Best Way To Learn To Play The Piano

Its Time To Find A Teacher

I hope you have become just a little wiser on what to be aware of when you have to choose piano teacher, a course, an app and form of teaching.

There is nothing wrong with contacting several different teachers and have a chat with them. This can be a great way to find out if you are clicking.

Maybe you will also be offered a free trial lesson from several of the teachers you approach. This way you get some insight on different teachers and teaching methods.

And I must of course mention that if you are interested in my online course Piano in 3 weeks then there is a free trial lesson in the sense that you have a 14-day money-back guarantee. This means that you can try out the course and if it does not live up to your expectations then you simply get your money back.

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Warm Up Before You Practice

It might not seem like a lot, but your hands are doing a lot of work. Like the rest of your body, if you dont make sure they are ready to work, you can risk injury.

Before you begin, stretch your hands and perform warm-up exercises. This stretching will help blood flow to your hands and remove any stiffness in them.

You can also get into the right frame of mind by practicing simple techniques and progressions before you start your practice. A good set of exercises to learn are the Hanon exercises.

Becoming A Better Piano Player Takes Time And Effort

People who play the piano whether theyre professionals or amateurs should always be working to get better. Whether youve been taking piano lessons or youre just starting out, improvement and progress are key. From improving finger strength to constantly challenging yourself, here are a few different ways you can become a better piano player.

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Beginner Basics: How To Teach Yourself Piano

One of the most common questions our teachers get asked: can I learn to play piano by myself? Yes! While we believe the best way to learn piano is from an expert instructor, were also in full support of students who prefer self-learning.

Pianos one of the most versatile instruments, so learning how to teach yourself is a skill that will serve you in other areas of life. If youre truly committed to playing this instrument, use this learning guide to get started.

Piano Apps And Bluetooth

Technology has come a long way and learning with Apps is a lot of fun. With MIDI and Bluetooth you can link your digital keyboard directly into the online learning resources and have them assess your playing in real-time.

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1. FlowKeyFlowkey is one of the most interactive piano apps. The interface is very user-friendly and it takes you through the lessons and songs at a great pace. It also has an excellent 10-lesson beginners course to get you started. Nice!

Flowkey has a free trial that is worth signing up for to see if you like the program. If you do, they have 3 subscription offers that start at about $10/month. Good value!

2. SkooveSkoove is an enjoyable way to learn piano and comes with a great app and online lessons.

My favorite thing about Skoove is probably the focus on learning to play songs. Importantly, they also have a great selection of tracks to learn including songs by Coldplay, Adele, Ed Sheeran etc.

The Skoove app is pretty clever too. It analyses your playing and gives you useful feedback.

3. Simply PianoSimply Piano is an excellent resource for learning piano .

The lessons are gamified in that you have to complete a section before moving on to the next stage. At the end of each section you get to play what you have just learnt with a backing track .

There is a free version of Simply Piano available so it is definitely worth a try to see if you like it.

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I Want To Tackle Classical

A good teacher wont just direct you blindly through a book, though instructors did mention that Fabers Adult Piano Adventures series contains beginner pieces that are less grating than Hot Cross Buns. Instead, a teacher should offer you pieces to play that are achievable at your level, like an easier arrangement of a Chopin nocturne, which was the first classical piece that Bell was able to master. Ono likes giving his students classical pieces by contemporary composers to keep things interesting he likes, in particular, Lera Auerbach, Kevin Olson, and William Gillock. Your teacher may even compose some music just for you. Ihave written stuff for my students, Ono says. Usually, its just that I know what they need to work on technical or musical challenges such as phrasing, hand independence, or incorporating the pedal, for example and I scour what Ican find for the thing. If I cant find it, well, then, okay, Ill just write a piece.

One Great Teacher: Arielle Levioff, 92YLevioff has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Halls Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall as well as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. According to Bell, shes patient and gives good feedback. She also teaches older adults through 92Ys Himan Brown 60+ Program.

How Long Does It Take To Learn The Piano

It is easy to get impatient with the progress you are making. The piano is a very complicated instrument so it is definitely going to take some time before you can say you are a pro at it!

The time you need in order to learn the piano depends on several factors:

• Level Are you a beginner hoping to learn advanced piano? Or perhaps just a beginner aiming to transition to an intermediate level? Your skill level and your goal are one of the things that determines the time you need before finishing your lessons.

• Lesson Content Are you in it for a couple of songs or do you want to learn complicated classical pieces? It is going to take a longer time to learn Liszt La Campanella than Perfect by Ed Sheeran.

• Dedication The speed of your progress also depends on how religiously you take your lessons and how much you practice.

• Budget This is the reason why taking note of your budget is important before you start committing to lessons. If you stop in the middle of your lessons, it is going to take you far longer to relearn once you decide to pick it back up.

• Instructor If you have an instructor, the way your instructor handles your lessons and you as a student can also affect your learning speed. A great instructor produces great results.

• Musical Talent This is not to say that not everyone can learn how to play the piano. However, certain people progress quicker when it comes to music.

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Everything About The Beat

Take a look at the quarter notes in the graphic. What do you see?

Correct, you see four F-quarter notes, which together add up to a 4/4 bar with a length of 1. In this lesson we want to learn more about bars.

But let us first take a closer look at the notation system. The five horizontal lines are called the staff. The symbol on the top staff is called the treble clef. This clef shows you what the right hand should play on the piano. The treble clef is indicated by the violin-like symbol on the left of the number 4/4.

The symbol on the lower staff is called the bass clef and show you what the left hand should play on the piano. The symbol for this clef looks like an inverted C with 2 dots on the side.

In the first bar, you will find the clef and the time signature. The time signature is always indicated at the beginning of the treble clef and bass clef alike. The graphic shows a 4/4 bar for both clefs . The upper number indicates the number of beats per bar, i.e. each bar is four beats long. The lower number gives you the rhythmic name of each of these beats in a bar. In a 4/4 bar, four quarter notes correspond to one bar. In other words, a bar is four quarter notes long.

A bar can contain any combination of note values as long as they add up to the total length of the bar. You can see how important mathematics is for music, so lets freshen up our fractions a bit.

The numbers you see next to the clefs are called the time signature.

Studying Music Theory And Applying What You Learn To The Keyboard

This strategy takes a more minimal approach than a full piano curriculum provides, focusing on music theory alone.

This means that you will focus on the written and structural elements of music, but not on the technique, style and practice of producing sounds on a keyboard .

Music theory encompasses elements of key signatures, time signatures, notation, chord structures, rhythmic patterns, important symbols, and descriptive words, phrases, and abbreviations.

In summary, this is an academic and mental approach to learning the piano that focuses on the side of music.

To benefit from this approach, you will need some innate musicality and a heightened personal aptitude for applying and analyzing information in a practical, musical way without outside assistance.

As challenging as this method may seem, it offers some valuable benefits.

For one, it is highly cost-effective.

For nominal $s, you can purchase the theory books alone from the established curriculums Ive previously mentioned, while not purchasing the methods and technique books, too.

You can also opt to purchase a book devoted to explaining piano theory in a thorough and straightforward way, such as The Complete Book of Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences by Willard Palmer.

Besides affordability, this approach equips you to play the piano in an intelligent manner. You will learn to think carefully about the music that you play.

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Learn How To Read Music

Reading music is key to teaching yourself how to play the piano. Its really not that hard once you have the basics of piano, listed above, down pat. First, youll want to learn the names of the left-hand staff and right-hand staff . You might also use mnemonics such as Every Good Boy Deserves Food to remember the note placement on the treble clef .

Of course, there are more things to learn when you are learning how to read music besides the notes on the page. You must also learn how to read the rhythm. The best idea when you are first learning hot to play the piano, however, is to concentrate on the notes. Rhythm is more advanced and will come more naturally later.

The above fundamental steps that youve been working on in teaching yourself to play the piano- recognizing patterns in music, learning the major keys and chords, and fingering all come into play as you are learning to read music. You should be able to build upon the cumulative knowledge that you are learning, and the sheet music should make more sense to you now than it would have if you would have tried to learn to read music before familiarizing yourself with the piano.

Embrace The Mistakes If You Want To Progress

Mistakes are bound to happen no matter how well we prepare ourselves. The key here is to not be embarrassed, accept these mistakes, and move on towards learning how to do it in the right manner.

You shouldnt shy away from mistakes, especially in front of a music teacher, because your mistakes will reveal your weaknesses, weaknesses which you or your teacher will observe, and work towards repairing them.

You should identify these mistakes as soon as you can, since you may develop a bad habit of repeating them. Probably the best way to check up on your progress is to post a recording of you playing on a forum, and ask for opinions.

There is nothing to be embarrassed here since you prove your will to learn, and this is something that any true professional will acknowledge, and will try to help you in your endeavor.

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Make Use Of Online Teaching Sources

You can take advantage of online teaching resources. Making use of these resources is the best way to learn piano online. You can learn the piano at home without attending a physical class conducted by a real-life teacher.

There are also interactive apps that you can use. They are the next best thing to a live piano teacher because you can see and imitate what they do. The only drawback is that you wont get their feedback since most of these videos are pre-recorded.

But still, they are good teaching resources that will help you learn the piano easier and faster.

One great advantage is that you can review the videos repeatedly until you can achieve the instructions objective. You can also view the instructions on your own time and for as long as you want. With online education, the learning conditions are all under your control.

Two popular online piano learning programs are PianoforAll and Rocket Piano. The best way to learn piano online is with these programs. See below for the details of each program.

Pianoforall

PianoforAll is a website where anyone can learn how to play the piano. There are structured lessons for beginners and intermediate players. It features more than 200 learning videos, 9 interactive eBooks, and provides a broad spectrum of the musical style of your preference.

PianoforAll offers lessons on everything you need, from basic notes to advanced music reading skills.

Rocket Piano

Piano Lessons As An Online Course

You have online access to a pre-arranged piano course. In the course you learn some specific things that take your piano playing from A to B. The course is aimed at a wide audience and is naturally not tailored specifically for you. In this category, of course, I recommend my own online course Piano in 3 Weeks. This course has a clear pedagogical strategy and takes your piano playing from A to B in a fast and inspiring way. Hear more about the course Piano in 3 Weeks by signing up for the free online webinar.

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I Want To Play With My Kids And Help Them Learn Too

Theres a standard piano system designed for this exact goal: the Suzuki method, invented in the 1940s by the Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki. The theory is that children learn music the same way they learn language through immersion, play, and parental involvement. They dont initially teach music in terms of reading notes. They first teach to play by ear, says Rose Crichton-White, director of marketing and development at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Theres this Suzuki triangle, which is made up of the parents, the child, and the teacher, she says. Parents take lessons with their children, or learn some music before their children start, so the child can learn at home.

Suzuki isnt the only option. Keylab has a coaching package that helps parents teach their children using a personalized set of supplies, and the Diller-Quaile School of Music offers programs that involve the students families and friends.

One Great Teacher: Tobias Meinhart, Tone Academy of MusicTone Academy is a Suzuki school, which means every child there attends classes with a parent, but Meinhart also specializes in adults. One adult student liked the lessons so much she kept going after her daughter quit.

Find A Teacher You Relate To

Some people can progress while doing online lessons, but in the end, the natural next step is to find a real teacher to advance, but it all depends on how far you want to go with your piano playing skills.

To an adult piano player, having a real teacher next to them might be the fastest way of learning to play the piano since he or she will quickly point out what you are doing right, wrong, and of course, they will provide the right steps and necessary guidance to ensure your progress.

Not only this, even the moral obligation of coming to their home, or if they come to yours, ensures the practice routine which will help you develop a habit out of, and thus, inevitably progress in your musical journey.

This step is indeed not for everyone, as some can do just well on their own, however, for others, it is the natural next step. A real-life teacher in the flesh can motivate you on all levels, and if you think about it, music is meant to be shared anyway!

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Motivational Tips When Practicing Becomes Difficult

If you should have any problems maintaining such a high level of motivation, here are 3 tips for you, which should put you back on track: