Eastwood Piano Lessons – Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to travel anywhere for my piano class?

At Piano Lessons In Your Home, our tutors teach you in your own home, ensuring you don’t waste time stuck in Eastwood traffic to get to your piano classes.

Do your piano teachers come to Eastwood? And on which days of the week?

Please enquire for more information as well as for information on Saturday and Sunday piano classes.

Do I need to own a piano or keyboard?

We know pianos can be out of people’s budgets, that is why a cheaper keyboard is perfectly fine for beginners.

Introductory keyboards are an easy and affordable option for households without a piano.

When do you offer Eastwood piano classes?

We typically offer after school lessons, on weekday afternoons to evenings, our Eastwood piano teachers are very flexible and will always try to accommodate the time that suits you best.

Weekend lessons are also readily available, please enquire for more information.

How old should my child be to begin piano lessons?

Children as young as 5 can begin learning the piano and basic music theory.

Our Eastwood piano tutors are experienced in teaching young children who are complete beginners, and have all the patience and personality needed to encourage your child and give them best start in their musical journey.

What styles of piano music do you teach?

Our Eastwood piano tutors are qualified to teach all styles of music, whether you’re interested in popular, contemporary, classical, jazz, musical theatre or even Nintendocore (yes, this is an actual genre). However, we encourage our students to explore all genres to show them just how interesting the piano can be.

Why enrol my child in one-on-one lessons? Why not Eastwood group  piano lessons?

Group piano classes are a great way for your child to socialise, but that’s about where the perks end. Individual piano tutoring ensure that your child won’t get left behind, and can learn at their own pace.

In personal experience, piano students learning in 1 on 1 lessons progress a lot quicker than students learning in group classes.

Am I too old to start learning to play piano?

NO! There is no set age to start learning a musical instrument, and the best time to start is right this moment – ie Now!

Learn to play your favourite songs, learn how to read music, learn theory, or just about anything you’d like to know about the piano.

Playing the piano is a fun and great way to exercise your creative abilities so don’t just dream about it, start learning.

What are your Eastwood piano tutors qualifications?

Only the best Eastwood piano teachers work with our students.

Our piano teachers:

• highly experienced in teaching all ages and skill levels
• are experienced in playing the piano themselves
• have undergone a NSW Government certified “Working with children” police check
• are very friendly and patient to make students comfortable with learning at their own pace.

Typically students take piano lessons once a week.

But if you just give me a minute of your time, I’ll tell you why that’s often not the best way to go.

I myself consider the best way to answer this question is to look at the best of the best and see how often THEY took classes.

Some of the best pianists in history likely had lessons on a everyday basis. We will frequently find that major writers and pianists came from a musical family and their first teachers were often one of their parents. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven just to name a few had parents who were musicians and possibly gave them day-to-day lessons.

Piano Rehearsal is NOT Adequate

This is how weekly piano lessons should work. The trainer listens to what the student trained in the previous week. The tutor would then give suggestions on how to improve or impart new ideas to develop the new pianist both technically and musically. From there, they may add some practice tips and suggestions on what and how to rehearse in the following week. The student would then practice for a week according to the tutors recommendations and this would carry on from week to week.

Unfortunately this is very rarely the way trainings happen. This all concludes one very crucial thing. That the student in fact trained. Unfortunately more often than not the tutor will appear to a lesson only to find that the student did not practice. Oh no! What does the coach do now? Rehearse with the student of course!

That’s what turns out if the student just did not practice, but unfortunately even if the student DID rehearse this could still be the outcome. Why? Because practicing is tough.

Why Practicing is Challenging

Let’s think about what we’re requesting young children, perhaps as young as 5, to do. The best way to train is to remove all distractions sit down at the piano and sort out on segments of music that the student cannot so far play.

Playing from the start of a piece is more often than not an inefficient use of time. Playing a minor section gradually and precisely is often a requisite of good train. Then recapping it over and over and over. Then they would need to trace a different small section they are not comfortable with and do it once again.

I’m over simplifying here, but the fact is to aid us know how tough that is. How long should practice be? I would be pleased with fifteen minutes from a young child and 30 minutes from an older child. How many 5 year olds do you know that could be attentive well for fifteen minutes without getting unfocused. Or even better, how many adults do you know that could do the same?

And yet coaches anticipate that kind of train every week from their students. Realistically it is rarely if ever going to happen that way. But an exciting thing occurs when the trainer is sitting there. You have the tutor leading the student telling them what they need to practice and how many times to repeat it. The teachers can put right bad habits and incorrect stance. These are things a young child, or even an grown-up would have a tough time doing in a fixated way.

How Frequent Should Lessons Be?

For full effectiveness lessons should be held as often as possible. If a student can afford lessons daily, they’ll develop many multiples sooner than a student having lessons once a week. It’s as straightforward as that. Most of the lessons will be the trainer just practicing with the student. But that practice is absolutely precious.

Realistically

No not many of us can afford to take a lesson daily with their trainer. Not only that, but not everyone needs to become the next Mozart. So deciding how often to take lessons indeed depends on your objectives. Think about exactly what you’re looking for in lessons. Let’s describe some collective goals.

Objectives for Piano Lessons

• Play one certain piece
• Play for my wedding
• Be able to play as a pastime
• Study serious as a lifelong pursuit
• Make it a career

If your goal for piano lessons is just to play one piece, evidently lessons daily really aren’t desirable. You may actually be able to even study on your own!

A piano teacher will continually be supportive and make the music sound the best it can. If budget is an issue though, see if you can trace a tutorial of the piece on YouTube. If you never want to study anything new, then it matters a lot less whether you are playing absolutely correctly or not.

But this all changes if you desire to, or you desire your child to take this indeed sincerely. It doesn’t happen frequently, however I have a few students that would take an hour lesson 3 days a week, and then another hour of music principle for a total of four hours a week of lessons. These students are at all times the best.

You become what you put in. If you don’t take lessons very seriously, you won’t get as much enjoyment out of lessons as if you put your complete emotion into it. As a pianist I can tell you that the happiness that comes from playing beautiful music is boundless. Don’t miss out!