Category Archives: Students

It’s Never Too Late to… Take Up Piano – Telegraph

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Schubert took piano lessons aged six, but don't let that put you off

Lionel Kelly, 78, may have come late to the piano – he took it up at the age of 73 – but it’s changed his life. “I first heard Mahler performed in London in the mid-50s, when he became very popular over here,” he says. “I’m currently working on a piano transcription of the Adagietta from his Symphony No. 5. It’s a beautiful piece of music, slow and passionate, and was used in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film of Thomas Mann’s novella, Death in Venice. To be able to play Mahler now, all these years later, is a real treat.”

Kelly, formerly director of American Studies at Reading University, practises up to four hours a day. He has lessons in Reading with Janet Sherbourne, whom he describes as “an excellent, if strict, teacher”, and is not taking grades. “Janet reckons I’m somewhere between grade four and five level, but I’m just doing it for pleasure, because I want to learn and play,” he says.

Bach, Beethoven and Mozart are among other composers tackled by Kelly…

Read the entire article at It’s Never Too Late to… Take Up Piano – Telegraph.

Piano Maestro: Two New FREE Valentine’s Songs!

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valentine-joytunes

 

Students will enjoy learning to play smash hit “Sugar” by Maroon 5 and “Dancing Cheek to Cheek” by Fred Astaire just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Each song has multiple versions for all skill levels.

Check out these new songs in the Pop & Rock category in the Library.

Students in the O’Connor Music Studio have free access to Piano Maestro for as long as they are students here.

How Playing An Instrument Benefits Your Brain

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When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout.

What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

 

Read the entire article at http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins

Practicing Piano Exercises

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hanon1

 

These tips work for more than just exercises!

  • Practice each hand separately first.
  • Practice slowly in the beginning (metronome on 60 or less). If you played it easily, and precisely with the metronome, move the tempo up one notch. Continue to practice in this way until you reach your goal speed.
  • Practice with various dynamics. Practice soft, loud and everything in between.
  • As you practice, vary the touch. Play staccato, play legato, and play two-note slurs.
  • Practice in different rhythms.
  • Try to practice Hanon Exercises in  other keys, starting with the white keys (C, D, E, F, G, A, and B) and then going to the black keys (D-flat, E-flat, G-flat,A-flat, and B-flat).
  • And as Charles-Louis Hanon recommends it, practice his exercises by lifting the fingers high and with precision, playing each note very distinctly.

Hanon Exercises

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Most anyone who has ever played piano has a love-hate relationship with the “Hanon” book.

The Virtuoso Pianist (Le Pianiste virtuose) by Charles-Louis Hanon, is a compilation of sixty exercises meant to train the pianist in speed, precision, agility, and strength of all of the fingers and flexibility in the wrists.

First published in Boulogne, in 1873, The Virtuoso Pianist is Hanon’s most well-known work, and is still widely used by piano instructors and pupils although some teachers are getting away from the mechanical playing these can produce.

Personally, I’ve sometimes played these on “auto-pilot” since all one really needs is to get the first pattern going, then move up a step, up a step…

hanon1

 

Notes by C. L. Hanon: Preparatory exercises for the Acquirement of Agility, Independence, Strength and Perfect Evenness in the Fingers. For studying the 20 exercises, begin with the metronome set at 60, gradually increasing the speed up to 108.

The piano industry is slowly going out of tune | Public Radio International

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Vintage TV set isolated on white background with static

 

The piano was once the heart of the home. In 1909, people bought more than 350,000 of the instruments.

“Back in the early 1900s, there were very little forms of entertainment,” says Stephen Scharbrough, a second-generation piano tuner and technician. “It was a time that was pre-radio, so if you wanted entertainment, music, or something to interact with at your house, place of business, or a restaurant or bar, you had to hire a musician or pianist.”

The piano eventually caught on, and individuals learned how to play the piano on their own to entertain themselves. But today, “things have obviously changed a bit since then,” Scarborough says.

The television has adopted the piano’s former role in the modern era, and children are easily entertained with tablets instead of having to practice musical scales. Annual piano sales have dropped to between 30,000 and 40,000.

Instead of serving as the family entertainment center, Scharbrough says pianos are now owned by specific sets of people. “It’s the family that places priority on self-discipline and has a respect for arts and music,” he says.

Read the entire article at The piano industry is slowly going out of tune | Public Radio International.

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What Instrument Should You Learn to Play in 2015?

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Picking which instrument to learn can be a challenge within itself which is exactly why we created this fun quiz!

Just answer 10 questions and we’ll recommend an instrument for you to learn. Happy New Year and Happy Playing!

Take the test here: What Instrument Should You Learn to Play in 2015 | JoyTunes.

 

What I’ve Learned from Taking Piano Lessons as an Adult

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alfred-adult

 

It’s never too late to pick it up again

One of my biggest fears in returning to playing music was that I would have to start over from scratch—which, for me, would mean erasing a decade of lessons I’d absorbed throughout my childhood and adolescence and going back to the very beginning. Thankfully, a lot of what I’d learned came back to me quickly. There were a few times when Bryan would say words like “mixolydian scale” or “dominant chord” and I would stare at him like an infant who was just asked to point at their nose for the first time. But as soon as he would explain it, it would jog my memory and we’d be on our way.

Another thing that I didn’t expect was that studying jazz would require me to learn a whole new vocabulary and deepen my understanding of music theory, and there were moments where the learning curve felt steeper than I remembered. But, much like learning a new language or picking up any other new skill, it just required a little patience and repetition and practice for it to wedge itself into my brain.

Read the entire article at What I’ve learned from taking piano lessons as an adult | Local Current Blog | The Current from Minnesota Public Radio.