Many times, any home chair would simply do the job. However, with today’s availability of benches in different assortments, it is worth the while to come up with a few dollars, bite the bullet, and get the proper bench for your playing comfort.

Here are some guidelines for selecting the proper bench.

1. Height. The standard piano bench that comes with every new piano is a duet bench. The height is typically 19 to 20 inches high built for the average adult. If you have a child learning to play piano, you will need a bench with an adjustable height. Adjustable benches, also called artist benches range from height adjustments of 18 to 23 inches high. This would give great seating comfort to the child. I’ve seen many cases where parents would use a thick telephone book as a booster seat. This is only a temporary measure. If you want your child to be motivated, get a proper bench.

2. Padding. Padding is extremely important for skinny people who do not have inherent padding from their body shape. Prolonged periods of playing piano on a hard top bench can cause extreme discomfort from what we call the “sore bum” syndrome. Consider benches that come with thick padding. Another alternative is to get or make bench cushions for additional comfort.

3. Seat measurements. Benches come in single or duet size. The widths vary anywhere from 18 inches to 42 inches long. The standard size that can seat two average built persons is 30 inches long x 14 inches wide. This would come in handy for playing duets.

4. Music storage compartment. If you like being tidy and orderly, consider a bench with a music storage compartment for your music books, especially if you do not own a music book cabinet. Many benches come with a lift-up music storage compartment that can accommodate at least 6 to 10 music books. If you live in a condo apartment or are short of space, a bench with a music storage compartment is your answer.

5. Budget. How much are you willing to pay for a bench – this will influence your decision. Additional features usually costs extra. Find out what you are willing to compromise.

You will find that it is not easy to find one bench that fulfills all your requirements. Like anything else, you will need to sort out your priorities. Shop around, do some research by visiting different websites of online piano stores. There are plenty of choices, chances are: with a little work, you could find just the perfect bench for you or your family.

Plus 1 practice: Do you want to be able to play scales very fast up and down the piano?
I call it zipping up and down the piano. You can’t do it with the normal finger action practicing.

We are learning a method of practice that is similar to a hold then push. Have you ever
been pushed. It creates a momentum and one can’t stop moving. Also, instead of the
normal up and down finger action, which is vertical, we will be using our wrist to roll our
hand and the hand will push the fingers.

Of course plus 1 is exactly as it sounds, gradually practice adding a note at a time.
Let’s use C scale as an Example.
The first note played in the scale will be struck hard, then you will hold until you are
ready to move to the next key.

1. Start with C: Strike and hold, Play D and lift your hand.
2. Bring your hand down on the note C, hold, Play D and E as fast as possible.
3. Bring your hand down on the note C, hold, Play D, E and F as fast as possible,
remember to start rolling your hand with the wrist.
4. Continue adding a note at a time.

Once you get the feeling of the hand movement, it will feel very natural, and you
will be able to play with speed and accuracy.

There are three pedals on the piano: the damper pedal on the right, played with the right foot; the soft pedal called the Una Corda, on the left, played with the left foot; and the sostenuto pedal in the middle, played with the left foot.

In all cases, the end of the pedal should contact the ball of the foot in line with the big toe. The heel of the foot stays on the floor at all times, and the foot remains touching the pedal at all times.

The Damper Pedal raises the damper (hammers) off the strings at once, and holds them off, so that if the fingers are removed from the keys, the sounds does not stop, as the pedal is still holding the dampers of the strings.

Now let’s work with the most common pedal, the damper pedal. The damper pedal is used for the purpose of playing legato, or purposefully allowing 2 or more tones to ring at the same time to create harmony, and/or for a ryhthmic purpose.

Playing legato means to connect your sounds without silence between the notes. Hold the first key and keep it vibrating until the next note is played, then release the first note. This can be easily accomplished through your finger action if all the keys in your song are within close proximity of each other. If there is a huge span between the keys, then it is impossible for the fingers to play legato, for the hand will have to be moved to a new position to reach the key. By using the damper pedal, you can connect these tones and retain the sounds of legato.
Example:
1. Play middle C, and at the same time depress the damper pedal.
2. Hold the damper pedal in the depressed position.
3. Lift your hand and move it up the piano to play a high C.
4. At the exact moment you play the high C, Lift and depress the damper pedal
very fast.

How do you know you are playing the pedal correctly? All you have to do is listen. If you release the pedal too soon, you will hear silence between the two notes. If you release the pedal too late, there will be a point where both tones will be ringing.

Playing the pedal correctly takes practice, go slow and listen carefully. How do you know when to use the pedal? Change the pedal when you do not want tones ringing together. Change the pedal on every chord change. In classical music, it is customary to analyze the composition and when the composer is changing chords, change the pedal.
Composers will write in phrases, which are similar to sentences, if the same chord is used, but the phrase changes, you would change the pedal when the phrase ends and a new phrase starts. As you progress in your lessons and gain knowledge about music theory, you will be able to analyze the music and this will guide you as to when to change the pedaling.

IDEA #1: Get Involved

Make piano practice something that you and your child do together. When it is ‘Piano Time’, sit down with your child and listen to and encourage them during their practice session.

Even if you know nothing about music, you can still act as an audience. Tell your child that their playing, “Sounds beautiful” When they finish a piece say, “That was wonderful! Can you please play it again for me?”

When you get involved and encourage your child with positive reinforcement this is what they learn:

Playing Piano = Begin with Mom/Dad + Having Fun + Feeling Good

Unfortunately many parents adopt the Army Drill Sergeant approach and believe that the best way for a child to progress is through strict discipline. When their child plays a piece, they say “You made a mistake in bar 7, do it again and this time get it right!”

When this happens repeatedly, what the child learns is:

Playing Piano = Pressure + Being Yelled At + Feeling Bad

If this negative cycle continues children will start to look for ways to avoid practice and it is very likely that they will give up the piano to avoid this pain. The most important thing that you can do for your child is to make sure that playing the piano is a fun and enjoyable activity rather than a tedious lonely chore.

IDEA #2: Use A Time Trigger

An excellent way to introduce a new activity into your busy timetable is to associate it with a Time Trigger that already exists. For example, you and your child could agree that ‘Piano Time’ happens straight after their favorite TV program or straight after breakfast. By using a Time Trigger that already exists, both you and your child will find it easier to incorporate piano practice into your existing routines.

IDEA #3: Create The Right Environment

It is very difficult to practice effectively if the TV is blaring in one corner and little brothers and sisters are running around the room. If possible, you should position your piano in a quiet, well lit room which is separate from the normal living area. In this way, when it is ‘Piano Time’ you and your child can ‘escape’ to your special room and enjoy your time together.

IDEA #4: Lose The Stop Watch

Try to avoid the idea of ‘30 Minutes Practice A Day, Everyday’. In my experience, piano practice is much more effective if it is not governed by a stopwatch. When children are just starting out, they may only be able to play for 10 or 15 minutes. It is much better for them to have a fun 15 minute practice each day than it is to force them to play for half an hour. Your focus should be on building a positive experience for your child not clocking up a specific amount of time.

As your child progresses, their attention span and enthusiasm will increase and the length of their practice sessions will naturally become longer.

If you follow these simple steps you will be well on the way to creating a strong foundation for your child to begin their journey into the wonderful world of music.

On this journey every student encounters a number of imposing mountains that they must cross in order to reach their destination. There are also many traps and dangers along the way.

The best way to ensure the success of any journey is to hire a guide. The ideal guide is someone who has made the trip many times before. They know the best way to go. They know many hidden shortcuts and they know how to avoid the dangers along the way.

The piano student’s guide on their musical journey is of course their piano teacher.

Selecting the right piano teacher is one of the most critical decisions you can make. If you choose the right teacher, you greatly increase the chance that your child will go on to make the piano a part of their life. If you choose the wrong teacher, you can jeopardize your child’s musical journey before it has even begun.

The five most important questions that you should ask when looking for a piano teacher are:

QUESTION #1: Do They Relate Well To Children?

One of the most common mistakes parents make when looking for a piano teacher is that they look for the teacher with the best reputation and qualifications as a pianist.

It is very important to be aware that being a great pianist does NOT necessarily make someone a great teacher.

What you are really looking for is someone who is great with kids and who loves teaching.

I read recently that aside from direct family relationships, the longest relationship many people develop during their life is with their music teacher!

This is certainly true in my case. I spent 8 years with my teacher and during that time he became not only a teacher but also an advisor, confidant and friend.

This is what you want to find for your child – A teacher who can become their friend.

QUESTION #2: Do They Create A Positive Environment?

As we saw in Part 1 of this mini course. It is important to create a positive environment for your child to learn and grow as a musician.

Just as there are parents who adopt the Army Sergeant Major approach to practice, there are also teachers who adopt a disciplinarian approach to teaching. It never ceases to amaze me how many adults I meet who recount stories of being slapped across the hands with rulers and being verbally abused for not doing their piano practice. It is little wonder that most of these adults gave up playing piano.

Remember what you are looking for in a teacher is someone who creates an atmosphere of fun and excitement for your child.

QUESTION #3: Do They Have A Professional Piano Studio?

Your child’s teacher should have a professionally organized studio which offers a range of activities and games to enrich your child’s development.

One important question to ask prospective teachers is whether they have a computer lab. Today there are many wonderful computer programs available that help children learn to play piano.

QUESTION #4: Do They Have The Appropriate Qualifications?

In addition to relating well to children, it is important to ensure that the teacher you select does have the appropriate qualifications to teach piano. When you meet a prospective teacher you should ask to see their qualifications.

QUESTION #5: Are They Passionate About Music?

Your child’s attitude towards music will reflect the attitude of their teacher so it is important to find a teacher that loves what they do rather than someone who is teaching just to pay the bills. You can gauge a teacher’s level of enthusiasm using the questions you will find in the next section.

How To Find The Right Teacher For Your Child

The best way to start your search is to ask your friends and acquaintances whether they know of a good piano teacher in your local area.

What you really want to hear is, “My daughter’s piano teacher is great with kids. The kids just love her…”

Not, “My daughter’s piano teacher is an international concert pianist.”

Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to find a teacher who is a great pianist and a great teacher, but just remember what you are really looking for is a great teacher.

When you have a list of a few possible teachers, you should contact them and ask if they offer a free trial lesson. Some teachers will, some won’t. It often depends on how busy they are.

If a teacher does not offer a free trial lesson, ask whether you and your child can come and observe a lesson with an existing student. If a teacher says no to both of these requests then move on to the
next name on your list.

When you go along to either the free trial lesson or the observation lesson, take careful note of the following:

How does the teacher interact with children?
How do children interact with the teacher?
Do the children seem to enjoy the lesson?
Does the teacher seem to enjoy the lesson?
How does the teacher handle a child’s mistakes?
If you are having a free lesson, take note of how your
child reacts to the teacher. Can you can imagine the two
of them becoming friends?
After observing the above points, ask the prospective teacher the following questions:

What qualifications do they have?
Do they offer a computer lab?
Do they organize regular recitals?
Do they organize end of year concerts?
Do they have group lessons and activities?
Do they enjoy teaching?
How will they work with you to help your child at home?
Don’t be afraid to let prospective teachers know that you are trying out a few teachers in the area. It is in the best interest of everyone that you find the best match between teacher and student.

Remember you are looking to establish a relationship that may last for many years so it is worth taking a bit of time to get it right.

For many students, a practice session consists of simply sitting down at the piano and playing their favorite piece from start to finish as fast as they can.

The secret to getting the most out of each practice session is to have a general structure for each session. You should discuss this with your child’s piano teacher to identify a structure that is consistent with their approach to teaching.

To show you how this works, let me share with you the structure I recommend to my students.

ACTIVITY #1: Fun Warm Up

A good way to start a practice session is for students to play their favorite piece for fun. This is really just to get their fingers moving and to get the session off to an enjoyable start. You should not make a big deal of any mistakes made during the warm up.

ACTIVITY #2: Technical Work

Technical work consists of exercises that help a child develop the coordination and technique they require to play the piano. When a child is just starting out, these exercises usually consist of simple patterns which help children learn to move their fingers.

ACTIVITY #3: Focus Piece / Focus Exercise

Rather than playing all their pieces, I suggest that at each practice session a student selects one piece to focus on. In addition to focusing on one piece, I recommend that the student focus on one particular exercise for the selected piece.

There are many different exercises that can be used to ensure that each session is different and engaging. Here are some of the exercises I use with my students:

Divide and conquer – This simply means that the student divides the piece up into different sections and concentrates on a particular section during each practice session. By practicing and perfecting small sections of a piece, students progress much more quickly than if they try and practice the whole piece each time they play.

Hands Separate – Another good exercise is to practice only the left hand or only the right hand of a piece. This is much easier than playing hands together and it is a good way to ensure that the child’s left hand is not neglected.

Vary The Tempo(speed) – In this exercise, the student plays the selected section at a slow manageable tempo in strict time with a metronome. When they can play the section without a mistake, they are allowed to increase the tempo by one notch. If they make a mistake the metronome has to go down a notch. This can become a bit like a game of snakes and ladders and is a lot of fun.

Vary The Dynamics – The dynamics of a piece relate to how the music changes in volume. It is an excellent idea to occasionally vary the dynamics of a piece so that a student becomes familiar with how it feels to play loud and soft. You can also ask a child to play a piece with different moods eg. Happy or Sad. This helps children learn that there is more to playing piano than simply pressing keys.

Record Your Child Playing – It can be a lot of fun for children to hear a recording of themselves playing. It is also an excellent idea to keep some recordings so that occasionally you and your child can sit down and listen to old recordings and appreciate just how far they have progressed.

ACTIVITY #4: Sight Reading

Sight Reading is the ability to pick up a piece of music you have never seen before and play it simply by reading the music.

Sight reading is a skill that students of all ages struggle with. I believe that much of this struggle is due to the fact that many students are not really taught how to read music.

Learning the note names and keyboard positions of the piano is not very exciting. It is simply a matter of rote learning — very much like learning the times tables.

This is why I developed ‘Piano Is Fun’. The idea was to make the process fun by breaking it down into easy to manage sections and then providing students with an incentive to progress by rewarding them with colorful rewards each time they complete a lesson.

When students are just beginning to play piano, I suggest that each practice session end with a game of Piano Is Fun.

This not only motivates students to concentrate during the practice session, it also acts as a reward and is a great fun way to bring a practice session to an end.

You will probably notice that I did not put a time against each of these activities. As you have probably gathered. I do not like to regiment practice sessions using a stopwatch. I simply instruct parents to ensure that each practice session contains the four previously mentioned activities.

Lets stop and have a think about this for a moment. Picture two imaginary students. One named Tim and the other named Melinda.

Each time Tim practices he sits down at the piano and plays his favorite pieces from start to finish for half an hour.

Each time Melinda practices she does the following:

(1) Warms up with a fun piece
(2) Plays some technical finger exercises
(3) Selects a single piece and focuses on improving a particular aspect of that piece
(4) Finishes off by playing a game that helps her learn how to read music

Which student do you think will progress more quickly? I can tell you from experience that students who practice in a structured manner generally progress much more rapidly than students who practice in a random fashion.

It is important to remember that different teachers will have different ideas when it comes to how students should practice. The ideas above are some of the things I have found useful over the years with my own students.

You may like to print this article out and take it along to discuss with your child’s piano teacher. That way you can ask them how they would like your child to practice at home.