Getting Started: Finding a Piano For Any Budget

One of the biggest obstacles to your child taking piano lessons is the instrument itself.  Unless you have been gifted a piano, it’s a huge investment to buy a brand new one and if you don’t know what you are looking for it’s a complete gamble.  Fortunately, when your child is just starting piano, you have many options and there is most certainly one for every budget.

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Many times when I tell people that I teach piano lessons they respond with, “I would love to have my child take piano but we don’t have one / don’t have room for one.”  I think, for many people, their picture of piano lessons is the child sitting at a baby grand in a formal living room in their Sunday finest playing Chopin.  The reality is much, much different.  Many kids start their piano lessons on nothing more than an electronic keyboard picked up from their local big box store.

Teachers opinions on this vary but for my students, it is perfectly acceptable to begin your piano lessons on an electronic keyboard.  The keyboards available today mimic the piano in many ways and so for the beginning student, they are a fine alternative to an acoustic piano at a much smaller cost.  Electronic keyboards also require little to no maintenance where an acoustic piano requires tuning (an added cost) every six months.  If you think electronic may be your best option, you can visit this post to read more about selecting an electronic keyboard for your beginning piano student.

If you want to get your child an acoustic piano (which I highly recommend) you have many alternatives for getting one.  And with a little creativity, you can often get a good piano for very little cost.

Ask People You Know.  Many times people within your own family may be wanting to get rid of their piano but not know how.  Why not take it off their hands?  For a small investment of a piano mover you can often get a great piano that you know has been treated with care.

Check Online.  Sites such as Craigslist, eBay or your local newspaper website list classified ads for people selling pianos.  I can’t tell you the number of ads I see of people saying “Please just come and get it and it’s yours!”.

Used Or Rental Pianos.  Rent a piano?  Yes!  For $100+ per month you can “try out” a piano at home before making the big investment.  Used pianos can be a much less expensive purchase than brand new and are often in excellent playing condition.  Their boxes may be worn but as long as the insides are in full working order, all is well.  Don’t judge a piano by it’s box.

Purchase New.  If you’re really ready to make the big commitment and purchase a new piano, take the time to learn about all of the options available to you.  Upright or Grand? Digital or Acoustic? Uprights and digitals tend to be smaller so if you are short on space, those would be the ones to consider.  However, if you have the room, you just can’t beat a good baby grand.

As with any major purchase, you want to get as much information as possible in order to make an informed decision.  Talk with your teacher about their recommendations, visit music stores to talk with their sales people and read, read, read.  You wouldn’t spend $5000 on a car without doing a little research, so do your due diligence here.

4 Steps To Creating Your Home Practice Zone

Have you ever tried cooking dinner at a picnic table? It’s quite a miserable experience to even try and light the little camping stove let alone slice and dice veggies, heat up water, or make toast.  Sure, its doable, but you just can’t cook on a camping stove like you can in your kitchen.  You just don’t have the right tools out there. There are also pests to contend with and a million other distractions (like watching the road tripping biker dudes try to set up that pop up tent for the last 45 minutes.)  If you can’t cook at a picnic table, how can you expect your child to productively practice their piano in the middle of the family chaos?

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When I was in school, I had choices about where to practice.  I could practice in the basement of the dorms on the clunky old upright while hundreds of kids walked by on their way to and from class.  I could practice in the instrumental practice rooms where my friends would wander by and stop to knock on the doors just to say hi, or I could practice on the Steinway baby grands locked away in an upstairs hallway, away from everyone else.  Guess where I was most productive?

Your child needs a “Practice Zone” at home.  We probably can’t send the piano away to a locked and guarded tower so we have to make the most of what we have available.  These are some of the most basic needs of a home practice zone:

1) You need an instrument in good, working order ready to go at all times.  Don’t make finding the plug for the keyboard the first part of practice.  Place your instrument in a spot where it is always there, ready to go.  For some, the piano in the living room is the way to go, for others, a keyboard in the bedroom works just fine.  Find the spot that works for your family.

2) Your music should be easily accessible. One of the first suggestions I make to new parents is to keep all the piano music for lessons in a bag at the piano.  Have a backpack, reusable shopping tote, or even a paper bag your child decorates next to the keyboard at all times.  If we have to hunt down our music, we won’t be practicing it.

3) Have a practice tool box.  Practice isn’t just about playing music over and over again.  There are writing assignments, notes that need to be named, fingerings to be reminded of…and we need tools for those purposes. Have a small container on or near the keyboard stocked with sharpened pencils, markers, erasers, and paper clips.  Let your child know that these are for marking in their music books.  They can circle anything they keep forgetting, write in a finger number (or two) as needed, or even write a reminder to ask about a certain term in their book.  Children can be timid to write in their books but they shouldn’t be.  The best pianists usually have music so marked up it’s almost impossible to read by the time they have it learned!

4) Remove distractions.  If your piano or keyboard is in the middle of the home, make it clear to others that practice time is starting and that our pianist is not to be disturbed.  Even going so far as to put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on top of the piano can help signify to family members that this is not just free play time.

Giving your child the tools for a successful practice time can really help improve their chance of success in piano lessons as well as show them that you value their musical education.

Give this a try for a couple of weeks and let me know how it goes!

Make Time for Piano Practice

Are you working on your fall schedule slide puzzle this week?  Have you blocked out a space for unscheduled creative time?  If you don’t, you may be setting your self and your child up for a miserable fall.

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As your child progresses through piano lessons, the time required for practice will increase.  Make it a point to block out that time now (even if only as a note to hold back an hour or so a day for creative time) to prevent over-scheduling your kids to the point where everyone is worn out by November.  Unscheduled time is so important for kids’ (and our) well being.

If you haven’t already, remember to SIGN-UP NOW for fall piano lessons!  Don’t miss out on all the new and exciting things going on this fall in the studio!

Getting Started: How ready are YOU for your child to take piano lessons?

If you’ve been following along with our Getting Started In Piano Lessons series of posts, by now you should have a good idea of what your family wants from piano lessons  and if your schedule can really handle them.  The fact that you are still here is a good sign!  You’ve made some choices that will work for your family and that’s excellent but we’re not done yet.  Have you thought about how you fit into this whole piano equation?

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I loved playing the piano as a child. L-O-V-E-D to play.  I played as often as I could but it almost always seemed as though my favorite time to play was when my dad had just gotten home from work.  Now, I’m not bashing my dad here in what I’m about to say because as an adult, I totally get where he was coming from now. BUT…

it seemed as though every time I sat down to play, my dad would make me stop.  He had just completed a full day of work & what I’m sure was a stressful driving commute through the suburbs.  He was bombarded with information and noise all day long and now that he was home, he just wanted some quiet for a little bit.  But children are unaware of all that goes on in our work day to day and I just wanted to share my music with him.  He wanted nothing to do with it.  As an adult I have a different view of this whole situation but as a kid?  There is no gray area – dad doesn’t want to hear me play the piano so dad must not care about me. (That’s so harsh isn’t it? Totally not what he really was getting at but that’s how I saw it as a 10 year old.)

You as a parent are a vital part of this whole piano lesson experience.  You are not simply a taxi driver on this one.  Your support between lessons determines the level of success your child will achieve. (No pressure!)

Your child probably does well in their school work.  Why?  Because they are naturally gifted? Maybe. But I would be more willing to guess that it’s because you value their education.  You see the benefit of being a good reader therefore, you read to them daily.  You see the value in understanding math so you quiz them about cheaper unit prices at the store when they beg you for a box of fruity snacks.  You see the value in teaching them to be good community members by having them participate in charitable events.  What value do you see in music lessons?

Whatever the value is for you, are you willing to make the sacrifices to make that happen?  Are you willing to be the “time cop” by adding “when you’ve learned your lesson book piece, then you can take over the Jedi universe” to your already long list of after school demands?  Are you willing to DVR your family’s favorite show so that your child can practice uninterrupted?  Are you willing to sacrifice the “big game” weekend to attend recitals and performances without ever voicing your discontent?

Are you really willing to place value on their music lessons?

Our children succeed at the things we place value on because we make sure those things happen.  We prioritize our day based upon those values.  You need to determine whether or not you value the things that come from taking piano lessons among them creativity, problem solving, and time management.

You need to determine if you value music.

Discussion Question:
Was there anything that you valued as a child that you didn’t think your parents did?  How did it make you feel?