1st Piano

Because of the technical virtuosity and skill of famous jazz, blues, and classical improvisers, many beginning pianists mistakenly assume that improvisation is to be learned in the distant future, when one's piano abilities are more developed. On the contrary, though, most contemporary piano teachers feel that improvisation is a huge part of playing piano at all skill levels, not just for experts. In fact, with the influence of jazz on modern pianists and tutors, improvisation is now considered to be a huge part of learning how to play piano. It hones the beginning pianist's feel for her instrument, and it strongly reinforces what the student has learned about music theory, keys, and scales. The best advice for a beginning improviser is to just start playing -- and to have fun with it. However, for students looking for a little more guidance, here is a brief tutorial on piano improvisation. Three Points: 1) Learn and practice your keys, chords, modes, and scales...

By Bill Kernodle If you are new to the piano and want to get the most out of your experience, please read the following suggestions. Find a Good Teacher One of the most obvious, but often overlooked aspects of learning the piano, or any new instrument is to find a good teacher. You may not think you can afford it, or you think you can learn a lot on your own, but you will be very well served to start with a good teacher. It is true it does cost money, and it is true that you can learn a lot by yourself. However, you can learn so much more in such a short time from someone who has been where you are and knows how to take you where you want to go. One of the most crucial aspects of learning form the beginning the proper way is to not learn bad habits. Bad habits are very hard to break as they become so much a part of how you play. Do yourself a favor and learn the right way the first time. Practice Regularly This next suggestion may seem too obvious to even consider, but ...

By James Weinberg Well, sure! Many have done it: Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, to name a few (although he actually learned stride piano from an old black man in his hometown's rural country store). If you are a genius like one of them, you can teach yourself and dispense with piano lessons. How do you know if you're a musical genius? Easy... 1. You can hear a piece once, sit down and play it by ear. 2. You can write songs that others will pay you thousands of dollars for. 3. You will be able to play better than any teacher you hire. If this does not describe you, you probably need a teacher. Avoid these: • www.Hear-and-Play.com • www.PlayNowMusic.com • any vendor who claims you can learn to play in 5 minutes-- guaranteed • any vendor who uses terms like "magic," "miracle," or "fast and easy" • a sales pitch that promises anyone can learn to play by ear As with any other marketed service or product, music lesson...

By Rony Pollock If you have continuously exposed your child to the music of Bach, Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven, you may have a promising music prodigy in the family. Boost your child's love for music, a child piano may carve a path to the royal concert halls. Let your kid tinker with the child piano If your child shows an interest for music, help him develop his potential. The child piano is the popular choice for parents with young Mozarts in the family. With this, children as young as three years old can recognize the tones of the piano. Children have an aptitude for music. This has been proven by musical geniuses. As early as three years old, Mozart was already tinkering with the piano. Bach was an accomplished piano player at 9. Chopin authored piano compositions at age 7. Beethoven is also credited for his piano pieces at age 10. All these great music masters shared two things – a musical background and a passion for music at an early age. By that time, these ...

How can you create and keep your motivation to play the piano? In other words, how can you increase and keep the joy of playing the piano? The cause that made you start playing in the first place! 1. Before setting goals Sometimes the reason why we don't keep our piano playing goals is that we haven't been honest with ourselves when we set the goals. Before setting the your goals you have to decide why you want to play piano. Make an honest survey of your assets and wishes in the area of piano playing. 2. Setting goals In order to set goals that you will actually work towards you have to be honest with yourself. Do I really want to accomplish these goals. Will I really feel good when I reach my goals? 3. Having a repertoire One common reason for starting to play the piano is to be able to play the pieces of music you like. This means that as you learn to play piano, a goal might be to learn a number of piano pieces, let's say five melodies, by heart so you ...

I recently read a Wired Magazine interview with Oliver Sacks. He is a neurologist who has written about the healing power of music . I can attest to that healing power. I think back to my childhood when my father, who wasn't a musician per say, would play the piano to put my sisters and I to sleep at night. I don't know what he played. I just remember that it was soothing. I would feel my body sinking into the bed and I would drift off to sleep with this deep knowingness of being safe. Fast forward to 2007. Here I am faced with the stress of everyday living and where do I find my sanctuary? Again, in music. So when I picked up the latest copy of Wired Magazine and saw it contained an article about how music can change your brain , I had to read it. One of the questions the interviewer, Steve Silberman, asked was, "Can playing music alter the structure of the brain?" Oliver Sacks response was, " Very strikingly. In musicians, parts of the corpus call...

by Herrit Son How can somebody be a musical mind reader ? To tell the future of a song or read the mind of a composer? It is a magical ability I tell you, almost like being able to recompose any song on the spot. And it can be achieved! It's not only about amazing other musicians or developing more confidence in your playing (or singing), it's about learning to enjoy music from a new level and perspective. I've been playing piano for years (have taught some people also), and I feel more comfortable with my abilities, day by day, after discovering how to "predict" music. Stress levels when performing in public have diminished for good. The most fun part comes when you begin to sing songs that you haven't even heard before (you should look at the faces of my children when I reassured them that the "hits" they've been listening to, are remakes of old time classics, but of course I've been teasing them... I simply was able to sing ...

By Justin Brooke At the beginning of the piano lesson book , there should be a section of information that will teach you about the piano and all its many parts before you even begin to play. Knowing this information will not only help you understand the piano, but also build an appreciation for the incredible instrument. When purchasing your first piano lesson book look for sections that include the following: About the piano, different types of pianos, and how the piano works. I especially liked learning how the piano worked. Did you know that small hammers actually make the sounds of a piano? These hammers strike different size strings inside the piano and thickness of those strings is what produces the high and low sounds. Ever wondered how the pedals affect the sounds of a piano? In the "About the Piano" section, it should explain this in great detail. I learned that the right pedal also called the sustaining pedal does just that. It holds notes longer tha...

It is counterintuitive to add more studies to the schedule of an already busy child. Our natural response to seeing our child struggle is to find a way to help, not to add to the burden. If a child is struggling, why should we risk setting them up for failure in music lessons? The answer is simple. Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. That's right. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks! What they found, when comparing a group of students taking music lessons with a control group that was not, was that students who had taken as few as ten music lessons over a five week period exhibited a significant ear to hand link. So? What's the big deal? Life doesn't make much use of ear to hand connections unless you want to play an instrument by ear (I've always thought that provoked a strange menta...

Do you ever watch musicians in jazz clubs? Piano players are the most awesome to behold. They seem to just pick up and play songs they have never heard before that night. Many individuals can do this. No matter their instrument, they can listen to a song once and play it without hesitation and error free. The rest of us need music, carefully written keys, notes and time signatures as a guide. Perhaps we have neglected our own improvisational education. This article is to aid others in avoiding the same mistakes. It is possible to learn the piano by playing by ear, although it is not a common method. To learn piano is to learn to read music simultaneously, is the most common method. This is a talent honed by many years of practice, reading music, listening, and imitating that most professional musicians can play by ear, no matter how they originally learned to play. For some individuals, playing by ear in an inborn talent and gift that come to them naturally, for instance,...

By Chess McDoogle Why is it that after years of studying something as a child, we forget later in life what we learned? Such is the common question of how to play piano despite years of lesson. Here i get you back to playing music even if you think you've lost it, and have begun to give up on how to play piano despite years of lesson. First, realize that you have had lesson in piano, years of it perhaps, and that DOES count for a whole lot. How to play piano despite years of lesson entails mentally realizing that you really are only a step or two away from being able to play piano. The problem is that it seems like that first step is a big hurdle, and obviously a frustrating one having already had lesson, but unable to play. Second: Start slow, do scales. Get the basic scales out and go through them. It took me actually having to number my keyboard at first, i had forgotten so much. From there i was able to translate the numbers to notes, and the scales began to get...

We all have our psychological, emotional, mental and physical barriers when it comes to practicing and/or performing. One such particularly difficult challenge is that many pianists simply cannot remember a piece. However, it is the emotional reaction to not remembering a piece which is the most painful. In fact, what it creates is stress. And, that is a huge problem and very difficult barrier that pianists need to overcome. Knowing what stress is however can completely change your perspective. Here's the real definition of stress; Stress is the amount of energy you put into resisting your situation. This will help to change your behavior and therefore, if you change your behavior, you change the results. The first step is to become aware of your internal dialogue when you approach the piano. What is your little voice telling you? Is it saying, "I feel guilty for not doing what is expected of me?" Is it saying, "I'm not good enough, talented enough,...

If you've ever wanted to play a musical instrument but didn't have the Time, Patience and/or Money to spend on YEARS on Expensive Music Lessons, Learning How to Read Music, Hours and Hours of tedious practice...then Keep Reading. A New Musical Instrument has been discovered...This Magical Musical Instrument is so Easy To Play, Anyone can be Making Beautiful Music within 10 minutes! Anyone can create a beautiful, original song with chords that harmonize within 10 minutes of picking this musical instrument up for the very 1st Time! Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Well, because of what Dr. Hugh Tracey has developed, It is now a Dream come True! Dr Hugh Tracey is the man who invented the Kalimba. The Kalimba is a musical instrument with its origins in South Africa. Hugh Tracey was an Englishman from Devonshire, England. So how does an Englishman invent a musical instrument from South Africa? In his youth, rather than go on to Cambridge or Oxford for an education, ...

By Sergey Popov The piano is a musical instrument that unlike poetry, is tangible. To me, learning the piano is the first step in building musicianship. It is also a harmonious instrument that is often accompanied by another instrument or even several different types. This may sound silly being a musician but one of the most beautiful things about this piano is how it's made and what it looks like and how exclusive it is… I'm a huge lover of art in every form and this piano just to look at is incredible. You've always wanted to take piano lessons, why not now? Taking piano lessons will increase your ability to learn anything. I can't tell you how truly important piano lessons have become in my life. But they dramatically changed my lifestyle. If you focus on piano lessons, you will not have time to focus on things you don't want in you life. So if you are serious about starting piano lessons, think twice… As you know, traditional piano lessons take y...

Learning to play piano can be a very fulfilling experience. But it can also be very expensive, which means many people who would love to play don't have the opportunity. However, there are now many self-teaching methods on the market which means if you've ever wanted to learn to play piano, there's never been a better time. So in this article I will explain to you all the different methods now available for anyone learning to play piano. Obviously, one of the most effective ways to learn piano is private tuition. However, this is also the most expensive. But an option that may not have occurred to you is this: Group classes. Group classes provide you with the face-to-face learning, but reduce the cost quite a bit by spreading it out across several group members. But if this option isn't available to you, and you want to teach yourself, then there's still some options. Learning to play piano from a book – while not the best option – can still be effe...

So many people want to learn the piano. Usually, this means one of two things - they want to learn classical repertoire or they want to be able to read from "fake" books and play pop standards. Both worthy goals. But basic piano lessons can be so much more than that. What if you could create your own unique music at the piano without years of study? In fact, by learning how to play the open position piano chord, you can actually create your own music in as little as one hour! Think this is absurd? Read on… The open position chord is a special way of forming chords on the keyboard. Instead of triads as your first introduction to piano chords, you get to form modern sounding chords using both hands right away. In fact, you can play all of the open position chords in the Key of C Major within 30 minutes. Now, all of these chords are located on the white keys and this makes it very easy. But once you learn this chord position, playing it in the other 11 keys is qu...

A piano, short for Pianoforte is probably one of the finest musical instruments ever created by man. The sound of a piano can create a wonderful melody that stirs hidden emotions, makes us feel euphoric or gloomy and transport us into a private world of dreams and fantasy. A musical instrument that traces its history back to the earliest stringed instruments, the piano has been a symbol of grace and refinement for centuries in the western world. Can you dominate this instrument to make the amazing harmony of sounds you hear played by professional musicians? If you decide to come over and spend some time at the Accademia Europea di Firenze, we can definitely help, the piano lessons are taught by highly qualified teachers and the atmosphere is a friendly one. The precursors of this grand instrument were at best crude attempts to make a stringed keyboard instrument. But the piano as we know it today was created by Bartolomeo Cristofori de Francisco of Padua, Italy in around ...

In examining the use of the hand, it will, for now be enough to say that it will become the end product in a process. It will later, in its relation to the piano keyboard, be considered as an agent. The framework of the arm and hand consists of 30 bones: 1 for the upper arm, 2 for the forearm, 8 for the wrist, 5 for the palm of the hand, and 14 for the fingers and thumb. The hand and wrist are, strictly speaking, attached to only one of the two bones of the forearm. This may easily be proved. Let the right arm be loosely extended, and the hand made to-turn half round and back again without bending at the wrist, the fingers of the left hand during this motion touching lightly the " under" bone of the right arm close to the elbow. As the hand turns, the upper bone alone turns with it, attached to, and "rolling" on the lower one at both elbow and wrist. The terms "under" and "upper" are applied only relatively to the two bones of the ...

By Kathy Ferneau Why should you learn to play the piano? You may wonder that, especially if you are an adult with a busy lifestyle. Is it worth the time and effort? Yes, of course, and there are many reasons. Playing the piano fulfills a childhood dream. Many adults didn't have the opportunity to take piano lessons as a child, but the dream is still there. It's never too late to learn. That tired old saying about teaching an old dog new tricks--just forget that! Other adults took lessons as a child, but didn't appreciate them or didn't put forth any effort to really learn. If you fall into this category, stop beating yourself up. You are wiser than you were as a child and you can still play the piano now. Informal surveys of private piano teachers reveal that in some studios, half of the students are adults. Playing the piano is not as difficult as you might think. Keep in mind that we aren't talking about enterin...

 Tip 1: The course must be reputable.Make sure the course that you're choosing is one that has a good reputation. Do a search on google or your favorite search engine and read reviews, feedback from other users and expert reviewers. You may also want to go to piano forums and post a question about the particular online piano course that you're interested in. Find out how long they've been around and the satisfaction level of its past and current users. Tip 2: The course must go beyond just the basics.Some online piano courses only focus on the basics and leave you hanging. If you wish to continue, then you must order another course in order to progress further. Some authors use this tactic as bait. They might price the course very low and then upsell when the student is done with the initial course. Look for an online course that goes beyond the basic level, at a reasonable price, of course. Tip 3: Is the course well rounded?Ask yourself this question when choo...