Making Music – It’s NOT Just for Children Anymore

Recently, the "analytics" for this blog revealed that the topic of most interest to readers was the question of taking piano lessons as an adult. Regular readers already know that I personally ONLY teach adults so perhaps you can call me an expert, perhaps just someone with a lot of experience. At any rate, allow me to present an article I recently submitted to a local newspaper which deals quickly and concisely with the subject of adult piano lessons.

Making Music – It’s NOT Just for Children Anymore

I’m a piano instructor. I know you’re thinking of the older lady down the block who augments her pension with piano lessons for unwilling children. I, however, am different. I only teach adult students: doctors, accountants, businessmen, retirees, housewives - folks just like you. I make a full time living at this because, you see, music lessons and making music are NOT just for children anymore.

Music: “Good for What Ails Ya”

We all love music and we use it for all sorts of things. Americans have music to fit every mood, and with CD’s and ipod’s, getting “our music” has never been easier. We use it to pep up, to calm down, to inspire, and to sell products. But if it’s so easy to be a consumer of music, why would anyone in this busy, busy world want to invest time, money, and energy to learn to make music for ourselves and become a producer?

This is Your Brain on Music

Last year’s book This is Your Brain on Music helps answer this question. It’s author, Daniel Levitin, left a topflight career as a Hollywood recording engineer to pursue a doctorate in neurobiology. His focus, naturally, was music and the brain. In the book’s Introduction, the author makes this point, “Music listening, performance, and composition engage nearly every area of the brain that we have so far identified, and involves nearly every neural subsystem.”

Something New Under the Sun: The ADULT Music Student

For this article I surveyed the literature of piano instruction and found nothing tailored to adults published earlier than 1964. However, the field has really bloomed in the last few years as our huge generation of baby boomers finds time to pursue new activities. Add to this longer active lifespans and you get a whole new set of eager music students!

Aren’t You Too Old – I Mean Really?”

Many adult students start out thinking that children pick up music much more easily than they do but my experience says otherwise. After all, adults already know music, having enjoyed it all their lives. They don’t need music lessons, just training on how to make music with their instrument of choice. Adult music students have longer attention spans, full sized hands, and motivation that doesn’t waver with the first hardship. You can see why the “convention wisdom” is wrong.

The Big Stopper: Time

Surprisingly, age and talent have little effect on enjoying learning to make music. The big stopper for adults is simply time - time to take lessons, time to practice, and time to enjoy playing for the sheer joy of making music. If an adult can make the time to learn to play music for their own enjoyment (and that of friends and family) then chances are they’ll succeed in improving the quality of their lives.

Success!

I asked a couple of my students to tell their tales.

Dick, a 44 year old Pharmaceutical Rep, says, “I have been taking piano lessons for ten years. Playing the piano is very fulfilling, not only for me but for my family and friends as well. It has added much enjoyment to our lives. The emotion one has from sitting down at the piano and playing a beautiful piece is very rewarding. “

Lois, a retiree, told me, “It’s been a little over two years since I began taking keyboard lessons. My purpose in taking up the keyboard was to play for my own enjoyment and that is exactly what has happened. In addition to that, every lesson has proved to be enjoyable as well as fruitful.”

Dan Starr
Piano/Keyboard Instruction and Instruction Manuals
Beautiful Piano/Keyboard CDs
www.danstarr.com

Taking the Pressure Off #3: What's Really Important

(In this series of essays, I've been making another run at making you piano students more comfortable taking a lesson, playing for teacher, etc. It's worth doing, since this is often the factor that discourages needed training.

Speaking of training, every important thing I've learned in 20 full years of teaching adult students is explained in detailed but highly enjoyable style in my book How to WIN at Piano Lessons: Successful Piano Instruction Strategies for Non-Mozarts. This is an "e-book" which you download to your computer RIGHT NOW (well, after purchase, of course) so you can start reading and improving your success at practice and lessons RIGHT NOW! You can sample the book by reading the entire first chapter FREE by clicking here. http://danstarr.com/pdfs/Piano_Lessons_chapt1.pdf
Then, if you like what you read, click here to read The Table of Contents and buy either with your credit/debit card or via paypal. Either way, the transaction is secure.)
http://danstarr.com/pages/piano_lessons.html

Piano students usually begin lessons with several mistaken ideas of what is important. Having these ideas, and wishing to be good students, serious students, they then focus their attention on the wrong aspects of practicing and performing at the piano. This makes for problems in playing and, most importantly, in the enjoying the process of learning to play. Thus, it is very useful to discuss what is important and what is merely nice. Please be advised that I'm serious in making some serious points and if this is too serious and may offend, don't read further.

1. The most important thing in playing a song is enjoying the process of learning it. If you just can't enjoy the action of learning a new song, then you are probably not cut out to be a pianist. Maybe y0u would enjoy the guitar more. Or the flute. Or painting with oils. Or watching football and eating wings. Luckily, all it takes to enjoy the process of learning a new song is adjusting your own attitude.

You do this by realizing that working on your hobby is supposed to be fun. We say that we "play" the piano rather than "work" the piano for a very good reason. Not that we don't put lots of effort into the job, but that's the way it is with your favorite hobby.

Of course, it is possible that you have incompetent instruction that has been designed to make you fail or to turn a pleasant experience into drudgery. Like, for instance, the lady I spoke with recently. She took piano from her sister-in-law, a symphony musician. Poor lady. Her relative saw fit to assign her 6 months of scales before ever giving her the chance to actually play a song. This is just the worst sort of foolishness, on both their parts, the teacher by being a fool to not recognize her student's actual interests and help her with those, and the student for putting up with this silliness for six months.

2. In performing a song (notice that word "performing" which is VERY different than "practicing"), the most important thing is keeping a steady beat. Notice some more things I didn't say. I didn't say how fast to play the thing. I didn't say that you must not miss any notes.

Let's get this totally straight. The foundation, the basis, the first principle of music is RHYTHM, not MELODY. A bunch of notes in a melody, a tune, sounded with no particular rhythm is NOT music, but rather your cat walking across the keys. (To be clear, this idea about the nature of music is the consideration of all the people I personally have ever played for, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 over 40 years. Maybe there are a few out there who think otherwise.)

This is sooooooo important I just can't tell you. Almost every student I've ever had did not understand this point. Let me talk on it some more, in fact, finish out this essay on this point - it is that important.

When you perform a song, the expectation of every single human I've ever met is that you start at the beginning, set a pace, stick to it, and go straight on through to the end. It actually doesn't even matter if the person listening has ever heard the song. The one thing all music (which the vast majority of humans consider to be music) has in common is the steadiness of progress, that is, the beat. Anyone who is living can tell if the beat isn't steady, even if the melody is unfamiliar.

So, if your intention is to perfrom a song, then you start, ride right over every mistake, and process on to the end. You do NOT stop at a wrong note, correct it and move on.

Do you honestly think that professional pianists never hit a wrong note? Please. Let's be real here. We pros miss notes all the time. We don't like it, we try to not do it, but it's inevitable. What do we do? We ignore it and move on. Professionals realize that a missed note is a minor annoyance while a missed beat is a fatal error.

Please realize that I'm describing PERFORMING, not PRACTICE. Practice is where you do correct notes, and not just once and move on. Missing a note, you stop, figure out what went wrong EXACTLY, and then make the needed adjustment and got OVER and OVER that correct action until it is hardwired in place. Only then do you move on.

But that's practice. I'm speaking of performance, which is what the student does when they "play their song for the teacher."

For pity's sake, quit obsessing on your missed notes. Are you such a control freak that you think you will never miss any notes, or that such mistakes are earth-shattering? If so, then you have some other problems not related to the piano. I suggest therapy.

If that seems harsh, just realize that I do this weekly blog free to help piano students. Helping doesn't include dishonest assessment. It's a kind of tough love deal and if my words on control apply to you, you would be well advised to do something about it, both for the sake of your piano training and your life in general.

Dan Starr
Piano/Keyboard Instruction and Instruction Manuals
Beautiful Piano/Keyboard CDs
www.danstarr.com

Taking the Pressure Off #2: "I Played So Much Better at Home!"

Oh, for a lousy nickel for every time I've heard this line....

In this post I present an essay from my book (pictured at left.) You really should have a copy if you are a pianist or piano student. Click the link "My Instructional Books" at the top right of this page.

To most students it's their final exam, a matter of "do or die." It's where they show that authority figure, their piano teacher, that they have been good and practiced the way they should. Who knows? If they do well in the exam, maybe they'll get a good grade and a pat on the head! Or a sticker to put in their book!

I'm making jokes here, but the way most students feel before and during each week's lesson is none too funny. The vast majority feels some degree of "performance anxiety" and some few are almost crippled with it. Indeed, one of the goals of most students is to feel relaxed while playing for teacher.

This does happen eventually, sometimes in mere weeks, sometimes after months or even years. The patience and support that any decent teacher continues to provide helps the student get over their anxiety - given time.

In the meanwhile, however, the teacher may be going totally insane, hearing student after student say that famous line, "I played this better at home. Really!" And the student many times is secretly afraid that the teacher thinks they are lying or making excuses.

Let me set your mind at ease. I know for a fact that you DO play better at home. After all, it's your turf and your mind and hands know exactly what to expect, since it's your instrument. Plus, you're relaxed, since the mean piano teacher isn't there! Of course you are going to play better. Plus, I can tell if you've "done your homework." The improvements you've made since last week are obvious to me as you play your pieces. Quit worrying. I believe you!

Let me also take another stab at changing your idea of "success at my music lesson." To most students, perhaps all, this means that you come in, sit down, and play your pieces perfectly. If this was my standard for success, I would make sure that every piece I assigned was simple enough that you could master it completely and play it perfectly no matter the situation. You'd always play perfectly every single lesson - and you'd never advance an inch.

Now hear this!!! The only thing I'm looking for is improvement in your basic skills as a pianist. Have these improved since the last time I saw you? Excellent. You are a success. As a professional pianist and professional piano teacher, I know that if you keep making such improvements you will become the pianist you want to be. Whether you play perfectly in lesson is not the real goal. Whether you play better at home is not relevant. STEADY IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR PIANO SKILLS IS THE ROAD TO COMPLETE SUCCESS. My task is putting you on this road and keeping you moving.

Now how do I judge these improvements, your movements along the road to success? I observe how they hold up under the stress of the lesson! For this reason, I think of lessons not as a "final exam" but as a "stress test." That's right! Rather than be dismayed by the stress you experience when playing for me, I make use of that stress to help you progress as a pianist!

Consider for a moment the creation of a new automobile. After the designers get through, the company will manufacture a few and put them through their paces to see if the designers got it right. Does the car hold up in practice or just look good on the drawing board? For example, do its doors open correctly? And will they continue to open as the years go by? This is where the "stress test" comes in. The auto will be hooked up to a machine which opens and closes the doors, over and over, literally thousands of times. Will the hinges stand up? Will the door windows shatter? Only the stress test will tell. This test is actually designed to stress out that part much, much more than normal usage. If it's going to fail, it should fail at the factory where it can be redesigned and made totally safe for normal usage.

Can you see how this applies to your weekly lesson? Sure, you are stressed. That's good! I'll say it again. The point of lessons is NOT to play your song perfectly for the teacher, but to evaluate how well your basic skills are coming along and thus what to assign next. Your stress in the lesson demonstrates your improvement. A basic skill learned thoroughly and completely will NOT falter under stress. A skill only moderately mastered most certainly WILL. Such half-learned skills need more work, a fact I absolutely must know so I can assign further effort. Simply put, you can't fix what you don't know is broken!

Think of it this way - if you can only play well under the best of conditions (fully relaxed, on your own piano, neither tired, hungry, sick, distracted, worried, etc.) then most of the time you can't play well at all! Your lifelong enjoyment of playing the piano depends utterly on your thorough mastery of basic skills, not so-so renditions on "a good day." Thus, the stress test that is a piano lesson is the surest way to evaluate the actual state of your knowledge and skill. Your stress serves a very, very valuable and necessary purpose, unpleasant as it may be.

Dan Starr
Piano/Keyboard Instruction and Instruction Manuals
Beautiful Piano/Keyboard CDs
www.danstarr.com

Taking the Pressure Off #1: Expectations

One of the chief reasons a piano teacher is valuable to the adult student is to provide pep talks and reasonable expectations. Sadly, many students' expectations are fairly UNreasonable (thus the need for pep talks and objectivity from the teacher!) I'd like to speak to this unreasonable-ness as a way of making your journey with the piano easier on the emotions! To do this, I'm going to cover some unreal student expectations and provide much needed reality-based....well, REALITY!

1. "I'm a smart person (business owner, well off financially, raised several children, have advanced degrees, etc) but I'm not getting this piano stuff rapidly. Maybe I just don't have much musical talent."

Folks, it doesn't matter how smart your BRAIN is because it's your HANDS that play the piano. I've been saying this until I'm weary, but it must always be repeated. The BODY plays the piano. Yes, the mind guides it, but are your hands and fingers anywhere near as smart at your mind? Of course not. They are body parts, NOT the center of awareness, the creative artist, the thinker. Hands are about as smart as a dog. Some hands are Jack Russell Terriers. Others are big dumb mutts. All are dogs, however, and it takes quite a number of repetitions for them to learn a new trick. So quit blaming your brain for the stupidity of your hands. And read my essay in the archives here, February 2007 "Hands are Lazy (and Stupid!)"

2. "I should be progressing faster."

Oh, yeah? According to what standard? How many adults have you known that have studied piano? How fast did they go? And how much time did they put into it? And how interested were they really? And what was the quality of their instruction and instructor? Notice how little actual information you have to make such a determination. Would you make such a "judgment call" in your own profession or field of expertise based on so little real data? I hope not. This is one of the areas in which you have to choose a competent, experienced piano instructor and then trust his/her judgment. An honest instructor will inform you with straightforward language if something is wrong, as well as educate you regarding how to "pick up the pace." Choose the right teacher and then quit worrying norms and standards.

These are the two "biggies" that lie at the heart of most other unreasonable expectations. But perhaps I've missed a couple. Do you, dear reader, have some thought that troubles your piano playing life? Some nagging worry that interferes with your enjoyment of learning to play? Let me know with a comment and perhaps we can put it to rest.
Dan Starr
Piano/Keyboard Instruction and Instruction Manuals
Beautiful Piano/Keyboard CDs
www.danstarr.com