TAG | piano lessons
So, it’s the new year resolutions and guess what? You decided to play piano…………… yes! Playing piano is one of my favorite things in this world and of course I would encourage anyone to do it.
So, you’ve just decided that you wanted to play piano and you live in Los Angeles. You have no idea “how many hours should I practice” or “what does a piano practice consists of?”
The first thing I usually say is this: remember when you made the decision to play piano. Ok. Now, what didn’t you envision at that time.
If you decided that you want to play pop songs on the piano for fun without becoming a virtuoso, then that demonstrates quite a big gap in terms of hours of practice.
Is there a minimum commitment for taking piano lessons? Not really. It’s better if you show up to the piano lesson rehersed that way the piano teacher can show the next steps.
There’s a lot of doingness in piano. And there’s a lot of mental activity.
So depending on your purpose and the amount of time you’re willing to invest, you’ll have a good idea of how much energy you’ll be investing.
So let’s say you want to play piano for fun no stress and you are will to practice piano about 3-4 times a week for about 25 minutes each time.
I would say that’s a pretty good investment and will get you somewhere.
There’s a lot of distractions in Los Angeles… movies, beach, etc… so you have to have some kind of discipline to do that.
Now you might say “yes, but I have zero discipline” so piano is not for me.
Negative. Just like building your piano abilities, you can build your discipline “muscle.”
So, I live in Los Angeles and give piano lessons. And if you have any questions, please email me at info@lapianolessons.com. (Los Angeles Piano Lessons)
Piano practice can be real fun with a good goal and playing piano is totally achievable…. probably faster than you would have thought you could!
Happy New Year and hope to see you playing piano in 2010.
Parents usual question… “is my kid too young for piano lessons?”
A usual, typical answer sounds something like this… “all kids are different… it really depends, you know,” or “did she/he decide to take the lessons or you (the parents) decided?”…..
Well, though these “typical” answers are kind of borderline boring they are nevertheless somewhat genuine.
How do you know if kid will like piano if he doesn’t try it (that would be one way of looking at it).
But really, it only takes a few lessons most of the times to know if the person (here the child or kid) is into it. And again, the liking may grow.
I treat the kids as adults during my lessons. I don’t use the same vocabulary of course, I don’t do the same kind of jokes, etc. But don’t deep, I speak with them as adults.
These little people are real people in small bodies still…. If you start faking something, they usually know. If you treat them like a puppet, no way. The are real people.
There’s an issue that comes up in the piano lesson and I will seriously answer that child’s question, I will not ignore it.
But coming to “is my kid too young for piano lessons” question, it’s almost the same question as an adult calling me and asking “am I too old for piano lessons?” Really.
There’s a lot of factors. We know the story of Mozart and other musicians. Some other artists started later. I guess my point is that if the piano lessons didn’t work out for the first time, there’s always another chance later.
I would say the key, key factor is no forcing. You start putting some force into this and you may cut the child’s liking of music. Some pressure is fine, even us adults need pressure sometimes to get things done. But a hard, constant force is really not the best. I usually talk to the parents themselves if I see they are applying the force and the kid is totally disinterested. And then, tell them that I may not honestly be able to continue teaching their kid in those conditions.
Keep it simple, even for this.
Don’t make it complex.
So I teach in Los Angeles at this time and if you have any questions you may email me. Thanks.
children · kids · los angeles · piano lessons
Why would a singer learn piano?
Why would a singer spend hours learning piano?
I’m not a singer but I had singers come to me to improve their piano skills. One of them, Lise, started practicing her jazz chords and improvisation skills with the intent of accompanying herself on the piano and eventually getting music gigs. Well one day, she announces to me that she got a contract on a cruise ship to sing and play! I think it was a 3-month contract. Not bad!
I would give her special assignments for her to practice but the basics stay the same.
There’s a few exercises a singer can do while practicing piano:
- Sing the improvisation patterns as you practice them on the piano. This point could be hard at first, but if started really, really step-by-step, the skill improves quickly.
- Sing the scales while you do them. I wouldn’t recommend a singer to always practice her/his scales only with the piano. A think a singer should mostly practice scales ‘a capella’ since her voice is her instrument but could spend some time doing it with the piano.
- Sing the chord progression while practicing II-V-I, for example. (note: II-V-I is just a sequence of 3 different chords)
The goal of music is communication and the combination of both singing and piano solo is a beautiful way of communicating. But of course each singer’s goals are different. For a singer who wants to improve her/his chance to get different kinds of gigs, I would totally recommend spending one intense year practicing piano.
Patrick
lapianolessons.com
“Should I be learning using online piano lessons or going with a real teacher” is a question that’s probably asked by some students.
Study is practice, observation, comparing, seeing what works, etc… So, someone could learn anywhere.
Learning piano online could have the desired effect for a particular student. Today, there are so many tutorial videos and different tips in different formats (pictures, audio, etc.) that someone can certainly get something out of all this.
As a piano teacher, I can see the downside of traditional piano lessons is that it cost money… That’s probably the first major obstacle, isn’t? Well, look at your goals.
My recommendation is that a student could take lessons using online tips and seeing a real piano teacher once a month or something like that, if money was really an issue. For a dedicated student who intends to make money playing music (professional or semi-professional), I would definitely recommend traditional piano lessons.
And totally new student who has never touched a piano before should have piano lessons the traditional way for a few months while keeping his/her eyes open for online tips. But for sure, a good teacher can be a positive vibe, show you “live” what you are doing that is wrong, etc…
So we all have our own ways and a piano student has a relatively good idea of his goals. Music is the art of sounds and if a student can produce good, cool sounds that he or others like, then it worked.
That’s a big subject so we’ll leave it like this for today.
lapianolessons.com
I personally went to a new level of ability when I started doing walking bass on the piano and really recommend anyone serious in doing solo jazz piano or to get accompanist gigs.
What is walking bass on the piano?
It’s doing a musical line (series of notes) with the left hand and doing a little like a double bass would do in a jazz group. You’re doing the bass line with the left hand. A bass line is a musical series of notes play with lower sounds.
In a piano lesson, I start very simple with this kind of stuff.
First I have the students do only the left hand and play nothing with the right hand. At this point, we go through a series of exercises that gradually brings the student to the next comfortable level. I have the student do it with me in the piano lesson for about 10 minutes! Yes, 10 minutes at least.
Then, once the student has achieved a good level of just playing with the left hand doing the walking bass, we then had the basic chords on the right hand. Again we go through a whole series of exercises to get the student to really see clearly what she/he is doing with both hands.
The step continue until the student can improvise with both hands! Now that is some major fun. Truly most enjoyable!
So deciding to master walking bass (again, a series of notes played with the left that usually accompanies the right hand) can really bring your playing to a whole new level.
By the way, I don’t teach this to the classical students. This is for those who are taking the jazz piano lesson program. And yes, someone can definitely do both, classic and jazz.
Patrick
Los Angeles
lapianolessons.com
Dominating! Controlling! The big power!
That is the dominant. It is the strongest note of the scale… after of course the first note of the scale.
Example:
In the scale of C, C is the first note of the scale. The dominant is the 5th note in the scale of C.
The second note in the scale of C is D.
The third note in the scale of C is E.
The fourth note in the scale of C is F.
The fifth note in the scale of C is G.
And this fifth note of the scale is also called dominant.
That’s basically how I explain the dominant at the beginning in a piano lesson. Not getting too complex.
Later we can give more explanation about it but at the beginning, don’t bother.
So the fifth note of a scale is the dominant.
Assignment: know very well the fifth note of all the scales you already know.
Musically,
Patrick
lapianolessons.com
5th · dominant · piano lessons
Hi Everyone,
I’m officially starting this new blog! Quite excited about it… Los Angeles music.
Basically, we’re lucky to live in Los Angeles looking at the music world alone! We’ve got all sorts of gigs, some of the most amazing groups will play in LA and we have all kinds of music. And that is what I will be sharing with you.
Here’s my viewpoint: tell your friends to stop watching TV, let go of the computer and go see a live show. Now that’s some experience. Some real, living experience.
This society is almost zombied out, sad to say. And I’m sure we can revert this.
Go back 80 to 100 years and there was music and live theater presentations all over the place.
My piano, my logo, Hollywood
And finally the other aspect I will be discussing in my blog is piano lessons. I give piano lessons in Los Angeles for several years now and will be sharing some tips, to-dos, etc
So, good music and good practice.
Patrick
lapianolessons.com
