"The 3 Key
Elements to Look For When Considering Online Piano Lessons"
by Paul Tobey
With the popularity of online
piano lessons growing rapidly, it makes it much harder
to choose from among the dozens of available options. Here are
3 key elements your online piano lessons
must have that are absolutely essential to your success; credibility,
a proven piano method and a strong
motivational component.
First of all, do not even consider taking piano
training from someone who has no credibility. That means
sifting through the hype and digging deep to find out as much
as you can about the person giving the piano lessons.
Who are they? What is their background? Is this person a professional
musician or just fly by night teacher with a idea to make money
off your eagerness to learn.
You see, it’s very easy to get sucked into a great sales
pitch such as, “learn all your favourite songs by ear in
just one day,” or “the secret piano method that will
teach you piano in just a few short hours!” Claims like
these are becoming more and more common on the internet and for
most people who’ve never taken a piano
lesson before can seem often exciting and achievable. But
beware, this is just good sales copy. Many people
can learn to sell but, in most cases the end result is a weak
system built on hype rather than substance.
When searching for someone to learn piano from look for things
like; a strong track record, credible testimonials, good recordings,
quality video, teaching credentials, performing credentials and
most of all a sheer talent and ability to actually
play the piano.
Then, once you’ve researched diligently about the teacher,
you must be able to understand the teaching method being offered.
What’s a good teaching method? Well, that’s a very
complicated question but what it really boils down to is; does
what is being offered make sense to you? Many of these so-called
online piano courses never tell
you how they will be teaching you. That’s because they don’t
know how. Look for things like a strong harmonic basis and a simple
yet effective method of understanding chords and scales.
Learning piano by ear alone or by watching someone
play and trying to copying it will result in a low understanding
of how music really works. You must be able to understand music
thoroughly in order to get enjoyment out of it. Otherwise it’s
like cramming for an exam, with no thought to understanding the
information but, simply a way of collecting information and ending
up with a knowledge base that’s paper thin.
And finally, I believe that there must be a strong
motivational component to any music
lessons, especially online piano
lessons. Learning piano should be fun and enjoyable but it’s
very easy to get discouraged. Your online piano teacher must have
the ability to keep you motivated by finding ways of helping you
adopt new practice methods that are solid and habit forming. We
all know how to develop bad habits but did you know it’s
just as easy to develop good habits?
Good practice habits are the key to
learning piano fast! In my 35 years of experience playing the
piano I’ve found that the key to productive learning is
a good solid practice habit. For example; it’s important
to know how often you are to practice and how much. If your online
piano teacher does not give you this information then it’s
really up to you to decide how much you practice. That’s
not good. Why? Because you simply don’t know what good practice
habits are unless you've had any previous experience.
I teach a practice habit that’s based on the 10-24-7 method.
It’s a rarely used yet highly effective method of practicing.
It’s based on a little known concept called accelerated
learning. The concept is this; what you hear you tend to
forget, what you see you tend to remember but, what you do, you
understand. Now that’s pretty powerful but, in simpler terms,
it’s the doing part that will make you a better pianist.
Does the 10-24-7 method work? Let’s put it this way. As
a professional concert pianist I’m often required to perform
2 hour concerts without a single sheet of music on stage. How
is this possible? Using the 10-24-7 method. If you download my
first free piano lesson, you will discover
more about this exciting method.
I’ll leave you with this thought. Learning piano
will require you to take action. There are no shortcuts.
That’s not to say that a good teacher can't find ways to
teach you faster, of course they can. It just means that if the
claim seems to good to be true, it usually is. Take your time
in deciding who you want to learn online
piano lessons from and then when you choose, make sure you
take the required action. Most good teachers will give you the
information you need to succeed. The rest is up to you.
Musically Yours,
Paul Tobey
PS: I hope to see you April 1st, when we roll out the red carpet
on the Paul Tobey Piano Lesson
Method - a training program for Intermediate and Advanced
Pianists! Download our first free piano lesson and discover for
yourself the difference quality learning and proven teaching methods
can make.
PPS: We are currently designing a piano
lesson program for beginners to pre-intermediate.
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