Lavender Bay 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 Lavender Bay traffic to get to your piano lessons.

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

Please call 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 great for beginners.

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

When do you offer Lavender Bay piano class?

We typically offer after school lessons, on weekday afternoons to evenings, our Lavender Bay 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 five can begin learning the piano and basic music theory.

Our Lavender Bay 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 Lavender Bay 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 Lavender Bay group  piano classes?

Group piano tutoring are a great way for your child to socialise, but that’s about where the perks end. Individual 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 individual lessons progress a lot faster than students learning in group tutoring.

Am I too old to start learning to play piano?

NO! There is no set age to start 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 Lavender Bay piano tutors qualifications?

Only the best Lavender Bay 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.

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 personally think the best way to answer this enquiry is to look at the best of the best and see how often THEY took courses.

Some of the best pianists in history likely had lessons on a day-to-day basis. We will often find that major composers and pianists came from a musical upbringing and their first teachers were often one of their parents. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven just to name a few had parents who were musicians and likely gave them everyday lessons.

Piano Training is NOT Sufficient

This is how weekly piano lessons must work. The trainer listens to what the student trained in the previous week. The coach would then provide suggestions on how to improve or explain 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 succeeding week. The student would then rehearse for a week according to the tutors recommendations and this would continue from week to week.

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

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

Why Practicing is Difficult

Let’s think about what we’re requesting 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 sort out on sections 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 minor segment gradually and accurately is often a condition of good train. Then recapping it over and over and over. Then they would want to pin point one more small segment they are not happy with and do it again.

I’m finished simplifying here, but the point is to aid us realise how challenging that is. How long should practice be? I would be pleased 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 effectively for fifteen minutes without getting distracted. Or even better, how many grown-ups do you know that could do the same?

And yet trainers anticipate that style of rehearse every week from their students. Realistically it is rarely if ever going to happen that way. But an exciting thing happens when the trainer is sitting there. You have the teacher leading the student telling them what they need to train and how many times to repeat it. The trainers can correct bad habits and incorrect posture. These are things a young child, or even an adult would have a challenging time doing in a determined way.

How Often Should Lessons Be?

For maximum effectiveness lessons should be held as frequent as possible. If a student can allow lessons daily, they’ll develop many multiples earlier than a student having lessons once a week. It’s as easy as that. Most of the lessons will be the teacher 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 daily with their coach. Not only that, but not everyone needs to become the next Mozart. So determining how frequent to take lessons indeed depends on your goals. Contemplate about just what you’re looking for in lessons. Let’s define some collective ambitions.

Goals for Piano Lessons

• Play one particular piece
• Play for my wedding
• Be able to play as a pastime
• Study serious as a lifelong pursuit
• Make it a profession

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

A piano teacher will always be ready to lend a hand and create the music sound the finest it can. If budget is a problem though, see if you can discover a lesson of the piece on YouTube. If you never desire to learn anything else, then it matters a lot less whether you are playing absolutely accurately or not.

But this all changes if you want to, or you want your child to take this indeed sincerely. It doesn’t happen often, but I have a few students that would take an hour lesson 3 days a week, and then extra hour of music theory for a total of 4 hours a week of lessons. These students are at all times the top.

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