Why Piano Lessons First
Why Piano Lessons
We believe that piano lessons are the best music lessons to start out with. We get asked all the time about young students wanting to learn other instruments and we always always always recommend them to start off with the piano and then move on to other lessons like guitar lessons or voice lessons. Before we get to why, lets talk about what a music lesson is.
Music Lessons
A music lesson in essence is the learning of an instrument (your voice also counts as an instrument!). Within a music lesson, you can learn how to play an instrument, how to read music, understand theory of music, songwriting, composition, ear-training, performing, stage etiquette, and much more.
Private Music Lessons vs Group
Music lessons are usually either in group or one-on-one settings. At Grant Park Music, we provide one-on-one private music lessons for our students because we believe that the attention an individual student gets makes all the difference in their progress. We’ve tried group lessons and outside of the logistical nightmare of scheduling come the problem of pairing students. In order to run a successful group class, all students must be at a similar level and not only that but also progress at the same level. You will find that in school, orchestras, bands, and choruses deal with this problem all the time. The class can only progress at the slowest students’ pace. This means your advanced student cannot grow and is bottle necked. The second problem is class size and duration; there just isn’t enough time to help fix each individual student’s problem. This is why private lessons are hands down the best type of lessons if you are looking to progress. Now that is not to say that a group class is not valuable, playing with other musicians is a very important part of becoming a pro, but this comes after years of study when students are at a higher level of proficiency.
Piano - The Foundational Instrument
Piano is one of the greatest instruments to start from. Many public schools will start with the recorder, and that is more for convenience – portability and cost. The recorder will help very beginner students learn the notes and the basics of sight-reading. However, the piano or keyboard would be the best first instrument. With beginner piano lessons, students can be taught how to read music and understand theory of music much more efficiently. This is in part due to the technical side of learning piano. When you start with the guitar, you have to learn how to sit, how to hold the guitar, how to get your fingers to go where you want them (not to mention with BOTH hands), and then the many chord formations ALL on top of learning how to read music. With piano lessons, most of that can also be true, but at a beginner level you are only having to be concerned with using one hand, and pressing down on one note at a time. This frees up the student to concentrate more on training their eyes and ears on how to read music and hear the different notes and chords.
After a student gets to a more proficient level of reading music, we would then continue into more advanced piano techniques OR move over to another instrument such as guitar, violin, saxophone, or even voice. With the knowledge of music mechanics and theory behind them, the student is in a much better position to learn their new instrument and in most cases will learn much faster than their non-piano playing counterpart.
Next Steps...
So if you’re looking for a first instrument to start with, we highly recommend looking at piano lessons.
Come give us a try at Grant Park Music and we’ll find the teacher that is best for you!