Archive for the ‘Tips For Beginners’ Category
What Is The Best Age To Begin Teaching A Child Piano?
November 17th, 2009
La Leçon De Piano (The Piano Lesson) By Marguerite Gérard (1761–1837)
Musical training during a very young age can be strikingly rewarding. In fact, most babies who are frequently exposed to perfectly tuned piano sounds and music have a tendency to automatically develop what is called “perfect pitch,” which is the ability to identify a musical note without any given reference.
This may seem unthinkable, but there is actually nothing extraordinary about this. Nobody can be born with the perfect pitch ability because it is a skill that is 100% learned.
Piano training is most effective when it is reinforced at a relatively young age. Children can begin learning when they are as young as three or four years old.
Exposing infants and toddlers (typically from birth) to classical music is very beneficial from a musical standpoint, because classical music involves the highest musical content out of all different types of music. Classical music is characterized by more complex components.
In comparison to classical music, certain types of contemporary music can hinder a child’s musical development. This is due to the fact that some forms of music over-emphasize detracting aspects like loudness or music structures that are too simplistic, which under-stimulates the brain.
An individual does not have to be especially “gifted” in order to play the piano well, which is why enrolling any child in piano lessons at an early age can be beneficial. Many people think that forcing their child into piano lessons at a younger age will result in their child being unable to sit still or concentrate on piano practice and technique.
Quite honestly, you will never know whether you child grows up to choose the piano or not, until they actually grow up. My sister (age 5) and I (age 8 ) were enrolled in piano lessons at the same time. My sister never truly developed the passion needed for piano persistence and she quit a few years later. I, on the other hand, kept on going to participate in competitions and conservatory examinations. Our difference in age had nothing to do with it (the fact that I was older). It was simply an outcome of trial and error by my parents who decided to enroll the both of us in piano lessons. I never went forward in ballet, gymnastics, curling, or soccer… but piano, I did.
Younger children can also benefit from piano lessons because there is no need to force them to practice for long hours on end. While practice makes perfect, it’s unwise to force a child to practice for long periods of time.
Many famous pianists have recommended practice sessions of less than an hour.
Not only is this beneficial for musical improvement, but it is also easier to keep a child focused on practicing over a half hour-long practice period, as opposed to a two hour-long practice period.
As a final note, advancement in piano practice is highly dependent on the ability to eventually memorize musical compositions.
In piano, it’s recommended that one should memorize as many pieces as possible before the age of 20.
Why? Pieces learned during earlier ages are almost never forgotten. Again, even if they are forgotten, they can be picked up again quickly. Pieces learned after the age of 40 actually require a lot more effort for memorization and maintenance.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Learning the piano should never seem like a daunting or overwhelming task for a young child. The child should be given the opportunity to explore and learn at their own pace. The right piano teacher will be able to observe and guide young children throughout the learning process to help keep them interested in fun, musical exercises, while also rewarding them as they grow to achieve certain goals in music.
Posted in Piano Teachers, Tips For Beginners | 
Tags: Children, Piano Lessons, Piano Teachers, Training | 
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How To Relax When Playing Piano
October 7th, 2009
Relax!
As you build up your speed in your piano playing, it becomes more and more important to learn how to relax at the same time. Generally, this means that you should only be using the muscles that are needed to play. You can achieve relaxation much easier by practicing your pieces hands separately. Here are a couple pieces of advice that I follow during my practice routines:
It is better not to practice at all than it is to practice with even the slightest bit of tension. It’s much more efficient to relax and play a single note, and then advance carefully; only playing those easy materials that can be played relaxed.
Do not forget to relax all areas of the body, including breathing and periodic swallowing. You thought hands and arms and fingers were the only parts of the body needing relaxation? Well, think again. Some students will stop breathing when they find themselves playing very demanding pieces because the muscles are anchored at the chest. If you’re throat is dry after playing, it means that you also stopped swallowing. My piano teacher told me a horror story of her younger years when she had been playing for an audience at a recital, when all of a sudden she started choking on her own breath right in the middle of her playing.
To fully relax, you must find the proper energy and momentum balance as well as arm, hand, and finger positions and motions that allow you to play with the right amount of energy. This may seem complicated, and it can be. Relaxing can require a lot of experimentation. If you have been concentrating on relaxing on a regular basis during your practice routines, then you should be able to quickly execute this. For those who haven’t been practicing their relaxation, you can try practicing an easy piece until you build up stress, and then try to relax. For this, you’ll need to find different motions and positions of the arms, wrists, and body. When you find them, you’ll feel the stress gradually drain away from you.
The most important element of relaxation is energy conservation. There are at least two different ways to conserve energy. Firstly, do not use unnecessary muscles, and secondly, turn off those muscles as soon as their jobs are done. Again, this is easier said than done. You can experiment with this using the gravity drop, During a gravity drop, you allow gravity to pull the arm down, but at the end of the key drop, you need to add tension to the finger for a moment to stop the hand. Then you need to quickly relax all of your muscles, but do not lift the hand. Just rest it comfortably on the piano with just enough force to support the weight of your arm. This is a lot harder than you would assume, because the elbow is practically floating in mid air. You can test whether or not you are pressing down by taking the arm off the keys and resting your forearm on your legs, completely relaxed. Then you can carry over that same feeling to the end of your gravity drop.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Without relaxation, neither music nor technique could be possible. Technique comes from the brain. Non-musical playing actually violates so many aspects of nature that it interferes with the human brain’s natural processes for controlling the mechanisms of playing. Basically, if you spend your practice sessions doing mindless repetitions, you will find yourself going through a long, roundabout way of learning piano.
Posted in Technique (Discussions), The Practice Routine, Tips For Beginners |
Tags: Brain, Energy, Fingers, Hands, Muscles, Practice, Relax, Relaxation, Technique, Tension |
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Introduction to Piano Fingers
October 4th, 2009
Piano Hands
Where do I place my fingers on the keys? How do I know if I’m doing it right? What’s the best position? Curled or flat fingers?
These are just a few of the common questions that many piano players wonder when they find themselves struggling to make sense of a piece and position their hands and fingers to play the notes. In most beginner books, the fingering is shown in each piece to help guide students for later levels and also to help improve finger/muscle dexterity and motions.
Since everyone has their own idea about finger positions, there are no real “rules” about where and how to use them to play the piano keys. Different people have large hands, small hands, short fingers, long fingers… and so even these physical characteristics create differences in finger positioning.
One overall rule you can follow: The fingers should be in the most relaxed and powerful positions possible. Here’s a small exercise you can follow to test this:
1. Make a tight first.
2. Open your fingers and stretch them as far out as you can.
3. Relax your fingers (still stretched outward but without your forced stretching).
4. Place your hand on a flat surface with all of your fingertips resting on the surface, with your wrist being at the same height as your knuckles.
5. Notice anything? Your hand should be forming a dome-like shape. Because your fingers are relaxed and not stretched, they tend to curve a little bit.
6. Your thumb should be pointing slightly downward and bending just slightly toward your fingers so your thumb is parallel to your other fingers.
7. Many people don’t notice, but they tend to position their thumb slightly outward, away from the other fingers. It’s very important to keep the thumb parallel to the other fingers when playing chords and wide spans because you are less likely to hit adjacent keys. It also positions the thumb so the right muscles are used to raise and lower your thumb.
8. Your fingers should be slightly curled downward and meeting the piano keys at angle (approximately 45 degrees). This is very important, because it allows your fingers to play the black keys.
9. Look at all of your fingertips in this position. They should trace an approximate semi circle, from your pinky to your thumb.
10. This is an ideal starting position for playing the piano. Obviously, as you gain more experience and advance to higher levels, you can modify it to suit your own playing style.
11. When you place both hands in this position, side by side, your thumbnails should be facing each other. You can use the part of the thumb directly below the thumbnail to press the keys (as opposed to the joint).
12. Your other fingers contain a bone that comes very close to the outer skin of your fingertips. Inside the fingertip (away from the fingernail), your flesh will be slightly thicker. This fleshy part of your fingers should come in contact with the piano keys, not the fingertip itself.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
This exercise is just a really simple one to familiarize yourself with the mechanisms of your own hands. They are just suggested starting positions, but as you begin to play, these rules will most definitely change and even fly right out the window after some time. Depending on a lot of things (speed, dynamics, key combinations, and so on) you may need to stretch your fingers straighter or curl them even more. Again, this all depends on your personal style and what you are playing.
My Top 5 Easy Piano Sheet Music Books
September 23rd, 2009
After more than 50 posts on this blog, I noticed that I was getting the most comments on the topic of easy piano sheet music. I definitely want to put in an effort to try and make more posts about easy piano and easy sheet music.
Since I am always searching for advanced pieces, I sometimes forget how frustrating it can be for some people who search for easier pieces, only to find medium to hard pieces.
If you haven’t yet checked out 8notes.com, I would advise you too. They are one of the top free piano sheet music sites on the Internet, with thousands of easy arrangements and compositions.
In addition, I have reviewed the following five easy piano sheet music books, and they all receive my approval. In fact, many of them exceed my expectations. All of them have received at least a four or five start rating from customer reviews. If you’re looking for a great easy piano book, you can definitely find everything you need with these five books.
The Best Songs Ever
The Best Songs Ever – 6th Edition (Easy Piano) by Various Artists
This easy piano book offers you 71 all-time favourite hits from various pop, Broadway, and movie genres. It includes easy piano notation, lyrics, and chord names. Here’s what someone said about this book: “I bought this for my 12 year old daughter and it is perfect. Easy music yet the arrangements sound great! We both love it. I can actually play the songs with very little formal piano training.”—Deb Taylor from PA
100 Best Loved Piano Solos
100 Best Loved Piano Solos – Big Note Easy Piano arranged by Robert Schultz
100 Best Loved Piano Solos include mostly pop, TV, movie, rock, and country songs with big note notation (for easy reading) and includes fingering. Brian from Spain said, “It’s what I’m looking for since I’m learning with my son again the basics. It’s good to see a variety of types of music to keep it fun.”
VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Rock n' Roll
VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll – Easy Piano by Various Artists
This book features a collection of the best and most influential rocks songs of all time. With 100 different pieces, you get easy piano notation, lyrics, and chord names with each piece. Here’s what KP from Key West said: “Great rock classics! My 14 year old is now much more excited about playing the piano- thank you!”
21 Great Classics
21 Great Classics – Easy Piano arranged by Phillip Keveren
This piano book is great for the beginner classical pianist. Pieces included come from the Baroque and Classical Period, with fingering and introductory text. “This is a wonderful collection of classical music for the beginner! I was able to sit down and play many of the pieces after not having played for 35 years! I love this book.”—Maxine from OH
35 Christmas Songs And Carols
35 Christmas Songs And Carols – Easy Piano by Various Artists
Christmas is just around the corner! Just in time for you start practicing so that you can impress everyone with your holiday piano pieces. The book includes vocal melodies, piano accompaniments, lyrics, fingering, and big note notation. Teresa from NC said: “This is a wonderful book for songs to play when you are just beginning like I am. Easy to read, easy to use.”
And there you have it, folks, some of the best easy piano books with the greatest variety in music. I strongly urge you to check these out!
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
If you are looking for some really simple sheet music, you can still use advanced pieces! Some arrangements (especially from the pop and contemporary genre) have an extra staff line for vocal melodies above the grand staff. These notes are meant to be sung, but you can play them as well! Just focus on those top melody notes and you can play them on the piano. I do this all them for little exercises and sometimes to improve my sight reading.
Posted in Easy Piano Sheet Music, Tips For Beginners |
Tags: Arrangements, Christmas, Classical, Country, Easy Books, Easy Piano, Movie, Piano Solos, Popular, Rock, Rock n' Roll, Sheet Music, Sheet Music Books |
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A Few Simple Tips for Reading Music Notes
August 28th, 2009
I’ve been away for a few days at a friend’s cottage for my last vacation for the summer (no Internet of course), so now I’m back to posting regularly again. One of the first things I did when I got home was practice Debussy’s Clair De Lune on the piano.
Whether your goal is to be a musical success, or you just want to add another skill to you ever growing repertoire, learning how to play the piano can open the door to a variety of different possibilities if you have the right skills. Whatever your persona l goals in music are, you have to start somewhere in order to achieve those goals. Learning the music notes and how they correspond to the piano is one of the first skills you must learn.
Hopefully, you own or have access to an 88-key piano or electronic keyboard. Learning how to identify and play those basic notes should be your first step in learning piano. These basic notes are known as the first seven letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The note, “C”, is always the key that is connected in front of two black keys. The “F” note is the key that is in front of the three black keys which are compacted together. This explanation may seem a little confusing, so it’s best to use a visual aid. Use the diagram below to locate the keys on the keyboard with their corresponding letter notes, and even which line or space they fall on the grand staff.
Musical Notation and Corresponding Piano Keys
After you have gained some knowledge from identifying keys and their corresponding notes, you need to learn how to distinguish between sharps and flats. The black notes on the piano represent sharps and flats, but their use will depend on the side you plan to start from. A sharp symbol (#) identifies a black key that directly follows a white key. Oppositely, a “b” is used as the symbol that denotes a flat, which is most commonly a black note that precedes a white note. So, for example, D Flat (Db) and C Sharp (C#) are actually the same key on the keyboard, even though they are called different notes. If you don’t understand this now, that’s no problem. It takes time to recognize these and you should find the proper piano teacher or music theory book to help you get familiar with musical notation.
Next, you need to learn where Middle C is located. If you look on the diagram, Middle C is always the fourth C from the left, almost right in the middle of the keyboard. Basically, Middle C functions as a wall that separates the right hand and the left hand of the keyboard. This makes reading and playing music a little bit easier. So, the keys located to the right of Middle C are usually played with the right hand, and those to the left of Middle C are normally played with the left hand.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Study the diagram that I posted above. If you are very unfamiliar with musical notation and which key is which on the keyboard, you should print out this diagram and use it to your advantage. Take it to your piano, look at each note, and play the key. Even further, you can print out tiny letters from A to G on your computer, cut them up, and tape them with scotch tape onto each key of your piano. This may help initially, but it may also be uncomfortable for your fingers when you play. It should merely be used as a familiarization exercise. Once you know these notes, you will need the bare keys of the piano to properly form your technique and avoid bad habits and injury. I wish you good luck!
Posted in Musical Signs & Notation, Tips For Beginners, Tips For Reading Music |
Tags: 88-key, Flats, Left Hand, Middle C, Music Notes, Musical Notation, Piano Keys, Reading Music, Right Hand, Sharps |
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