Yamaha Tyros2 Tyros3 » Piano Lessons

The Immense Popularity of the Piano Continues To This Day

tyros2 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:13:59 +0000

Every since about 1709 when Christofori announced that he had invented an instrument to upscale the harpsichord,the piano has been the premier musical instrument in terms of popularity and versatility.

The harpsichord played all at one volume level-no soft or loud. So when an instrument was invented that played both soft and loud it was appropriately named the “pianoforte” (which means “soft-loud”-later the name was shorted to just “piano”).

Most instruments are not solo instruments in the sense that they require an accompanianist, but not so with the piano. It can play alone as well as with combos, orchestras, or whatever. It’s unique sound qualities make it the first choice in musical instruments for millions of folks the world over.

Because of that fact, multitudes of people around the world have purchased pianos and continue to purchase pianos in hopes of mastering the “musical monster with 88 ivory teeth”. Some of the dominant manufacturers are Steinway, Yamaha, Baldwin, Kawaii, Bosendorfer and many others. Pianos come in various shapes and sizes, including:

Grand Pianos:

Parlor Grand. Size 4′5″ to 5′5″

Baby Grand. Size 5′0″ to 6′5″

Medium Studio Grand. Size 5′6″ to 6′5″

Semi-Concert Grand. Size 6′6″ to 8′0″.

Concert Grand. Most concert grands are 9′ in length

Upright Pianos:

Spinet. Size 35″ to 39″ tall.

Console. 40″ to 44″ tall.

Studio: 45″ to 47″ tall.

Professional. 48″ to 52″ tall.

Every since the invention of the piano, parents have signed their children up for piano lessons in hope they would become the next Mozart, or a least be able to entertain family and friends. But for every 100 kids that start piano lessons, probably less than 20% or so actually continue with the lessons long enough to play decently. Still, it is a good education in music, and certainly good for developing self-discipline and focus.

To really master piano playing, a beginning student must gradually learn many different disciplines and aspects of music including:

*Sight-reading sheet music (or the score of a classical piece);
*Fingering of scale passages and chord formations; *Keyboard chords, from major chords to minor chords to augmented chords to diminished chords to 7th chords and more;
*Music theory, including major scales, minor scales, whole-tone and chromatic scales, and the “church modes”, plus some specialty scales such as the Mediterranean scale, the blues scale, and so on;
*Key orientation including knowledge of the tonic note or tonic tone, triads, arpeggios, the concept of key (key of C, key of Eb, key of F#, etc.)
*Intervals including unisons, inversions, chords-both primary and secondary:
*Figured bass, chord symbols;
*Dynamics and dynamic markings such as sforzando, presto, largo, allegro, etc,
*Many other aspects including pedaling, body position, ear-training, music appreciation, a study of the great composers such as Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, etc., interpretation, arranging, and a host of related subjects in the harmony and music theory areas.

This often involves years of learning at home with a teacher ( sometimes supplemented by online music lessons) and numerous music books, chord charts, fingering diagrams and musical scores. Meanwhile the student learns to play songs and classical pieces galore that contribute to the warmth of the home and the enjoyment of the family.

And if the student fails to become another Brubeck or Garner, he or she has still benefited tremendously in terms of music education, appreciation, the ability to concentrate, and many other qualities that flow out of having taken piano lessons. Plus he or she has brought the sound of music into their parent’s home, and hopefully will continue with it when they form their own family.

Beginners Can Learn to Play the Piano Online

tyros2 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:51:28 +0000

You can start learning to play the piano right now, if you have an internet connection. Expensive pianos and ongoing piano lessons are no longer the norm. Anybody that has an interest in learning to play the piano can make a start thanks to the World Wide Web.If you want to get some inspiration, then watch a good pianist at work or keyboard player, there are plenty of videos available on youtube to inspire you. When a pianist plays the piano well, the listener can be drawn in to a very different world created by the expressiveness of the performer. Learning skills in general can be improved when learning to play the piano and children can benefit from this at school. Piano lessons can also help to have a better understanding of science and mathematics.
It doesn’t have to be expensivePiano lessons are now available to the masses not least because of the technological advancements of electric pianos and keyboards. Not too many years ago, if you wanted to learn how to play the piano your only option would be to buy an expensive piano. It’s easy to learn to play the piano online these days, and you can buy a used keyboard for next to nothing. You don’t have to spend a fortune when you are just starting to learn the piano or keyboard. An expensive piano is not going to make a lot of difference to a beginner.Improve your hand eye coordinationWhen you read sheet music, eye to hand coordination comes in to play and this process will improve dramatically the more you practice. You may be surprised at how fast this improvement will be.Choose your own practice timeWhen you take piano lessons with a teacher, you will normally attend once a week at the same time on the same day. If you learn to play the piano using a piano software course then you can choose your day and time of day when you have lessons. You can learn in the morning, afternoon or evening. You don’t have to wait for a particular day to have your piano lesson. Everybody has busy and quiet times so do more when you’re quite and take a break when you are busy. So if you don’t want to be tied to a teacher, online piano lessons is the way to go.It’s already been mentioned that to learn to play the piano properly you need a piano and piano lessons. There is also a third crucial requirement when learning to play the piano and that is you. Even though the process is considerably easier than it was you still have to practice. A piano, piano lessons and practice equals a great piano player.

Piano Tutorial – Are You Ready To Learn How To Play The Piano (Part 1)

tyros2 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:18:36 +0000

In these times of the internet, it’s never been a better time to learn how to play the piano. Why is that? I hear you ask, because, information on virtually any subject you can think of is available, with a little research on the internet, and learning to play the piano, is no different than any other subject you might wish to learn.
Do I need a piano?
Obviously, if you want to learn to play the piano, then a piano keyboard of some sort is essential. While advanced piano playing would require a full size piano keyboard, normally eighty-eight notes. To start learning, all you would need is any type of keyboard, such as a Yamaha PSR keyboard, which have forty-nine and sixty-one note versions or an electric piano, which are available in seventy-six notes versions. You could even start learning with an accordion or a roll up piano, as long as you have a keyboard, you can start to learn.
Should you buy a new piano keyboard?
If you don’t have a piano or keyboard then you do need to buy one, but you defiantly don’t need to buy a new keyboard. Again, the internet comes to the rescue. There are thousands of auction listings offering second hand electronic keyboards, electric pianos, in fact all kinds of keyboards. For a beginner, there really is no point in buying an expensive keyboard because when starting to learn to play the piano you will only use a fraction of a piano keyboards features including the keyboard. From a beginner’s point of view, you only need between five and eight notes on the keyboard to start learning.
What’s the best make of keyboard to buy?
I am asked this question a lot, and from a beginners point of view there really is no worst and best because it’s the actual keyboard, the black and white notes that are important to start learning to play. Yes, as you become more advanced in your playing ability, you will need a better quality keyboard but not at the beginning. The best advice I can give to anybody wanting to buy there first keyboard, is to first, set you budget and second try to stick with the more popular makes of keyboards, for beginners these are Yamaha and Casio. Both of these companies have been making electronic keyboards for many years and they know what they are doing. This of course is just my opinion and it’s the same advice I give to my pupils.
So to recap, if you don’t have a keyboard, then borrow one or buy one second hand. It doesn’t have to be a traditional piano with a full size keyboard, as a beginner you will only use up to eight notes. It’s a fact, that not everybody will take to learning to play the piano, so why spend a fortune on a keyboard when you don’t need to. If you don’t take to it you haven’t lost a fortune, if you do take to it, buy a better keyboard.

Piano Software Courses Vs Piano Tuition Books (Part 1)

tyros2 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:57:55 +0000

If you want to learn to play the piano, you can go to a piano teacher or teach yourself. If you’re going to teach yourself how to play the piano then you have to decide whether to use piano software courses or tuition books. Whichever method you choose you should be aware that there is no magic solution to learning to play the piano, whether you choose piano software or tuition books there is going to be a certain amount of study and self-discipline on your part to succeed.
Let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of both methods of teaching yourself to play the piano. Both methods will help you to learn to play the piano or keyboard. Both will provide you with songs to play on the piano and both will include the necessary music theory required to play the piano. So which method is best?
The benefits of tuition books
The obvious benefit of using tuition books is the cost. When you buy a beginners tuition book for example “The Complete Piano Player” or if you’re using a Yamaha keyboard “The Complete Keyboard Player”. They are normally sold as part of a series, for example, book 1 to book 4 and each book costs about six to ten pounds. You just buy the book you need, which means it’s incredibly cheap to get started. Each book contains about twelve songs and each song will introduce something new to learn.
When first starting to play a keyboard instrument its normal practice to learn a simple piece of music that just uses five notes, typically C, D, E, F, G. This is always a good start because it immediately teaches you to use all your fingers on your very first piece of music. Tuition books and software will use this method of teaching.
The drawbacks of tuition books
The main drawback of these books are not the books themselves but the fact that they are designed to be used with a piano teacher. If there is something you can’t quite grasp then a piano teacher would have many ways to explain things. Without that help, your task can become overwhelming and many people will give up within the first three months.
The other main drawback is that tuition books dont teach you what you need to know before you start using the books. That is, the basics, what the notes are called on a keyboard, what are the notes called on sheet music, time signatures and time values. These are the basics that apply to all musical instruments and you must learn this first.

Black and White Piano Keys on a Portable Electronic Keyboard

tyros2 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:58:54 +0000

The first thing you need to learn before playing the piano is the piano notes. What are they called? A regular piano keyboard has 88 keys on it including the black notes. The first notes to learn are the white notes, but how do go about memorizing the names of all those white notes.There are many different sizes of keyboards. Sixty-one and seventy-six note keyboards are standard for electronic keyboards, and pianos are traditionally eighty-eight notes. No matter what the size of keyboard there are only seven white notes to learn. Black notes are associated to the white notes and are known as sharps and flats.So, firstly let’s learn the seven note names. They are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Wherever on the piano you play you will be using one of these notes names. You will see that from C to G is alphabetical, the reason I haven’t started with A is because when you start learning to play the piano you will be using C as one of the first notes you ever play and it will also be a very important note and will help you relate to the other notes particularly on sheet music.Now you know the notes, your next step is to find them on a piano. The easiest way to do this is to look at the piano keyboard, if you don’t have a keyboard, find a picture of one on the internet. Now, just look at the keyboard carefully and you will see sets of two black notes and sets of three black notes. Look at a set of two black notes first. Starting with the black note on the left, notice a white note to its immediate left this note is called C, the white note to its immediate right is called D, and this is also between the two black notes. Finally, the white note to the right of the second black note is called E. So all the notes in this section of two black notes starting at the left are called C, D and E. Depending on the size of your keyboard you will see up to eight sets of two black notes together, these are the same and also use our three notes C, D and E. The only difference between the sets is the pitch of the notes. On the far left of the keyboard, notes will sound lower in pitch and to the right, notes will sound higher.The next shape you are looking for is three black notes together and these notes are surrounded by four white notes. Starting from the left again these notes are called F, G, A and B. That’s it; you have learned all the white notes on a keyboard. The two black note and three note shapes are repeated on the whole keyboard and so are the notes. With a little bit of practice you should be able to find any note on the piano. Just remember that every two black note shapes are surrounded by C, D and E, and every three note shape is surrounded by F, G, A and B.