Piano Lessons for Adult Piano Students
Having my studio robbed has confirmed many of my piano teaching principles
I know this is strange way to make lemonade out of lemons, but being burglarized this past weekend has served to validate many of the ideas I have used successfully when teaching adult piano students. Weird, but wonderful. (more…)
Predicting the Future is Usually Dicey but I Do See the Trends
I’ve been teaching piano now full-time since October of 1987. I began as most teachers do – traveling to my students’ homes. Later, I found space to teach at a local piano dealership. A few years ago I decided to limit my practice to adult and teen-aged students. This year I’m focusing my attention to the Internet. I give you this history to convince you that I might just be able to see “the handwriting on the wall” regarding piano education. (more…)
Understanding one’s preferences regarding art is always difficult
I’ve boiled it down like this. (more…)
Who Decides What Is or Is NOT Music – and Why You Should Care
I teach piano to adults. They love many different kinds of piano playing from show tunes and ballads to the classics. One thing many of them say when the subject comes up is “Rap is not music.” Most are then surprised when I explain why they should change their opinion – for their own good. (more…)
Creativity Demands Freedom to Choose Your Own” Muse”
Have you ever wondered why the “great” pianists, city symphonies, and many new recordings on CD seem to be re-hashing the wonderful works of dead composers? Have musicians gotten stupid or something? Or have they all become the victims of the pop music culture? Why is there little or no recent “great” music? If you have wondered these things, I may have some answers. (more…)
“Mastery” is a common piano goal
Just today I came up with a short, easy way to explain the experience of mastery to other pianists and piano students. Of course, the concept applies to lots of things other than the piano, but THIS is a piano website, so… (more…)
YOU and YOUR Goals are the Very Essence of My Approach to Piano Instruction
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about teaching piano to adult students it’s that they’re interested in different things and thus require different materials and different styles of teaching. Consider a few students from my current crop:
1. A student who loves classical music and wants to play it well.
2. A student who already knows classical but wants to learn pop and rock well.
3. a student who knows nothing about piano except she wants to play it.
4. The student that prefers the many sounds and features of her electronic keyboard to that of a simple piano.
Obviously (at least to me) one size does NOT fit all. (more…)
Adult Piano Students All Want it and Here’s How to Get It
“Fluency” – the ability to play your favorite music with little effort
Ah, fluency! To pick up a new piece of sheet music, sit down at the piano and simply play it as written, with maybe one or two small errors – at full tempo with a steady beat so it moves along as expected. THAT’S the most common goal of adult pianists, whatever their tastes in piano music. (more…)
Adult Piano Students Can Easily Confirm that They are Making Their Goal
Unfortunately, there are many mis-understandings regarding “fluency” at the piano, all of which make it harder to accomplish this goal than need be. My previous essay clarified the proper definition of “fluency” for the adult piano student and offered a way to attain more – but how do you know if you are making progress? The answer is pretty simple: (more…)
Every Adult Piano Student Wants to Get Better at Piano Playing
Whether you want to play sonatas or showtunes, Bach or the blues, an adult piano student always seeks to improve his or her piano playing. Improvement, to the piano student, is the very essence of progress. Unfortunately, learning the piano is much like learning anything else, in that there are good days and bad days, even good weeks and weeks that are, shall we say, “not so hot.” Thus, how does an adult piano student KNOW if improvements are being made? (more…)
A Question Adult Piano Students Should Ask Themselves
Every student of adult piano should ask themselves this vital question: “How good do I need to get?” Actually, most adult pianists have this question somewhere in their brain and ask themselves regularly, usually during moments of frustration. It’s the purpose of this essay to help you answer yourself ! (more…)
Why This is a Critical Question to Ask and Why the Right Answer is “YES !”
Seems like a stupid sort of question at first, doesn’t it? “Do I play the piano? Well, DUH! I’m an adult piano student, aren’t I?” However, I’ve asked this question to a number of my adults students over the years and have been shocked when they told me that they did NOT consider that they played the piano. (more…)
