Lessons
Private piano lessons are given once a week. Lessons concern the five basic areas below.
- Piano — learning technique, reading & musicality through learning to play music on the piano.
- Theory — learning terms, symbols, patterns & concepts through workbooks, worksheets, exercises and examining pieces.
- History —learning about composers of the pieces they play, musical styles and their development, development of musical instruments and so on..
- Composition — applying piano, theory & ear training through creating music and writing it down on paper.
- Improvisation — applying composition through real-time discovery and play.
With young kids, I seek to include all of these in the first few years. Not every student is open to everything, so I adapt to their interests and willingness. The first 3 are really essential, though, so I work to include them all to whatever extent is possible in ways that are fun and interesting, rarely encountering resistance. Over time, students will tend to become more specialized in their interests and so will their lessons. If an older child or adult (with or without prior experience) has a special interest already, lessons can be tailored to that from the start. The bottom line is that everyone’s interest in music is based on the joy it brings us. I aim to pursue any or all of the above with that in mind, to find the joy in each area of learning.
Part of that can be testing and presenting what has been learned. My students have many opportunities available to them to be tested and present through performance, both within my studio and through the music organizations I belong to: Cypress Creek Music Teachers Association, Texas Music Teachers Associationand the National Piano Guild
Participating in such events helps greatly to expand the presence the piano and music have in a child’s life, and this is very good for making music a life-long love, whether or not they actually become a musician.