Frequently Asked Questions
Piano vs. Keyboard
Do I need an acoustic piano at home, or is a keyboard okay?
Both are fine. However, there are fundamental differences which compel me to recommend that you purchase a real deal acoustic piano.
When you press a key down on a keyboard, a plastic hammer hits a plastic trigger, which tells a computer to play a pre-recorded sound sample on an electronic speaker. When you press a key down on a piano, a mechanism throws a felt hammer glued to a wood dowel at a string, or strings, of varying thickness and tension; simultaneously, a felt damper is lifted from the string or strings. After the hammer strikes the strings, it blows back back to a lower position to prevent from muting the strings it just struck. These are different mechanisms that reward different motions, and feature different consequences for different actions.
For this reason, I recommend to my piano students an acoustic piano over a keyboard. At the same time, having a keyboard to practice on is better than having no instrument to practice on.
Reading Music vs. Not Reading Music
I learn best playing by ear. Reading music isn’t coming very naturally to me. Can I just learn piano by ear?
Imagine having to study new information in school, and be tested on it, but having no way to write it down, or read anything about it. It would take a longer time to absorb information, and you would need your instructor to be by your side every time you studied to. Learning how to read music is not easy and will take a while, but it is worth it! It is an extremely helpful skill in learning music which facilitates a lot of things. So stick with it. Sight-read even just a line or a few measures as part of your daily practice. You will slowly but surely improve.
Practice
How much do I need to practice?
I understand this question as, "how much practice do I need in order to make it worth it for me to take piano lessons?" After much consideration, the short answer to that question, according to me, is as follows:
- Novice, 6 years old and up: a minimum of 5-10 minutes a day.
- Advanced Beginner, 9 years old and up: a minimum of 10-30 minutes a day.
- Competent, 12 years old and up: a minimum of 45 minutes a day.
- Proficient, 15 years old and up: a minimum of 1 hour a day.
- Expert, 18 years old and up: a minimum of 1 hour a day.
Learning piano requires practice. These times listed above are the minimum amounts of time that you can get away with to maintain skill at the piano. If you want to get better, you will want to practice for longer durations that suggested above.
I practiced! But I feel like I'm not getting any better. Why?!
Practice is essential to getting better, and any practice is better than no practice. However, it's perfect practice makes perfect, and inefficient or badly conceptualized practice doesn't have the same effect.
My experience in teaching has made my goal to support my students in their journeys. The gap in where one wants to be and where one is or is headed is what I intend to close. I've found that can help piano students overcome hurdles by accurately diagnosing problems at the conceptual level.
I’m practicing all the notes I’m supposed to, but the music doesn’t sound or feel right. Why?
The three quantifiable elements to sound as it pertains to music are rhythm, pitch, and amplitude. Out of these three elements, rhythm is, in my opinion, the most important aspect of music. Not to say that the other aspects aren't important, but rhythm is what ties all pitches together in patterns that the human brain can most easily digest, comprehend, and enjoy. If one plays all the pitches in a given sequence, but out of time, it will sound strange. Music is sound placed in time - it’s sound in measured time that is an essential element of what makes music "flow".
I want to learn piano, but I am really busy, and don't have much time to practice.
There's a certain amount of time that one has to put into piano in order to attain a general level of proficiency. However, at higher levels, it’s not necessarily the amount of time that you have to practice that will determine the rate of your progression as it is the amount of focus you put into practicing piano. Your focus should be determined by the problems that you’re trying to solve. Generally speaking, for most people, it's best to practice at least 20-30 minutes a day. Consistent practice over a long period of time will yield the greatest results for you in your piano practice.