Showing posts with label Teach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teach. Show all posts

Monday, 16 May 2011

The Three-Step Guide on How to Teach Piano

It is undeniably true that music is food to everybody's soul. For some, music isn't only a food to their soul - it is that thing which brings food to their tables.

Teaching to play the piano isn't as easy as what we see with our eyes so to actually earn a living out of it is yet another challenge. Piano teachers shouldn't only be good and skillful but patient enough to aid students' learning. To be an effective piano teacher, take note of these easy steps on how to teach piano lessons to your students.

Step 1: Decisions to be made

Together with your student, decide on how many piano lessons you want to teach and learn together. Usually, each session is up to thirty minutes a day especially when the student is a beginner. Decide how much you will charge your client. If you are new, it is recommended that your charge will be lower than what other piano teachers are offering. Another essential thing to decide on is the venue for the lessons. You may do it in your place or in your student's place just as long as there are minimal disturbances as possible.

Step 2: How to teach Piano without being hard on students

First meetings can be awkward to both teacher and student so take time to build rapport and earn your students' trust - this will pave the way to easily get the desired results and will surely ease the steps on how to teach piano to students. Be sure to keep reminding your students these essential things to ease the way to learning to play the piano. Before actually teaching the first piece, let your students be familiar with the keyboard - let them know the names and the location of each note. And then teach them the right way to aesthetically maneuver their fingers on the keyword for them to look pleasing while playing the piano.

Step 3: Don't rush!

Above anything else, keep encouraging your students to practice every day and give them enough time to learn. Different students have different pacing so don't be hard on your students and just be patient.

To be gifted in playing a musical instrument is good but to be able to earn the skills on how to teach piano is better - you don't merely teach music but you provide music as food to another person's soul.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Teach Yourself Guitar - 5 Amazingly Easy Steps For Newbies

Before you teach yourself guitar, there are 3 main things that you have to take into consideration.

The first and most important consideration is to find or buy your own guitar. If you do not have cash yet, you can borrow first but try to get some part-time work to save enough to buy your very own guitar. If you do not mind, you can always get a used guitar since you are just a beginner. You can borrow a guitar the 1st few weeks but it is recommended that you have your own guitar so that you will be able to learn faster. When you use the guitar so often, it will naturally see some signs of exhaustion. Therefore if you use a used guitar, you won't feel so sad to see your brand new old getting a bit old so soon.

The next thing you have to consider is choosing the right guitar to play with. This would be depend on you own preference. Which type of songs do you like to play? Are you the sensitive type and prefer to play ballads rather than playing pop or rock songs? Many guitarists started playing the acoustic guitar before going on to bass or electric guitar. Acoustic guitar is easily available in the music shop with various brand such as Ibanez or Taylor Acoustic Guitar and it is more flexible in the sense that you can play it anytime, anywhere you want to and even on American Idol.

The 3rd consideration is to find someone to listen to you. It will be easier if you have someone who can support you and to give you their honest opinion on how well you are playing the guitar even though the truth might sometimes hurt you. This will fast track your effort to teach yourself guitar. It will be a plus point if he is an experienced guitar player so that he can correct your techniques and give you tips on how to improve your techniques which books and online tutorials can't.

Once you have that in place, you can now start to learn strumming the guitar. Can you teach yourself guitar strumming? Is that possible? Of course, just use Goggle and YouTube for free resources for a start.

1. You have found the right guitar. Place the guitar in a comfortable position. It would be easier if you are sitting down and then rest the base of the guitar on your right thigh. Use your left fingers to support the other end of the strings and for tuning and changing the notes. Your right hand fingers is used for strumming and plucking. This will create the proper body positioning. Try to maintain a good posture and also a comfortable position to avoid straining your muscles.

2. Put the notes and books in front of you and follow each step carefully. You need to be familiar with all the basic chords and then try to memorize them. Try to play slowly and focus on the easier basic chords first. Once you know the basic ones, then you can go on to the harder ones which contain frets and power chords.

3. Choose some easy songs to play on the guitar. It would be good to choose songs which repeats only four or five easy chord sequences. A good example is You and Me by Lifehouse. It consists of just four chords namely G, C, E- minor, and D which is repeated.

4. While you are playing the guitar, you can also sing along or hum together. This will help you to get into the mood and be a source of inspiration and staying close to the correct melody. As you sing, you will notice whether you are strumming the right chords or if you have gone out of tune.

5. Take your time. Never give up on yourself. You need to be persistent although you feel like giving up sometimes. Do no worry if you see blisters on your fingers, it shows that you have been practising hard.

Rome was not built in one day and so it will take time to teach yourself guitar. If you persist, you will master it in no time. Playing guitar is not hard if you are persistent and have a positive attitude.