Are you a beginner at playing the piano? Have you recently bought your very first keyboard or downloaded some music-editing software and started tinkering around with it, dreaming of becoming the next Vladimir Horowitz or Stevie Wonder?
If so, congratulations! You are embarking on an exciting journey. But be warned: if you lack the determination to stick to your goals, no number of tips will help you become a better composer or performer. Here are five pieces of advice that might just help keep you on track.
Start Simple
When people first start learning an instrument they often want to jump right in and play the music they enjoy, which is wonderful! But this should be done after becoming comfortable with all of the essentials. It is very frustrating to learn a song that is too challenging in the beginning when you haven’t mastered any of the required skills yet. Think about it like learning how to drive… Would you rather try and navigate downtown traffic in a sports car or start in an automatic sedan?
Before playing songs students should work on exercises that teach them about rhythm, scales, hand position, and much more. These are all important because once you get into music theory lessons (which I almost always recommend) these concepts will be taught using much simpler examples. Learning this way allows students to understand why things are done a certain way which serves as a great foundation for future knowledge. By starting with simple piano songs for learners it gives students something new to play while they practice their existing skills. As you learn and get comfortable with simple musical pieces, gradually increase the complexity of the lessons you want to learn.
Document Your Progress
It is very common for students to focus on the notes that were played incorrectly when hearing themselves play the piano. It might also happen so, so much with beginners at playing the piano because they are just starting out and have yet to learn proper fingering techniques. This leads to frustration! If you are focusing on what you got wrong in your performance, then you are taking away from your time of learning how to play the piano well. Let’s say you are practicing a piano solo for “A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. Taking a video of your practice session helps you focus on the notes you missed when playing rather than the ones that were played Correctly. What you should do is find where in your piece of music it sounds terrible (and not just “tinkly” when playing fast) when it comes to your performance of playing the piano. When you identify these problem spots in your playing, practice them until they sound better or even right!
Keep Up With Your Lessons And Stay Dedicated
Lessons aren’t just something fun that you do every so often – they’re one of the most important aspects of learning how to play the piano! You never know when your teacher might introduce a new concept that will be vital to your future playing ability, so keep up with it! You don’t want to get too far behind.
No matter how hard the road of piano playing might get, you have to stay dedicated! Keep practicing every day and push through even the roughest of times. When you feel like giving up, remember why you wanted to learn in the first place! Great things take some time, but they’re always worth it in the end!
The Key To Playing The Piano Well Is Practice
Nowadays technology has been greatly improved where most people opt for gadgets such as iPods and mp3 players. While these devices are great means of listening to music, they should not be used as a substitute for practicing the piano. If you want to master playing the keyboard it is important that you invest time and effort in learning how to play it well.
Learning The Notes And The Chords
You must memorize the notes on the keyboard. It will help if you practice with your eyes closed – this trains your sense of feeling which is important later on if one wishes to become an expert pianist. Learning how to play the chords also helps especially when playing more complicated pieces of music. Although chords are considered difficult by many beginners, these skills will provide a greater advantage once mastered under proper guidance from an experienced teacher.
Quitting Is Not An Option
While practice does make perfect, this can only happen when an effort is provided. You will not be able to master playing the piano in a short period of time. For this reason, it is important that you place equal focus on learning how to play the notes and chords – else you might end up with mediocre skills which are of no use to your career or passion for playing music.
Finding The Right Teacher
It is important that one finds the best instructor who can provide proper guidance for learning how to play the keyboard. There are many instructors out there, but they might not all be perfect for what you need. This is why I suggest finding someone who has good credentials, experience in teaching students, and most importantly specializes in teaching beginners. Someone like Ace Piano Lessons, which provides lessons for students at all levels is the best person for teaching beginners.
Experience Matters
The age of an instructor is not important as long as they have the appropriate knowledge and experience to teach you how to play the keyboard. Whether their students are young or adults, they should be more than capable of handling them. The more years an instructor has spent playing the piano, the better chance they have in understanding what you need under them – this will provide a greater advantage when it comes to learning how to play well.
Learning how to play the piano can be a lot of fun and exciting! There are plenty of things you can do with this beautiful instrument, so take it one step at a time. Focusing on what you need to know will help you learn how to read sheet music faster, make learning easier, and most importantly, give your playing more musicality.
