Piano Lessons

[crisisady]

Hi, its a dream for me to learn piano since young. And now because i got some savings, i wish to take some piano course to get me going. So any recommendation?

 

[xiaoken]

the usual schools...yamaha, cristofori, all pretty affordable, and with branches situated throughout singapore.

 

[crisisady]

But they say that yamaha abit slow pace right???

 

[alanchia67]

why the hurry? you need to appreciate music and especially piano slowly. else you'll give up easily.

you may as well ask around, how many piano learners are graded with ABRSM under these schools.

 

[xiaoken]

But they say that yamaha abit slow pace right???

Beginning will always be slow, more so that we are adult learners. But its essential you endure the "kids play" part and master the fundamentals. You can always arrange with your teacher to go through pieces faster but it depends on how fast you yourself can master them.

 

[crisisady]

Only certain yamaha music school offer teenage or adult level course??? When i check the website, i cant seems to find any places that offer adult level course...

 

[Zen]

dun have to be adult course... when i started learning, I was 19, the rest of my class all 9 and below.

 

[xiaoken]

I thought all have. Plaza Singapura's branch sure have because i asked before, but its very packed. cannot choose time slots. Alternatively, you can call every listed branch and ask.

 

[crisisady]

hey, i'm also 19! Omg... i cant imagine me sitting in the middle of a class filled with kids. Anyway, is keyboard same as piano?

 

[xiaoken]

hey, i'm also 19! Omg... i cant imagine me sitting in the middle of a class filled with kids. Anyway, is keyboard same as piano?

No. keyboard is not the same.

 

[crisisady]

But keyboard can imitate the sounds of a piano right? Cause i find that actually piano too expensive... So i was thinking of settling with a digital keyboard such as this http://www.yamaha.com.sg/878.html

 

[xiaoken]

But keyboard can imitate the sounds of a piano right? Cause i find that actually piano too expensive... So i was thinking of settling with a digital keyboard such as this http://www.yamaha.com.sg/878.html

The P70, or for that matter, the P series yamaha 'keyboards' are actually digital pianos. They have a full range of 88 keys and weighted keys. Keyboards on the other hand, typically have less then 88 keys and are not weighted, and have a wide variety of instrument sounds. Thats the difference between piano courses and keyboard courses.

The P70 is quite ok for a beginner pianist. I myself own a P60. IIRC, the P70 is $850 from Luthers, which is really affordable. For the sustain pedal, get the FC-4, which looks like the real piano pedal. Its available from yamaha music stores, I got mine for like 7 bucks from the yamaha music store at plaza singapura. It looks like this....

instead of the FC-5, which they will probably bundle in anyway. Cos the FC-5 is a pad switch and is detrimental to learning pedal use. It looks like this...

 

[crisisady]

Oh! Okie. Thanks xiao ken! you have been really helpful ^_^

 

[JungleKing]

Best to enrol in a one to one coaching basis. Some music school provide such arrangement. By the way, the digital piano will not be as responsive in term of key touch as the accoustic piano. Unless you are intending for a higher grade in the future, having a accoustic would be good. Otherwise, just sitck with digital piano (wun be out of tune).

 

[xiaoken]

Best to enrol in a one to one coaching basis. Some music school provide such arrangement. By the way, the digital piano will not be as responsive in term of key touch as the accoustic piano. Unless you are intending for a higher grade in the future, having a accoustic would be good. Otherwise, just sitck with digital piano (wun be out of tune).

Yup....despite advances in the field of digital pianos, the lower end ones just can't perfectly emulate real acoustic pianos. The higher end ones, such as P120 which cost the same as an acoustic, is sufficient for abrsm graded work, but imho, still lacks something when compared to a real acoustic.

I would say, if you reach grade 5, its time to change to a real exam grade acoustic.

 

[crisisady]

Haha. I'm not even grade 1. Actually i wasn't thinking of moving up the grades. I hope that i can learn the basics from school then after that i will start to self learn at home. Practise the songs at home.

 

[alanchia67]

you cant self learn at home - you need guidance in good 'fingering' and 'posture' to point out all your mistakes.

 

[xiaoken]

I think you should have at least get 2-3 years of lessons first. Get the foundation right, train your ear to be good eg. can hear mistakes etc etc, then you can rely on self discovery. Not to mention the fact that few possess the discipline to progress steadily without the pressure of lessons.

Of course it depends on your ultimate goal also. If you're just gonna be a leisure player, you probably don't need constant lessons beyond the beginner years. But if you're gonna be chionging grades and aiming to be play advanced material, like concert pieces, you probably should have a teacher. I would go so far as to say you cannot possibly succeed without one.

 

[crisisady]

Oh i see. Thanks guys~ Really appreciate the advice that you all gave. I'm now scouting for schools that have private tutoring.

 

[unfinished07]

yeah, xiaoken and alanchia are correct, you need to have a teacher, better if personal teacher to help u if you have totally no basics and want to go further. you need to have the foundation, the fingering, posture, how to play scales, the "touch", how to change your playing style to fit diff styles of songs....there are too many technical stuff that you won't be able to learn and u won't be able to pick out your own mistakes by self learning at home, thru internet, and CDs.