Learning the piano question

coasterqueen wrote: Ok, our piano is being delivered Wednesday!!!! I can't wait. It took me forever to find someone to move the darn thing but I found someone :-)

I've looked on the web for some free sheet music until I get some, but what I'm really looking for is some kind of key chart so I know which keys are which notes or well, not sure what the right words are to use here. I'm clueless on this. Any ideas?

luvbug00 replied: at your local music store there should be series
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:/...7AjwfuXB5OwibYI

big link..sorry, but that is the book the Bastien Piano Basics Primer
[WP200]

it's a series of lessons and how we all learned in my family. it's great with bold pics and simple easy to understand.
i bet you can find it cheap on the web.

coasterqueen replied: Thanks Nadia. I will have to look into that as well. If anyone has something I can print off the web, that would be great, too. ONLY because I know Kylie will want to start right away when the piano comes, lol. I won't make it to the store before then.

Her cousin said he'd teach her this summer - he lives right next door, but I think we are going to play around on it for a little while before we have him start teaching.

kit_kats_mom replied: our music store had little stickers that you put on the keys.

MommyToAshley replied: I am no help... Ashley's piano teacher purchased the books and tools for her and I have no idea where she purchased them. But, I can look and give yout he names of the series of books that she uses if you'd like. They are great and Ashley's made a lot of progress. She started her in a different series but it moved too slowly and Ashley was getting bored so she moved to this other set and Ashley has really made a lot of progress since then.

MommyToAshley replied: Oh, just FYI, Ashley's piano teacher prefers not to use the CD's because then they learn to play by sound and don't really learn to read music. It' ok to use those after they can read music, but starting out she said it's a good idea not to use the CD's.

mom21kid2dogs replied: I second the learning the notes before depending on the ear. Luckily, Olivia had a good propensity towards piano but her teacher is also involved in children's chorus and was worried because her musical ear was pretty well developed by the time she began piano. He uses Bastien series as well with Olivia. It's 4 books~performance, theory, piano and technic ~that are designed to be taught together. The primer level (the beginner level) is sorted by ages 5-7 and 7-11.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I agree. It's important for them to learn the music theory portion, which part of it is learning to read music. It's GREAT to have a good ear for music, but that is more of something that comes naturally. The Suzuki method teaches by ear and not really by reading music at first...I do not recommend this method for piano. Other instruments yes, but not piano. Piano is more complicated than other instruments for this method.

Tanner's piano teacher uses Piano Adventures for him. He really likes it and is doing really well with it. He has 4 different books...a theory book, a lesson book, a performance book, and one other book that's name escapes me at the moment.

Usually most music stores will have little stickers that you can stick on the keys to remind you of what notes are where. If you teach her where middle C is though, and that the keys go from A-G over and over...it doesn't take long before they memorize them.

MomToJade&Jordan replied: The first thing that all of my beginning piano students did was practice fingering. Most of the books that you are going to find out there are going to start with this. What I mean is you start with the right hand right thumb and number the fingers 1-5. Thumb being 1 pinky being 5. Then they would do some excercises tapping finger 1 and then so on. The left hand would not come into play until the student was comfortable with the right hand. The left hand is numbered the same exact way. One of the toughest things to learn when playing the piano is using the hands independantly from each other. As for the notes those are taught gradually. Middle C is learned first and then so on. Music reading is going to come along eventually and so will the theory. The ear will be trained as she goes along, but being able to read the music is going to help her in the long run. I would look into the Piano Adventures Primer Level books for her since she is a beginner. I have taught from this book and I really like it. As for an online fingering chart I found this:

Piano Charts

For your purposes all you need to worry about is the notes themselves ie. ABCDEFG. Don't worry about all of the accidentals because that won't come into play until she has been playing the piano for a bit. Oh and what I mean by accidental? Don't click on anything that has a symbol next to it.

I hope this has helped Karen. If you have any other questions just let me know

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Woot!

I was going to post something similar.

Piano teacher for 13 years and counting. Woot!

coasterqueen replied: Thanks everyone! Gosh, I wish some of you lived closer....you could teach the girls for me. I so need to find a teacher QUICK. Like I said a cousin said they'd do it, but he just graduated high school, getting ready to go to college, not sure he really has the time, kwim? I've seen messages posted at school for teachers so I'll have to check there.

MommyToAshley replied: Do you have any friends that have kids that take piano lessons? That's how we found Ashleys' piano teacher. Also, you could try asking the music teacher at the school, sometimes they offer piano lessons through the school.

coasterqueen replied:
Hmmm, I don't know if any of her friends take lessons. I'll have to ask Kylie. I may call the school to ask them as well. The girls really want their cousin Michael to teach them, they just adore him. I just think he's going to be so busy now that he's graduated HS.

The piano is now at home, it was super fast to have it moved. It looks so beautiful. I always wanted a piano growing up, but never got one and now my girls and I have one. Might not be "really ours" since it's my MILs, but as long as it's in our home it is.

If I can figure out a way to get this pic off my phone I'll post it.

MommyToAshley replied: Congrats on the piano. Are you going to take lessons too? I have a friend that is taking lessons and started the same time as her daughter... kind of neat that they can help each other out. I am not taking lessons, but wish I had now.

coasterqueen replied: Ok, lets see if this works. This picture is without the bench as I need to get that from MIL, yet. I didn't worry about it this morning. I was trying to get the movers going on the piano and get it taken care of so they didn't charge me more. Not the greatest photo, either, as it's taken with my phone.

MommyToAshley replied: Oh, it is pretty. And, I like how it matches the wood in your house. It's like it was meant to be there.

MomToJade&Jordan replied: Very nice little piano Karen. One of these days I plan on having one myself. For now I just have a keyboard. I also think you should take some lessons yourself. I love playing the piano and it would be a great thing that you and the girls can share

Since I can't come to your house and teach (totally would if I was nearby) I went looking again and found this site:

PrivateLessons.com

This site had quite a number of piano teachers listed. I would also call her school because like Dee Dee said some schools will offer lessons. I know here in Tallahassee there is a group that goes to the schools to teach music lessons. Good luck. The piano is a great instrument to start on.

MomToJade&Jordan replied:


I love teaching music.

mom21kid2dogs replied: Looks like a great piano!

I think your plan to find an outside teacher is a good one. With kids in that age range (or anyone learning a new skill, really) having a set day, time and expectation is very important. We have Olivia take once a week all year long so it continues to be a habit and routine she sticks with. Occasionally we miss a week in the summer or we don't get much practice time in so she'll have to repeat songs but her teacher prefers that they don't take summers off because they lose too much. Good luck in your teacher search!!

mom21kid2dogs replied: I keep forgetting to ask . . . .was this the piano from CL?

coasterqueen replied:
Nope. We were going to go look at it and the day before we were to do so my MIL mentioned they had bought one from their church so they could learn, but never did. It has been sitting at their rental property for months. Since I hadn't been to that property in a long time I had no clue they bought one and she had no clue we wanted one until Kylie mentioned it to her. So she said we could have it until they decide they have time to take lessons. That could be tomorrow or never, who knows, but we were thankful for the FREE beautiful piano for as long as we have it. This way if she does ever want it back, then we will know whether we are truly serious about it and can buy our own. It was a perfect situation. It's possible my MIL GAVE it to us in a way - they don't celebrate holidays being Jehovah Witnesses and when I emailed her this morning that I had it moved and thanking her she said she was happy about it because they don't celebrate holidays so this is another way of giving us something. So I'm not sure whether to take that as it was given to us or not. But again, I don't care. It was such a loving gesture on her part and the fact that it's from her makes it that much more .

coasterqueen replied:
Thanks Carrie. I will look at that link as well.

I definitely want to take lessons myself. I ALWAYS wanted a piano growing up so this I am like a kid in a candy store about getting this as well. Now we just need to find the time!