to help the beginning students learn better and faster.

The key to learning to play the piano well is not about “suffer first then enjoy later”, but to enjoy it now – from day one! It doesn’t have to take 6 months before you start having fun. Take all the time you need, but enjoy every moment of it now.

Alex Nguyen is the “Rapid Piano Expert” who has been playing the piano for over 20 years. Now he’s helping others learn to play the piano rapidly and enjoy it from day one. To get your FREE mini report “The 7 Most Powerful Tips To Learning The Piano Rapidly,”  and learn how you can get personal piano coaching from Alex for FREE for a very limited time, go to http://www.RapidPiano.com

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Learn Piano – Software, A Great Way to Learn the Piano

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mike_Shaw]Mike Shaw

There’s a wealth of information available to anybody who wants to learn something new, and all with a few clicks of a mouse. Learning to play the piano using piano software can now be used by anybody who has a computer and an interest in learning piano. Although there are lots of piano software courses available from the internet, there are only a handful that are respected and offer value for money, at the time of writing this I only recommend two piano software courses and I have chosen these on my experience as a piano and keyboard teacher.

Piano software courses and online piano lessons are the modern way to learn how to play the piano. If you compare the cost of piano software with piano lessons with a teacher, you might find that the cost of one piano lesson will buy you a complete software course and you can use it anywhere.

Here are three reasons you should start using piano software:

You can use piano software at any time of the day

If you find it tricky to find enough free time, then traditional lessons with a teacher are going to be difficult if not impossible, using software is not going to give you more free time, but it is going to be there twenty fours hours a day, ready to go when you are. If you use piano software you can do a bit today, miss tomorrow, a lot the day after, maybe some in the middle of night or the middle of the afternoon, in fact whenever you want, that the genius of using this system, it’s designed to suit you.

If you go to a private piano teacher, that’s just the teacher and you, the rare cancellation is accepted, but if you cancel on a regular basis, it could end up costing you a fortune as well as missing important lessons, the teacher is still going to charge you for your piano lesson. It’s up to you to make sure you turn up for your lesson; it’s not the teachers fault if you’re busy. It’s obviously going to be more difficult for a busy adult to keep to a regular lesson schedule and that’s why piano software is such a brilliant invention. Everybody can find some quality free time at sometime in their busy lives and if learning piano is your thing then using piano software is the way to go.

Economical

Whether you go to a piano teacher or use piano software it’s going to cost you money, but what’s the difference. The typical charges for piano and keyboard lessons is about fifteen pounds for a half hour lesson and thirty pounds for an hour lesson and on top of that add your bus fare. Many piano software sites give you the option to download complete piano courses to your computer as soon as your payment has been processed which is normally straight away. You can easily pick up a good quality piano software course packed with video and audio lessons for about twenty to thirty pounds.

You are in control

Being in the driving seat allows you to take charge of your lessons, you get to choose where and when you learn to play the piano. These software courses offer everything for the absolute novice and will guide you through to a more advanced stage of playing the piano. The internet is also a great tool when looking for pianos, keyboards and sheet music.

Don’t assume that piano software will make you in to a great pianist with no work on your part, software is a tool and good tools make the job easier but the job still has to be done by you and in this case your job is to practice.

If you would like to know about Piano Software then feel free to call in at [http://www.the-piano-lessons-software-expert.co.uk/]The Piano Lessons Software Expert website. You can also find out more about buying [http://musical-instruments-uk.mikesmusicroom.co.uk/Piano-Lesson-Software]Piano Keyboards online.

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How Do You Know When It’s Time to Tune a Piano?

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Amy_Nutt]Amy Nutt

Having your piano tuned is definitely the single most important part of the instrument’s maintenance, but unfortunately, very few piano owners follow a reasonable schedule when it comes to having their pianos tuned. Piano owners often think that they can go years between tunings and everything will be fine, or that they can try to replace a professional tuning by subscribing to some myth or old wives tale (like keeping jars of water in their piano), but this simply isn’t the case. To truly get the most out of your piano, it needs to be taken care of by a professional, and with regularity.

When does my piano need tuning?

It’s an often heard question among tuning technicians and piano manufacturers, most of whom suggest a minimum of two times a year. Depending on what type of climate you live in, however, once about every three months (or whenever the seasons change) would be an optimal schedule for tuning.

What do the seasons have to do with piano tuning?

With every seasonal change there are also usually drastic changes in both temperatures and levels of humidity. Your piano has been meticulously crafted out of wood, and wood is a material that is particularly susceptible to changes in humidity and moisture.

The changes in the level of moisture cause the wooden sound board to expand and shrink causing a big change in the tension of the strings, and causing the piano to go out of tune.

If it’s impossible for you to afford the once every three month tunings, there are a few things that you can do on your own to help keep your piano in the best shape possible between a less frequent maintenance schedule.

Preventative maintenance

Try to keep the temperature of your home at a relatively consistent level; despite what the temperature outside happens to be. Somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy degrees would be ideal.

Keep your piano away from direct sources of heat and cold. Avoid getting too close to radiators or central air and central heat registers.

Try to keep your piano away from direct sunlight. You may be surprised to find that, even if your home’s thermostat is set to seventy and its cooler outside, direct sunlight can make the piano very hot and cause an internal increase in humidity, wreaking havoc with the tuning.

There are also internal humidity control mechanisms that can be installed inside of your piano to monitor and regulate levels of humidity to make sure that all of the internal wooden components stay at the optimal level of humidity and keep your piano in as good a shape as possible. Though this can be a bit of an initial investment, it will prevent you from needing to have your [http://www.merriammusic.com/storeHTML/services.php]piano tuning done every three or so months, so it would likely save you some money in the long run.

Your piano can also become out of tune from an over abundance of play, this however is a best case scenario. The more often you sit down to play your piano, the more enjoyment it is probably bringing to you and those around you, so if you are playing so much that you need frequent tunings, the investment in your piano was a very wise one. If you are one of the few with this problem, you should consider yourself lucky.

If you follow along with the preventative maintenance suggestions, then the suggested twice annual tunings will probably be enough to keep your beloved piano in shape. If you can afford the internal humidity control, that’s even better for your piano’s health. The bottom line is – have your piano professionally tuned and maintained as often as you can to keep it’s environment as ideal as possible – if you can do that, your piano will give you years and years , if not a lifetime of beautiful music.

Provides a diverse selection of quality pianos, piano tuning and [http://www.merriammusic.com/school/flash.html]piano lessons Toronto from one of the most respected piano stores in North America.

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10 Piano Styles You Can Learn to Play

Monday, September 21st, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Duane_Shinn]Duane Shinn

When studying the piano, a student encounters a myriad piano styles. To master the instrument, at least several of these styles must be learned, and all if at all possible. Knowledge of various playing styles enables a pianist to enjoy and play in any genre and to cross-polinate styles to create a fusion he or she can call their own.

Many modern piano styles are based on the blues. The blues involve an emphasis on the major and minor pentatonic scales, with an additional note included. The flatted fifth is added to the minor pentatonic to create the blues scale. Many blues songs are based on a simple chord progression, known as 12-bar blues. This uses the I, IV and V chords of a scale to create a foundation for melodies and solos.

For example, rock piano was born out of the blues and then took on a life of it’s own in the stylings of Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael McDonald, Elton John, Billy Joel, and many others.

Cocktail piano is a style generally connected with Liberace, Eddy Duchin, Roger Williams, and others who play popular tunes with lots of great technique — lots of notes, runs, flourishes, and so on. But I hate to categorize and of these great pianists, as many of them play in other styles as well.

Boogie-woogie is a piano style based on the blues. It started as a solo piano style, but has expanded into other genres, such as county-western and gospel. It differs from the blues in that it is considered dance music, while blues music traditionally expresses sadness and frustration.

Rhythm and blues piano is based on blues, jazz, and gospel styles. As the name suggests, the emphasis is on the rhythm of the song. Most R&B has a particular swing to it, with a strong feel of syncopation in the rhythm. Syncopation involves placing the stress on a normally unstressed beat. This often results in an almost off-time feel to the untrained ear.

Ragtime piano also incorporates syncopation. Ragtime uses syncopation in its melodies by placing melodic notes between the stressed beats of the rhythm. Ragtime is often considered the first completely American genre, even predating jazz.

Jazz piano encompasses such a broad palate of styles that it is impossible to describe. Many piano styles incorporate ideas borrowed from jazz, such as improvisation. An emphasis on extended chord forms and chord re-harmonization also stems from jazz piano.

New age piano often involves less chord changes than other styles, instead relying on simpler progressions and polychords. It often imitates the sound of nature -babling brooks, wind, rain, and so on. A polychord occurs when two different chords are played at once. This technique is taken from earlier classical works by composers such as Stravinsky.

Gospel piano is often similar to the blues, jazz and R&B. It emphasizes certain extended chords, such as the 11th, and usually has the swinging feel associated with jazz and R&B. The apparent simplicity of gospel songs often hides the fact that they are, indeed, quite musically complex. Syncopation is highly stressed in gospel music, as it contributes to the overall spiritual feel of the music.

Country and western piano has similar roots as blues piano. Both styles stem from earlier folk styles, often developed by the less fortunate people of the era. Many early country songs stem from Appalachian folk songs. Country and western piano is highlighted by very bright playing, with simple chord progressions underneath the melody. One of the greats in this styles is Floyd Cramer.

Traditional sacred piano styles involve the playing of liturgical songs and hymns. These can range from the harmonically and rhythmically complex to simple two and three chord songs. Many hymns stem from folk songs of centuries past. The variety of sacred piano styles is as numerous as the liturgical songs themselves. These piano styles often involve a strict reading of notation, with less of an emphasis on personal interpretation than other styles.

The classical piano style is probably the most varied of all the styles. Classical music is older than other styles, and is considered to the proper grounds for musical instruction. Many elements of other piano styles come from classical music, and nearly all forms of musical theory are used in classical music. Andre Previn is the classic example of a well-trained classical pianist crossing over into the world of jazz, and with great success. Classical music usually requires intense training to master, though there many simpler pieces designed with the novice player in mind.

Though classical is often considered the high point of music, this “ain’t necessarily so.” For instance, many players who are “classically trained” have trouble adapting to the feel and sincerity of the blues. For this reason, a well-rounded player should be adaptable and learn as much about each of these piano styles as possible. In this way, a pianist is ready for any musical challenge. And besides, who knows where the future of music lies?

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular online newsletter on piano chords, available free at [http://www.playpiano.com/playmusic.htm]Exciting Piano Chords & Chord Progressions!

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Learn to Play Piano – Effective Ways to Learn Piano

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Yoke_Wong]Yoke Wong

No matter what your age, you can still learn to play piano. Though children do tend to pick up on their piano lessons fairly easily, adults often approach their lessons in a more structured manner, which makes learning piano manageable for them as well.

You will likely find that when you learn to play the piano it is one of the most enjoyable things that you will ever do, and today finding options to help you in learning piano is easier than ever.
To learn to play piano most people take music lessons, and there are a variety of methods in which you can do this. You can look in your local newspapers classifieds to see if there is someone locally who may be giving piano lessons, you may also want to ask around at your local schools and churches to find out if they can refer you to a piano teacher.

The fees associated with piano lessons vary with each instructor; while some may only charge a small fee because they are only teaching part time, professional music teachers may be quite expensive.

Another option to learn to play piano would be to opt to take online lessons, or you can choose to learn through a DVD program. The online lessons tend to be less expensive than traditional piano lessons, and if you do have problems in learning to play the piano, there is an instructor to help you. On the other hand if you choose to learn to play piano on your own and begin to have some difficulty, you won’t have an instructor to help you understand the lesson.

Each method of learning how to play the piano has its advantages and drawbacks; so it really comes down to personal preference when it comes to how you will go about learning piano.

In addition to taking piano lessons, to learn how to play piano you will also need a piano, or a small, portable keyboard. A piano purchase can be quite a large investment, so to begin with while you are learning piano, the portable keyboard may be your best option. You can shop around and find several portable keyboards that have all the same keys as the standard piano, but they are far less expensive.

Once you have bought a piano or portable keyboard, you’ll be all set to learn to play the piano, all that will be left is to find a good piano teacher, and to set your mind to learning how to play piano.

Yoke Wong is the founder of [http://www.yokewong.net]http://www.yokewong.net, a leader in publishing piano courses to piano players throughout the world.

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10 Great Reasons Why You Should Learn to Play Piano Today

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mondul_Kao]Mondul Kao

Start learning to play piano today! Learning to play the piano is one of the best things you could do for yourself. If you have even the slightest desire to play piano, you should start right away! Read on to find out ten great reasons to learn to play the piano!

1) Learning to play piano has never been easier. There are many ways to learn to play piano. You could learn piano by taking private lessons with a teacher, reading online tutorials, or using piano course books and watching DVD’s.

2) Learning to play piano is a lot more affordable than you may think. At the cost of eating out, you can purchase a good instructional DVD or book. I am particularly a fan of DVD’s, since you can see and hear a lesson as many times as you want. It’s almost like having a private teacher by your side 24 hours a day. Piano course books are also great. Many piano course books are now accompanied by an audio CD which lets you listen to the lessons inside the book.

3) Learning to play piano will give you something to share with your children or grand children. Children naturally love music. You can entertain them with your favorite children songs. You might even attract enough of their interest that they will also want to learn! Give your children the gift of music.

4) Learning to play piano will give you the ability to perform your favorite songs anytime you feel like it! Everyone usually has a few songs in mind that they wished they could just sit down and play. Well, there is no better time than now to make that dream come true! Piano sheet music for all levels of difficulty is easily available at your local library, bookstore, or music store. There are even websites that sell printable electronic versions of sheet music online. The great thing about that is that some websites will even let you preview and hear samples of songs before you purchase!

5) Learning to play piano is a great way to entertain friends and family! Imagine being able to play your favorite songs while everyone is singing along. It’s a great bonding experience. You could even teach a few simple songs to those who are interested.

6) Learning to play piano is something you will be able to cherish for the rest of your life. People keep playing the piano well into their 90’s. The best thing is, the longer you play, the more you will learn, and the more enjoyment you will get out of it. Give your self this great gift now. Start learning to play the piano today!

7) Learning to play piano makes you a versatile musician. The piano is an extremely versatile instrument. The piano is the only instrument that allows you to play multiple notes simultaneously with great ease. This means that you can perform really nice renditions of songs from any genre. This also makes the piano an ideal instrument for composing since it basically acts as a miniature orchestra. If you are composing music on the computer, the electronic piano keyboard serves as a perfect interface for entering notes in real-time into your music software.

8) Learning to play piano will allow you to listen to music with greater enjoyment and appreciation. Since you will learn how songs are put together, your listening ability will become more refined. You will start to hear and notice more distinct details in the music that you listen to. Songs that you have been listening to for years will seem richer as you hear nuances that you have never noticed before. You may also start to enjoy songs from other genres of music that you would normally never listen to.

9) Learning to play piano is physically easy. The piano is much easier to pick up compared to other musical instruments. Take the violin for example, which takes some serious practice to be able to make even a single pleasing sound by using the bow. Another example would be the guitar. There are so many tough fingering positions that you will need to learn to be able to play even the most basic chords. By learning the piano, anyone can easily play notes and chords in their first lesson.

10) Learn to play piano and join a rich tradition that is over 250 years old. The piano has heavily influenced every major style of music since its first appearance. Today, pianists still use the piano keyboard to create great music, as heard by such performers like Gavin Degraw, Alicia Keys, and Vanessa Carlton. The piano is also being used behind the scenes as an instrument for composing music for movies, video games, plays, and much more.

There you have it! There are just so many great reasons to start playing the piano today. If you are even slightly convinced, I urge you to go ahead and give it a shot. It will be one of the best things you will ever do for yourself! You won’t regret it!

Mondul Kao is a contributing author for Zebra Keys, which is one of the top websites for free online piano lessons and resources and can be found at http://www.zebrakeys.com

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Why This Girl Hates Piano

Friday, September 18th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Aschenbrenner]John Aschenbrenner

Today I was happily teaching a family with three children, and we were having a lot of fun. I made certain the kids learned something valuable, no matter how small, and that they had a smile on their faces every possible minute.

I use a very easygoing approach, as many of you know, and this leads to enthusiasm and involvement, which make learning easier and enjoyable.

As I was leaving, the Mom stopped me and said, “I’m amazed that my kids love piano so much. They fight over who gets to play.”

She then told me a story about an eleven-year-old friend of her daughter, who came over for a playdate the previous weekend and then played the piano for the family.

The Mom was amazed, when, after very good piano playing, the girl remarked, “I hate piano. I really hate it. I want to quit but my Mom won’t let me.”

This child had been taking lessons from a well-known local disciplinarian, apparently, since she was five.

I find this so sad, and have met many, many kids whose piano teachers have driven them to feel this way.

It’s one of the unspoken secrets of the piano teaching business.

These kids have been taught, like mechanical monkeys, to press the piano keys until a recognizable piece of music, preferably impressive for the teacher’s sake, comes out of the piano.

The teacher must be very proud. It took only six years to get the child to play one or two or fifty complicated piano pieces, but what was the price?

The price was her love for the piano, which vanished.

Now, in the place of love for the instrument, there is hatred and resentment for the useless (because now she hates it) and boring work she was forced to undergo, apparently without reward.

It is as if the doctor saved your life, but had to cut off your head.

What’s the point in doing something if you end up hating it?

If you think the child received some benefit from this struggle, ask an adult who went through the same type of piano lesson experience.

These adults all say, in unison, “No, I hated it, and I never want to play again, but isn’t there some way MY child could be taught without making them hate it?” This is what almost all of them say to me when they hire me to begin lessons with their child.

If you read between the lines in all these “quit piano” stories, a different dynamic emerges: the teacher insisted on the victory of their method at the price of the defeat of the child.

A child who takes piano for six years, and can play well but hates it, is defeated. The teacher isn’t defeated, because they have your $10,000.

And these types of teachers are proud of their “accomplishment,” grinding out yet another generation of children who “hated piano lessons when I was a kid,” and don’t want to play a note when they are adults.

Isn’t there a piano teacher out there clever enough to accomplish both? Where are the teachers who can both properly instruct and inspire a child?

Another truth is that the worst piano teachers achieve these “victories” through years of unending browbeating, guilt and impatience, which the children bear because they are good children, obedient, loyal to their parents, hardworking and diligent.

They beg to quit piano lessons all along, but the parent hears the piano being played, and it sounds like music, so they continue. They listen to the teacher, who wants the client and convinces them to stay. Who does the parent listen to, the professional teacher or the eleven year old?

All the while the child is really being taught to hate the very thing the parent is paying for them to learn!

I think this story and the legion of others like it prove the point I have been trying to make:

The piano teacher’s job is to make the child love the piano. If you can’t accomplish that, you’ve robbed the child.

The piano teacher’s job is to give the child the tools they need to go further on their own, and the one tool they’ll need more than any other is love for the instrument.

Anything that defeats the objective of the child loving the piano is wrong and is to be avoided.

When your child says they want to quit the piano, they mean they hate the teacher and their autocratic, boring lectures. They just don’t know how to say it when your authority insists they are wrong and must continue.

If you listen to your children soon enough, and can find one of the enjoyable piano teachers, you may still be able to save your child’s love for the instrument.

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children’s music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous fun piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER for kids. You can see the PIANO BY NUMBER series of books at http://www.pianoiseasy.com

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Brains, Children and Piano

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Aschenbrenner]John Aschenbrenner

All that matters is your child’s experience at the piano. It doesn’t matter what other people think, what others expect, even what the piano teacher thinks is irrelevant.

What matters is that your child has a chance to experience playing the piano, however humbly, and enjoys what they are able to do. Even attempting the piano is a success.

Looking at children at the piano as a group, with statistical expectations that one child will live up to someone’s ideal of a musician, is actually destructive to the child.

No one in their right mind expects their child to play at Carnegie Hall: what we’re looking for is hobbyists and aficionados, not piano virtuosi and superstars.

Let me assure you that if your child has what it takes to play Carnegie Hall, it will be so obvious that no one in the piano business will miss their cue. The number of children that have that in the cards for them are so few, that it is not even a real number.

Take all the wildly talented children, divide by 10,000, and then pick one. That one child has a 1% chance of a successful career as a piano soloist. But all children, properly nurtured, have a 100% chance of playing simple songs at the piano, feeling great about it and adding to their general education and intellectual skills.

It’s more productive to think in terms of your child as an individual. Let’s get that individual child to play as well as they can, without stress, without wildly unrealistic expectations.

In fact, the point of early childhood music education is not expertise, but exposure to the intellectual and abstract concepts inherent in music that will help their minds grow.

To demonstrate the proposition that children’s piano lessons increase mental powers, we need to look at the human brain itself.

The brain, divided into two sides, controls each hand with the opposite side of the brain. The left brain controls the right hand, while the right brain controls the left hand.

The two sides “speak” to each other via a huge superhighway of nerves and ganglia called the “corpus callosum.” The reason the piano is so beneficial for children intellectually is that the piano, in having both hands work together in similar ways, forces the brain to use both halves of the brain simultaneously. There are very few activities on earth that excite the “corpus” like music and piano.

And so piano activity demonstrably produces better handwriting, better math skills, better abstract skills and higher self-esteem, all through having the two sides of the brain talk to each other, over and over until the nerve path is physically thickened.

That’s right, there is a PHYSICAL result in your child’s brain as a result of playing the piano, even attempting the piano. It is a known medical fact that the “corpus callosum” (that nerve path between the brain’s two sides) of musicians is up to 90% larger than that of people who are not musicians. And starting piano at an early age begins those benefits early in life.

So if your child is not destined for Carnegie Hall, they may still be destined to enjoy, appreciate and create music. And have a thicker corpus callosum!

The saddest part of music education today is that piano lessons are, as they always have been, designed to produce candidates for Carnegie Hall, not fully rounded and nurtured individuals who try to play piano to the best of THEIR ability.

Children who, with a little care, could gain all the benefits of a piano education are made to feel like failures because they cannot live up to a curriculum developed hundreds of years ago to produce professionals.

It’s time to let kids be kids and not rob them of the benefits of piano because they don’t fit some misguided teacher’s idea of accomplishment.

Start looking at the piano from the child’s point of view.

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

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children’s music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER.

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A Child’s Bill of Rights For Piano Lessons

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Aschenbrenner]John Aschenbrenner

This may be of interest only to the piano teacher, but I have the feeling it may be of use to parents who are wondering why their kids are having a bad time with piano lessons.

First of all, if your child does not enjoy piano lessons, something is very wrong. Having taught an almost encyclopedic roster of kids, I can tell you that a creative piano teacher can teach ANY child, if the teacher is prepared to be patient enough.

There may be many reasons why a child is uncomfortable with piano lessons.

The primary reason is usually the teacher. Almost all piano teachers of young children are too strict and not creative enough to interest the child in the piano. It’s as simple as that. There are a lot of bad piano teachers out there, and a lot of impatient kids.

The age of the child may demand a different approach than the teacher is prepared to give, or is capable of giving. The reason for this is that there are a wide variety of personalities in children and gifts in terms of piano, but only one accepted methodology of introducing children to the piano.

You’re headed for Carnegie hall, and if you don’t make the grade, you’re a failure: that’s the mindset of the conventional piano teacher. Do you want to expose your child to this competitive teaching racket, or do you wisely simply want them to enjoy music and play it as well as they can?

Each child is an individual and needs to be treated as such. But the piano teaching business has in essence not changed since Carl Czerny in the early 1800’s: you put this finger here, you play it now. For all their colored pages and big notes, modern piano methods are not unlike the early ones. The problems of teaching children the piano have not changed at all since the great J.S. Bach taught his kids in 1700: you have five fingers, so we’ll use them as a group. Easy to say, but not so easy for a 5 or 6 year old to do.

Consider the manner of the piano teacher. Are they patient, warm and humorous? Or are they gruff, demanding and stingy on praise? It’s one thing to be demanding of a child that has shown promise and WANTS to be driven harder. It’s quite another to apply that expectation and standard to a child of lesser but still respectable gifts. The truth is that every child deserves to learn and be taught the piano within their limits, at their pace, and in such a way that increases their self esteem no matter how small their honest efforts might be.

In fact, let us draw up a hypothetical BILL OF RIGHTS for a child’s piano lesson.

A child has a right to an interesting, entertaining experience at the piano. A child is not there to meet the piano teacher’s expectation, but rather to fulfill their own talents in the best way they can. It’s the teacher’s job to be creative enough to allow ANY child to achieve that.

A child has the right to play music that interests them. A teacher has to be creative enough to find out how to teach a child the musical principles based on what the CHILD can understand. There are many ways to skin a cat: you can just as easily use music the child knows and enjoys (Star Wars, for example) rather than the dry-as-dust exercise pieces with which even the best piano methods are loaded. They’re not all bad, but kids are turned off by endless repetition of “pretend music.” Let them play what they want. It will make repetition easier and more rewarding. It is the teacher’s job to forge that material into a musical education, and if you’re a halfway decent musician, you’ll be able to do it with style!

A child has the right to a bad day. We all do. I’ve seen over-pressured kids just wilt at the thought of even a modest additional amount of work. Let’s face it, piano lessons are an elective. Be creative enough to know how to disguise repetition as a game, and the wisdom to know when to back off and simply play piano games.

A child has a right to a lesson that is not entirely concerned with reading music and fingering. Those two areas are all that most teachers do during a lesson. But what about listening, ear training, history, composition, finger games, counting games, and a thousand other playful ruses that can be used to interest a child in the piano? What about playing by ear, playing by chords, improvising, memorizing and a thousand other creative methods that might unlock the child’s enthusiasm? There is not just one right way to teach all children, but there is one right way to teach an individual child. A teacher who uses the same approach for all students is a poor and lazy teacher.

A child has a right to a pace of work that does not exhaust them. Many teachers forget how deeply fatiguing reading music is for small children. It requires such abstract thought that most kids can bear it for a few minutes, but get very uncomfortable after that short period. Be creative enough to know when to move to something else, or you risk exhausting the child and their enthusiasm.

Never forget it is their piano lesson, not yours. It’s not a platform to expound your knowledge and authority, and expose their ignorance. It’s your opportunity to interest them in a fun activity that has great intellectual benefits for them.

By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2000 Walden Pond Press. Visit http://www.pianoiseasy.com to see the author’s PIANO BY NUMBER method.

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children’s music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous fun piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER.

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