Category Archives: Piano Lessons

The benefits of learning on a Digital Piano…

(via Roland)

The piano can excite, move, and inspire; whether you’re playing Chopin’s Scherzos or the intro to “Clocks” by Coldplay. The only obstacles are learning how to play in the first place and practicing enough to play well. Enlisting a qualified piano teacher gives you a strong start in establishing good techniques and avoiding bad habits. Digital pianos can make learning more enjoyable.

The Benefits of Learning on a Digital Piano

The benefits of learning on a digital piano are significant. Below we discuss some of the standout features that make a digital piano the perfect fit for most homes.

Before we begin, note that a modern digital piano is designed to accurately simulate an acoustic piano. Instead of hammers and strings, there are strategically-positioned speakers which produce a convincing and organic piano sound. Weighted keys recreate the feel of an acoustic keyboard for realistic playing experience. Also, the ability to change the sounds keeps learning varied and interesting. Some digital pianos even let you create your sounds to suit your taste.

Practice in Peace with Headphones

Most digital pianos let you plug in headphones. This can benefit both the learner and the people they live with. As well as avoiding distraction, headphones can block noise nuisance leaving you free to concentrate on private practice. Twin headphone sockets allow students and teachers to listen closely, spotting mistakes more accurately.

Develop your Sense of Rhythm with a Metronome

Timing is essential to playing the piano well. This is often an issue for beginners as they are still developing muscle and mental memory. It is useful to slow down or speed up depending on the level of difficulty.

Metronomes help develop your rhythmic and timekeeping skills. For instance, you can flick between settings and tempos on the metronome and slow pieces down to learn and master them. They can also be useful for more advanced time signatures.

Record and Listen to Your Performance

Recording your performance helps analyze exactly what’s going on in your playing. This will help identify your strengths and weaknesses. Digital pianos allow you to play back, perfect, and pick out any problems, nipping bad habits in the bud before they become ingrained.

Listening back to a recording can resolve issues with timing and performance. If you have a good memory, but struggle to read music, you can learn a piece by ear and study the music while listening back to your recording.

A digital piano allows you to transfer your performance to a computer, edit it, and print out a score. This allows others to read and play it too. Sheet music is useful if you’re interested in composition. You can quickly record ideas as they come to you.

Keep Practice interesting with Different Sounds

One of the benefits of learning on a digital piano is the variety of sounds available. For example, there are typically five to 10 types of piano, electric pianos from the ’70s and ’80s, strings, harpsichord, church, and electronic organs. Some even have synth sounds for even greater versatility.

It’s great to be able to learn Scarlatti pieces using a convincing harpsichord sound. A change in tone can inspire you and help recapture the passion if those fingering drills are becoming tiresome. Younger children also love experimenting and mixing sounds to make learning more exciting.

Use Apps to Improve Ability

A key advantage of learning on a digital piano is the access to online apps. Apps can help liven up practice and improve your playing. For example, Apps for sight-reading skills ask the pianist to identify written notes. Flashcard-style apps help with understanding music theory. Aural training apps develop abilities such as listening for particular scales or intervals.

A tablet device is particularly useful here as it allows quick access to electronically stored sheet music. When linked to your digital piano, some apps display a piece of music and listen to you play, before moving to the next page when you reach the last bar. Kids apps include fun games to learn a song, play together or freestyle to make practicing a pleasure rather than a chore.

Set Time Aside to Practice

It’s always difficult to learning something new. So, it’s crucial to put in dedicated time and effort. Just 20 minutes of piano practice a few days a week can help develop your skills and techniques. If you’re struggling with motivation, playing with others—even making mistakes together—is a great way to stay motivated. Digital pianos are packed with features that maximize your practice. You’ll achieve more in a shorter time.

Taking the Next Step

Learning the piano involves dedication and discipline. However, once mastered, the rewards are endless. A digital piano can offer a variety of sounds, useful practice features, and integration with the latest apps. Most importantly, you’ll get all of this without the worry about ongoing tuning and maintenance costs.

Digital Piano Advantages
  • Maintenance-Free: A digital piano doesn’t use hammers and strings to produce a sound so no tuning is required
  • Headphone Support: Practice any time of day, perfect your performance, and keep the neighbors happy
  • Touch and Sound Quality: Speakers are strategically positioned to recreate an acoustic piano sound
  • Record and Edit: A useful way to analyze your performance
  • Built-in Metronome: Helps develop rhythmic ability
  • App Integration: Helps develop ability and performance skills, keep you motivated and make learning fun for kids

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Jordan Kitt’s Music presents a virtual student recital!

Jordan Kitt’s Music is pleased to present a virtual student recital featuring students from our Virginia Beach Showroom & Music Education Center, led by Studio Manager Mun Lee Han!

We’re extremely proud of the perseverance of these students and teachers in the spirit of “The Show Must Go On”, using a virtual platform so that all can enjoy the hard earned fruits of their practice!

Find out more about Jordan Kitt’s lesson programs here!

Get a preview of the Fall with the Jordan Kitt’s Music School Newsletter!

Another season of fabulous music making has come and gone, and there is so much to look forward to as fall begins!

The students at Jordan Kitt’s Music have given dozens of recitals, performed for events, festivals, and competitions throughout the region, and have grown as musicians in private lessons and in the Yamaha group classes at each of our three locations in Rockville, Fairfax, and Beltsville. The Jordan Kitt’s Music Piano Festival continued this year with more than 60 performers, and a fantastic Honors Recital that showcased the hard work of 18 talented young artists and their teachers. We are thrilled to provide our students with the best educational and performance opportunities we can and look forward to another year of music making with you!

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Adaptive Music Lessons

Adaptive music lessons give kids a place to be themselves

via NPR

The benefits of music on individuals with autism are widely known. Improved focus, advances in speech and language, and better motor skills. But sometimes it’s about the growth that you can’t quantify in numbers.

On a Tuesday night in a sleepy plaza in Penfield, the Music Education Center is buzzing. Kids are in the waiting room, parents are catching up and students are practicing anything from trombone to piano.

Noah Svokos is a curly haired 13 year old who has been taking piano lessons for 5 years at the center.

The facility is open to anyone but they have a focus on adaptive music lessons, for individuals with disabilities.

Noah’s dad Tony Svokos brought him to class, and said over the years he’s seen his sons confidence grow, his memory get sharper, and he can remember notes and song titles and adapt these skills to his day to day life. Tony says places like this center are essential.

“Like it or not, there is a bit of a stigma still when it comes to special needs kids, kids who have autism. Thankfully, the awareness is growing and there are a lot more programs now. Even at his school he’s got integrated classrooms.”

A lot of Noah’s classmates have grown up around kids with autism Tony says, so they don’t treat them any differently.

“But there are a lot of other places out there who have no contact with kids like this. And it can be nerve wracking sending your kid to a place like that where you’re not sure if they’re going to be accepted, you’re not sure if their insecurities are going to get really, really magnified by negative experiences.”

The music education center started in 2004, co-owner Sarah Jamison tells me. As a graduate of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, she never really pictured her career going down this path, but the students kept her coming back.

“It really brings a lot of light into their lives. There’s a lot of other things they might be struggling with in school or at home and music ends up being something that they’re really good at and that they can be proud of and show off to their friends and family. And that’s probably the best thing about our job is just seeing that.”

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Piano Lessons

What learning piano in my twenties taught me — and why you should try it

by Rob Price via the Business Insider.

When I was about seven or eight, I went for a taster violin lesson at school. The idea was to get an idea for the instrument, and see if I wanted to learn properly. I enjoyed it — but the expected lessons never materialised.

A few years later, I asked my mother why: Apparently the tutor had refused to teach me.

It’s fair to say that I am not a natural musician.

But at the start of 2016, I resolved to change that. I decided to learn the piano.

It was a year of immense frustrations, and deep satisfaction — and endless Philip Glass. It expanded my horizons, and forced me to confront my failings head on. And for that reason alone, I’d recommend it to anyone.

Why? I wanted to do something totally new

I’m 24 years old, I live in London, and I’ve gone through life without knowing the first thing about music. I love to listen to it — I’ve got a pretty big collection, and I go to gigs regularly. But how it’s made has always been one great big opaque mystery to me.

Both of my brothers play — saxophone and guitar, respectively — but the extent of my musical education was tapping out basic beats on a glockenspiel and learning the first few bars of “Neighbours” on the piano at school. So why did I take the plunge now? Well, there were a few reasons:

  • I wanted to challenge myself. 2016 was the start of my third year living in London. I’d settled into a routine, and wanted to add some variety to my life — and something that would push me in a new direction.
  • I wanted to do something totally new. Learning music for the first time isn’t like taking up a new team ball-sport, or an unusual arts-and-crafts activity. Music is an entirely new category of human endeavour I have never meaningfully engaged in before. That makes it pretty exciting — and intimidating.
  • I love music. Pretty self-explanatory. I hoped that learning an instrument for the first time would enrich my appreciation of the artform.

I also set myself a few goals — some strict, and some more nebulous.

  • Pass my Grade 1 piano exam by the end of 2016. If you’re not familiar with the system, you can take exams as you learn instruments, from Grade 1 through to Grade 8. A clear target of reaching Grade 1 by the end of the year would give me something to work towards, a way to measure my success or failure.
  • Improve my knowledge of classical music. I had no strict timeframe for this, or a set point when it would be “completed.” But I’ve never known my Bach from my Beethoven, and I wanted to change that.
  • Learn “Metamorphosis II,” by Philip Glass. This was a longer-term goal, beyond 2016 — it’s a beautiful, flowing, and technically tricky bit of music that I wanted to work towards as I got better.

How did it all go? The short version is that it was fantastic — I’m extremely glad I did it, and I’d strongly urge to anyone thinking about taking up an instrument to do it, whatever your age.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, however.

Learning something new is a lesson in humility and patience

Note: The following sections go into some detail on what and how I learned. If you just want to know whether I passed the exam or not, skip down to the “arcane mystery” section below.

Let me make this clear: Piano is hard. Really hard. It requires you to think in a way you’ve never done before, juggling a thousand balls simultaneously. Interpret the music. Keep the tempo. Vary the volume. Move both hands independently of one-another. Make sure it all actually sounds good.

You know that brain-straining feeling when you try and multiply three three-digit numbers together? That’s what it felt like to be interpreting and playing music on the fly.

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It’s never too late to learn piano!

86 year old 1-1686-year-old piano student says passing grade one was a ‘pleasant surprise’

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