Sydenham Piano Lessons – Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to travel anywhere for my piano lessons?

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

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

Please enquire for more information as well as for information on Saturday and Sunday piano classes.

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 Sydenham piano lessons?

We typically offer after school lessons, on weekday afternoons to evenings, our Sydenham 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 Sydenham piano teachers 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 Sydenham piano trainers 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 Sydenham group  piano lessons?

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

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 Sydenham piano tutors qualifications?

Only the best Sydenham 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 classes once a week.

On the other hand 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 approach to answer this question is to look at the best of the best and see how often THEY took classes.

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 experience and their primary 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 ought to work. The tutor listens to what the student trained in the previous week. The trainer would then give ideas on how to improve or teach new ideas to improve the new pianist both technically and musically. From there, they may add some practice tips and recommendations on what and how to train in the succeeding week. The student would then rehearse for a week according to the teachers recommendations and this would carry on from week to week.

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

That’s what takes place if the student just did not rehearse, but unfortunately even if the student DID train this might still be the outcome. Why? Because practicing is hard.

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 practice is to eliminate all distractions sit down at the piano and sort out on sections of music that the student cannot so far play.

Playing from the start of a piece is more often than not an unproductive use of time. Playing a small segment bit by bit and precisely is often a condition of good rehearse. Then recapping it over and over and over. Then they would need to find another small section they are not comfortable with and do it again.

I’m done making things easier here, but the point is to assist us realise how difficult that is. How long should practice be? I would be glad with fifteen minutes from a young child and thirty minutes from an older child. How many five year olds do you know that could focus well for 15 minutes without getting distracted. Or even better, how many adults do you know that could do the same?

And yet tutors anticipate that kind of practice every week from their students. Realistically it is seldom if ever going to happen that way. But an exciting 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 tutors can correct bad habits and improper stance. These are things a young child, or even an grown-up would have a hard time doing in a fixated way.

How Frequent Should Lessons Be?

For full success lessons should be held as often as possible. If a student can afford lessons everyday, they’ll advance many multiples sooner than a student having lessons once a week. It’s as straightforward as that. Most of the lessons will be the teacher just practicing with the student. But that train is completely precious.

Realistically

No not many of us can afford to take a lesson daily with their trainer. Not only that, but not everyone needs to become the next Mozart. So determining how often to take lessons really depends on your goals. Think about exactly what you’re looking for in lessons. Let’s define some common goals.

Objectives 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 career

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

A piano teacher will continually be helpful and craft the music sound the finest it can. If fund is a problem though, see if you can discover a tutorial of the piece on YouTube. If you never desire to learn anything else, then it matters a lot less whether you are playing absolutely right or not.

However this all changes if you desire to, or you want your kid to take this indeed seriously. It doesn’t take place often, but I have a few students that would take an hour lesson 3 days a week, and then additional hour of music concept for a total of four hours a week of lessons. These students are at all times the best.

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 spirit into it. As a pianist I can tell you that the joy that arises from playing beautiful music is immeasurable. Don’t miss out!