Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

The short answer is you can start music lessons at any age and have some degree of success. Being able to master an instrument is really a lifelong pursuit but being able to play at some level of proficiency is something anyone can do at any age.

If you had never been exposed to classical music in your life and you decided that in your 20s or 30s you wanted to become a concert violinist, you would have an incredibly tough road ahead of you. The coordination required; the understanding of musical language; there are many reasons why this would be extremely difficult. This is not to say that mastering an instrument later in life is impossible though. Many musicians have learned instruments later on in life and had a huge degree of success. But how is this possible?

Being exposed to music from a young age is incredibly important for success in music. It can increase the development of your brain for music and it can provide you with an understanding of the musical language. For example, if you already know how to play one instrument, it will be much easier to learn a second instrument. This is because you already have an understanding of the musical language.

There are some instruments that are best to learn at a young age – specifically string instruments and the piano – but it’s not impossible to learn them at any age. If you start later in life you really should have realistic expectations. No matter how much I may want to be a professional basketball player, at my age it is virtually impossible.

It’s important not to get hung up on what level you can eventually achieve on an instrument. If you want to learn an instrument at any age, it’s a great idea as long as it’s enjoyable for you. Musical development is something you can enjoy for the rest of your life no matter what your age or level!

All performers experience a certain degree of stage fright. Standing in front of a room full of people is bound to intimidate anyone! Your pulse will rise and your hands may sweat, but there is nothing to worry about; it’s all natural behavior. This article (and video) will provide some tips on how to deal with this common problem that nearly every performer faces.

Stage fright is merely a normal physiological response dating back to the fight or flight response during prehistoric times. While these metabolic and stressful reactions aren’t necessary for a modern society, they aren’t going away anytime soon. In other words, you have to deal with them. You may learn to harness this energy in positive ways – but how is this possible?

There is a recurring dream I have where I am playing piano in front of a large audience. I am performing for memory when I realize that I haven’t finished learning the rest of the piece! It’s more of a nightmare, really.

This brings us to the first step in overcoming stage fright, being prepared.

Prepare like crazy! You never want to be in front of an audience unprepared; it’s suicide. Preparation enables you to relax and enjoy the performance which makes the experience rewarding for the audience.

Another vital aspect of overcoming nerves is to practice performing.

Practicing by yourself is great but in order to prepare effectively, you will need to play for an audience. This is something that many musicians overlook, but it is absolutely essential. You can start out with low-pressure situations playing for friends and family. Play for anyone who will listen. Treat it like a public performance. Start with smaller groups – even one person can be enough at first. Gradually build your way up to larger audiences. This also enhances the effectiveness of your practice. You will spot problem areas to focus on in practice. Also, you will get a feel for the pacing of your program.

You must prepare for a performance both physically and mentally.

There are a number of things you can do physically to prepare yourself. Being well rested is certainly important. However, you may not want to deviate from your normal routine too much. It’s a good idea to stay away from caffeine and sugar right before your perform since both can make you jittery which can have an adverse effect on your playing. It’s best to eat a balanced meal before the performance. Foods like bananas and rice are easy to digest. Make sure you time your meal so you aren’t too full or hungry during the performance.

Mental preparation is incredibly important for successful performing.

I’ve had times where I was running around all day before a performance – making calls, answering emails, making videos – and without a moment to spare I have to plop myself down and perform. How do I deal with that? The short answer is I think about my performance a great deal before the actual day of the concert. I spend a lot of time running through the performance in my mind, thinking not only about the music, but sensing the audience as well. Some people suggest blocking out the audience to avoid getting nervous; This can be a great mistake! In fact, a great exercise is to lie down with your eyes closed and imagine being on stage. Think about sitting down at the bench of the piano, looking at the logo on the front of the fallboard. Take a deep breath imagining that moment while sensing the audience around you! On the day of the actual performance, you will be prepared by taking a deep breath, looking at the fallboard, and rekindling the comfortable acceptance of the audience as you had earlier.

The short answer is, yes, you do! I’m going to show you a couple of ways to possibly get around it. First of all, it depends on how big the piano is. If it’s a spinet piano and you have a pickup truck as well as some strong people plus a ramp, sure you can go for it. Be sure that you know how to properly secure a piano in a truck with straps as well as being able to wrap it in moving blankets properly. I would recommend this for pianos that are not expensive. The reality is, moving a piano is a very specialized skill. I have a video on the subject you can reference to see how it is done. https://livingpianos.com/general/how-to-move-a-piano-tips-for-moving-a-piano

When you see professional movers move a grand piano, they make it look easy because they know how to use leverage properly. There are also tools you need such as a skid board. Even with uprights, you want to put them on a flat board as well as a dolly. There are upright dollies that you can rent that strap around the piano. The thing is, pianos are extraordinarily heavy. I would not recommend for anyone who has ever had any back problems to move any piano under any circumstances, even moving a piano from one part of a room to another. You can do damage if you don’t know how to lift properly even if you have a strong back.

The secret is lifting with your knees. Never lift with your back and always lift with your legs while keeping your back straight or you can do damage almost instantly with a piano.

Even a spinet weighs several hundred pounds. It’s just not worth saving a few hundred bucks to risk destroying your back. So how can you possibly get around it? Fortunately, there is a way! If you have a move, particularly a long distance move, you can hire local movers on each end to load it onto a U-Haul or into a truck. You can avoid the expense of the mover going the entire trip, and that could save you quite a bit of money. You will need to rent or borrow the proper equipment to move a piano such as a skid board and 4 wheel, flat dolly made specifically for grand pianos. Grand pianos are moved on their flat side, and the skid board adds stability and protection for the piano.

My recommendation to you is to use a professional piano mover who specializes in moving only pianos. If you want to do it yourself with an upright, you must have strong people, a dolly and a truck with a ramp as well as the other essential supplies to protect your piano. Avoid moving a valuable piano yourself since anything can happen. For a fine piano, at least get professional piano movers to load and unload the piano on both ends. I hope this helps and thanks for joining us! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Whenever I meet new students, the first thing I do is listen to them play. Then I ask them a critical question, “Has anyone ever taught you how to practice?” One of the most important things a teacher can share with a student is how to practice. A teacher might be absolutely brilliant but their time with a student is very limited (typically an hour a week or less). The student’s progress is determined by what they do the other six days of the week. Effective practice is critically important.

I have previously produced videos on all three skills. (You can follow the links below.)

The first skill that any pianist needs to learn is memorization. With some instruments, you can actually play and look at the music the entire time. With the piano and other instruments, there is certain music that forces you to look at your hands (specifically music with big leaps). The complexity of some scores necessitates memorization. Here is a video on the subject:

If you look at a piece of music one of the very first things you will see are two numbers – it almost looks like a fraction. Some common time signatures you have undoubtedly seen before are 4/4 or 3/8 , these are not just arbitrary numbers, and they have a very important role in the timing of the piece.

But what do these numbers mean? Well the top number is easy; it tells you how many beats are in each measure – so in 3/8 time it you would have 3 beats per measure.

But what does the bottom number mean? When teaching, I sometimes refer to it as the mystery number because it surprises me how many students don’t know what it actually means! So in the example of 3/8 time, the bottom number 8 represents the kind of note getting ONE beat. So let’s break this down so it’s easier to understand. Here is the guide for what the bottom note stands for:

1 = Whole Note
2 = Half Note
4 = Quarter Note
8 = Eighth Note
16 = Sixteenth Note
32 = Thirty-second Note
64 = Sixty-fourth Note
128 = One-hundred-twenty-eighth Note

How many beats in each measure
Kind of note getting ONE beat

3 – There are 3 beats in a measure
8 – An eighth Note Gets ONE beat

Now one thing you would never see is something like 4/3 or 4/7 time because there is no 3rd or 7th note that exists in music – the bottom number will always represent the kind of note getting one beat.

A very crucial moment in the development of an instrumentalist or singer is the selection of their next musical piece. As a teacher, knowing what repertoire to give students in order to aid their development is incredibly important in furthering their progress. So what is the best piece to add to your repertoire? How do you know?

It is best to progress methodically while learning and mastering an instrument. It is a good idea to select a piece that will not take an inordinate amount of time to learn, as it could hinder progress. When a student progresses to an advanced level in their playing, musical selections can take weeks or even months to master. On an elementary level, however, you will not want to spend more than a couple of weeks on a particular piece before it’s learned. Of course, the student may live with the piece longer refining it further as they tackle additional repertoire.

Some teachers might give their students a piece that takes nearly half a year to learn. In that same amount of time, another teacher could give their student a dozen different pieces to learn which can each be mastered much more quickly. By the time the one student masters his only piece; the other student will have mastered twelve and may be on a more advanced level than the other student and will have a much larger repertoire!

Another important aspect of becoming a musician is having a repertoire of music to play. You wouldn’t want to know only 2 or 3 pieces of music. So, it’s better to learn many different pieces. If you take a progressive approach to learning music you will always be expanding your repertoire and your level of playing will gradually improve over time. It also offers the benefit of covering a wider range of composers and styles of composition.

One challenge with a progressive approach to repertoire is that one size doesn’t fit all! There is no guide to tell you what piece to pick next for everyone and there are plenty of occasions where students desperately want to learn a piece above their skill level. If they decide to tackle a such a piece, they will need to dramatically increase their level of practice; they will need to dedicate more time and energy then they ever have before into learning the piece. I have had students rise to the occasion and achieve their goal and become a higher level musician in the process. However, it is a rare student who is capable of this kind of quantum leap of development.

For the most part, gradual progression is the best practice for becoming a better musician and mastering your instrument. It seems that some teachers will want to glorify their own image based on what their students are studying and force them to progress too rapidly rather than letting them develop refinement in their playing. It is much more important to master your music than simply being able to get through pieces.

For a lot of musicians, it’s impossible to ignore emotion in music; it comes out naturally. However, there are ways you can express yourself and show more emotion in your music – making it a much more powerful experience for your audience.

You might find that the music you are studying or playing gives you an emotional impact but you might wonder if you are translating that to your instrument and the audience. You must overcome the technical challenges needed to express yourself freely. The first thing you will need to do is practice your music thoroughly tackling problems and technical issues.

Now here is the fundamental problem. If you practice a piece over and over again in hopes of being able to play it perfectly, will you still have the same love and emotion for it? Or will the task of studying and practicing a piece extensively destroy the enjoyment you once had for it? It’s a common problem for musicians who lock themselves up in a practice room for hours every day trying to perfect their music only to emerge with a disdain for the music they once loved. There have been a number of times I’ve attended recitals and watched incredibly capable instrumentalist put on boring performances! All too often the performers have lost track of why they are playing their music, to begin with; they’ve lost their love of music and possibly the joy of life.

But how do you avoid this while mastering your music? The first thing you can do is to practice effectively. Practicing with the metronome a great deal builds a solid foundation. This can offer you freedom when performing (without the metronome) since you will not stray too far from becoming self-indulgent when expressing yourself. Practicing the piano without the pedal is also fundamental building clarity in your music. These are simple and effective practice techniques. When you finally get to add the pedal and play without the metronome, it feels so good hearing the music in all its glory. The benefit of the structured practice gives you the freedom to express yourself in performance.

Another important thing to do is to play for other people on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter how much you practice until you get out in front of an audience and actually perform, the music doesn’t come to life. It’s like practicing for a job interview – no matter how much you practice, it will never prepare you for the actual conversation. It’s all about communicating which involves give and take.

Most of all, you must find a balance in life. You need to enjoy your life and your work and you can never achieve this if you let your work consume your life. Sometimes the best thing to do is to step away from the music and allow yourself to recoup and eventually fall in love with it again. Like the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. You really should feel this way about your music. When you are away from it coming back feels so good! You will experience joy in your life and in your music!

Some musical scores can be extremely complex. Sometimes there are situations when someone needs a pianist desperately and there simply isn’t enough time to completely digest the score. People will be grateful for you to be able to accommodate them. This is when simplifying a score can sometimes be a lifesaver!

One example might be attending a Christmas party and a singer hands you some music and asks if you could perform a few Christmas carols for the group. You pick up the book and take a look and realize the pieces are embellished arrangements which contain a lot more notes than you would be able to play instantly. Don’t worry; there is a solution to this. I’m going to provide a few tips to help you achieve this.

Piano scores are much more complex than most instruments because you have two hands playing in multiple staffs. In the case I just described, removing some notes can still leave the integrity of the song; but which ones should you play? Usually, the top note is the melody and the bottom note, the bass provides the structure; these are essential to play. As long as you have the bass and melody you can work on fleshing out what’s in the middle. Generally, you would want to avoid doing this sort of thing with serious musical compositions unless it’s a desperate situation with no alternatives for the soloist or group you are accompanying. But arrangements are a great place to use this technique since they are arrangements anyway. In fact, sometimes you may encounter simplified arrangements you may want to embellish!

Overall, simplification can be useful to familiarize yourself with an accompaniment with a tight deadline or to enjoy playing musical arrangements for fun. And remember, the easy way to simplify is to offer the structure which consists of the bass, the melody and whatever other notes you can add to make a pleasing musical performance.