5-Minute Piano Lessons

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…)

Remember and Use Two Simple, but Powerful Sayings for Better Piano Practice

Introduction: One aspect of successfully teaching adult piano lessons is devising new and concise ways of expressing important ideas – ways of “putting things” that piano students will instantly understand and immediately put to use. During my years as a piano teacher, I’ve come up with quite a few  phrases that work well and these  “maxims” are used over and over in my live adult piano lessons. I offer them to you online for your consideration. (more…)

Mistakes at the Piano are Inevitable but not All Mistakes are Worth Correcting

Many folks are perfectionists by nature and most of the adult piano students I teach seem to be part of this group. They usually hate to make mistakes at the piano, especially in front of their piano teacher. It frustrates them no end, and thus I’ve written extensively about this situation might be corrected. (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…)