Tag Archives: piano lessons Wallsend

How to Practise Away From the Piano – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Back in the day when Australia had three school terms per year, it meant we were on school holidays shortly before we were due to sit our yearly piano exams. One year we were lucky enough to travel to America over the holidays and I remember thinking my mother was crazy for making us pack our music. We knew it was pretty unlikely we would find a piano anywhere to play! But she knew something we didn’t at the time… there’s are a lot you can do that will be useful, even without a piano. It’s about keeping the details of the music fresh in your mind.

SCORE STUDY

Piano Teacher Wallsend NSWFor younger students, setting up a scavenger hunt is a great tool. Any teacher would be happy to help you out with devising a list of items to find, such as “How many dynamic markings do you see?  What kinds of articulation markings are found and how many of each? On what note does your piece start? While these questions may seem simple, they help to create important connections in the student’s brain that will transfer nicely once he’s back at the keys.

For more advanced students, it can be a challenge to ask them to write – from memory – a passage from one of their pieces. This should include all articulation markings and dynamics. The ability to take what they can play and actually write it out in detail is challenging, but it allows them to see how much they are relying on muscle memory and auto pilot and how they may not be fully aware of the details of the score. While this is certainly challenging for advanced students, the technique can also be used for beginners.

MENTAL PRACTICE

Mental practice is a simple concept.  You “play” through your piece in your mind, hearing it as you would if you were actually playing it. But for a young child, mental practice is likely to go a little something like this…

“lah lah lah… I wonder what Ted is doing now… Ho hum… I’m hungry… hmmm… Georgie said I could borrow her skateboard… lah lah lah… uh oh…I’m lost.”

Kids are naturally active and their brains work a mile a minute.  Asking them to focus on a fairly involved mental task that is hard to evaluate can be tricky. There are tools to help improve mental practice and we’ll look at those in more detail in a later post. The good thing about mental practice is that is can be done anywhere, at any time – in the car, brushing teeth, lying in bed etc. The goal is to have students be able to mentally hear both treble and bass clef (together) from beginning to end with all of the articulation, phrasing, dynamics etc. that are on the page.

VISUALISATION AND TAP PRACTICE

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Picture courtesy of brainpickings.org

Children spend so much time in an imaginary world, so they usually find visualising much easier than adults do. Visualisation is simply having the student – on a flat surface away from the piano – close their eyes while imagining their hands are on the keyboard. They then play through their piece on their imaginary keyboard. For younger or beginner students, you can use the following procedure to help them:

  1. Have your student place their hands on the table top with their eyes closed, and imagine they are about to begin playing a current piece.
  2. Ask questions to ensure they can really see their visualised keyboard and understand where their fingers are in relation to it, such as –

 “If your hands were on the keys, what is the black key that is closest to your left hand thumb?”

“Can you think about the very first note(s) in your piece and wiggle the finger(s) you use to play it?”

“Can you put your hands down in your lap and then bring them back up to the very same position?”

They tap their way through their piece, playing exactly as they would on the keys, but with no sound involved.  They still play hands together, with phrasing, dynamics and articulations as they would on the keys, but it is all done on a table top.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Combining tap practice with visualisation, mental practice and score study is very effective and stops tap practice being just random finger tapping. Give it a try not just over the holidays, but any time throughout the term as the skills that are being developed with these techniques will serve you very well in your musical journey.

So what happened when I took my music all the way to America? Well, I did study it while I was there, but didn’t help the panic when my luggage went missing on the trip home… with my music in it! Luckily music and musician were soon reunited.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

App Review “Flashnote Derby” – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Sometimes simple is best.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSWThese days we have so much technology at our disposal and it is always tempting to look for tools that are complex and multi-use because we feel the more they offer, the more useful they should be. But sometimes we are just making things harder for ourselves. It’s like trying to work out all the complexities of a smart phone, when all we really want to do is make a telephone call.

Flashnote Derby is an app that solves a single problem and solves it simply.

Learning notes is a necessary evil with playing any instrument, and they are best learnt with repetition, including drilling. Flashnote Derby is fun and straightforward and will help a student to increase their speed of note recognition.

From a teacher’s point of view, this app works well because it is totally customisable. You simply select the notes you want the student to drill with the range being as small as one note and as large as thirty-four. Most other note-recognition apps only allow you to select a range of pre-determined notes.

The simple interface is a horse race, with your horse moving according to how well you are identifying the notes and it is really easy to set up. Go to the settings screen (the icon has a spanner and screw driver) and tap on the notes you wish to practise. Then it’s off to the races!

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There are a few options for how you select your answer:

  • Letter names
  • Keyboard with letter names
  • Keyboard without letter names

For beginners, I prefer to use the keyboard. They are usually starting to learn treble clef notes at middle C, so find it confusing to have the A and B showing before the C. The keyboard starts at C and is more familiar to them. As an added bonus, it is then also reinforcing their keyboard recognition skills, not just note names.Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW

Identifying notes correctly will move your jockey and horse ahead of their competitor; each time you answer correctly, he moves ahead a little bit more. If you can’t answer correctly or take too long, your opponent will move forward and you may lose the race.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSWThe difficulty can be increased by adding more notes and/or speeding up the race. The speed is determined by whether you choose to walk, trot, cantor or gallop during your race. Before you know it, you’re an expert at naming the notes of the treble clef, the bass clef, or both.

By starting with an easy race, beginners are likely to win; this then gives them the confidence to want to play more and new notes can be added gradually as they learn them in their method book.

There is also a small series of tutorial videos that can be accessed by tapping on the lightbulb icon at the bottom of the settings page.  These will teach you the basics about the notes and where they are placed on the staff.

The soundtrack is a questionable aspect and can go either way… some students find the sounds of the crowd cheering and clapping faster and faster quite annoying (as do I) while others feel it urges them on.

In summary, it is a concise app that does exactly what it promises, in an easy-to-navigate way. All my students have loved using it.

The app is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android phones and tablets and Kindle Fire tablets and can be found here in the App Store.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

What is Involved in Learning the Piano? – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

It’s a question – and the variants – that is asked quite often… what is involved in learning the piano? What is the commitment? How do we approach the early weeks and months? What will happen? So let’s have a look at what is required for a solid start.

These days there is an increasing trend to treat learning the piano the same way as any other extracurricular activity. On the surface, it’s another activity that ticks the educational box and it is “the done thing”. However, learning an instrument and particularly the piano, is a big commitment, even for the pupils who are just doing it for a bit of fun on the side. In fact, if piano is not practised regularly, pupils usually give up pretty quickly.

The reason for this is simple. Learning an instrument requires the use of three different types of memory:

  • visual;
  • auditory; and
  • kinetic (muscle/movement memory).

Piano lessons Wallsend NSWThe three must all be activated for a child to remember how a specific piece of music works. If a pupil doesn’t play or rarely plays during the week (for instance, just once at the weekend), the kinetic memory will not work and the student will not remember what to do. This usually results in them feeling discouraged. Chances are the lesson will be virtually the same as the previous one, the child will be disappointed and a vicious circle begins. A study determined that a pupil will forget 80% of the piano lesson if he/she does not practise within the following 48 hours. This is consistent with all types of research on learning and memory. A pupil who does not practise daily will not only feel bad, but will not play well at all and get frustrated. Think about how educators map out core lessons at school. In maths for example, if a child learned their times tables just on Monday morning they would struggle to remember them if they aren’t reinforced. Maths lessons are spread out throughout the week for a reason.

As you can see, practising regularly at home is crucial for the child’s enjoyment. It is absolutely necessary because a weekly half hour lesson will never be enough for them to make progress.

On the flip side of this is the good news… you don’t need to practise a lot if you practise every day. For a beginner, 5-10 minutes is fine. Of course this will increase with time, but it’s a good start and gets them into the habit. Children usually respond well to a routine so think about a fixed time such as just before dinner or straight after school. A little bit of patience and dedication is all it takes to both do well and get a real joy from their musical abilities.

Piano teacher Wallsend NSWThere are so many benefits to learning to play an instrument, but they aren’t all going to happen overnight. Because of this, it is not really appropriate to take the, “we’ll try it for a few months and see how it goes” approach. The commitment needs to be made for at least a couple of years. It’s about being realistic about what it takes to gain musical skills.

Besides, you have made a substantial investment in not only time, but tuition fees, music and possibly even an instrument. You want it to be worth it!

It is important to follow your child’s progress and help them to have a bit of fun and focus during their practise sessions. Most teachers write notes on the music and/or provide a practise sheet, so check them out and use those notes as a starting point. I have written a number of blog posts about making practise fun, using different incentives and mixing it up a bit and you can check them out by checking out past blog posts.

Finally, make sure your child brings their piano books to every lesson. While most teachers will have books that can be used during the lesson, no individual notes can be written in them and sent home with the child so the continuity is interrupted and the child will start their next practise session trying to remember what they were told.

Nobody wants piano practise to be a battlefield, so start out as you mean to carry on and establish the routine early. Then everybody can enjoy it.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

App Review “Rhythm Cat” by LMuse – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Learning the fundamentals of reading music – rhythmic values and note names – is so vital to playing an instrument, but it can be boring and frustrating. Finding a way to make any part of it more interesting and fun is always a bonus. Rhythm Cat delivers.

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The Rhythm Cat app (from the Melody Cats suite of apps by LMuse Limited) is a fun and effective way to improve rhythm skills. It is an engaging way for beginners to get past the challenging and often discouraging introduction to reading music but can also be a bit of fun for more experienced musicians to conquer the progressively more complex levels.

 

On each level, you are presented with a rhythm example. The levels progress in complexity, allowing you to move ahead as your skill increases.Piano Teacher Wallsend NSW

After hitting the Play button, the soundtrack begins and a countdown is shown (depending on the time signature – usually 1-2-3 or 1-2-3-4). You then need to tap the large green button to tap the rhythm of the example shown, in time with the soundtrack. As you move through the rhythm, correct taps will turn the corresponding note green, while incorrect notes stay black. The very first level is basic one-beat crotchet beats. A new rhythmic value is introduced at each level – minims, semibreves, rests etc but the first ten levels don’t move beyond these basic foundation-level rhythms, giving a beginner plenty to play with. This is an example of a rhythm near the end of this section:

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The app also has high-quality soundtracks.  Rather than being cheesy or childish,  there is a nice variety of musical styles and tempos, including classical themes, folk tunes, and pop-sounding tracks.  Something for everyone 🙂

As the examples get more difficult, students must tap two different buttons, and then three  The notes are color-coded with blue and red to match the notes.  (The cat illustrations also become more colourful).

The color-coding is a great idea, but is a little confusing.  The blue and red notes coordinate with the blue and red buttons, but the regular notes coordinating with the green button stay their original black.  These green-button-but-black notes still turn green if you tap them correctly and stay black if you miss them.  But it’s only a small annoyance and you’ll become accustomed to it fairly quickly.Piano teacher Wallsend NSW

The app is very sensitive about making sure you tap the rhythm exactly on the beat, which could potentially be frustrating at times, but also will help you learn to be precise as you listen to the beat of the soundtrack.  Each level is scored with one, two, or three stars. If too many notes were incorrect, you will fail the level and be unable to proceed to the next one.

The free version of this app has 15 levels to try out and can be found here.  The Pro version (here) has four “stages,” with 15 levels in each stage.  Stage 1 uses basic rhythms, including crotchet rests and paired quavers.  Stage 2 introduces the dotted crotchet paired with a single quaver and also ties, to create syncopated rhythms.  Stage 3 introduces the quaver rest and complex time signatures (e.g. 3-13 is a killer – it mixes 3/4 and 2/4 and goes pretty fast).  Stage 4 continues with more advanced rhythms using three buttons.

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Developed in collaboration with professional musicians and educators, Rhythm Cat is an excellent app to use at home and in the studio.  Students will learn to look ahead more as they tap these rhythms, and will learn the important skill of listening to themselves and others (in this case, the soundtrack) to stay together.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

 

 

Ending Those Piano Practise Wars – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

I have an old cassette tape that is one of my most treasured possessions. My Dad made it for me many years ago and it contains different performances of mine over the years. It starts way back when I was 4 years old and made up a song (called “Baa, Little Lamb”) on the ukulele and also contains many snippets of me during piano practise. Or to be more precise, me arguing with either Dad or Mum about my piano practise. And all through my practise. I enjoyed playing and I did well, but like every other kid in existence, I didn’t like being told to practise. My sister and I knew that we had to practise twice a day; it was the first thing we did after breakfast and the first thing we did when we arrived home from school. Summer afternoons were hard. So were weekends. We had very strict parents. But we still tried it on.

So, as a teacher, I get it. I know my students don’t like to practise. But I also understand how much they need to. Playing an instrument is a physical skill and requires training of the muscles and fine-motor skills. When parents sign their child up for piano lessons they are not looking for a way to encourage epic battles at home.

How do we bring the desired peace to the home practise world? The wonderful folks at Teach Piano Today have put together five tips (with which I totally agree) to help restore harmony in your household.

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1. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

It’s true in the real estate world, and it’s also true in the home practise world.  Having your piano in the most advantageous place in your home is of vital importance for successful home practise.

You want to find a balance between shoving the piano in a downstairs corner versus putting it in the centre of your most-used room.  Ideally the piano should be located in a comfortable room, close to where the family is, but away from major distractions.  Your child does not want to feel isolated during practise time – but they also do not want to compete with your food processor and washing machine.

2.  CRAMMING IS NOT THE ANSWER

Nothing stresses a parent out more than helping their child practise when they have 10 minutes before leaving for the piano lesson.  Keep the peace at home by beginning home practise immediately after you return home from their piano lesson.  This is the best time as they will still remember what they covered in their lesson, and the piano books will actually make it to the piano, setting you up for a good start to a week of practise.

Cramming creates feelings of inadequacy in your child as they struggle to perfect what should take 7 days to percolate.  Cramming makes you sweat and wonder why in the world you are paying for these lessons.  Cramming is not the answer.

3.  MISTAKES ARE OKAY

I promise!  It’s the job of your child’s teacher to sort out the mistakes in lesson time. Your job at home is to be the support – to remind them to spend time on the piano, congratulate them on their efforts, revel in the joy that is your child creating music, and show that you value music in your home.

Avoid the following statements and watch peace fall over your home immediately:  “Is that right?  I don’t think that’s right.”… “That’s not how it’s supposed to sound.”… “Are you watching your music?”… “Your sister played that piece and it didn’t sound like that.” … “Wrong note!”… “Try it again.” etc.  Your child will get their back up immediately and the practice wars are sure to ensue.

4.  “BUT MRS JONES SAID!”

How many times has your child shouted a statement similar to this?  “Mrs Jones said I only have to play the first page!”… “Mrs Jones said to play it up here.”… “Mrs Jones said to play it this fast!”… What your child is actually trying to say is “I want to be in charge of my learning.”  So let them.  Whether or not Mrs Jones actually said these things is beside the point.

Resist the urge to argue (and resist the urge to call up Mrs Jones to ask what the heck she is teaching) and trust that your child will sort it out themselves.  This is often a knee-jerk reaction on your child’s part – they so desperately want to be right and in charge and it’s their way of saying “Stay out of this, I’ve got it.”  If you allow them this right to direct their own learning you will help to create a confident piano student.

5.  BE PRESENT

For those parents who do sit with their child during practise sessions, you and your child will enjoy practise time so much more if you, the parent, are not multi-tasking.  Children thrive on one-on-one quality time,  and if this is combined with their piano practise, it is an activity that you will both grow to cherish.

Take away the distractions – the mobile ‘phone, the baby, the dog, the dinner preparation – and focus on just your child.  Soak up the experience of watching your young one learn such a complex skill.  Find a time to practise that isn’t restricted by deadlines.  Just enjoy making music together.  It’s difficult to start a practise war if you are truly “bonding on the bench”.

Piano practise is a commitment. It’s a daily event that can either be gloriously wonderful or horribly stressful.  Keep these five tips in mind when you start out this new practise week and welcome peaceful piano practise into your home with open arms.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

The 10 Worst Things to Do Before Your Piano Exam – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Exam season is approaching and for many, it will be your first time experiencing a piano exam. Twelve months of work (or longer for Preliminary students) are culminating in this moment, giving you an opportunity to showcase everything you have learnt and practised.

The AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) have put together a list of ten things you should avoid before an exam. You can read the full article here but in summary the points are:

  1. Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSWDon’t slack off on your practise and then cram it all in during the week before.
  2. Use your nerves to create nervous energy that can heighten your performance.
  3. No stimulants – energy drinks, caffeine etc can have the opposite of the desired effect and can make you jittery.
  4. Don’t compare yourself to other candidates; all you can control is your own performance.
  5. Celebrate your hard work instead of downplaying its significance.
  6. Be sure of your general knowledge and practise your aural tests and sight reading well in advance of your exam date.
  7. Be outfitted classily and comfortably and in clothes that don’t restrict your movement.
  8. Have your closest supporters with you.
  9. Remember to show the examiner a beautifully musical performance (not just a display of technique).
  10. Do your best and be proud of it rather than stressing over your final grade.

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For most people, exams are a stressful time. The best thing you can do is know that you are walking in there as prepared as you can possibly be. If you know you have put in the necessary work, you should be able to enjoy – or at least appreciate – the experience through the haze of nerves.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

 

Distractions, Distractions… How to Banish Them With a Great Plan – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

“Hmmm… I really should go and make that cake I was thinking about yesterday…” 

“ I wonder if I could add a PowerPoint presentation to my history assignment…”

“I forgot to schedule the doctor’s appointment…”

“Oops… I can tell I should clean out the kitty litter…”

It’s great that our minds work so well to remind us of the things we need to be doing. It’s not so great that they tend to remind us at times when we should be concentrating on something else! Having your to-do list constantly jumping into your head when you’re trying your best to concentrate on practising the piano is far from ideal. You really need to be focusing on what you’re doing.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW

 

Our brains have limited cognitive resources and we can’t be completely productive and engaged if we have baking and assignments on the brain. So what can you do to stop this happening?

Be clear about your intention before you start. Have a plan.

 

Researchers at Florida State University hypothesized that developing an “implementation intention” – a plan of how, where and when a project would be completed – would help to wipe other thoughts from the mind and make it easier to focus on the task at hand.

After studying 73 students in three different groups (a “plan” group, a “no plan” group and a control group) in a variety of situations, they concluded that the group who had planned their tasks before distractions were thrown at them not only performed better at their tasks, but also remembered more about the distractions. Because they were clear in their minds about what their plan entailed, distractions didn’t bother them as much and their minds were clearer.

However, simply brainstorming your plan doesn’t suffice; the plan needs to be specific. You also need to commit to the plan; the intention to follow through needs to be a big part of the deal.

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW

So where does piano practise fit in with this philosophy? If you sit down at the piano with the simple intention to practise, chances are your mind will be distracted by all the other things you should be doing… cooking, homework, cleaning etc. Instead, decide on a plan of what you intend to achieve for that session. Your teacher may have given you notes at the previous lesson outlining the areas that need work and this is a good place to start. Pick a passage that needs work, or a technique that requires improvement and decide what result you would like. For example, you may need to work on your two-note slurs and your plan could be to play five times an exercise you have been given by your teacher, then transfer that improved skill to your piece and play it three times. Or you may need to work on a list of scales; your plan could be to play each scale until you can play it three times in a row without error. Whatever you know needs work.

Basically:

  • Think about what you need to do;
  • Make a plan that is achievable;
  • Define the parameters of the plan; and
  • Commit to your intention to carry out the plan.

I’m sure you will find your practise sessions more productive and that’s a bonus for everybody!

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

App Review “ScaleBlitzer” by BlitzBooks – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

I was a kid who, when it came time to study for school exams, would always pick maths first. Not because I was particularly good at maths or that it was my favourite subject (it certainly wasn’t). But to me it was about right or wrong. I had the answer right, or I had the answer wrong, so I knew how I was going. Maths had structure, order and logic and working my way through a list of problems was easy discipline.

Playing scales is, to me, a very similar discipline. You have a list of them and work your way through the list. If you play with the correct fingering you should end up finishing in the right place. OK, that’s probably a bit of a simplistic way of looking at it, but you get the point. Structure, order and logic. The things that suit my brain so well.

Piano Teacher Wallsend NSWI have posted before about how important scales are and why we play both them and arpeggios, but I am very aware that not everybody finds them quite as mesmerising as I do. Sometimes you need to kick things up a level. Add a bit of variety. That’s where the app “ScaleBlitzer” comes into the routine. I use this occasionally during lessons, but also encourage my students to use it regularly at home.

Enter all of the scales you have been given into your homework list and the app will generate a vast range of activities based on those scales. Basically, it throws them back at you in a random order, with added instructions. Mixing it up a bit. ScaleBlitzer remembers your homework and keeps track of your progress.

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Once you enter the Practice Studio, there are five different modes from which to choose:

  1. Warm-up: Easy practice methods like ‘ascending only’, ‘play twice’, or ‘no blowing, fingering only’.
  2. Basic: No practice method given, just straight out no-frills instructions (e.g. like you would get in an exam).
  3. Muscle Builder: Practice methods using such things as rhythms and accents.
  4. Brain Strain: Harder practice methods, or a combination of two methods (e.g. in a certain rhythm AND staccato).
  5. Thrill Seeker: This mode will give you either really tough methods, or sometimes three different methods to incorporate into one scale.

The following is just a sample of the type of direction you may read:

  • Play twice, second time faster
  • Double staccato
  • Descending then ascending
  • Rhythm: “Seventy sixty fifty”
  • Play three times without stopping
  • Play twice, mezzo forte first time, piano second time
  • Accent: “Galloping galloping”

Piano Teacher in Wallsend NSW

One of the features that makes using this app interesting is the self-rating feature. After each scale, you need to select how you think you went – Perfect 1st go, Got it eventually or Having trouble – before moving on to the next one. As we know, effective practise requires listening to the way you’ve played something and deciding whether it needs more work or not. This self-rating system encourages listening and critical thinking, rather than just playing through.

The app remembers what you do well and where you have trouble and future sessions are based on where the work is needed. You will be tested more often on the ones you’re having trouble with, until they start to improve.

Along the way, points are accumulated and characters and outfits are chosen and changed. Once you have made it through a Practice Studio session (5 scales/activities), it will offer you the opportunity to go on a World Tour, where you can choose your character, outfit and the countries in which you will play. The kids love getting to this part and it’s lovely to see their inner rock-child or pop princess come to the fore in their outfit choices! You can even record your playing to show your teacher what you have been doing.

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Overall, the aim is to make technical work more interesting to play while having a bit of fun along the way. I like using it as a teaching tool because it makes my students stop and think about what they are playing. For students, your technique will be improving without you being bored. For parents, it’s a bonus to have any resource that makes the kids want to play instead of having to nag them. You will also know they are practising the scales that need the most attention, because ScaleBlitzer is keeping track of it. At the end of the day, improved technical work means improved technique, which results in improved playing. If we can add in a bit of fun and variety along the way, then we have a bonus!

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Does Your Child Have a Secret Weapon? – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Young pianists who are successful usually have one thing in common… great parents!

As we start a new term, it’s a good time to take a peek into the world of the piano parent and how much their involvement and attitude can shape their child’s journey. Trevor from Teach Piano Today  has written a great article explaining this, so there’s no point me trying to rehash it.

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I will say though that I had a learning experience very similar to his and it made all the difference in the world. My parents didn’t let my sister and I quit as soon as we felt either too challenged or bored (because both things will happen at different times), they were involved in our practise sessions and they certainly made piano a priority. We always knew it was a commitment.

Have a read through Trevor’s words here and see if you are being a secret weapon in your child’s success.

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Getting Through the Holidays – Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW

Let’s make this school holiday period about the word ‘more‘.

MoreWithout being restricted by the kids’ school routine, you probably have more time. What does this mean for piano practise?

Don’t break the practise routine you have running through term, but use this opportunity to have more fun with practise.

Become more involved.

Create more interaction.

Understand more about what your kids are playing.

How do you do this? By asking them questions. Ask them about what they are playing. Ask them to show you how to do something. For my students, I can supply some flashcards you can use. Following are some examples/suggestions to get you started:

  • What part of this piece do you find the hardest? Can you play just that part for me?
  • Can you play a scale with your eyes closed?
  • Can you show me how to play the last note and then nod at me when it’s time to play it?
  • Can you play this piece in slow motion?
  • Can you follow me conducting you? (Vary the speed and have them follow you).
  • What story do you think this piece is telling?
  • Can you pick one bar and clap the rhythm? I’ll try to copy you.
  • Can you explain to me what this means? (Pointing to any marking on the music).

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the answers. It is all about getting them to think about what they are doing and sharing it with you. They will love being able to teach you something!

If there is something they can’t answer, have them make a note to ask their teacher, but don’t dwell on it; move on to something else. You want to keep it interactive and fun.

Throw a different question at them every time they practise and you might be surprised how eager they are to share with you. Have fun with it 🙂

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.