The Piano Lesson
A Closer Look

For Every Piano Lesson

One of the main jobs of the piano teacher is to deal with fingering and execution on the keyboard. Whether someone is learning to play classical, light jazz, pop tunes, or just everything by ear; the performer must deal with getting around the keyboard.

Therefore a good portion of any lesson will be the teacher making sure that efficient fingering and special techniques are deployed effectively.

A special technique could be a particular thumb action, an unusual crossing of the fingers, or wrist/forearm attack of the keyboard.

Another major element that must take place in all lessons is the cultivation of musicianship. Whether someone is reading great detail or playing just by ear, without musicianship the whole point is weakened.

So what is this mysterious musicianship? It could be the tasteful, and artistic pulling together of all the elements in music with beautiful result from excellent execution. Sound like an official statement? It's just one way that musicianship can be described.

A simpler explanation would be: Making the song sound beautiful. Whatever your explanation, it would be an intelligent and skillful pulling together of all the elements simultaneously.

Continuing with what must take place in all lessons, I'm a big fan of encouragement. That would include practice tips, ideas about time management, and most of all a friendly, honest, professional opinion.

For The Classical Lesson

99.7% of people, [my estimate], who take classical piano are not trying to become concert pianists. The main idea behind studying classical piano is to really learn many styles of music and the various skills required to play them. So, this will involve learning pieces from sheet music with details written for both hands. That means a treble clef and a bass clef simultaneously.

The styles would include Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Post Romantic music. So you see, the real Classical part of classical piano is only one category of a few.

Are you still with me? Just a little bit more about this type of piano lesson. Well, actually there's a lot more; but I'll only go on a little bit here. Promise.

From those various styles of piano the student is required to memorize at least one piece from each category. The number of required memorized pieces varies for different grades. There are also two technically oriented pieces called 'Studies' that are required for exams here in Canada. Similar requirements apply in other countries.

Add to all that: technique in multiple keys, sight reading, and ear training. I could say a lot more, but I promised to only go on a 'little bit'.

For Pop/Improvising Piano

This style of piano can include all of the skills of the classical piano lesson. Very often it does not. The must do features of the pop/improvising piano lesson are:

• Learning to read from a lead sheet
• Learning how to improvise
• Playing more by ear
• Learning to harmonize a melody

This page would become quite huge if I went into great detail on each of those categories. So here's a brief explanation of each.

A Lead sheet will have the melody written out in the right hand and chord symbols in the left hand. The desired rhythm is often explained in a word or two like Waltz, Swing, Latin, etc. Here is an example with sound.

Improvising can take place as a fantasy out of the blue or from a given melody. There is a concept to improvising, and once the student grasps that, knowledge and experience can really make the improvising take off.

Playing by ear requires a good deal of ear training, a lot of breakdown and put back together, practical application of technical skills, and of course lots of listening to good examples. This is an awful lot to do inside a piano lesson and therefore the student is encouraged to take an Ear Training course so the teacher can concentrate on putting it all together in the piano lesson.

Harmonizing a melody involves knowledge of Theory, some math, and quite a bit of practice. For quick simple examples see the Chord Progressions page.

I often get asked about Private Piano Lessons.

Thinking about Free Lessons?

Online Piano Lessons is a must read if you're considering trying that way.

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