February 16th, 2009 by Lisa | No Comments »
The classic question of all classics is how much do I have to practice? The honest to goodness truth is that the amount of time that you practice does not determine how fast you learn. It is how often you practice that determines how fast you learn. What do I mean by that?
First, the most common mistake to make is to believe that you have to practice for hours to get good at the piano. That is NOT true. All you need to do is practice often for short periods of time. The one thing that will slow your progress is going long periods of time without practicing. You need to practice at the minimum 2-3 times a week, at the best, 5-7 times a week. Each practice session should be at least 10-20 minutes. And those minutes need to be used very wisely. Skipping weeks at a time without practicing needs to be avoided if you don’t want to repeat your lessons, and repeating lessons can end in frustration and little or no progress.
February 10th, 2009 by Lisa | 23 Comments »
Play this popular love song in under an hour with both hands! (Even if you can’t read music yet!)
I know, I know… my course is based on reading sheet music, but this song is specially formatted for those you are still in the process of learning to read music and still need some instant gratification. These “Instant Play” songs are designed to allow you to play a song without knowing how to read music. They are for “fun”, but they also serve a purpose toward learning how to read music. The instant play songs teach you how to move around the piano by changing positions and by playing with both hands. I invite you to try my most popular Instant Play Song, Love Me Tender:
http://www.learnpianoonline.com/instantplaysongs/love_me_tender.html
Please feel free to post your comments for others to enjoy, and if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them here as well. ~smile~
February 9th, 2009 by Lisa | 1 Comment »
Counting out loud and using a metronome serve different functions.
Counting out loud teaches you how to apply the right amount of time to each different
type of note. The metronome helps you count without missing a beat.
It is true you can us a metronome to help you keep the rhythm steady, but
if you don’t continue your habit and knowledge of counting, you wont’ know how to
play a song, even with a metronome. A metronome is an excellent tool to keep your
counting and playing steady. I am sorry, but a metronome alone will not teach you how many beats to apply to a note. You might think you are matching the beat to the metronome, but you might be matching the wrong notes to the wrong metronome beats if you don’t know how many counts to apply to your
notes.
I hope this makes sense. ~smile~
February 6th, 2009 by Lisa | 1 Comment »
There are three pedals that are standard on the piano, I will only address the the that is most widely used:
The DAMPER pedal is often called “the sustain pedal”. This is the pedal most commonly used and the only pedal option when you purchase a keyboard. When you have three pedals, it the pedal furthest to the right.
To know how the damper pedal works, play any key on the piano and let go. Do you hear the note still ringing? Now, press the damper pedal down with your foot, and then play a key on the piano and let go of the key, but don’t let go of the pedal. Do you hear the note still ringing? The answer is yes. When you press the damper pedal while playing the piano, the notes continue to ring for a few moments even after you let go. The sound that keeps ringing is the vibration of the strings inside of the piano. Inside the piano, there is padding called the damnper to keep the strings from vibrating. When you press the damper pedal, all the dampers on the piano are lifted at once, so that every string can vibrate.
This serves two purposes. First, it permits notes to sound connected when fingering can’t make it possible. Second, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate with whatever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the tone.
Using the damper “sustain” pedal is fun and easy. Just use your ear to listen to how it makes your song sound and press and lift where it sounds nice. Be careful not to overuse or your songs will sound “run together”.
