Heckenberg Piano Lessons – Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to travel anywhere for my piano class?

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

Do your piano teachers come to Heckenberg? 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 ok for beginners.

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

When do you offer Heckenberg piano classes?

We typically offer after school lessons, on weekday afternoons to evenings, our Heckenberg 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 Heckenberg piano tutors are experienced in teaching young children who are complete beginners, and have all the patience and personality needed to engage your child and give them best start in their piano journey.

What styles of piano music do you teach?

Our Heckenberg piano teachers 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 1 on 1? Why not Heckenberg group  piano classes?

Group piano tutoring are a great way for your child to socialise, but that’s about where the perks end. Private piano tutoring 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 tutoring.

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 Heckenberg piano tutors qualifications?

Only the best Heckenberg 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.

Normally students take piano classes 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 consider the best way to response to this question is to look at the best of the best and see how often THEY took classes.

Some of the best pianists in the olden times likely had lessons on a daily basis. We will often find that major authors and pianists came from a musical experience and their first coaches 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 must work. The coach listens to what the student trained in the previous week. The coach would then give ideas on how to develop or explain new ideas to develop the new pianist both technically and musically. From there, they may add some training tips and recommendations on what and how to rehearse in the following week. The student would then train for a week according to the coaches suggestions and this would continue from week to week.

Unfortunately this is very rarely the way trainings happen. This all assumes one very crucial thing. That the student actually trained. Sadly more often than not the tutor will appear to a lesson only to discover that the student did not rehearse. Oh no! What does the tutor do now? Train with the student of course!

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

Why Practicing is Tough

Let’s think about what we’re asking young children, perhaps as young as 5, to do. The best way to train is to remove all diversions sit down at the piano and work on segments of music that the student cannot yet play.

Playing from the beginning of a piece is more often than not an unproductive use of time. Playing a small section bit by bit and accurately is often a requirement of good rehearse. Then recapping it over and over and over. Then they would want to trace a different minor section they are not happy with and do it once more.

I’m finished making things easier here, but the point is to aid us realise how challenging that is. How long should rehearse be? I would be happy with 15 minutes from a young child and 30 minutes from an elder child. How many five year olds do you know that could focus well for fifteen minutes without getting diverted. Or even better, how many grown-ups do you know that could do the same?

And yet coaches expect that kind of rehearse every week from their students. Realistically it is seldom if ever going to happen that way. But an exciting thing occurs when the tutor is sitting there. You have the trainer leading the student telling them what they need to practice and how many times to repeat it. The teachers can put right bad habits and improper stance. These are things a young child, or even an grown-up would have a tough time doing in a fixated way.

How Often Should Lessons Be?

For maximum effectiveness lessons should be held as often as possible. If a student can afford lessons daily, they’ll develop many multiples faster than a student taking lessons once a week. It’s as simple as that. Most of the lessons will be the coach just rehearsing with the student. But that rehearse is undeniably invaluable.

Realistically

No not many of us can afford to take a lesson everyday with their coach. Not only that, but not everyone needs to become the next Mozart. So determining how frequent to take lessons really depends on your objectives. Think about just what you’re looking for in lessons. Let’s describe some collective goals.

Goals for Piano Lessons

• Play one exact piece
• Play for my wedding
• Be able to play as a diversion
• Study serious as a lasting pursuit
• Make it a profession

If your goal for piano lessons is just to play one piece, obviously lessons day-to-day indeed aren’t desirable. You may really be capable to even study on your own!

A piano coach will at all times be helpful and craft the music sound the finest it can. If budget is a issue though, see if you can find a tutorial of the piece on YouTube. If you never want to learn anything new, then it matters a lot less whether you are playing absolutely accurately or not.

But this all changes if you want to, or you desire your child to take this indeed sincerely. It doesn’t happen often, however I have a few students that would take an hour lesson three days a week, and then another hour of music concept for a total of four hours a week of lessons. These students are at all times the finest.

You become what you put in. If you don’t take lessons very seriously, you won’t get as much pleasure out of lessons as if you put your complete heart into it. As a pianist I can tell you that the pleasure that arises from playing beautiful music is immeasurable. Don’t miss out!