Which piano should I buy?

BUYING A REAL PIANO

The most important decision you would make for your child's music education, other than finding the right teacher, is to buy a real piano. My daughter's MYC teacher teaches with a portable keyboard; actually she's got six of them set up in the classroom. She lets the students have a keyboard at home if they don't have a piano. I personally would not allow my students to play on a keyboard cuz it's really wrong and you don't development finger strength, there is no resistance no wood no strings, so it's just plastic!

I have a friend who asked me to teach her daughter just under age 3. They don't have a piano yet and I can't just ask her to fork out $8000 plus for a piano for a three year old, so I told her to listen to the Suzuki Book 1 CD as the first assignment for the next year! 2 hours a day minimum... remember just like a child learns to talk by listening.


JAPANESE - KAWAI

I don't know a whole lot about Kawai's except that alot of asian families in Hong Kong have them because it's a good value, not too expensive and still reliable, especially the upright sizes. Great for a beginner especially if you like the sound and touch. I really like the Kawai grand pianos because of the sound engineering (pun) that goes into the design, manufacturing and the materials are modern (composite fibres not wood) I think. They are just starting to get into the market with the big schools and university music programs to compete with Yamaha. In Ottawa, the folks at Campbell Douglas on Merivale Road will offer many choices of Kawai and give a very informative overview of pianos. I've recommended many students to look at Kawai there.


JAPANESE - YAMAHA

I own a Yamaha upright CP113 model for my teaching studio and personal use. The serial number indicates that it was assembled in Japan and no longer available, which is interesting becase most Yamaha pianos purchased in Canada are manufactured in North America. Yamaha is always highly recommended and well recognized around the world. I bought my piano at the Yamaha piano store, Ottawa Pianos on Bank Street. I like their trade in option where I have 10 years to trade in my upright for any newer piano including a Grand Piano dollar for dollar what I paid! However alot of students whom I have refered to the store, were always offered to see the U1 model (only). They call this an Institution-level instrument, meaning that most university and college programs will have the U1 model in the teaching studio, practise rooms, and for the piano exams.

Therefore I'd say that U1 is actually the best upright piano a family could buy! How about in simple terms it's really really really good! That is one or two models up from what I have which is a CP113. The idea is the taller the piano the bigger and better the sound. DON'T go for a lower end base model Yamaha to save money, but you don't neccessarily have to go with the best one ever. My next door neighbor bought a U1 piano because they always buy the #1 thing (infant formula, shoes, car, private school) for their #1 son, but seriously not everyone can fit that in their house or budget.

As for grand pianos, only buy one bigger than 6 feet otherwise a U1 would be much better than any smaller grand piano or baby grand, simply because the soundboard would be smaller and shorter.

STEINWAY
 
Lauzon in Westboro sells Steinways (top in American made). Everyone dreams of owning a Steinway and I could safely say that alot of people who don't even play piano own  Steinway in their mansion just for the look and status. If you go to any concert hall or big name school, the performers or students always play on a Steinway.  I priced it out before and a Steinway grand piano costs as much as my dream car, a Dodge Viper... both of these are beyond my reach at this moment in my life.
 
 
PEARL RIVER
 
Steinway also has a partnership with Pearl River (made in China).  Alot of students in Eastern Canada have Pearl River because they have a sponsorship with the Conservatory of Canada and their local events and workshops. In my mind it's like a Kia or a Hyundi whereas Steinway is like a Cadillac? Maybe there are some good technology partnerships there and that is my understanding of a basic price or lifestyle comparison. Just try it out and see if you like it. Pearl River will not appreciate in price like a Steinway or
Yamaha, but I strongly believe it would be muhch much better than a digital.

DIGITAL PIANO

Roland is the best player in the big market for a digital piano. They are the best in the world in that market and the Conservatory or Canada (I call them a competitor of the Royal Conservatory of Music) actually allows that top model of digital Roland to be used in the exam room. At Campbell Douglas, the folks probably showed you a letter from the president. I guess I'm just old fashioned so I find that hard to believe that a digital piano could be "just as good" as a real piano.

Think about this, when you really play piano, your fingertips should be hitting a key that activates a wooden hammer that strikes a group of metallic strings that vibrate together in harmonic frequencies with all the right overtones. When it is a digital piano all of this is simulated electronically.

I have a digital grand piano upstairs in my living room that allows me to play at night with headphones; not Roland but Suzuki (the manufacturer of motorcycles!) I have found that my wrists hurt if I try to play too hard and loud becaus I am expecting a sound I get from a real piano, and I can't get it so I push harder and it's probably bad for my fingers or wrists in some way.

A bit of history, I bought the Suzuki grand piano used from a family who was upgrading to a real grand piano because their daughter was 14 and having played piano up to the Grade 9 RCM level, the piano teacher  indicated that her performance level had exceeded the capabilities of the digital piano.  I am surprised she didn't say so sooner.

YAMAHA DIGITAL CLAVINOVA
I had previously owned a Yamaha Digital Clavinova base model and I found that one was much better, still it's probably not going to have the same energy response as real strings. You could probably be ok with that one for the first two years. I visited a family in the States, their kids are Suzuki piano students and they owned a Yamaha Digital Clavinova Grand Piano.  At the Suzuki Institute I studied at, the children used 12 Yamaha Digital Clavinova for the group classes and the ensemble performance (though the visiting head teacher did not like it at all).

I usually recommend someone to buy a Yamaha Digital Clavinova if they only have $2,000 because this is the best thing that you could get for that budget.  I used my Clavinova for a full two years playing at my Grade 10 and ARCT level before I got married, and eventually upgraded to the Yamaha upright piano I own now.

Hope this information is helpful to you. I am going to add a disclaimer that these are expressly my own personal opinion as a teacher and mother of three.

Which Piano Teaching Method is best for my child?

CLASSICAL PIANO
I used to feel that kids weren't ready for formal private piano lessons with me until age 7. Because I teach classical and music reading, it can be very hard for kids younger than 6-7 to focus and sit still and manage all the data they have to process to just play piano, the traditional way.  I believe I was strongly influenced by own piano learning experience and my own piano teacher who is a very traditional teacher and established performer herself, from a certain European east block country, who gave me sage advice not to start piano too early for my daughter.

SUZUKI METHOD
However since I learned more about the Suzuki method and how natural it is for a child to play the violin, cello or even piano, they could be ready to learn by age 3-4. The suzuki method is very natural, alot like how a child learns to speak his native mother tongue (or English) by imitation, repetition, exploration and praise. I saw little kids performing in a violin ensemble, age 4-5 playing really beautiful music, like twinkle twinkle little star (and something else too). The kids I saw in Las Vegas in the piano program, needed alittle bit more discipline but maybe piano is harder or something, but the potential is there. I feel that my son AJ (age 3) is ready because he is willing to listen to the music CD, he respects me as a teacher and he listens well to directions how to play a few simple rhythms on the piano. I wanted him to play with purpose, instead of hitting random notes on the piano with a bad hand form. They are not reading the music at this stage, just focusing on perfect tone and all the aspects that create perfect tone in the most natural way.

I also run a Pre-Twinkle Level class called "Musicland Adventure Camp" which is a series of 10 classes for ages 3-5; storytelling, magical characters from Yellowcat's Musicland, games, song and dance. Topics include keyboard geography, right and left hand independent playing, note reading, music listening and writing skills, music performance and beyond. I also use materials from Yellowcat Publishing which uses colours and characters to teach kids the letter names of the keys and pre-reading skills.  Upon completion, students are ready to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by heart or for beginner’s piano, though it is not a prerequisite.

MUSIC FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Maggie on the other hand has a different learning style. She's in the Music For Young Children class, Sunshine 2 in the fall with her teacher. I will bring her to class and participate as all the other parents too. There is homework, they have a very structured way of learning music reading from the get go. She likes it alot, but I would still categorize this as the "traditional" learning method. She knows the names of all the notes on the piano; she can play a C scale and A minor scale, she can read the pre-music reading with little characters. Each note on the piano is associated with a character, for example Critter C, Dino D, Edith the Elk, Fireman Fred, Grumpy Grouch, Amy the Anteater, Becky (copyrighted).  Staff reading is much too hard for her right now but there is a kid in her class the same age who is good at it. So it must depend on the child.

Maggie started in the Sunrise class for ages 2.5 with fun music activities, music patterns, listening skills and alot of singing, moving, crafts and homework. There was a long break and we started Sunshine 1 when she was 3.5 in the Fall 2010. The homework assigned with the lesson for the week was the basis of our learning activities at home, for example learning the alphabet, cutting out pictures of things that start with "C"; forte and piano, so that's cutting out pictures of loud sounds and quiet sounds; allegro and adagio, so cutting out pictures of things that move fast fast fast or slow slow slow.

Some folks ask me why I'm not teaching my own daughter. Well, as a matter of fact I am. She is part of the Musicland group class I run in my home studio. However my course runs for 10 lessons probably about once a year because my studio focus is still on private lessons.  Her weekly group lesson runs all school year with the MYC teacher and lasts one hour, however at home I practise with her everyday (more like 5 days out of the week) for a good 20 minutes if you include the extra games, homework, charades, and chatting. She listens in on my teaching sometimes, and we also play piano together just for fun. We play duets where she simply plays a bass note to support the harmonic structure below the melody that I'm playing, or vice versa. I have to mention, by listening she's learned when to "switch notes to make it sound nice". Remember, alot of kids go to public school or private school, but the mom (and dad) at home are models and teachers too.


YAMAHA MUSIC WONDERLAND
Yamaha on Bank Street also runs a music school, and they have the world famous Yamaha Music Program. These are group classes at various levels starting from Tunes for Twos, something for age 3 and Music Wonderland for ages 4 up, and then a series of graduated level for older kids to continue on.  I called the school though, and they only have keyboard time at the age 4 level.  Although my parents enrolled me in this at age 4 in Calgary, and I still have the tin box with the grand staff and the magnetic music notes for the staff and keyboard and some of the workbooks, I don't remember too much about it.  I  found out about the Yamaha school (again) by  coincidence.  There was an air force colonel (a soccer/ piano mom) who was selling the entire collection of Yamaha music books and workbooks and CDs volumes one to eight for $50 on usedottawa; books that her children used and were done with and she was moving for the next posting.  When she came to deliver the items, we also had a good chat about the music program and about raising a military family etc. I looked through the books, and figured out some of the major components was possibly music appreciation, ensemble playing (playing the chords and notes, following along with the group and the CD accompaniment) plus alot of crafts and fun worksheets.  I would've enrolled my kids but the timing on Saturday morning didn't fit my schedule well. Highly recommended and not to expensive. Fall and Winter start dates.

KODALY METHOD
Kodaly is an excellent music program designed to teach basic musicianship through singing and body movement. It is based on an approach to music education developed by Hungarian Zolton Kodaly in the early 20th century. Kodaly methods are adapted by many music teachers in the school system when teaching music reading and musical language to students from kindergarten to high school.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001864

Music Mind Games Plan

This is a proposed plan for the Note Reading portion of the class, and the materials to be used from the Puppy Packet. Every two weeks we could focus on one learning from one set of materials and cover the topics based on the cards. I got this idea from the teacher blogger Emily on http://www.musicmindgames.com/


For example a game on alphabet cards could be Fine, Snake, Scrabble based on C scale, A minor scale or thirds, circle of fifths etc.

* Alphabet Cards
* Blue Jello Cards
* Staff Slates & Grand Staff Cards
* Tempo Cards
* Music Symbol Cards
* Notes & Rests Cards
* Rhythm Playing Cards
* Staff Slates & Do-Re-Mi Cards
* Real Rhythm Cards


If there were siblings who had their lessons back to back, I would start everyone off with a "game" for about 10 to 20 minutes. While one brother is doing his lesson, the sister/brother could continue with the game quietly. This keeps the other student occupied while still learning music theory in a fun way.

Games and variations we've played in class:
* Fine alphabet cards, do re mi, even temp and dynamics
* Name the Five C's (progress to D's and B's etc)
* Find the Five C's (from the stack of note reading cards)
* Huckleberry Jello rhythm reading, note value trading and music reading
* Snake sequential, thirds, fifths (alphabet cards)
* Fat Snake and sing ABCDEFG to tune of Twinkle theme
* Snake in thirds while placing the note reading cards (shows the notes on lines and spaces!)
* Melody Bingo
* Musicland and characters Bingo

Teaching the G's and F's

Another Music Reading Lesson

Use the Treble Clef belly as a landmark for G. Find the other G one octave up, mark these with Magic Notes.  Use the Bass Clef dots as a landmark for F, find the other F one octave down.

Game: Googly Eyes
From http://www.musicmindgames.com/node/688
Materials:  Melodic Bingo cards, Magic Notes
Have the students take turns grabbing a Magic Note to mark all the G's one round, F's or C's the next.

Use RED for C; BLUE for G; GREEN for F.

Structure of a 30 minute Lesson

This is proposed breakdown of a 30 minute piano lesson

BOW (I'm ready)

Note Reading (5 minutes)
This could include a Music Mind Game activity, pop quiz, writing exercise, or even solfege singing and signing.

Technic (10 minutes)
Working on the basics, the Twinkle variations, the Twinkle theme; five note scales, triads or arppeggios. The time here could be shorter or longer and blended in with the repertoire.

Repertoire (10 minutes)
If the entire piece is not played end to end, the teacher may be choosing select measures of phrases. There could be a practise game board and dice to aid with memory or working out trouble spots.

Review (5 minutes)
Playing a review piece allows the child to play something he knows well and enjoys playing. This also ensures that pieces are always performance ready.

BOW (Thank you).

The Parent's Notebook

The supervising parent needs to take good notes during the child's lesson; especially to write down
1) The practise assignment
2) Specific details in remembering how to play and listen for the perfect natural tone
3) The fingering

Hint: For advanced notetaking, listen very carefully to identify the main Teaching Point of the lesson. (It could be something like a Stengthening the pinky tone, Light wrist staccato, High bounce staccato, Listening for tone geration and attenuation) The teacher is supposed to work on delivering a one point lesson (though sometimes it is hard to focus on that ONE thing).

Just a reminder that at the piano lesson, the teacher is teaching HOW to play piano, the skills and technique to play piano.  That is more important than the repertoire or how many songs someone could learn in the shortest time. Repertoire is learned at home by listening to the CD, by practising with the correct fingering. It is never a race.

Future topic: Practising vs Just Playing Piano

Teaching the C's

First Music Reading Lesson
Main point: Notes on the staff tell us which keys to play on the piano!


1) Describe the Grand Staff with the treble clef, bass clef.
2) Count the lines 1-5 from the bottom.
4) Count the spaces 1-4 from the bottom.
5) Point out the belly of the treble clef aka Trebellina or Mrs Treble Clef; point out the two dots of Rock Bassy or Mr Bass Clef.
6) Place a red Magic Note on middle C (draw a short line for middle C)
Place an orange Magic Note on treble C or Twinkle C (3rd space)
Place an orange Magic Note on bass C (2nd space)
Place a yellow Maggic Note on the high treble C (draw two leger lines about the staff)
Place a yellow Magic Note on the low bass C (draw two legel lines below the staff)
7) Talk about the symmetry
8) Listen for high sounds and low sounds, play these on the piano and have the child identify which is being played.

Bonus: Use the word Octave to describe the jump between one C  to the next.


Second Music Reading Lesson
Main Point: Use the ABC cards to talk about the musical alphabet.

1) Ask the student to recite the alphabet A to G.
2) Now explain that the musical alphabet begins from C. Lay these out on the table in sequence.
Hint: Use the Do-Re-Mi rainbow colours or alternatively, the Musicland colours (yellow Cat, purple Dragon, green Elf, etc) or all uniform colours.

3) Talk about direction, going up (play the scale up, C major or C chromatic) and notes going down (play the scale down, C major or chromatic)

4) Ask the child to say the musical alphabet forwards and backwards. If there is some difficulty refer to the cards; indicate that the child should practise this at home, as a an assignment.

Next week: Music Mind Games for alphabet learning.