Learning Piano Books

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

I have sorry statistics for you that your local piano teacher doesn’t really want you to know: 90% of kids who start piano today will quit within three months. Why, you ask? Read on.

Most piano teachers are honest people, but the piano is simply difficult to master, as any musical instrument is. And statistically, perhaps some large percentage of those 90% who quit were perhaps never destined to play very well in the first place.

Still, there has to be a reason why piano lessons turn out to be less fun than perhaps the child was expecting.

In fact, the reason the kids quit is the piano teachers themselves.

The sad truth is that most piano teachers don’t try to get their students fired up about piano: they simply go from page to page in a standard text and see if the child can stand it.

And believe me, it is boring to have to play these exercise pieces again and again.

Of course, going from page to page in a text is very easy for the TEACHER: there is little creativity required on the teacher’s part. And as all parents know, you’ll have to be creative if you want to hold the attention of your six-year old. But most piano teachers don’t really even try, because they apply the same methods to the average child’s humble musical gifts as they would apply to someone clearly destined for Carnegie Hall.

These piano teachers acknowledge no difference between a budding professional and a potential hobbyist, and hold your child, struggling to maintain an interest in this rather difficult art, to the same standards as those used to train professional musicians.

A creative, intelligent teacher takes a good look at each individual student, and takes the time to find what factors will affect the piano study progress:

Is the child happy?

Do they have motor skills, such as finger coordination? Hand movement?

Can they distinguish left from right?

What is the child’s personality? Quiet? Exuberant? Belligerent?

Do they know how to complete a simple task?

Can they memorize?

The list of things to look out for at the beginning goes on and on. Each one of these factors affects how an intelligent piano teacher will approach that student, as an individual.

The first barrier to cross is expectation: what is the child expecting? Did they hear stories from Mom and Dad about old Mrs. Perkins, who rapped their fingers when they made a mistake? Or did they hear how wonderful piano lessons would be?

In any case, this piano lesson is THEIR piano lesson, not yours, and you had better find out how to communicate with this child as an individual in the first five minutes or it’s over.

One approach that works wonders is humor. And playing. Make a joke and play a song for them. If you do that first, you answer two childish questions that the child will inevitably be asking themselves:

Is this teacher a mean person?
Will playing the piano be fun?

The answer to those last two questions had better be, “yes.” Otherwise, you have already created a barrier between yourself and the child.

And I have to tell parents, unhappily, that most piano teachers are NOT avid players, comedians or game show hosts.

Many are either very young and inexperienced, or old and tired of the business. It’s rare to have a good player as a teacher, but the rewards are endless: the hardest obstacle to hurdle at first is to instill the idea that piano can be lots of fun, and a good pianist vaults that barrier instantly.

Kids love to hear a tune, a funny song, something they know from TV or outside the lesson. The older they are, the more important this becomes.

Avoid the following kinds of piano teachers if you have a young child:

Disciplinarians: there is always time for discipline if you can get them to love it first.

Gruffness: you need someone who knows how to handle a child, and gruffness NEVER works.
Gruffness is the last resort of the impatient.

Impatient: the first mark of a real piano teacher is the patience of a block of stone. Learning the piano requires repetition, which a clever teacher will disguise or make illuminating.

It is not easy to be a good piano teacher. Many factors will work against you:

Repetition is not inherently fun unless it is something that interests you.

Mood: kids are people, too. They have good days and bad days. Have the sense to find out which it is. Modify your teaching pace accordingly.

Time of lesson: is it right after school? Does the child need rest or food?

Overloaded schedules: all kids have too many activities and to them, you are just one more. Don’t make it difficult and dull.

Do THEY want lessons, or are they doing it to please Mom and Dad?

In closing, you can only lose the battle of the piano once. Once the child sense that this is a negative experience, the battle is lost, and it is the teacher’s fault, not the child’s.

It is up to the teacher to give the child a sense of victory during each lesson, no matter how small or undeserved that victory is.

Often what is required is to lower the bar so far that the child succeeds at something, no matter how small. Which would you prefer as a teacher, a tiny victory at some aspect of piano, or a profound sense of defeat over a task that only YOU deem necessary to master?

The point is that the piano and music is such a vast endeavor that there is always SOME small area that can be worked on if the child isn’t following your curriculum well. Here are some examples what you can do during a “bad” lesson.

Start playing. Move the child over, get them a chair, but start playing that piano and show them why they came in the first place.

Play ear training games. Listening games. Counting games.

Talk about the famous composers, play a piece by them, talk about the composer’s life. There isn’t a child alive that doesn’t want to hear of the adventure of the rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, and if they’re old enough, tell them the theory that Salieri murdered Mozart. Make it up if you have to, but hold their interest.

Stop concentrating on reading music. Play by ear. Memorize. Play by number.

Children that have been taught with this benevolent, fun approach, will reward you with a love of the instrument that may lead to unearthing some of the talent that lies with them. It’s your job as a teacher to find and nurture that talent, and it may not be the kind of talent you’re expecting.

For example, kids may have an interest in pop or rock music, and if you can play a tune on the piano that interest them, the battle is halfway won. It doesn’t matter what STYLE the music is, it matters that the music itself interests them.

Some kids don’t know Mozart from a hole in the ground, and you may have to play music from TV and the movies to reach them.

I’ve never met a kid who wasn’t interested in playing a tune on the piano if you make it easy enough to be pleasurable.

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

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.

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

The age to start your child depends entirely on whether you intend to use the conventional methods that employ only sheet music. If you intend to use the conventional methods, then don’t even think of starting before the age of six.

The reason for this is that preschoolers are just too young for the standard sheet music methods that exist. Many have difficulty understanding the tasks asked of them in a conventional piano lesson outside the home, and have great difficulty with the abstract concepts and symbols necessary to read sheet music.

If you intend to use a friendly method such as piano by number, there is no age limit: any child that can identify the numbers 1-12 is a perfect candidate to begin enjoying and learning music at the piano.

In terms of maturity, I would suggest the age of four or five as a good age to start with piano by number, and soon after perhaps begin to slowly introduce the concepts of sheet music as presented in our book, I CAN READ MUSIC.

If you encounter any difficulties with sheet music, back off and continue with piano by number.
A child should easily grasp the concepts presented in I CAN READ MUSIC, and if they don’t they are too young for sheet music and should be allowed to continue enjoying piano by number until they are old enough to make the transition with ease.

Better to wait than to frustrate.

PRESCHOOL: I recommend starting children of preschool age playing piano by number. Preschoolers are just getting used to numbers and letters. Many teachers have found that having children identify numbers via the piano keyboard is a fun activity that builds confidence with numbers.

The most important aspect of using piano by number for preschoolers is to first recognize the capabilities of the child: can the child identify numbers if the graphic representation of those numbers (on a page) is presented to them?

It is one thing for a child to recite vocally numbers as high as they can, but quite another to recognize the symbols for each number. Many preschool children can play any numbered piano key you say to them, but have difficulty playing numbers (or any symbols, for that matter) that they find on the page.

Piano by number slowly builds the abstract skills necessary to decipher musical symbols later, and promotes children’s sense of security in successfully deciphering them.

For children who cannot yet identify the symbols for numbers, the piano keyboard is an ideal place to build confidence with those symbols, with the added attraction that music itself produces a “good-mood” effect that is conducive to learning more complex skills.

Seeing the first twelve numbers, 1-12, spread out on a piano helps children to imagine numbers as a sequential ordering device.

Probably the biggest secret of teaching music to children this age is to allow kids to be kids while they learn. If you do this, and it requires unbelievable patience and creativity, they will reward you with constant effort, and humor!

The younger the child, the less I expect. If they only learn that the piano is a fun place to be, you’ve had a major victory as a teacher and a parent.

KINDERGARTEN: I recommend starting kindergarten kids with piano by number, and then making limited attempts at sheet music depending on the child’s sense of security with the piano. Usually, this is no problem. Kindergarten kids are very ready for games of any kind, and begin to have the skills necessary to put several hand movements together into a group of movements.

Children of this age still are most comfortable with numbers, but will tolerate more games preparing the way for reading sheet music. But you must make games out of everything. And back off from teaching sheet music as soon as you see their eyes start to show exhaustion, perhaps 5 minutes at most. Sheet music is fascinating but very tiring for kids this age. Better to expose them 5 minutes at a time than risk exhausting them and making them feel like failures.

With this age you may be able to teach them chords (three piano keys played with the left hand) but usually I allow them to play 2 note chords (two piano keys with the left hand) until it becomes obvious that 2 note chords are too easy.

I don’t insist that children play with both hands at this point, that is, chords with left hand and melody (numbers) with the right hand. It is enough that they can make their way through a few moments of a song that I show them, always carefully chosen to allow them to master a simple-enough task.

For example, a child this age should begin to easily have knowledge of the first three chords (three piano keys for the left hand) known as C, F and G. Any child can do this with enough focused, fun repetition.

If a child does begin to read sheet music, be careful to gain complete mastery of the notes of the right hand, say the first 5 keys above Middle C, before attempting to introduce the left hand.
It is my feeling that merely introducing the idea of “lines and spaces” (sheet music) is more than a victory at this stage.

The reason for this is that sheet music is much more of an abstraction than numbers for children of this age. Children gravitate to what is most comfortable for them, and you can bet at this age that it will be “piano by numbers,” because it is less abstract than sheet music.

Children who are allowed the room to succeed at “piano by number” no matter how glacial their pace, are perfect candidates for reading sheet music, because they are properly prepared.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: FIRST GRADE: At this age, you can start with piano by number to build confidence, and readily move on to sheet music a little bit at a time within a few months.

First graders seem magically wired to try the piano! All the physical perceptions necessary are in place; numbers are no problem, playing with two hands is no problem.

But if a child has difficulty with playing two hands simultaneously, do not insist, as most kids this age have great difficulty with two handed maneuvers. It is enough to expose them to the idea that two hands are involved, eventually simultaneously.

With piano by numbers and chords (two or three piano keys played with the left hand) under their belt, first graders are ready to conquer the right hand of sheet music, and engage in a study of chords.

At this age kids are emotionally ready to play the game called “happy and sad” wherein the teacher plays chords and has the child try to guess their (the chords) emotional or dramatic quality, happy or sad.

Kids love this silly game, almost like a game show, and never tire of trying to listen and assess the emotional quality of the chord. Earlier than this age, many children seem to have difficulty grasping the idea of a sound (the piano chord) having a certain emotional quality (happy or sad.)
At this point it also becomes possible to introduce “finger games,” that is, games that teach a child to move beyond using the index finger. I always allow kids to start with the index finger, if that’s what comfortable.

It may take a long time to get a child to use all the ten fingers properly, but it is worth waiting for, especially if in the meantime you are teaching them other valuable things.
Believe it or not, kids will let you know when they are ready to use all five fingers.

I’ll tell you the formula for success. It has three stages:

Teach the notes, the numbers, get the kids to decipher the commands and play the correct keys as best they can, with whatever finger comes to their mind.

Introduce the idea of five fingers, slowly, as a game, as a joke. I always say, when they play with only their index finger, “Oh, you were born with only one finger on each hand! Wait! I see other fingers under there, all curled up!” Try that 50 times and they will start using more fingers all by themselves, I guarantee it.

Rhythm is best left to last. The only thing I do at this point is to play rhythm games. I never, ever insist on rhythm in a piece of printed music, numbers or sheet. Don’t even think of rhythm in the usual sense for first graders. Better to try simple rhythm games like “fours” that give children the idea of regularity, of pattern, of repetition.

To start the process of learning fingering, I begin with a game called “threesies,” in which they play, starting from Middle C; 123, 234, 345 456, etc using the right hand thumb, index and third finger in ascending order. Kids love the complexity of this, but if it is too difficult after several tries, then try something else for a while.

Two more “rules:”

Keep coming back to ideas, again and again.

Never acknowledge a child’s failure to grasp these ideas, just show comic surprise and move on.
Children at the piano have an uncanny knack of showing you an honest effort if the task is not incomprehensibly difficult.

Break down complex motions into easily grasped bits.

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

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.

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Cynthia_VanLandingham]Cynthia VanLandingham

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.”

• 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!

My Piano Bears Musical Storybooks are a great way to introduce children to piano lessons. Children love stories, and they are a great way to teach important lessons and motivate young girls and boys. Most young students who are starting music lessons have lots of questions, and all beginning students must learn how to develop good practice habits. Piano Bears Musical Storybooks provide a wonderful way to inspire young piano students and help them succeed. These books use the characters of Little Bear, who is just starting to take piano lessons, his friends and family, and Mrs. Treble Beary, his teacher. In the stories, Little Bear, with the help of his family and friends, learns how to overcome his worries and set positive goals to achieve his musical dream. Visit [http://www.pianobears.com]PianoBears.com to learn more and preview these powerful resources for children ages 6 to 11.

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Cynthia_VanLandingham]Cynthia VanLandingham

Christmas is a great time of year to give your child taking piano lessons musical gifts and encourage them to reach their musical goals. Below are Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for Piano Students.

1. Books – Stories about the piano journey are a great way for your child to explore important concepts children need to achieve success such as how to set goals, how to overcome worries and fears about performing, how to be persistent in their learning, and how to take responsibility for their success.

2. CD’s – Listening to music is important for developing a musical ear. A Piano CD would make a great gift for students. Then leave it in your car so you can play it on the way to school, or on your way to piano lessons.

3. A Piano Bag – A piano bag makes a nice gift that will make your piano student feel special and also keep them organized and ready on piano lesson day. This way they can keep all their books in their piano bag and always have the music they will need at their lessons.

4. Games – Musical games make a terrific Christmas gift for children. Find games that the whole family can play together. This is a great way to support your child in piano lessons.

5. Piano Practice Pals – These are cute little stuffed animals students can put on their piano at home to keep them company while they are practicing. Give your child a new practice pal each time they achieve a new musical goal.

6. Piano Journal & Memory Books – These are a wonderful way to help your child in piano lessons celebrate their musical journey. They can include photographs of holiday recitals and other events as well as a place for students to keep a record of their goals and progress.

7. Metronome – a Metronome is a great little gadget that goes tic-toc, tic-toc, kind of like a clock, but it can be set to different tempos. Students use these to learn to follow a stead beat. They are also great for helping student develop sight-reading skills. Using a metronome helps them learn how to look ahead in the music and anticipate playing the next note.

8. Piano Sheet Music – Piano sheet music is a great gift for new piano students. Be sure you get music that is appropriate for your child’s age and experience.

9. Mp3s – Download mp3s and save them to a CD for your young child in piano lessons to listen. You can even find them for free.

10. Piano Club for Kids Membership – Enroll your child in a piano club for kids. This a great way for your child taking piano lessons to feel supported and have more fun with music. Enrollment comes with special gifts including many that I have already mentioned including books, games, stories, piano lessons, piano bag gift sets, free sheet music you can download, and free mp3s.

11. Give your child a subscription to a Piano Magazine, or E-zine that will automatically come to them every month – Monthly Internet E-zines come with articles about piano lessons written for kids, plus come complete with midi files of classical music, and sheet music that is safe to download. Today’s kids are part of the computer age and need to know how to use technology to advance their education. This is a great way to give kids a head start with technology as well as supporting their music education.

12. Award Certificates – Music award certificates don’t always need to come from their piano teacher. Parents can also give their children family music certificates. Give your child a personalized Music Award Certificate from you for practice points you award them each week for example. Let them turn in their certificates for a special treat such as a new Practice Pal, or Musical Story Book.

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com for my [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_bgi/102-5904393-4433741?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Cynthia+VanLandingham&Go.x=11&Go.y=6]Piano Bears Musical Stories for Children The exciting Piano Bears Musical Stories for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud.  Children love following along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary’s piano studio in Musical Acres Forest.  Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading “Little Bear’s Musical Garden” and “Little Bear’s Piano Goals.”

For a wealth of f’ree information and piano music online visit [http://www.pianobears.com]Piano Bears Music Education Resources  Don’t Wait to Share the Gift of Music!

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

The most important factor to decide is whether you want an electronic keyboard or a real acoustic piano.

Here are several things to keep in mind as you make this first decision:

1.    Before you buy a great big acoustic piano, think about why you are buying it: if you are buying it for a child, and they have never played piano before, you might consider buying an inexpensive electronic keyboard first to determine the level of interest the child has. If your child demonstrates interest, then consider upgrading to a real piano. Why? Pianos are big and expensive, and once you buy it, it will cost $200-300 to move it, every time. And if you want to sell, it is not quite so easy. And if you CANNOT sell it, they are hard and expensive to dispose of (unless you have bought a very top of the line model such as Steinway.)

2.    Do you have room for an acoustic piano? An average piano requires at least five feet in width, plus room to get around it. And if it’s a grand, it can be 5 to 6 feet long. The average acoustic piano weighs at least 500 pounds.

3.    Are you planning on moving? As mentioned above, piano moving is not cheap unless you have some strong friends and a truck. Count on $200-300 for a simple move. Then add more to the cost if you have steps. Piano movers have been known to charge as much as $100 per step if it is a difficult move. You can shop around for movers and save a bit, but choose a reputable company that has experience moving the specialty of pianos. The point is that if you have an acoustic piano, do not plan on moving it around easily or inexpensively.

ELECTRONIC MUSICAL KEYBOARDS

Let’s assume you have decided to buy an electronic keyboard for reasons of cost, convenience or portability. Here are points to consider before you buy:

1.    You must know why you are buying the instrument, once again. For example, if you are buying a small electronic keyboard for a small child who has never played, my advice is to get the simplest, least expensive keyboard. The reason is that you do not know what your child’s interest will be until the child actually tries the keyboard. The may love the keyboard or they may not. Your safest bet is to purchase an inexpensive model until your child shows interest. Then you can upgrade inexpensively rather than paying a lot initially for an electronic musical keyboard.

2.    Do not let a sales person sell you a fancy model with a lot of features. There are dozens of models made by companies like Casio that cost perhaps $99 and will do everything you need to do and more. I’ve seen and taught people who were sold horribly complex keyboard setups for $7500, and they would have derived exactly the same education and enjoyment from the $99 model. The truth is, and I’ve owned recording studios so I have some idea of it, that there are no features on an expensive electronic keyboard of which a beginner can make fruitful use. Get the simple model first.

3.    What are the requirements of a keyboard? Good question. A basic electronic keyboard for piano lesson or recreational use should have around 48 keys (a few more or less) counting both the black and white keys. This is what most basic electronic music keyboards (Casio) have. The keys should be ¾ of an inch wide: that is the standard width of keys on all full size piano keyboards. You may run across a “mini” keyboard which has smaller width keys, but I would recommend against those types of models: even the smallest child can handle a full size keyboard in their own way, and it is better they learn on the same setup they will later play upon.

4.    If it comes with a sustain foot pedal, get that model. It should be moderately expensive, say an extra $25 or so, but it is worth if you have the choice. If no choice is offered, you’ll do fine with the model without the sustain pedal. The pedal adds a certain depth to the sound, an added enhancement to the rather flat sound of an electronic piano.

ACOUSTIC PIANOS

If possible, your child’s experience will be far richer with a real, acoustic piano, assuming it is a fairly good model in reasonable shape. Pianos should last 50 years if not abused. But you will run across many, many beat up old pianos, because they are hard and expensive to get rid of.

The reason an acoustic piano is better is simple: the answer lies in both the physical and pyschoacoustic experience of playing a piano versus playing an electronic instrument. The primary difference is that on an electronic instrument the sound is confined to a small speaker, even on an expensive model. No matter how loud you set it, the electronic model cannot match the acoustic model. The reason for this is that the acoustic piano has a deep, rich sound, which is vibrating your floor and all the walls, resounding and reverberating in the room. It’s just a better musical and aural experience.

With that in mind, how do you go about purchasing a reasonably priced used piano? Here are a few factors to keep in mind:

1.    If you want to know about expensive pianos, that’s outside of this discussion. Just so you know, for comparison purposes, a well-preserved model of the Steinway brand (the “Mercedes” of pianos) will fetch at least $15,000 to $25,000, and well into the $75,000 area and up if that’s what you want. But we’re not here for that.

2.    The type of piano you get depends largely on where you get it. Let’s divide it into STORES and INDIVIDUALS. Stores such as piano clearing houses or outlet dealers, or wholesale houses, are in general offering pianos of recent vintage and of Chinese, Japanese or Korean manufacturers. The piano manufacturing business has been taken over, in the low price range, by the Oriental companies. They are able to turn out a creditable instrument in the $2500 retail price range. You can pay much more, but as of 2008, the low end for a new Chinese upright piano is $2500.

3.    Be careful with wholesale piano outlets: the nasty truth in the piano business is that these places often, not always, but often buy what is known as “factory returns.” These pianos are pianos with problem, usually a funny clicking here or there, not able to be tuned properly, etc., but not such bad problems that they cannot be sold to the unwary buyer. They may have a variety of subtle problems that may never bother you. To be honest, I have such a piano, a Chinese upright I bought a while back for a teaching studio, and it works just fine after constant practicing punishment! But for how long? That’s the question. But for most people’s kids who play only a little, you’ll never have a problem.

4.    Regardless of where you buy it, it pays to have an independent professional take a look at it. I have looked at pianos for prospective buyers, and there is a wide range of both junk and jewels out there. The opinion of at least a decent pianist can be invaluable.

5.    What you are looking for, regardless of price, is condition. Do all the notes play? Is it in tune? Does it look neglected? Is it obviously damaged? Is it new, used or almost dead? You’d be surprised what people might think you’d want to buy, especially from a private home. On the other hand, I once consulted for a family that had bought a house, and it came with a Steinway. They hired me to play it and see what it was worth. It was a breathtaking PERFECT Steinway 7 foot (the professional size) that was easily worth $60,000 to perhaps $80,000. Perfect. How much did the sellers want? $10,000. I said buy it, and they did. Moral: you never know what you’re going to find.

6.    If it’s junk, stay away at any price. Do not ever be swayed by piano salespeople. They are very good at convincing you that this piano is sensational. The truth is that a piano contains thousands of parts and they will baffle you with things you know nothing about until you’re convinced that the $18,000 for a 4-foot Kawai grand is just what your daughter needs to get started. The only lasting test is a pianist playing it and saying, “It’s good.” We’re the only ones who would know.

In short, if buying from a store outlet, expect a Chinese model in the low price range. And it doesn’t matter what the name printed on the piano is. I’ve seen hundreds of pianos with names like (not quoting) HugoVan Altenbrunner, or some such exalted name, but it is made in Shanghai, my friend. The low end is all Oriental pianos, some very good, some not so good.

If buying from an individual, then anything is possible. A good place to look is locally. Families grow up and out of the piano market. April and May are good months to buy because most corporate relocations are at that time and leave people with expensive pianos they don’t want, can’t sell, and will take any reasonable price for.

Look in the local newspaper, talk with other families, these are a couple of approaches. I will tell you this: never ever buy a piano sight-unseen. I’ve seen them advertised online in what appear to be great bargains.

But the truth is that pianos are like people and used cars, very unique, each with a different history. Let a pianist take a peek under the hood.

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 piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER.