Beginning Piano Lessons

Beginning Piano Lessons-Sustain Pedal

Dillon — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:17:35 +0000

When first learning songs on piano, getting both hands to operate smoothly is difficult. I remember when I first started Beginning Piano Lessons, my songs always sounded “choppy”. My songs didn’t start to sound smooth until I really knew my song down pat. Over a few months of piano lessons, the Sustain pedal was introduced, “Well hi there Sustain Pedal!” The Sustain pedal, also known as the loud, forte, or damper pedal, lifts the pads off of the strings allowing the strings to resonate until the pedal is lifted back up. Practicing new songs, especially Daily Dozen of the Day exercises with pedal here and there, it became natural in a heart beat over a few weeks. When playing piano, practicing with pedal dramatically increased my sound. But you have to use pedal in the correct places, and know when to “up/down” here and there to keep it sounding clean and not too mushy. Some music has small marks such as (^) written in the sheet music to show where pedal should be used. Though some piano songs sound better to use more pedal while others, the sustain pedal will ruin the song. Especially when too many notes are moving too fast along with vast chord changes. For a beginning piano player, I recommend the sustain pedal to be used minimally when playing a piano recital. Because of this, it is very easy to think too much about the pedal and forget about your dynamics when playing piano. Your dynamics are key to sounding GREAT.

Hand Techniques

Dillon — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:16:03 +0000

During my Beginning Piano Lessons, I struggled with the proper hand curvature. My teacher and adjudicators always lectured me about my hand shape. I liked to play the piano with “flat” fingers. I was always taught that if you drop your hand down to your side and relax it, keep that hand form and place it on the keyboard, this is the proper hand curvature. After a awhile it became natural to play the piano this way. When playing piano, you should keep a slight curvature because it makes for faster fingers. Even though beginning piano songs are not usually played fast, it is a good habit to practice. Because in the future when faster piano pieces come about, you will have a better technique for playing the piano fast.

Things I Enjoy About Piano

Dillon — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:24:52 +0000

It all starts with Beginning Piano Lessons. As for everything, one must learn beginning piano to fully apprehend and appreciate what goes into music and the ability to play music. You have to start somewhere. Piano lessons teach you important fundamentals about theory and hand exercises, when done properly these allow you to become a better pianist. Why I enjoy piano is the ability to see every single note on the keyboard. Everything you need is right in front of you. Your low notes are on the left side, and your higher notes are on the right side. That simple. Having taking private lessons, it wasn’t an option for me to focus on one style of music, or just play the music I liked. Instead I learned piano through my instructor and touched base with different styles of music, along with exercises including theory and scales. Theory may seem so boring at first, but when you learn to apply it in ways such as writing songs, its the key ingredient. I’ve mastered pieces from classical, modern, ragtime, and boogie-woogie. The “Boogie-Woogie Stomp” is my favorite song, for many reasons. This song is fast, up beat, and in the key of “C”, so making things up is more simple if you follow the rules of a blues scale. Hand slides occur in this song, which are something that I have only dreamed of doing when i first started playing piano. Now get out there and start to play the piano!