Piano help- Lessons, age, suzuki?

S

sea princess

Registered User
Hi
Both my husband and myself are non-musical! However our daughter has been pestering us for at least a year to start piano. We have been waiting until she is 5 years of age. She is about to turn 5 and discussing the piano again! Where do we start - do we rent a piano, do we buy a cheap one that we could always re-sell if she is not that into it? Do we do lessons at home or in a studio? Also, what methods are best for this age? I have heard a lot of people talk about the Suzuki method? Any piano teacher recommendations, we are southside.
Basically, where do we start? Any help would be appreciated.
 
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I am non-musical also. But I think if I we decide later to put our baby in piano lesson, I would probably buy a electric piano instead. It is much cheaper and smaller than a regular piano. Also you can adjust the volume or even use headphone, so the noise would not bother the neighbors and yourself.
 
We struggled with that also while our son was younger. . . both my husband and I have no musical abilities (tone deaf in fact) but my son loved music and kept asking for lessons, but we delayed it until after he was five years old.

We called up a couple of teachers who posted in our resident bulletin board, and most of them can either come to your house if you have a piano, or you can go to their place for the lessons, but that leaves you with the question of what to do for practice sessions.

So we started off with signing up in one of the locally run piano school chains, and I requested for an English speaking teacher. . . I do not understand the different method of piano teachings, however, my goal was just to allow my son to explore music and enjoy it, so I told the teachers that I am not interested in them hammering him with endless theory lessons, but to make the lessons enjoyable.

When we signed up we also got X amount of practice sessions for free, meaning we could go to the school and my son could practice his lessons. This arrangement achieved two things for us, 1. my son had the piano lessons he wanted 2. I did not have to commit to purchasing a piano until my son was really into his lessons, and showed some commitment.

It is now a year later, and we did get a used piano for my son, and we now have a teacher coming to our home for lessons. My goal remains the same, for my son to enjoy his lessons. . . he just gets more theory lessons now along the way (because as the piano teacher explains it, he needs to understand theory in order for him to improve). Hope this helps.
 
HKfornow
That is really useful information, thank you. Our goal is for her to enjoy herself and explore whether she would like to learn, so quite similiar to yourself I suppose?
I will look into the school chains. I have heard Tom Lee offer lessons? May I ask who you went through seeing your son had a positive introduction?
Also, did you buy your piano from a second hand dealer or through classifieds on geoexpat/asiaexpat? I wouldn't know what to look for!
Cheers
 
I would say that if you're starting out, that an electronic full-size (88 keys) keyboard would be best for the reasons that Gataloca mentions above. However, if your daughter decides she's serious, it's definite worth getting a real piano as the recoil action of the keys is very different than that of an electronic keyboard. Just keep your eyes peeled for people moving away, maybe even some from your own building. We gave away our Yamaha baby grand to our neighbors downstairs when we moved away five years ago. Now, we're back with two small children in tow, but we have no room for a piano, so we have a decent Casio Celviano keyboard.

I'm a big fan of the Suzuki method, but I don't know who teaches piano that way here. My son, who's learning Suzuki violin at KinderU on Queen's Road East in Wanchai now also wants to learn piano, but I want to wait for him to finished book 2 on the violin first, as recommended by his violin teacher. I did, however, get the Suzuki piano violin book 1 with CD from the local music store (Parson's, I think) and started having him familiarize himself with the songs as well as the sound of the piano. I was thinking of starting maybe by year-end with him at home and seeing how it goes. Let me know if you do find someone who's willing to teach Suzuki piano at your home. If I don't find someone by year-end, I'll probably start experimenting with teaching my son at home!
 
I did Suzuki as a child, and while I think it is great for developing an ear for music, I also think it has several limitations. a) it can sometimes (depending on how the teacher teaches) limit the reading ability. I was blessed to have a teacher who really pushed reading - but other Suzuki teachers don't... and b) I think it's too much Bach/Mozart/Beethoven and not enough range of different styles and composers. I know that I wish I'd had more training in other styles such as jazz etc...

That said, I think that for a total beginner, particularly children, the Suzuki method is quite good... but if your child is really serious about learning piano, either change to a different method, or make sure that the teacher is filling in the gaps - because it's not "perfect" as far as methods go (in my opinion)... I also wish I'd done grades as well - some teachers do, others don't... I did grades for theory, but not performance. I think I should have...

Anyway, that's my opinion as an adult who learnt Suzuki, looking back on things. I still play piano, but only for my own enjoyment and in church (completely different style to the Bach/Mozart/Beethoven that I learnt as a kid. I practically taught myself. But Suzuki did give me a good ear for music so I'm sure it helped me out a lot, even with it's limitations)
 
Sea Princess,

As my son's kindergarten was in South Horizon before, we went to Lok Wah, but I also inquired at Continental (who seems to have more branches), plus a few others. I have heard of Tom Lee, but their locations did not work for me. In the end I went with who could give me an English speaking teacher with the time slot that I wanted. Keep in mind though, that these places usually cater to local clientele, so the focus would be different, so make sure you talk to the teacher so that he/she is aware of your goal.

We looked around for the piano a bit, via bulletin board, classifieds, etc., we ended up going to a shop in Mong Kok, who had advertised some piano for clearance and we went to check it out, and ended up getting one.

We also debated between the digital piano and the traditional, I was very tempted with the digital since it was cheaper, but I wanted my son to get the real "feel" of the piano (supposedly the sound and the strength needed in which you pound the key is supposed to be different - though I honestly can't tell), so decided to pick up a traditional piano.
 
Dear Nicolejoy

I wish I could play by ear! I learned piano using the traditional method. My last teacher was good about introducing different types of music, but I had no ear for it by then. I just started playing at church, too - I joke that I always played "by sight and not by faith". My husband, who learned Suzuki for violin for 3 years before moving to HK from the States and continued with a traditional teacher was able teach himself to play be ear on the piano, guitar, bass and other string instruments. Honestly, he plays piano for church better than I do and I had 10 years of lessons - aaaaarrggh!
 
My husband learned piano, I think with Yamaha method?? He did grades as well. I think though, my sight reading is better now (although I think that's because I've played more since we stopped having lessons) - although that's NOT from Suzuki, it's from other things that my teacher added in since Suzuki can have that weakness. And funnily enough, I think he has a better ear for music than me too. Sounds a bit back to front!! I think that my hubby probably was much better at piano when we were younger - but then again, he practiced a LOT more than me too... My hubby overall is much more musical than me. He's taught himself flute and guitar so far and wants to learn more instruments as well. I don't know how much of that is our teaching methods, and how much is natural ability...

I don't think that there's a perfect method really, but I think it's wise to know what you want out of it. I do think that sight reading and playing by ear are the two most important skills that you can learn - even more important than technical ability. With those things, you can learn any instrument you want since it's just applying the same principals...
 
Hi Sea Princess

The most important thing is for your daughter to have fun and enjoy learning/playing. It is very important that at her age, her lessons are fun and her enthusiasm does not get killed with learning to read music and too much theory. There are far too many kids who lose interest because they get bogged down in the academic side of learning music.

So when searching for a teacher, the teaching philosophy is for the child to learn to play with one or two hands fairly quickly, learn hand coordination, some musical tunes, lots of singing, clapping and rhythm. IF there are opportunities for group classes, to play music with other children, that would be good also. Not too much emphasis on note-reading, counting and theory at this time. The more serious academic stuff can follow in a year or two.

I am not familiar with the music schools in HK as I have not taught here. (I used to teach music then switched careers to law!) I would guess that many of them are very commercialized and want to push kids through the exam system (grades 1- diploma) as quickly as possible.

You can get an electronic keyboard at the start to save on money and space, however if your daughter is keen and keeps up with the lessons, look for a 2nd hand piano. There are plenty listed on Asiaexpat with people moving in and out of HK and with children learning and losing interest. The traditional piano mechanism will make a child's fingers work harder and strengthen/become nimble as opposed to the electronic keyboard which is very easy to press. MOst of these pianos should be in decent condition.

No comments on Suzuki piano method. I know of the Suzuki violin method which was aimed at getting children to play by ear. However I have seen that method become very mechanical as well for children. It really depends on the teacher you find for your girl to make lessons as fun as possible.
 
Hi Sea Princess,

I agree, your child enjoying the class is the ultimate goal but I remember when I was young, I loved my toy piano and my mum convinced me to go to class so I could play properly. I learned the traditional way at the age of 4 or 5 and just remember feeling frustrated as it was slow and boring. This was partially my impatience most likely but I also think the teacher had alot to do with it too. I remember hating going to class and hating practicing. I ended up doing it for 13 years but didn't really enjoy piano until my last 3 - 4 years when I had a fantastic teacher.

I wanted to learn the violin and begged for lessons. I started learning the violin at 12 using the Suzuki Method and had a fabulous, creative teacher. As I already had a music base, it was much quicker for me to learn as I knew how to read, however, I was amazed at how the first song I played in my first lesson was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! I remember thinking that if I had learnt Suzuki Method with piano, I probably wouldn't have been so frustrated and would've loved my classes more.

I think finding a teacher who makes it fun, who encourages the kids and helps build their confidence is really critical. You can always try either method as I think it also depends on the child's personality and age. If they're easily frustrated at not getting anywhere, perhaps Suzuki is more appropriate.
 
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