Are beginner piano courses at community colleges a joke?
I just learned my school does them, and im a beginner, but would I be much better off with finding a personal teacher, or are these classes at the schools worth it? they are group piano lessons
Hi Jason,
Here’s my experience with community college piano …
I’ll never forget the time I took my first piano class. It was at the Community College of Philadelphia 1984. It was a group class with 20 or so electronic keyboards arranged around the room. We each received a class text book titled « Class Piano. » No shocker there.
I opened up the book and saw that I would be learning how to read music and play triads. I also saw that I would be playing very simple classical pieces. Now, while I enjoyed this and learned how to play these easy pieces, it just didn’t do it for me. It was because as I soon as I put the book down, I was dumbfounded! I didn’t know what to do on the piano without the book!
I soon realized that I didn’t want to become a professional note reader. No. I wanted to be able to sit down at the piano, place my fingers on a chord that called to me, and just play. I wanted to express myself at the piano in the same way visual artists are able to take pen and paper and artfully color their inner worlds. Why was this so difficult to do?
It was at this time that I started to look for new ways to play. I came upon a book that taught a modern chord position which could be used right away to make music with. Amazing! No note reading. Just chords. And once I learned a few chords, I was able to create my own music. This open position chord structure allowed me to improvise music quite easily.
Another book influenced me as well. This one showed how to play chord progressions using 4, 8 and 16 bar phrases. With this chord charting technique, I could see that I could create my own pieces. It taught me the principles of repetition and contrast – the cornerstones to musical composition.
A few chords arranged for 8-bars is repeated 2 or more times giving you what is called an « A » section of music. Another few bars of different chord changes and the « B » section is produced. And all of this was taught within a very slim volume. Maybe 46 pages or so.
After a few years of working with this material, I synthesized both methods so beginning piano players can take a modern sounding chord and work with it within a set framework. The result is a method where students are able to improvise their own music right away!
Beginners Piano – Be playing in under 10 minutes
|
|
BEGINNER 88 KEY ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD PIANO SET USB MIDI SD INCLUDES HEADPHONES €573.21 |
|
|
REALLY EASY FLUTE & PIANO SHEET MUSIC BOOK FOR BEGINNER €11.16 |
|
|
AUNA LP-2110B 61 KEY BEGINNER KEYBOARD ELECTRONIC PIANO €145.70 |
|
|
54 KEY BEGINNER ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD STARTER PIANO NEW €78.40 |
|
|
[IMPORT] NEUF FOR BEGINNER PIANO €23.27 |
|
|
Piano Young Beginner 10 Easy Lessons Music Book +DVD&CD €13.69 |
|
|
Plone For Beginner Piano CD NEUF €18.67 |
|
|
Learn to Play Blues Piano 1 DVD Beginner Improvisation €17.70 |
|
|
PLONE For Beginner Piano WARP CD 1999 Neu €11.99 |
|
|
BEGINNER KEYBOARD SET 61-KEY DIGITAL PIANO STAND STOOL LEARN ELECTRONIC MUSIC €136.98 |
|
|
BEGINNER KEYBOARD SET 61-KEY DIGITAL PIANO STAND STOOL *FREE P&P SPECIAL OFFER €149.32 |
|
|
Plone – For Beginner Piano (NEW CD) €13.07 |
|
|
PIANO TIME PIECES Book 2 New Edition Beginner Music €9.04 |
|
|
PIANO TIME JAZZ DUETS Book 1 Beginner Piano Music €9.35 |
|
|
TUNES FOR TEN FINGERS Children’s Beginner Piano Tutor Music Book €8.10 |
|
|
PIANO TIME 1 Oxford Beginner Piano Tutor Music Book €9.91 |
|
|
Progressive Beginner Piano Music Book Tutor +DVD +CD €12.41 |
|
|
ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD 61 KEY MUSIC PIANO STAND STOOL KIDS BEGINNER USB MIDI €174.37 |
|
|
54 KEY BEGINNER PRACTICE MUSIC KEYBOARD ELECTRIC PIANO *FREE P&P SPECIAL OFFER €90.86 |
|
|
54 KEY BEGINNER PRACTICE MUSIC KEYBOARD ELECTRIC PIANO €78.40 |
|
|
Jazz Piano for the Young Beginner Misha V. Stefanuk Mel Bay Publications Music G €23.10 |
|
|
BEGINNER SET 61-KEY DIGITAL ELECTRIC PIANO + HEADPHONES KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER NEW €124.51 |
|
|
BEGINNER SET 61-KEY DIGITAL ELECTRIC PIANO + HEADPHONES *FREE P&P SPECIAL OFFER €136.98 |
|
|
piano BARBARA KIRKBY MASON the adult beginner , vol 2 €4.05 |
|
|
PIANO TIME PIECES Book 1 New Edition Beginner Music Book €9.04 |
|
|
Alfred’s Piano Library Prep Course Young Beginner Christmas Joy – C shop soiled €3.73 |
|
|
Signs & Symbols Magic – Janet Dowsett – Learn Keyboard/Organ/Piano Beginner €8.71 |
|
|
Bastien Piano Basics: Theory And Technique For The Young Beginner Primer A €9.91 |
|
|
Learn To Play Blues Piano: A Beginner’s Guide To Improvisation – DVD 1 €27.36 |
|
|
Learn To Play Blues Piano: A Beginner’s Guide To Improvisation – DVD 2 €27.36 |
|
|
Superpieces 1 Beginner repertoire for violin and piano – Violin part only €4.36 |
|
|
The Adult Beginner At The Piano Volume 1 Sheet Music NEW €13.65 |
|
|
Bastien Piano Basics: Piano For The Young Beginner Primer B NEW €9.91 |
|
|
Bastien Piano Basics: Piano For The Young Beginner Primer A NEW €9.91 |
|
|
Older Beginner Piano Course Level 1 Sheet Music NEW €12.40 |
|
|
Older Beginner Piano Course Level 2 Sheet Music NEW €12.40 |
|
|
Big Book Of Beginner’s Piano Classics Sheet Music NEW €14.89 |
|
|
Big Book of Beginner’s Piano Classics 83 Favorite Pieces in Easy Piano Arrangeme €19.52 |
|
|
Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Prep Course for the Young Beginner Lesson Book Leve €15.35 |
|
|
Accelerated Piano Adventures for the Older Beginner Performance Book 2 Nancy Fab €11.79 |
|
|
Super Artists on Super Audio, Vol. 3 [Hybrid SACD] €5.34 … |
|
|
Sonates pour piano K 283, 457, 494, 533 & 545 / Fantaisie K.475 (arr.Grieg) €6.68 SONATES POUR PIANO K 283, 457, 494, 533 & 545 / FANTAISIE K.475 (ARR.GRIEG)… |
|
|
Mozart: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin, Vol. 1 [Hybrid SACD] €11.00 MOZART: COMPLETE SONATAS FOR KEYBOARD & VIOLIN, VOL. 1 [HYBRID SACD]… |
|
|
Absolute Beginners: Keyboard [Import anglais] €12.02 Attention !!! Ce produit est un import. Vérifiez bien que les langues que vous désirez sont indiquées dans la fiche produit avant de commander…. |
|
|
Piano Accordion for Absolute Beginners €19.82 … |
|
|
Absolute Beginners-Piano [Import anglais] €8.02 … |
|
|
HeidePC® allround AM3 890GX bluray WIN 7 PC, AMD quad core 3.2GHz, ASUS M4A89GTD PRO, 2GB DDR3, ATI radeon HD 4290 onboard, 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s, 10x bluray combo., 430 Watt INCL. Win7 home premium • CPU: AMD Quad Core PHENOM X4 955 black edition 4x 3.2GHz • CPU Cooler: certified original • Hard disk: 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s, 7,200 RPM. • memory: 2 GB DDR3 RAM PC-1333 • Graphics: ATI radeon HD 4920 onborad • Motherboard: TOP motherboard from ASUS on the AMD 890 GX Chipset: • Interfaces: memory slots 4x DDR3, expansion slots 1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 1… |
|
|
Big Book of Beginner’s Piano Classics: 83 Favorite Pieces in Easy Piano Arrangements €4.97 … |
|
|
Keyboard for the Absolute Beginner €3.04 … |
|
|
Learn to Play Keyboards: A Beginner’s Guide to Playing All Electronic Keyboard Instruments €10.75 … |