5-Minute Piano Lessons

Acoustic Piano vs. Digital Piano

danstarrorg@yahoo.com (Dan Starr / Jay Walsh) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:50:39 +0000

The "war of instruments" is counter-productive in addition to silly If there is one thing that pianists get hot about it is the "war of instruments" between the proponents of acoustic pianos and lovers of digital pianos. I know because I get caught in their battles quite often. Any reader of these essays knows that I believe the digital piano to be the best instrument for the amateur pianist, as well as a superior instrument for learning to play in the first place. If you'd like to know my reasoning you can read the other essays in this section. I hope what I say helps you come to some conclusions. However, I have one final thing to say about all this and it would be worthwhile for any pianist or piano student to hear it.

Do You Need “Piano Glasses?”

danstarrorg@yahoo.com (Dan Starr / Jay Walsh) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:28:55 +0000

Adult piano students learn better if they SEE their sheet music well ! I offer something I call a "Better Progress Checklist" to both live and online students. This action is a full and comprehensive list of questions covering every thing I've ever learned that can slow down a student's progress. Answering these questions and having me evaluate the answers reveals things even the student is not aware are barriers. I bring this up because one of huge barrier sometimes revealed is the simple matter of eyesight. Not being behind the piano student's eyeballs I have no way to know about this without asking, and, unfortunately, adults are sometimes reluctant to admit they need eyesight correction. This reticence can mean the different between playing well and playing poorly or not at all.

“Immersion” – THE Key to Music Reading

danstarrorg@yahoo.com (Dan Starr / Jay Walsh) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:22:21 +0000

A solution to language study can help us study the language of music As I've said in many other essays, reading piano music is highly important. Thus, anything that might speed this up and make it more effective for more student pianists is worth considering. This is the story of how I finally realized why "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and such has NOT solved pianists' reading problems. It is also the story of how I finally understood and learned to apply an actual solution.

“Monkey See-Monkey Do” Style Music Reading

danstarrorg@yahoo.com (Dan Starr / Jay Walsh) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:31:23 +0000

I had a big and unhappy realization this week during teaching. An adult student had to be encouraged to do something other than what was specified by their sheet music (poorly written sheet music, I would hasten to add) and my sole child student asked me, "Aren't these pedaling marks sorta an option?" Now my child is a very precocious 10 year old but I would have thought my adult student wouldn't feel compelled to simply follow orders. Turns out I had it backwards. My "realization" was: Many piano student work hard to get good at "Monkey See-Monkey Do" music reading.

Five Important Piano Lessons from My Burglary

danstarrorg@yahoo.com (Dan Starr / Jay Walsh) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:04:18 +0000

I know this is strange way to make lemonade out of lemons, but being burglarized this past weekend has served to validate many of the ideas I have used successfully when teaching adult piano students. Weird, but wonderful.