How To Have the Best Piano Lessons

May 3, 2021 Rykah

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You might think there are many factors involved in having the best piano lessons. I am convinced it is mainly just one – a critically important one, and I’ll get to that later on in this article. First to set the stage: Not very often does a piano teacher experience a moment when the student makes a cognitive jump forward, recognizing all by himself what the teacher was about to explain. It’s very exhilarating for the teacher, as well as the student! A very young student making a leap forward in thinking about and immediately understanding a new concept is unusual.

But last week I had the rare treat of seeing this happen with a boy I have been teaching only a year – and he is only five years old. I had been giving him what I call “micro” lessons once a week – just for a minute in the beginning when he was four, gradually increasing in small degrees until now his lessons are about 12 minutes long. This includes supervising his theory portion in the correlating theory page so that I can immediately correct any misunderstandings.

This little fellow is not a piano prodigy. He insists on being last after his two older sisters have their lessons, and I am positive he is taking lessons only because his parents want him to and he gets a treat afterward – and that’s certainly OK for now. But I have seen him progress from a squirming “let’s just have fun” kind of student to his present self, being composed and concentrating attentively for the lesson length.

A Student’s Journey to the Best Piano Lessons

He had just finished the last page of the first lesson book for the Itty Bitty Student, where he had learned the treble staff spaces and then lines and how to say aloud each letter as he located and played its key. His ability to verbally identify the space or line (using circles like whole notes) as he played each corresponding key was rather fluid and not too slow. The few times he did hesitate to say the letter name of a line, he used the letters of the space/s to identify the line letter. I was confident he understood the treble staff and how notes move by skips or steps (we called them “hops” and “neighbors”).

He was ready to learn the new letter language of the bass staff for his left hand. The December 21 blog, The Surprising Reason the Treble and Bass have Different Staff Letters, illustrates why these lines and spaces have their letter names.

As his teacher, I was satisfied that he had achieved this level of the thinking process – using the spaces fo find the lines – leading to long-term memory, the complete understanding and learning of the entire staff. I also felt validated, again, that this method works.

How to have the best piano lessons?

Use the best method, proven successful with students of all ages.

What’s the best method? The one that works; the one students cannot “fake” learning by rote copying the teacher’s example, or by playing keys based solely on the given finger numbers/five-finger positioning, or by only duplicating a piano keyboard illustration. The January 18, 2021 blog goes into detail about this.

When does a person become a functional reader of books? When he or she can rather easily read alone the words on a page, understanding how specific letters represent specific sounds, and that combining specific sounds creates a word. Words combine into sentences that produce meaning to the reader. I would add that this reader also has the skill of discovering the meaning of words not immediately known and understood (using a dictionary or other resource). There would be no limit to the books this person could read at his/her level of ability.

When does a person become a functional pianist? When he or she can rather easily read alone the notes on a page of music, understanding how specific spaces and lines of the staff represent specific keys on the piano, and that playing and/or combining specific keys creates sounds of music that produce meaning to the pianist. This person also has the skill of discovering the identity and location of staff spaces and lines not immediately known by using a learned procedure – a thinking skill. This person would be able to play cold (sight-read) any printed music at his/her current level of ability.

What is the best method?

So what is the best method for the best piano lessons? The one that teaches the student thinking skill – and The Revolutionary Piano Method does just that. When a student of any age can identify a space or line by letter name and correctly locate it on the piano keyboard he has learned it! There is no faking, no playing by rote, no reliance on finger numbers or hand positions. Using a thinking procedure gets this knowledge into long-term memory faster than any other way. When that happens, the thinking procedure steps are no longer needed – the pianist just reads and plays!

Take a look at a first lesson in this very short video.

Now back to my student . . .

Last week, my five-year-old student of one year had just finished the last page of the first lesson book for the Itty Bitty Student, where he had learned the treble staff spaces, lines, and their piano keys. I felt confident he was now ready to learn the completely different “language” of the bass staff, as the letters of the lines and spaces are not like those of the treble staff.

To begin the Itty Bitty Lesson Book 2, I asked him to play the three-black-key group under the piano brand name with his right hand. I asked him to then play the next group of three black keys to the left with his left hand; then move to the left again to play the next group of three black keys with his left hand. He repeated this sequence several times until he was quite comfortable doing it on his own.

I asked him to pretend to pick up this last left group of black keys, with thumb and little finger surrounding the group. Then I had him touch the left side of the first (left-most) black key with his little finger, and then slide forward and play the white key. I told him this was “low F” and that it’s so low, it’s not even on the staff. We looked at the staff picture on page 7 and I said, “Look, it’s under the bottom line of the bass staff. We won’t be playing “low F” right now, but we do use it to find the other letters of the bass staff.”

At this point he exclaimed, “I can do it! I know it! Let me do it!” He proceeded to play and name low F, and bass spaces A, then C. I quickly turned to page 11 in the book and said, “Yes, that’s right and here’s what A and C look like on paper!”

As he took a moment to ponder that, I explained how the left hand bass staff and right hand treble staff have different letters for the spaces and lines. I had him play all 52 white piano keys, starting at the far left so he would remember how the music alphabet seven letters repeat. His homework practice assignment was pages 13 and 14, playing the new bass spaces A and C, plus a song in the treble so he would not forget right hand staff letters.

Even his parents were not as excited as I was with his day’s discovery, but I’m sure there are piano teachers who would be. I don’t expect my student to skip ahead leaps and bounds, or possibly even any more at all; we’ll just continue to go at his comfortable rate. But I’m convinced that as he matures he will continue to progress with a solid understanding of accurate note-reading. An accurate note-reading method using a thinking process provides the best piano lessons for learning!

One last thought . . .

As an educator, a piano teacher can find the successfully proven way to give piano lessons in the books of The Revolutionary Piano Method. There are five levels for the very young student aged four and five. There are five levels for six-year-olds through adults. Each student goes at his/her individual pace. When not skipping over procedural steps, the educational theory of this instructionally-designed method allows the teacher to put into action the best piano lessons for individual students.

What Would the First Lesson for a Young Student Look Like?

What Would the First Lesson for a 6 to Teen Look Like (video)?