You Can Play Piano!

Music Lessons and Your Brain

2009-06-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

There's a great article online at dana.org called "Music Training Changes Brain Networks." We've all heard vague statements about learning music being good for you; that children who learn music do better in school; that music education leads to higher levels of self-discipline and the ability to achieve long-term goals.

But there's a new study out that tested both cognitive skills and also the physical development of the brain on children who received 15 months of weekly music education. The study found that weekly music lessons do indeed impact brain and cognitive development in certain areas:

Music training in childhood improves related cognitive function, according to research that for the first time demonstrates brain plasticity as a result of music instruction.

The ongoing study, led by Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Gottfried Schlaug, professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, shows that children who receive weekly music instruction and practice regularly perform better on sound discrimination and fine motor tasks. Furthermore, brain imaging shows changes to the networks associated with those abilities.

Previous studies had shown that the brains of adult musicians have structural and functional differences from those of non-musicians, but no study had yet examined changes in the developing brain in response to long-term music training. Winner and Schlaug’s findings are the latest from several inquiries into the benefits of arts training across various areas of cognition, including a study on attention whose results also found evidence of brain plasticity in children who received instruction.

The head of the study admits it isn't perfect. But it's definitely a step forward in showing the positive effects of music education on children's development. With budgets getting squeezed (as they have been for many years) in school districts around the country, the arts programs are often the first to go. It's such a shame that my children won't have access to the same kind of programs I did when I was young!

But the opportunity to study music privately or with other community, church, or alternative education programs is always there.

“This is the first study to show brain plasticity in young children as a function of instrumental music instruction,” Schlaug said. “And this is correlated with the amount of practice.”

“It'd be difficult to find another activity that takes up so much real estate in the brain,” he added.

Music really is unique as an educational, developmental skill set that also has so many rewards in self-expression and personal satisfaction. It can give children (and adults!) something that they feel is uniquely theirs.

I heartily encourage everyone to read this fascinating article! You can read the full article here.

Adult Piano Students and Commitment

2009-06-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

Recently, a visitor to my site wrote to ask me some questions about teaching piano. As I was writing back, I thought that a particular piece of what I was saying would be a great thing to post on my blog – both for adult piano students and for fledgling piano teachers looking to help adults stay in lessons and achieve their dreams of playing piano.

One of the primary reasons adults choose to discontinue lessons is the “busy-ness factor.” It’s true for all of us; we have jobs, families, houses and yards to take care of, volunteer commitments and communities of faith… we have full lives. And yet, I believe that learning to play piano and taking piano lessons can be part of a busy life.

Over the course of learning to become a better teacher, I’ve learned to have conversations about the reality of taking lessons and time management. I do this during the first lesson, so that expectations are clear on all sides and the student knows what is necessary to see progress and not become discouraged.

I talk honestly about commitment levels with adults. I let them know that 15-20 minutes per day is something they can give themselves even in a crazy life; and in order to experience success and really move toward the dream of being able to play piano, they’ll have to shift priorities of their daily lives a bit. It just has to happen, or else there will always be something that takes precedent.

People often go into piano lessons thinking “I’ll make the time to practice” but they don’t realize that they have to literally make their piano time a priority and even schedule it into their days. It won’t just happen after a day at work, dinner with the family, doing homework with the kids, mowing the lawn, etc.

I always suggest thinking outside the box. If a student has a digital piano or a keyboard, he/she can get up 15-30 minutes earlier in the morning and play; or stay up 15-30 minutes later in the evening and play. If that won’t work, then regular practice time involves talking to the whole family. Mom or Dad needs uninterrupted “piano time.”

So many adults just expect practicing to fit in, and it doesn’t! It takes being very intentional, and my students have admitted to me that it can feel a bit selfish to ask for this time every day. But I believe we are all better people, as adults, when we make a bit of room in our lives for pursuits that are meaningful and creative. Working, parenthood, and the demands of modern life leave so many adults feeling as though they’ve lost all their creativity. I’ve had students tell me, after finally deciding to take piano lessons, “It’s so exciting, it’s been so long since I had anything that was my own.”

I love teaching adults – it’s really one of my passions. If you’re an adult taking lessons or thinking about it, I urge you to make that regular practice time a priority so that you can really reach for your dream of playing piano.

On Starting a Piano Studio

2009-05-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

In the fall, I'll be starting my piano studio again in a new town after moving across the country. I've been working an administrative job full-time for the past year, and while it's an excellent job and I'm certainly happy to have it (especially in today's economy), going back to full-time work after teaching only highlighted how much I love to teach piano and how much I want to get back to it.

When I started my piano studio in Washington state, I had taught at a local piano store for a number of years. Plus, we had lived there for about four years. I had worked a couple of administrative jobs and worked at the local Curves, so I met a LOT of people! It was a small-ish town, less than 30,000 people, so I'd run into people I knew all over.

In many ways, all of this made starting a piano studio less risky and an easier job than I have before me this fall. I knew a lot of people to spread the word for me, and some of my students were determined to follow me from the piano store. I started with about 10 students already lined up.

Here, we are in a new town in which we know practically no one except our neighbors (some of whom have kids, so that's a plus). I do have a community of moms who are excited about me teaching again - all of our friends at church, which happens to be a half-hour drive away. I will likely be starting out by teaching a day per week at the church and having the students come there. Those moms are all part of the same school system and, I'm sure, will be happy to do some word-of-mouth marketing for me.

But of course, I don't want to be teaching full-time in a town 30 minutes away. My husband is building out our garden house to be my piano studio. So that means that I have to think about marketing in ways that I really didn't have to in Washington. This isn't really my skill set!!

I'll be doing a series of posts over the next couple of months as I work on marketing ideas for a piano studio and review my policies and studio materials. I'm happy to share what I know and would love to get creative marketing ideas from folks who are better at it than I am!

Another Fun Piano Duet

2009-05-28T04:12:00.000-07:00

This time on the giant piano at FAO Schwartz in New York City. Two girls perform Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. I'd love to do this. I wonder when they get to practice? After the store closes?? :-)

Playing Piano Makes People Happy

2009-05-27T04:24:00.001-07:00

Here's a lovely video of an older couple playing a duet on the piano in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic. I just love these kinds of videos; the couple are obviously enjoying themselves, but they're also entertaining everyone around them. They're spreading joy in a medical center waiting area. What's better than that?

When adults tell me they think it's too late to learn piano, these are the kinds of things I'd like to show them. Learning to play piano doesn't mean you have to become a virtuoso classical pianist in order to enjoy yourself and bring joy to others. You can learn to play what you love, what makes you happy.

Sneak Peek!

2009-05-02T07:02:00.000-07:00

I've had a new site design made for You-Can-Play-Piano and I'm really excited about it. Here's a sneak peek (this isn't quite the final version). Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Thoughts on Piano Recitals

2009-04-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

I was reading on the piano forums at Piano World about a student who had a traumatic experience at a recital. She is one of her teacher's brightest, most capable students, but got flustered and ended up with a very negative experience.

A small discussion started, some teachers commenting that they don't do recitals for the very reason that it's an automatic pressure situation. There have been, of course, many similar discussions in the forums over the years, with passionate advocates on either side.

It got me thinking about my own views on recitals. When I taught for a local piano store, my students took part as a matter of course (it was always voluntary though, and I had some students who didn't perform). I didn't pressure the students, and in many cases, chose songs for them to play that were slightly below their current playing level, in order to minimize the anxiety and to help better the odds of a positive experience.

I can say that I never had one of my students have a total meltdown at a recital; however, I don't think that's due to my teaching -- it's more to do with the fact that most of my students at the time were young beginners, at the age where it's fun to get dressed up and play piano. I did have slightly older students shed a few tears over small mistakes and less-than-perfect moments. I had parents admit later that those kids came away with a negative experience; I did my best to talk about it with them.

The truth is I'm not an advocate of formal recitals. If the goal is to teach students to be comfortable in performance, there are other ways to do that in a more gentle, less pressure-filled environment. Yes, hopefully some students will grow up to be professional musicians and will need experience in auditioning and performing through nerves. But the truth of the matter is all my years of solo & ensemble contest did nothing but give me terrible stage fright, to the point that I didn't even complete all the college auditions I had set out to do. The experience was simply too hard. College didn't cure me of it, either.

I didn't overcome stage fright and learn to perform without fear until I was an adult and I started taking dance. Suddenly, as a beginner, I was invited to perform in a friendly group, no solos, at fairs and nursing homes and other local places. My teacher was tremendously easy going and cared more about the joy of dancing than about perfection. For the first time I started to see that performing could be fun and joy-filled. Gradually, this awareness started to seep into my music as well.

So this is my goal as a piano teacher: not only to have my students learn to play this beautiful instrument, but to learn to share the gift of music with others, without fear. I don't do recitals; we have music parties. There is no dressing up. Because my students follow the Simply Music method, many of them will play the same songs. They take turns, on an informal basis, and play multiple times. It's simply an expansion of the safe lesson environment.

I also have students play at home for friends, relatives, and neighbors at every opportunity, and encourage parents to let their kids do that. I have adults go and play their favorite songs in the music store at the mall; play their easiest songs for their friends, right from the beginning. These are all performances, and they allow students young and old to discover that they can perform in joy and and awareness. It sets the stage for the future, if they choose to pursue music at a higher level.

This is just a tiny part of what I feel about performance, recitals, and guiding students away from stage fright and performance anxiety at the earliest levels.

What are your thoughts on recitals?

Why I Teach Simply Music

2009-04-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

About 3 years into teaching piano I made the decision to use the Simply Music curriculum, an alternative piano method initially developed in Australia. As this method is gaining more teachers and more publicity in the United States and Canada, I thought I’d talk a little about why I chose Simply Music.

Let’s start at the beginning, though. I grew up and was trained in the typical American style: as an elementary student, I had music class (including choir and recorder, which everyone had to take) and in fourth grade, got to decide whether I wanted to be in band (our school system didn’t have orchestra). Ever since a family friend had visited and played the flute, I knew that was what I wanted to play. So, I did (despite warnings from the teachers on “instrument tryout day” that I didn’t have the right lip shape to play flute). I was in band through high school, taking private lessons starting in middle school, and teaching them myself to younger students while in high school. I was consistently first chair in band.

Sometime in middle school my parents got a piano. I taught myself bass clef, and started teaching myself piano. In high school, I played with the jazz band.

In college, I majored in music. I continued my flute studies and added piano. Although I was trained as a flutist in the classical tradition, it was a much different experience than piano for me. For one, my early learning on flute (complete with the challenge of learning fingering, technique, notation, rhythm, and all the rest) was done in a group setting. We had band every day. I was experiencing making music together with others right from the beginning. And that’s what really appealed to me, and kept me practicing. I loved the experience of band, all the way through college. I’ve never been much for competitions, even though I did them; I’ve never gravitated toward solo work, even though I did that too. As an adult, I really miss ensemble playing of that caliber. I’ve played with local orchestras and bands, but it isn’t the same experience.

When it came to piano studies, I found the experience radically different. Learning piano, with its ability to play multiple notes, to play melody and harmony, is essentially a solo experience. (Yes, of course there are duets and four hands repertoire, but it’s not the same experience as ensemble playing). Generally, a pianist needs to advance past beginning and intermediate levels before having opportunities to play in an ensemble setting; and even so, it’s usually as a soloist.

I began to experience the extent of these differences when I started teaching. My flute students, it seemed, had an easier time in the first years. They enjoyed band, and under a conductor’s baton for many hours each week, had less challenges with putting together the mechanics of playing the flute with rhythm and tempo. My piano students, on the other hand, experienced more challenges all around in the process of learning.

I began to think about different ways to approach learning piano to boost creativity and confidence (especially in learning rhythm); to make learning less of a solo experience. I included more duets and group repertoire, both with myself and with other students; I tried out some software for learning note recognition and rhythm. We played games, listened to recordings, and anything else I could think of. I was still watching students work through frustration and not have the same kind of bonding experience with their instrument that my flute students had.

I was introduced to Simply Music by hearing a student play. I was at a gathering and there was a piano in the house; this child kept begging to be allowed to play (in front of everyone, too – not what I usually experienced with students). Finally, he was allowed, and proceeded to play this incredibly rhythmically complex blues piece from memory. I asked how long he had been taking piano lessons. His mother told me about Simply Music and said her son was only three months in. My jaw dropped. I’d never seen a young student with so much confidence at the piano. He kept on playing, too, piece after piece, with incredible rhythmic accuracy and, even more surprisingly, with feeling and interpretation that changed with the mood of the song.

I met with Simply Music teachers in the next town a couple of weeks later during one of their introductory sessions. I watched the interactive presentation (done for about 20 potential students and parents) and the responses of the people in the room. Skeptics, most of them, at the beginning – and ALL of them signed up that day for lessons by the end. It just simply made sense. I talked with the teachers at length about their experiences in teaching Simply Music; they were enthusiastic and reported that even the most hesitant of parents and students, who they originally taught with traditional methods, had transitioned to Simply Music and were completely committed to the method. Frustrated students had become avid practicers. Parents were learning along with their kids. Too good to be true? Not to them. Their studio was growing by leaps and bounds.

The Simply Music website (www.SimplyMusic.com) invited me to call the office in California with questions or any interest in becoming a licensed teacher. I did so, and the person who returned my call was Neil Moore, the creator of Simply Music. I had a long talk with him (amazed that he was the one returning calls to begin with!) and came away impressed by his passion, energy, and conviction that everyone is deeply and profoundly musical. The passion came right down the phone line. He answered all of my questions about the method while at the same time challenging my assumptions about the process of teaching and learning music. I had more than a few “aha” moments.

Not long after that, I enrolled in the Simply Music teacher training program. I did my initial training with Neil Moore, and I feel incredibly lucky that I chose to enroll at a time when the organization was still small enough that I got to have that experience. The next year, Neil came to western Washington, where I lived and taught at the time, and I got to spend an incredible day getting to know him in person and receiving more in-depth training with a small group of other Washington teachers. I found myself impressed all over again; not only with his passion and dedication, but in listening to him at the piano. His artistry is incredibly moving. I’ve never seen anyone with the same ability to improvise.

I transitioned all my students to Simply Music. Across the board, the experience was positive, even with some initial resistance. I began to experience what I saw at the studio I had visited: eager, engaged students (with no fear!); kids who loved to practice; parents learning along with their kids. One parent told me she had a set a timer so her son would stop playing – otherwise, he would play from the time he got home from school until he went to bed, and she needed some quiet time in the evening!

It’s not magic; it’s a disciplined method that approaches learning music and piano differently. It’s a different path to musical fluency. You can find out about the method by downloading the curriculum overview from Simply Music and learning the details about how the program unfolds and the philosophy behind it.

When I start teaching again in the fall (hooray!), I will be the only Simply Music teacher in the greater Boston area. As of now, there are only two other teachers in Massachusetts (they are further west). I am excited to bring this method here and share the joy of learning piano with students again.

Three Tips for Parents of Piano Students

2009-04-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

There’s no doubt that parents play a huge role in the success of their kids in piano lessons.

But I find that many times, unless the piano teacher is very clear, parents are unsure of their role in the learning process. One of the mistakes I made when I first started teaching was to assume that parents and I had the same goals and understood the process. Not necessarily true! As a piano teacher, I discovered my role was not only to teach piano, but to educate both the students and the parents about methods to success and what it means to be a “learner.”

One of the foundational values of Simply Music is that the parents are actively involved in the lesson process with their children. I love this! And I tell parents that by their active participation, they can learn right along with their children – really, they’re getting a lesson, too, at no charge! J I use the first lesson I have with a new student and parent(s) to clarify expectations and roles all around.

Here are my top three tips for parents of piano students:

Respect the process.
One of the most encouraging things about being a piano teacher is working with parents who are respectful, courteous, prompt, and responsible. (Of course, the opposite is true as well.) Be committed to arriving to your child’s lesson at least five minutes early (traffic issues happen!). Pay for the lessons when payment is due (even without being asked!). Let the teacher know about vacations or changes in schedule as far in advance as you can. Call first thing in the morning if your child is sick.

A piano teacher is running a business and earning a living – he/she has committed the time and preparation for your child’s lesson. If you respect the teacher and the process, your child will, too.

Make it fun.
The younger the child, the less experience and understanding he/she has about how to work toward a long-term goal like playing piano. This is where you come in! Invest in some music games, flash cards, and fun things to encourage your child’s interest and dedication to learning to play piano. Your teacher will happily give you some recommendations.

Make piano part of your everyday life.
I encourage parents to find a daily time for practice. Talk about it with your child (scheduling at a time when they are full of energy helps). Don’t make the mistake of thinking your child will be motivated every day, or that there will automatically be time every day to fit it in. Schedule it and write it down!

Having a schedule is SO beneficial – I’ve seen it work time and again. Kids start to look forward to piano time as personal time, especially if you help make it fun and allow experimentation. Kids are great composers and experimenters at the piano when we let them!

New Alfred's Adult Tutorials!

2009-04-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

I'm back at work on the free tutorials for the Alfred's Adult All-in-One piano method books. After some requests from visitors, I've decided to work on level two along with level 1, so that those of you who are finishing level one don't have to wait!

The main page for the Alfred's Adult Piano Lessons is:

Alfred's Adult Piano Lessons

I put up one new tutorial last night. It's for pages 14-15 in book 1, and it's about learning to draw the treble clef sign and treble clef note-naming practice.

If you're learning piano from the Alfred's books, I really encourage you to take your time and work through all of these music theory pages -- I know it's really tempting to move straight on to more playing (especially in the beginning). But learning to read music is like learning a new language, and the practice will only help you learn faster -- and learning to read notes faster will have you playing more smoothly as a result.

Take a look here:

Alfred's Adult Piano Lesson 8

Bookmark the main lesson page above and come back often. The tutorials are my main focus right now and I will be updating regularly!

Piano Improvisation

2009-03-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

I found a cool new (very new!) blog today: DailyImprov.net.

Run by a Polish software developer, it’s a daily recording of his own piano improvisations. It’s definitely worth a listen, not only because he’s making some beautiful music, but because improvisation is so sadly lacking in piano instruction today outside of some specific genres (jazz, new age…). Great inspiration!!

Does the idea of improvisation frighten you?? Are you totally tied to your sheet music?

Piano improvisation doesn’t have to be scary. And I think it’s an amazing feeling to be able to just sit down and make music. I’m certainly not as skilled at improv as I’d like to be, but I’m so glad I ventured out and started learning more about improvisation.

If the idea intrigues you, I know a great place to start. Edward Weiss is a new age style piano teacher who has a wonderful, self-paced course online. Don’t let the idea of new age playing intimidate you – it’s a relaxing style which I think is a perfect medium for learning to improvise. And he really starts from ground zero – you don’t have to read music or have experience at piano to start. You’ll be improvising and impressing yourself in the first 10 minutes!! I can’t recommend his course highly enough.

You can find it here: Quiescence Music

Edward also publishes free, beautiful sheet music on one of his blogs: Free Piano Sheet Music in the New Age Style

You-Can-Play-Piano.com is Back!

2009-03-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

If you visited You-Can-Play-Piano.com in the last few months, you might have noticed… that it didn’t exist! It’s a very long story – but I’m happy to say, the site is back up and running.

Unfortunately, the blog wasn’t so lucky. That’s why you won’t find any previous posts here. I’m trying to think of it as a clean slate and not a complete loss!

You-Can-Play-Piano will be growing and getting better and better over the coming months. You’ll notice now, as you click around the site, that I am finishing a transition between my former template and a cleaner, brighter, new flexible CSS template. I hope it will make reading and interacting with the site a pleasure for you!

Once the transition is complete, I will be working hard again on the very popular Alfred’s Adult Piano Method tutorials. One of my goals for 2009 is to start a series of video tutorials to go along with this series. If you have suggestions for other methods you would like to see tutorials for, please give me your feedback in the comments!

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you’ll bookmark You-Can-Play-Piano.com and stop back often.