Tag: piano teacher

This is a very good question. Every beginner I know, whether they are 6 or 66 years old, want to know how long it’ll take before they are able to play what they want to play on the piano. If I give a cookie cutter answer, I’d say that with a little practice and a…

PART 2 For the drums, it’s a bit different than for the piano (See part 1). But not for the worse. Read on! So many drummers do not pursue their passion because they can’t fit a full drum set in their apartment. This can be a real concern for students taking piano and drum lessons…

PART 1 After having made up your mind and decided that you will pursue piano or drum lessons in Chicago, and after taking a few lessons to strengthen your determination, you still don’t have an instrument. Sometimes, you don’t even have the room in your home to welcome a drum set or a piano. Does…

I’ll give you the first three,  starting with the third one. Manu Katché is French.  He’s the only one that has achieved long lasting international stardom among the drummers who comes from my country. He was the main drummer on the seminal Peter Gabriel album “So”. He did “Sledgehammer” or “In your eyes”. Yes,  that’s…

The difference would be in the sound, the budget and the taste. Any good old piano,  upright,  grand or electronic (with 88 weighted keys) will do for practice. I have plenty of students that do just that and it works great. But I advise a good grand piano for performance if you can afford one.…

There are all kinds of students. And, from the novice to the pro, I seem to get the whole catalog. But– the truly fascinating ones are the ones who claim to have no rhythm. These are the special cases, and they often seek piano and drum lessons in Chicago to break through their self-doubt. What…

I am about to touch on a taboo subject. Something that musicians do not talk about usually. A lot of my colleagues, drum teachers or gigging drummers practice that taboo on a regular basis. The course of their life goes something like this. At two, while listening to music, their face lights up and they…

3 months.  Maybe 6 months. On drums,  within the first 4 lessons,  one should be able to play along a bunch of songs. On piano,  depending on the style of music,  a month of moderate practice would give the player the chord progression of a few tunes, maybe even the basis of improvisation and enough…

A lot of aspiring professionals come to see me.  They usually are people who have been on the scene for awhile.  They have tried different ways to break through,  they haven’t been able to make satisfying progress.  So they are in my studio hoping to get a new approach. First thing: they talk, I listen.…