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