5-Minute Piano Lessons

Piano students suffer from teaching approaches that take too long AND those that aren’t long enough

In my last post, I said some things about the kind of piano “education” that takes a very long time before you accomplish anything you personally hold dear. There’s been a lot of this around, especially in the last 100 years. The result is that this kind of teaching is what most piano lovers expect out of piano lessons. Some decide their love for piano music is enough to put up with this. Others don’t, however, and too many of these have fallen for the 180 degree opposite – piano training can be done “instantly” or “overnight” or “in a flash.” When these false promises prove unworkable, these good folks almost always blame themselves, perhaps thinking they weren’t born with the right talents. (more…)

Piano improv is simply piano composing music done on the fly

The upside is that any mistakes are gone in an instant (unless you are so silly you call some attention to them.) The downside is that it requires some ability to play PLUS some measure of creativity. If your entire piano training has been “how to properly follow directions” then you are unused to exercising your own musical creativity. Perhaps some of this will help you “unleash the beast” of your “inner music monster!”

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Those Who Have Had Piano Lessons Before Will Find This Interesting

The essays in this series provide my personal viewpoints. I’m going to repeat my reasoning for this at the beginning of each essay in the the series.

My experience as a piano teacher has brought me into contact with many folks who have had past piano lessons. Too often, such lessons were NOT a joy and too often the piano student ended up blaming themselves for this unpleasantness. Such piano students often do not take further piano training, even though they still want to play the piano. Even when they do, they bring much “baggage” to their new piano lessons which hinders their progress. I hope to change some minds and thus help more people learn to play piano for their own enjoyment and that of others. (more…)

Those Who Have Had Piano Lessons Before Will Find This Interesting

The essays in this series provide my personal viewpoints. I’m going to repeat my reasoning for this at the beginning of each essay in the the series.

My experience as a piano teacher has brought me into contact with many folks who have had past piano lessons. Too often, such lessons were NOT a joy and too often the piano student ended up blaming themselves for this unpleasantness. Such piano students often do not take further piano training, even though they still want to play the piano. Even when they do, they bring much “baggage” to their new piano lessons which hinders their progress. I hope to change some minds and thus help more people learn to play piano for their own enjoyment and that of others. (more…)

Those Who Have Had Piano Lessons Before Will Find This Interesting

The essays in this series provide my personal viewpoints. I’m going to repeat my reasoning for this at the beginning of each essay in the the series.

My experience as a piano teacher has brought me into contact with many folks who have had past piano lessons. Too often, such lessons were NOT a joy and too often the piano student ended up blaming themselves for this unpleasantness. Such piano students often do not take further piano training, even though they still want to play the piano. Even when they do, they bring much “baggage” to their new piano lessons which hinders their progress. I hope to change some minds and thus help more people learn to play piano for their own enjoyment and that of others. (more…)

Those Who Have Had Piano Lessons Before Will Find This Interesting

The essays in this series provide my personal viewpoints. I’m going to repeat my reasoning for this at the beginning of each essay in the the series.

My experience as a piano teacher has brought me into contact with many folks who have had past piano lessons. Too often, such lessons were NOT a joy and too often the piano student ended up blaming themselves for this unpleasantness. Such piano students often do not take further piano training, even though they still want to play the piano. Even when they do, they bring much “baggage” to their new piano lessons which hinders their progress. I hope to change some minds and thus help more people learn to play piano for their own enjoyment and that of others.. (more…)

Get a Greater “Return on Investment” of Money, Time, Effort, and Hope

In order to increase ROI (“Return on Investment”) from your piano lessons, we first must start with describing what a piano teacher does for us. We can then proceed to figure out how to maximize these benefits while minimizing the amount of our investment. I know this is not the usual approach taken by piano teachers. Most teachers want you to practice more, spend more time and effort to get what you want. This is not only an admission of inefficiency but probably won’t happen with busy adult piano students. The time and effort simply isn’t there in their lives. (more…)

Get a Greater “Return on Investment” of Money, Time, Effort, and Hope

In the last essay in this series, we set out to discover how we could get more value from our piano lessons. I used a business term “ROI – Return on Investment” to take the discussion out of the emotionally charged world of music My first points were defining the role of the piano teacher in order to maximize the value to you, the adult piano student, of that worthy individual. (more…)

Why this Question has Little Real Meaning for Most Adult Piano Students

Since, 2006 I’ve posted weekly to a Blog for Piano Students, both those taking lessons from a live teacher and those learning online. I received the following question to one of my posts and my reply is worth the reading, especially for those students in countries that offer some formal exams and qualifications: (more…)

Every Adult Piano Student Knows that TIME Can be a Big Problem

Many adults would like to play the piano. I am thankful for this fact every time I go to the bank, for most of my income comes from adult piano students! These are folks who ignored the “conventional wisdom” that says you must start piano as a child if you want to succeed. My students are adults who are successful enough at their piano training that they pay me good money, week after week. This leads one to wonder how much truth there is in the “conventional wisdom” and how it originated. (more…)