Caringbah Piano Lessons – Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to travel anywhere for my piano lessons?

At Piano Lessons In Your Home, our trainers teach you in your own home, ensuring you don’t waste time stuck in Caringbah traffic to get to your piano class.

Do your piano teachers come to Caringbah? And on which days of the week?

Please touch base for more information as well as for information on Saturday and Sunday piano class.

Do I need to own a piano or keyboard?

We know pianos can be out of people’s budgets, that is why a budget keyboard is perfectly fine for beginners.

Introductory keyboards are an easy and affordable option for households without a piano.

When do you offer Caringbah piano lessons?

We typically offer after school lessons, on weekday afternoons to evenings, our Caringbah piano teachers are very flexible and will always try to accommodate the time that suits you best.

Weekend lessons are also readily available, please enquire for more information.

How old should my child be to begin piano lessons?

Children as young as 5 can begin learning the piano and basic music theory.

Our Caringbah piano teachers are experienced in tutoring young children who are complete beginners, and have all the patience and personality needed to encourage your child and give them best start in their piano journey.

What styles of piano music do you teach?

Our Caringbah piano tutors are qualified to teach all styles of music, whether you’re interested in popular, contemporary, classical, jazz, musical theatre or even Nintendocore (yes, this is an actual genre). However, we encourage our students to explore all genres to show them just how interesting the piano can be.

Why enrol my child in one-on-one lessons? Why not Caringbah group  piano lessons?

Group piano lessons are a great way for your child to socialise, but that’s about where the perks end. Individual piano classes ensure that your child won’t get left behind, and can learn at their own pace.

In personal experience, piano students learning in individual lessons progress a lot quicker than students learning in group classes.

Am I too old to start learning to play piano?

NO! There is no set age to begin learning a musical instrument, and the best time to start is right this moment – ie Now!

Learn to play your favourite songs, learn how to read music, learn theory, or just about anything you’d like to know about the piano.

Playing the piano is a fun and great way to exercise your creative abilities so don’t just dream about it, start learning.

What are your Caringbah piano tutors qualifications?

Only the best Caringbah piano teachers work with our students.

Our piano teachers:

• highly experienced in teaching all ages and skill levels
• are experienced in playing the piano themselves
• have undergone a NSW Government certified “Working with children” police check
• are very friendly and patient to make students comfortable with learning at their own pace.

Typically students take piano courses once a week.

However if you just give me a minute of your time, I’ll tell you why that’s often not the best way to go.

I myself think the best way to response to this enquiry is to look at the best of the best and see how often THEY took lessons.

Some of the best pianists in history likely had lessons on a everyday basis. We will frequently find that key authors and pianists came from a musical background and their first tutors were frequently one of their parents. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven just to name a few had parents who were musicians and possibly gave them daily lessons.

Piano Practice is NOT Enough

This is how weekly piano lessons should work. The teacher listens to what the student trained in the previous week. The teacher would then give suggestions on how to develop or teach new ideas to improve the young pianist both technically and musically. From there, they may add some training tips and suggestions on what and how to rehearse in the succeeding week. The student would then train for a week according to the trainers recommendations and this would continue from week to week.

Sadly this is very rarely the way trainings happen. This all concludes one very important thing. That the student in fact practiced. Sadly more often than not the tutor will come to a lesson only to find that the student did not practice. Oh no! What does the tutor do now? Rehearse with the student of course!

That’s what turns out if the student just did not rehearse, but sadly even if the student DID rehearse this might still be the outcome. Why? Because practicing is difficult.

Why Practicing is Challenging

Let’s think about what we’re requesting young children, perhaps as young as 5, to do. The best way to rehearse is to take out all distractions sit down at the piano and work on parts of music that the student cannot so far play.

Playing from the start of a presentation is more often than not an inefficient use of time. Playing a small segment gradually and correctly is often a requisite of good rehearse. Then repeating it over and over and over. Then they would want to trace one more small section they are not comfortable with and do it once again.

I’m finished making things easier here, but the fact is to help us realise how tough that is. How long should rehearse be? I would be pleased with fifteen minutes from a young child and 30 minutes from an elder child. How many 5 year olds do you know that could focus effectively for fifteen minutes without getting unfocused. Or even better, how many grown-ups do you know that could do the same?

And yet teachers expect that style of practice every week from their students. Realistically it is rarely if ever going to happen that way. But an interesting thing occurs when the coach is sitting there. You have the teacher leading the student telling them what they need to rehearse and how many times to repeat it. The trainers can put right bad habits and incorrect stance. These are things a young child, or even an adult would have a tough time doing in a focused way.

How Frequent Should Lessons Be?

For full success lessons should be held as frequent as feasible. If a student can afford lessons everyday, they’ll advance many multiples earlier than a student taking lessons once a week. It’s as easy as that. Most of the lessons will be the tutor just rehearsing with the student. But that practice is absolutely invaluable.

Realistically

No not many of us can have enough money to take a lesson everyday with their teacher. Not only that, but not every person needs to become the next Mozart. So determining how often to take lessons really varies on your goals. Think about exactly what you’re looking for in lessons. Let’s define some common ambitions.

Ambitions for Piano Lessons

• Play one specific piece
• Play for my wedding
• Be able to play as a hobby
• Study serious as a all-time pursuit
• Make it a profession

If your ambitions for piano lessons is just to play one piece, clearly lessons everyday really aren’t needed. You may really be able to even study on your own!

A piano coach will continually be supportive and craft the music sound the best it can. If budget is an problem though, see if you can discover a tutorial of the piece on YouTube. If you never want to learn anything different, then it matters a lot less whether you are playing absolutely correctly or not.

But this all changes if you want to, or you want your kid to take this indeed honestly. It doesn’t occur often, but I have a few students that would take an hour lesson three days a week, and then additional hour of music theory for a total of 4 hours a week of lessons. These students are always the finest.

You become what you put in. If you don’t take lessons very honestly, you won’t get as much enjoyment out of lessons as if you put your whole heart into it. As a pianist I can tell you that the joy that comes from playing beautiful music is boundless. Don’t miss out!