Includes videos of activities I do in a one-on-one trial lesson before a student signs up for a beginner class. Includes two PDF files.
Adult students often sign up to learn piano with the dream of playing their favorite tunes, only to be faced with months (or years) of Mary Had a Little Lamb or Michael Row Your Boat Ashore before they can attempt the music they truly want to play.
I say - Leave Mary in the pasture and Mike in the boat. There's a better way!
At QuickStart Piano, beginners will:
Start making beautiful music right away.
Play with both hands from the start.
Get comfortable moving around the keyboard.
Play with confidence.
Take the intimidation out of note-reading.
I've designed my trial lesson to give brand new beginners the experience of playing 'real' sounding music from the very start.
The video examples demonstrate activities I use for beginners in the trial lesson:
Improvise music in a duet along with the teacher.
Memorize the white key names quickly & effortlessly using the Dog House method.
Move around the keyboard by playing in home base positions.
Read a chord sheet.
You can enjoy lessons.
Practice can be both fun and productive.
You can succeed at the piano while playing music you love from the very first lesson.
Traditional approaches and methods do not always support this idea, so I developed my own curriculum, one that both empowers and satisfies adult learners.
QuickStart Piano students play familiar-sounding music from their very first lesson.
Note for Teachers:
I start by putting a colored sticky marker on a high register A key and telling the student to place their right thumb on this note, then line up the remaining fingers, one per note, in what we call a 'home base' (5-finger position).
Note for Students:
Many adult beginners fear that they won't be smart enough, learn quickly enough or that they just aren't musical enough to play the piano.
So not true!
With the right approach, you can begin making music immediately.
Check out this improvisation exercise that I use for brand new beginners, often at their very first lesson.
The first video is a tutorial that walks you through the process.
The second video is a backing track for you to play along with as many times as you wish.