Viv's Thoughts

Some people have the idea that if the lessons are FUN means it's not serious, you are just learning for fun.

When you are learning for fun,, no exams just for leisure, the teacher is obligated to make the lessons fun!
But even you are learning not for fun,, but seriously attempting to take exams or for your future career,,, the teacher is ALSO obligated to make it FUN for the student.

WHY??? Cos we are HUMANS! and being humans , we love to have FUN!
And FUN is what keeps us going, keeps our passion ALIVE!

Practising may not be a fun thing,, BUT we must make it FUN for us.
Else, we can never perfect a certain technique without practice.

Playing the piano is all about HANDS ON!
 we can think in our minds HOW to practise,, BUT we CANT think in our minds to practise!

Practice must be HANDS ON and WITH Repetition.
If you just play a passage once, that's NOT practice.
You must repeat the same passage again n again ,, start slow,, get some notes accurate first,, then continue,, etc etc...
You must sound like a broken record when you practise,, else how to get it perfect???

So,, it can be quite tedious practising the piano,, BUT we can incorporate fun into it.

How?
First, we must get to love what we r playing.
How to love when you dont understand the piece?
So, get UNDERSTANDING,, the history , the story, learn how to interpret the piece accurately,, then you will understand and know what you are trying to achieve. Then only there's MEANING to what you are trying to achieve.

Once we know the sound or the mood to produce,,, we will feel the FUN and the challenge of trying to get to that point.

Everyone LOVES playing games,, why?
cos they know the END point they want to achieve.
They want to get the highest level possible to achieve a certain title.
and that's the FUN part of it.

So,, many lessons are boring because some teachers think fun lessons= Lessons that are NOT serious!

This is a great deception and this mentality will create a lot of dropouts!
This will creat hatred for music even and that's DISASTROUS!!!

Music teachers are supposed to introduce music to their students accurately.

For young children ,, all the way to adults,, different methods are used to make the lessons as fun as possible to maintain or ignite their interest in music even more.
Where there's interest,, there's passion, and where there's passion, there's the momentum to keep going achieving excellence,,, and where there's excellence, the love of music will continue to grow.

So,,, FUN lessons are GOOD, regardless you are doing lesiure or exams.

There are 3 basic things  to be done when a student comes for their piano lessons.

1) Wash hands with soap.

Clean hands are essential to play the piano better, so that we wont be hindered by dirty and sticky fingers.
Also to prevent germs from spreading.

2) Greetings

Do a formal greeting by bowing. That is to show respect to the teacher and to prepare the student to a serious time of learning.
There is time to learn and time to joke and have fun.

3) Posture and hand position.

The teacher must always take note of the student's posture and hand position especially for students in their early years of learning. They tend to slouch or sit up too straight and stiff and rest their palms on the board of the keys.

After all these are checked, then lessons can resume more effectively.   

We are living in an "Instant" or "Fast" Age!
Instant noodles,  Fast foods like TV dinners, burgers etc.
Emails are preferred over snail mails.
I see so many nice cute letterpads with envelopes selling in Daiso, those kind I used to send to my japanese penpals in the past.
But now,, NO ONE uses letter pads and envelopes anymore!!!
So forget about the nice personal touch!

We want everything to be fast and easy.
Learn Piano in just 10 lessons!
Wow! i wonder after that 10 lessons, what pieces would you be playing?

Normal music students need to go through the graded exams, to diplomas to degrees,, in total a minimum of 10 years ( if you skip grades and super talented)to learn all they need to learn.. and even then, there's NO END to learning and you just need 10 lessons to play the piano?
so play what?? Definitely not a classical Sonata, nor even a sonatina??
pehaps... some nursery rhymes?

People are always very fascinated and attracted by shortcuts.
Why are you in a hurry to learn something?
Music is a journey, a lifelong companion, you cant just stop at 10 lessons?

Books like,,, Piano lessons made easy,, theory made easy,, all these are very attractive titles. But do they deliver what they promised to deliver?
Im not against the books per se,,, im just concerned about the misleading title of the books.

Frankly,,, anything can be simple,, but simple does not equal EASY!
I can tell you,, "ok, learn up the right notes,, then do the left hand, then combine both hands together".
Sounds simple?? Yes,, but it's NOT easy!
If you are a total beginner, you need time before you learn to play the notes, you need to  know which note to press , what fingering to use, the articulation, and you also need to understand rhythm and to get the feel of the repeated accompaniment.
Even after you have mastered both hands separately,,, TIME is also needed to combine Both hands.

So,, dont be tempted by attractive advertisements which dont make sense.
Cos when you realised you couldnt do it in 10 lessons, you may feel discouraged and think you are not good enough.
So,, BE REALISTIC!!! and DONT Rush to learn something that's close to the heart.

Music involves emotions,, just like you dont take 10 days or 10 sessions to understand a person , how would you take 10 days or 10 lessons to understand music and how to play it??

So..Forget about the time frame,, Just Enjoy the Process!!!

The most important time of music learning is when the child first started.

The 1st impression they get about music depends on the teacher who first introduced them .

The FOUNDATION which they get draws the line between excellent performance and mediocre performance.  

Our Motto:  Excel to Enjoy, and Enjoy to Excel.
               < When you excel, you will get to enjoy more and when you enjoy, you will get to excel >


There are basically 2 types of mentality: < the unbalanced mentality >

1) " I just want my child to learn n take exams ".. and don't really bother whether the child is forced, enjoying their lessons or not,, as long as the child passes the exam, they think they make their money worth.

2) " Oh,, Im not exam oriented ,as long my child  enjoys music , that's good" ..... so, because kids being kids, they don't like to work hard, so to keep the music "fun",, teachers will have to keep the lessons at a very very slow pace, playing only the very easy pieces, and after 5 years, they are still ,,well,, grade 1 !

An EFFECTIVE Piano lesson incorporates BOTH,,, Excellence and Enjoyment!

I believe that you CANT truly Enjoy without having a certain amount of excellence, and you will struggle to Excel without Enjoyment.    

So, Start your child on the RIGHT foot towards a very Effective Piano lessons and give them one of the best gifts in life... MUSIC!!