Heathcote Piano Lessons – Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to travel anywhere for my piano classes?

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

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

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

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 homes without a piano.

When do you offer Heathcote piano lessons?

We typically offer after school lessons, on weekday afternoons to evenings, our Heathcote 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 Heathcote piano tutors are experienced in teaching 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 Heathcote 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 Heathcote group  piano lessons?

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

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

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 Heathcote piano tutors qualifications?

Only the best Heathcote 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.

Usually students take piano lessons once a week.

But 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 personally believe the best approach to answer this enquiry is to look at the best of the best and see how often THEY took lessons.

Some of the best pianists in the past likely had lessons on a everyday basis. We will often find that main composers and pianists came from a musical upbringing and their earliest trainers were often one of their parents. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven just to name a few had parents who were musicians and likely gave them daily lessons.

Piano Training is NOT Enough

This is how weekly piano lessons should work. The teacher listens to what the student practiced in the previous week. The teacher would then give recommendations on how to improve or impart new ideas to improve the new pianist both technically and musically. From there, they may add some practice tips and suggestions on what and how to practice in the following week. The student would then train for a week according to the coaches recommendations and this would carry on from week to week.

Unfortunately this is very rarely the way lessons happen. This all assumes one very crucial thing. That the student in fact practiced. Unfortunately more often than not the trainer will appear to a lesson only to find that the student did not practice. Oh no! What does the coach do now? Train with the student of course!

That’s what takes place if the student just did not train, but sadly even if the student DID practice this might still be the result. Why? Because practicing is difficult.

Why Practicing is Challenging

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

Playing from the beginning of a presentation is more often than not an unproductive use of time. Playing a minor segment slowly and precisely is often a requisite of good practice. Then repeating it over and over and over. Then they would want to trace one more minor section they are not comfortable with and do it once more.

I’m over simplifying here, but the fact is to aid us realise how tough that is. How long should practice be? I would be happy with 15 minutes from a young child and 30 minutes from an older child. How many 5 year olds do you know that could concentrate well for 15 minutes without getting distracted. Or even better, how many grown-ups do you know that could do the same?

And yet trainers expect that kind of rehearse every week from their students. Realistically it is seldom if ever going to happen that way. But an interesting thing happens when the tutor is sitting there. You have the tutor leading the student telling them what they need to train and how many times to repeat it. The tutors can put right bad habits and improper pose. These are things a young child, or even an adult would have a challenging time doing in a determined way.

How Frequent Should Lessons Be?

For full success lessons should be held as often as feasible. If a student can afford lessons day-to-day, they’ll progress many multiples earlier than a student taking lessons once a week. It’s as easy as that. Most of the lessons will be the coach just practicing with the student. But that train is undeniably invaluable.

Realistically

No not many of us can afford to take a lesson everyday with their teacher. Not only that, but not every person needs to become the next Mozart. So deciding how frequent to take lessons indeed depends on your goals. Think about exactly what you’re looking for in lessons. Let’s outline some collective goals.

Ambitions for Piano Lessons

• Play one exact piece
• Play for my wedding
• Be able to play as a pastime
• Study serious as a all-time pursuit
• Make it a job

If your ambitions for piano lessons is just to play one piece, evidently lessons daily really aren’t desirable. You may actually be able to even learn on your own!

A piano trainer will at all times be ready to lend a hand and create the music sound the best it can. If budget is a problem though, see if you can find a lesson of the piece on YouTube. If you never desire to study anything else, then it matters a lot less whether you are playing absolutely correctly or not.

However this all changes if you desire to, or you desire your child to take this indeed honestly. It doesn’t occur often, however I have a few students that would take an hour lesson 3 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 seriously, you won’t get as much satisfaction out of lessons as if you put your entire emotion into it. As a pianist I can tell you that the pleasure that arises from playing captivating music is boundless. Don’t miss out!