In my opinion this is the greatest comedy bit ever. Rowan Atkinson ‘plays’ the piano in the manner of a cartoon character.
This was a part of Amnesty International’s ‘The Secret Policeman’s Ball’ filmed in 1979, and also starring John Cleese, Billy Connoly, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and many more.
Theses children are 6 and 8 and their mother is asking me to teach them piano. Obviously the basic. How much should i charge them for child. And should lessons be 30 minutes for children that young and small?
Practice is essential to become a good piano player. As you play the piano and try to progress towards becoming a piano giant it is important to be aware of some traps that will prevent you from reaching your goal.
It is a joyful experience to grow as a pianist and musician if you practice in a sensible way using the experience from a teacher or other sources like books and piano instructional DVD’s and more.
The feeling that you are approaching your goals gives satisfaction and a belief in yourself.
What traps am I talking about then?
Learning processes can take you towards your goals but as you practice you might unconciously learn things that are limiting your progress.
I don’t think that you want to learn things that will limit your progress and if you will be aware of these thing I know that you will avoid them. Here are some traps:
1. Uncomfortable feelings. There can be reasons for you not being at ease as you practice on your piano like stress or negative feelings regarding your ability to progress.
Maybe you are preparing for a performance, a piano lesson or something else and you feel less prepared than you want or other negative thoughts are disturbing you.
Having these feelings as you play on your piano is not so very good. Why?
These negative feelings tend to be evoked as you play the same piece of music at other occasions. I guess this is not what you want.
It can lead to an aversion towards a certain piece of music for the rest of your life or that you quit playing altogether because of uncomfortable feelings as you play.
2. Muscle tensions. Well, you might play in a very relaxed way but many pianists tend to tense too much as a result of maybe playing faster and on a level above their technical skills.
This is very common among young kids trying to play like their musical heroes while actually being on another level of proficiency.
The important aspect of this is that the actual tension level in your hands and in your body when you practice a specific piano piece tends to be at the same level when you play the same piece of music at a performance.
If you have practiced a piano piece with a high tension level you will most probably find it hard to perform the same composition in a relaxed manner.
3. Making mistakes. Can your practicing lead you away from learning a piece of music? You probably want to become a better piano player by practicing but if you play too fast when learning new passages it is likely that you will make a lot of mistakes.
When learning a passage of music these mistakes will be part of the learning process. The more mistakes you make the harder it will be to play the passage right.
To put it another way, all mistakes accumulate and becomes a disturbance when you try to play the passage right. Instead it will become easier and easier to play the music wrong.
But, don’t let this information depress you. This information can be good news if you use it to your advantage!
Here are some tips:
1. Comfortable feelings. Try to practice in an atmosphere of peace and joy. How? By not procrastinating working on you piano lesson homework and by having a positive attitude.
2. Relax. A piano session with practicing and memorizing piano pieces can also be an occasion when you practice relaxation. As you play, try to pay attention to your hands, fingers and the rest of your body using as little force in your playing as possible. This will benefit both your mental and physical health!
3. Make no mistake. At least, not too many. If you practice new piano pieces slowly, with concentration and with correct posture you will be rewarded with learning your homework faster and also feel much better.
There are many piano courses available on the internet. Most are downloadable and very reasonably priced, they also offer secure ordering and money back guarantees, but is it a good idea to learn to play the piano with software downloaded from a website.
As a piano teacher, when I first encountered these courses I didn’t think they would take off and I certainly did not think that these courses could possibly work. My view was and still is that if you want to play the piano properly you must go to a piano teacher, but is this any better or worse than piano courses from the website.
Obviously, as a piano teacher, I am always going to promote this way of learning but I am now promoting piano learning software for beginners. Why? Because there are certain groups of people that cant afford piano lessons or don’t have time for regular piano lessons or are unable for various reasons unable to take lessons.
What do these groups of people have in common?
They might have the same desire to play the piano or a keyboard as someone that does take piano lessons, so why shouldn’t they have an opportunity to learn to play albeit in a different way. Now I still don’t believe you will become a great piano player using software to learn to play, but you certainly will get the start you need and you will most certainly enjoy the process and who knows you might like it so much you might even end up going to a piano teacher.
Which piano software course should you choose?
My answer is very simple. Any. They are all about the same, some have audio and video files, and some are digital books. At the end of the day, they are all telling you the same thing. Obviously, the more expensive courses will cover more topics, just browse through a few piano courses and get one that takes your fancy; it really is as simple as that.
Is it safe to buy these piano courses online?
Yes, it’s very safe. Most websites use a third party payment processor such as PayPal and Clickbank who provide a secure environment for there sellers and customers and if you think about it, any piano course seller that started fiddling there customers they wouldn’t stay in business long. However, here are a few tips to keep you safe when buying software online.
1 Look for a money back guarantee in case you don’t like the product
2 When you click the pay button look for a padlock on the bottom right of your computer screen. This means the page is secure.
3 If you have a credit card, use it. It’s probably the safest way to buy anything.
Finally, you can always email the website owner and ask a few questions. So whether its lessons from your piano teacher or lessons from your piano software enjoy your piano playing, its great fun, that I can promise you.
Im trying to find a volunteer job for a piano player, maybe in a hospital. It has to be in HOUSTON, please help me to find it!!
Thank you very much.
There’s this nice, fancy restaurant on the water about 10 miles away from where I live. I was hoping to play the piano there as a part-time job. Any suggestions on how I would go about requesting a position/interview?
Currently there are no wanted signs, but this is the kind of place that would have a piano player. Thanks in advance.