“Practice makes a man perfect.” No skill can be acquired without constant practice. Practice becomes increasingly important for learning various forms of art- be it painting, dancing, singing, or playing instruments like the piano. Playing piano like a maestro requires years of dedicated practice, skill and concentration. It’s not just confined to a few taps on the keyboard. Skill, co-ordination, good ears, and ability to keep time go into the making of a great pianist.
Those who are eager to learn how to play the piano might face initial difficulties while playing. But these little troubles should never bow you down; instead drive yourself with complete trust on your abilities and you will find how easily you can balance your skills with perfection. New learners often feel nervous when playing a song, thus marring the feel of it. The first lesson of a good artist is to immerse himself into the depths of the music and impart the right feeling to it. Music without feeling can never move an audience.
Piano playing skills can be easily improved by following few simple practices:
a. Dedicated practice of piano lessons everyday
b. Play your scale daily and sing the letter whenever you hit the key
c. Don’t try to take up tough lessons at one go. Begin with simple lessons before venturing to undertake the bigger ones. In fact, lay off your embarrassment to play such simple tunes as “Happy Birthday to you”, or “Twinkle twinkle little star”.
Besides, utilize your idle hours to browse the Internet and look for information on piano learning tips. Since Houston manufacturers one of the finest pianos in the world, availing information from Houston piano sites would be useful. For those who want to take up piano lessons Houston-based stores is the way to go. Most of these stores organize piano lessons by renowned pianists. Other avenues for piano-playing information are DVDs, online tutorials, and even online publications. DVD piano lessons can be helpful for learning piano-playing on one’s own. In case of any difficulty, you can participate in related forums to resolve any hiccups in your learning process. These little tips can go a long way to help you pick up playing your favorite musical instrument. One last thing though- do not play the piano with your hand, play it with your heart!
Posts Tagged ‘Pianists’
What Do Pedals on a Piano Do?
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
What do pedals on a piano do?
The three pedals that have become more or less standard on the modern piano are the following. From left to right: una corda, sostenuto and damper.
The damper pedal (also the sustaining pedal or loud pedal) is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. Every string on the piano, except the top two octaves, is equipped with a damper, which is a padded device that prevents the string from vibrating. The damper is raised off the string whenever the key for that note is pressed. When the damper pedal is pressed, all the dampers on the piano are lifted at once, so that every string can vibrate.
This serves two purposes. First, it assists the pianist in producing a legato (playing smoothly connected notes) in passages where no fingering is available to make this otherwise possible. Second, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whichever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the piano’s tone.
The una corda pedal (also the soft pedal) is placed leftmost in the row of pedals.
On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action to one side, slightly to the right, so that hammers that normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and modifies its tone quality.
On many upright pianos, the pedal operates a mechanism which moves the hammers’ resting position closer to the strings. This reduces the volume as the hammers have less distance to travel, but this does not change tone quality in the way the una corda pedal does on a grand piano.
However when this pedal is depressed on the vertical, it changes the action creating what is called lost motion, that is the jack is now further from the hammer butt, and now has to travel further to engage the hammer. This lost motion changes the touch and feel of the playing action, and as a result many pianists never use the soft pedal on a vertical.
Since the grand piano soft pedal simply shifts the action sideways, it does not change the touch and feel of the action, another advantage grand pianos have over vertical pianos.
The sostenuto pedal (also the middle pedal) keeps raised any damper that was raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain some notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before notes to be sustained are released) while the player’s hands are free to play other notes. This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other tricky or impossible situations.
The sostenuto pedal was the last of the three pedals to be added to the standard piano, and to this day, many pianos are not equipped with a sostenuto pedal. Almost all modern grand pianos have a sostenuto pedal, while nearly all upright pianos do not.
Some upright pianos have a celeste pedal (practice pedal) in place of the sostenuto. This pedal, which can usually be locked in place by depressing it and pushing it to one side, drops a strip of felt between the hammers and the strings so that all the notes are greatly muted— a handy feature for those who wish to practice without disturbing everyone else in the vicinity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano#Pedals
written by Janet Yun from www.shinemusic.com.au teachers of piano, saxophone, violin, singing, drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute and Clarinet
Why Choose To Learn How To Play Piano Over Other Instruments?
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
To be able to play a musical instrument well is a very satisfying emotional experience. The experience is even more edifying if you are good enough to play in a good band or playing backing for a singer whether professionally or just for the fun of it. So, if you want to learn how to play a musical instrument, which instrument should you pick up?
Well, if you are asking me, then I would say, learn how to play the piano. The next question would then be, why should you learn how to play the piano as the first choice over so many other musical instruments?
Well, here are some reasons why you should pick the piano over the other instruments. See if you agree.
For starters, just like I said earlier, being proficient in playing a musical instrument is a very satisfying experience and that is why everyone should learn how to play at least one instrument and make beautiful music.
Playing the piano proficiently makes you feel and look sophisticated and elegant. For some unknown reason, a pianist just exudes some kind of elegant charm more than other musicians, don’t you think so?
Furthermore, playing the piano keeps our brain active and our brain is actually doing mental exercises on all ten fingers when we consistently throw it the musical language to interpret. There are studies which show that pianists are more mathematically gifted too.
Also, learning how to play the piano can kill boredom. If you do not have anything to do, go and tickle the ebonies and ivories. Better yet, serenading to yourself while you are at it. Yes, I know you can do that with the guitar, but which instrument will produce a fuller and complete sound?
Perhaps you can organize family gatherings or entertain- your friends at a party with all of you having fun with you direct sing along sessions. That would be fun wouldn’t it?
Also, in a strange way, some people will actually respect you more and even think that you are a genius. Many people actually admire someone who can play the piano well. Perhaps you too and that is why you want to learn how to play the piano.
A good pianist never quit learning. You see, there is absolutely no way to memorize every song and if you can play by ear, you are learning new tunes every time whenever you hear a tune without you even aware of it until someone ask you whether you can play a certain song and although you have never learnt that song before, the tune just pops into your head with your fingers running elegantly over the piano keys.
I supposed deep down in most people, they wished that they are able to play the piano. If not, why are you reading this article? Do you know that learning how to play the piano is one of the most common New Year resolution?
Learning to play the piano proficiently is also a fantastic ego booster. There’s no better feeling like playing a difficult song effortlessly and flawlessly. If you are thinking of picking up a musical instrument, why not choose to learn how to play the piano?