Tag: piano teacher

  • The good people

    My son has been drumming all his life. He picked up a pair of sticks, he was three years old. Has never let go since. He’s now fifteen years old. I give him some drum lessons (severely discounted, of course, I can’t afford my own services at full price. Hahaha!). He loves to play. So…

  • Rookie teaching

    When I started teaching I was crazy. No, not crazy as in insane, crazy as uninformed. I thought I was there just to pass on some data. Now, I know I already covered that topic, but bare with me for another sentence or two. I was crazy because, for example, I crammed everything I knew…

  • Iceberg speed

    It is sometimes difficult to make a student (especially a young one) understand the concept of growth. If we start an exercise like one strike per hand, it will take probably a good six month before one is able to reach such speed that it will sound like a continuous buzz, or, to use the…

  • Teaching teenagers

    My business is one that accepts all people. I teach students that are 5 years to 70 years old. In that wide range, there are some categories. The young ones are from 5 to 10 or 11 years old. Then comes the teenagers. These are pupils that are between 11 or 12 years old to…

  • Up to what option?

    As the people who follow this blog know, I have a family band. It’s called “The little G Band”. If I can, I’ll attach a link to our promo video. We usually play concert inside. And usually we invite as many people as possible and we try to deliver as energetic of a show as…

  • Playful technique

    When I first started to teach, I was doing technique a certain way, the way I was taught. At the conservatory or at Berklee, I learnt how to hold a pair of sticks, get some speed, do some combination of stroke, etc. And all of that is fine and great. So, when I got my…

  • What do you want?

    The job of a musician is not a job. I mean that being a musician could be so many thing that there is no such thing as being a musician per say. One can be a producer. One can be a player. A teacher. A promoter (Simon Cowell). A composer. A DJ. A performer (Stomp!).…

  • Party in the plate!

    If you ever watched “Kitchen Nightmare” with Gordon Ramsay, it becomes quickly apparent that although a prompt service is really important in the restaurant business, it is nothing compared to what is in the plate. What about the decor, the music, the atmosphere? Those are a maybe. But the sauce with the twang, the tenderness…

  • Learning from others.

    I have been teaching since 1989. That’s before the dinosaurs. In that time, I’ve always taught drums. Only in the last 12 years have I taught piano. I have been fortunate to be able to explain the different concepts of music to the students who have been asking for my help. I don’t have a…

  • This blog

    I have been writing regularly now for almost 1 full month. I do write a lot. Two blogs a day 5 days a week is no small potatoes. I’m lucky, it comes pretty easy to me. The benefit of this blog is to get out the tons of ideas and concepts that I’ve been using…