Piano Lessons; The New Method to Learn A Classic

Parents have desired piano lessons for their kids for years and years for many because it's a fun, engaging instrument that provides a lifetime's worth of satisfaction and reward. The instrument allows for all kinds of music to be played, from blues and ragtime to classical. It's a beautiful tradition and it's fun, but piano lessons have changed in a lot of ways. Or rather, old-fashioned lessons are still available, but there's a new school of thought when it comes to lessons on the old instrument.

Both schools have a lot of overlap: it's impossible to play without learning the basics of the instrument. Students learn how to read the musical staff, which fingers to use to play notes, and other basics. At first you'll learn classic melodies, either from a popular repertoire like an easy-to-play Lady Gaga piece, "Twinkle Twinkle," or an easy but iconic classical number. Learning the fundamentals is inescapable, but soon these schools of thought depart from one another.

Many modern teachers are happy to forego things like practicing scales by rote in order to keep their students engaged. If a student shows great determination and willingness to play and absorb all the traditional skills, then don't hold them back! But if a student's patience is wearing thin, give them fun and reasonable accomplishments. This isn't a cop out: they must play music and learn skills, but it's not steeped in mind numbing repetition and perfection of technique. It's a false dichotomy that practice must either be boring or lack substance. While practice can't always be super exciting, and can contain its own frustrations and minor obstacles, it shouldn't feel hopeless. The key is to make it inherently musical and find a graspable challenge. If a student is set up with progressively harder challenges they're excited about, they'll learn the instrument.

After the fundamentals are grasped, teachers can start increasing the difficulty in the pieces and begin emphasizing greater attention to technique. It's essential to learn certain techniques and skills to play pieces of greater difficulty. But at this stage too there is room for a variation in approach: hoisting a load of music theory on an uninterested student will quash their interest for making music. The main thing must be to preserve the students' interest in music. You can teach theory in an approachable way. It doesn't always have to be dry, but you must assess how each student individually. It's impossible to take one approach based on rigorous fundamentals and apply it wholesale to each student.

But after the beginning of lessons when songs increase in complexity, lessons should become more fun. By this time the student knows what it's like to be rewarded for their effort and there's an established rapport with the teacher. A good teacher knows how to use humour and fun to maintain engagement, and knows when to bear down and push the student to achieve all they can. This creates a wonderful relationship and develops a skill the student can continually enjoy all their life.

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