Are you just starting to learn piano? This article is perfect for you with good information, tips and tricks on how to learn piano easily even for beginners such as you! Please read on :)
A Piano Lesson for Beginners
by John Aschenbrenner
If you're thinking of trying the piano, and have no idea where to start, you will probably type "piano lesson for beginners" on a search engine. But the results are dizzying. Where do you start? Whose advice do you take? What method is best for you?
If you take my generalized advice, you'll listen to what thousands of people have told me who were in exactly the same position as you.
KIDS
For kids, the conclusion they come to is that reading music is too complicated to handle and have any significant degree of pleasure in simply making music at the piano, especially at the very beginning.
The two tasks are really separate: reading music and making music. Most piano beginners are totally unaware of this fact, and it creates lots of problems for kids with piano teachers who insist on only reading music.
If kids could look back on their piano lessons, they would say, "I wish it had been more fun." It's simple childish nature to desire fun, and piano is an elective activity for them. But this is a fact that almost all piano teachers ignore, to the detriment of their young students.
To most piano teachers, the skill they are selling is musical literacy, and if you happen to enjoy the music during the process, it's entirely an accident. These piano teachers do not believe that they should ever enter into the realm of "fun," and that to do so would weaken and dilute their precious musical curriculum and standards. That attitude is poison to children's enthusiasm for the piano.
ADULTS
Adults are often on their own, without a teacher, and have to sort it out for themselves by picking up a "teach yourself piano" type of method.
The comment I hear the most is, "I was okay until about page 30, and then it got so complicated I couldn't have any fun, so I quit."
Actually, the only mistake they made was to assume they had to go at the pace that the books set out for them. And that's going about it the wrong way.
You should go as slowly as you want. Your first goal should be to play familiar songs you have always liked. It may be corny, but just mastering "Greensleeves" is a huge accomplishment, and you can take as long as you like to do it.
The easiest way to get started is to number your piano keys and forget about reading music until you have a couple of dozen songs you can enjoy playing.
If you don't enjoy just playing simple music, you will not stick around to learn the complex stuff.
Here's a link to a piano method for beginners that goes at just the right pace: Piano By Number.
http://www.pianoiseasy2.com
John Aschenbrenner is the author of the Piano By Number series.
Article Source:
EzineArticles.com
Hopefully this article may have instill a clearer understanding as well as giving you many useful information on how to play piano. If you are a novice or beginner, this is a good start for you :)
I totally get your point about "fun" and piano lessons. I think it's changing though in the piano teaching world. When asked about my approach from a parent or an adult student the first phrase out of my mouth is "lessons should be fun".
ReplyDeleteI know, I'm preaching to choir:). Simple point, if you don't like doing something why would you continue to do it? That's where fun comes in.
I feel lucky because I also lead a large group of music teachers in my company Lessons In Your Home. We have seminars and peer group meetings where we speak about making music lessons fun!
Check out one of our most recent blog post:
http://lessonsinyourhome.net/news/scaffolding-not-just-for-buildings/