Friday, June 20, 2014

Getting The Most From Your Piano Lessons

By Ina Hunt


Mastering a musical instrument is an achievement that will open up new worlds to you. It keeps your brain in good shape and being able to play music is a great way to unwind after a stressful day. You may even make music your career once you've managed to master the instrument of your choice. A good way to start is with piano lessons but you need to know how to make these work for you.

Taking formal lessons is much better than just learning to play by ear. A teacher will show you how to sit, how to move your hands and fingers to the best advantage and the many different techniques of playing the instrument. You'll learn too how to read musical notation and about the theory of music, which will be useful for learning other instruments too. In other words, learning to play the piano can become the basis from which you can learn other instruments too.

One of the most important things to remember is that becoming a skilled pianist takes time. At first you'll learn very simple, basic pieces and this may be frustrating. However, these pieces will lay the groundwork for the more difficult ones you'll be playing later on. Like with everything else in life, you need to start small and be patient. A tennis player can't expect to win Wimbledon the first time round and in the same way, you can't expect to play a full piano concerto after only a couple of weeks.

While patience is important, so are discipline and lots of practice. Just like an athlete has to work out every day, you need to practice your playing techniques. When you manage to perfect a technique or a piece of music, you can move on to something a little more advanced; and the sooner you master something, the sooner you can start making progress. This is why you need to make time every day to practice playing.

Many aspiring pianists find that the most boring aspect of learning is having to practice scales and arpeggios. However, these shouldn't be neglected. They help you understand the different keys but they're also excellent as exercises for your fingers. If you can play scales well, you'll be able to play the more difficult parts of pieces by composers such as Mozart with ease.

Learning to master any instrument is not only about actual playing. You also need to learn the theoretical aspects of music, such as what different notes mean, how music is structured and what all those Italian terms mean. Your teacher should teach you some theory at least once every two or three classes.

It's incredibly important to choose the right teacher. He or she shouldn't only be a skilled and accomplished musician. Your teacher needs to be able to support and encourage you and help you understand every aspect of playing.

Most great pianists will tell you that they got where they are not only because of their talent, hard work and discipline. They also persevered, even when things were difficult. If you keep it up and don't let any setbacks stop you, you may follow in their footsteps and become one of the greats yourself.




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