Just in case you haven’t noticed – there are tons of child prodigy (musical ones) on youtube. I sat down with my daughter and watched quite a few of them this morning. She is so inspired — guess what? She practiced quite a bit today. I am excited about this. Nothing inspires her more than seeing another kid playing piano beautifully and get watched on youtube

This one especially inspires us:

We also discussed some positive and negative piano playing techniques and postures. It is a great way to talk about piano playing watching videos.

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Have you heard people saying so and so is a genius – he plays piano at 3 years old? Or, so and so is composing music at 5 years old. Is child prodigy a blessing or a curse? Why are the general public so amazed by what a younger child can accomplish?
Just the other day I was browsing through youtube and watching kids play piano – there are not just 1 or 2 video clips put up by the parents, they are tons of video clips titled music prodigy. Many of these video clips are lovely – I enjoy watching younger children playing music and express their passion. Yet, I am annoyed with the idea of parents pushing the kids so much that they want the kids to excel in piano playing in order to complete the parents’ unfulfilled musical dream.

I strongly believe a child needs to have a normal kid’s life – just like any young children in their neighborhood. Yes, a child may show interests in specific activities – that does not mean they need to be pushed so far into practicing the activities 8 hours a day.

Here are a few video clips that I enjoy watching on youtube, I think the kids and their parents have done a marvellous job:

Here is an impressive one (I would need to practice hard to play like that):

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Do you know what are some common new year resolutions? A few years ago I started a routine to always include concrete plans to improve my piano playing as part of my New Year resolution.

I know and understand that the moment I stop learning and practicing piano, my musical journey comes to a halt. Do you realize that this is true for all players, including you?

Many people think learning is only for children or the novice.

When you attend school, you learn many new things, and, once you grow up, you can take a break.

Right?—-Wrong! That is just not true. Your entire live is a continious learning process.
I have seen many disciplined adults learn a second language later in their life or learn to play an instrument for the very first time. They sure understand the fact that learning is not limited by age – it is the disclipine and will that helps them to succeed in learning something new.
I urge you to write down some concrete ideas and plans to take your piano playing to a different level this year. Statistics have shown that those who write down their plan and strategy for the coming year have a much better chance of succeeding, (almost 80%).
The reason is quite simple – if you take the time to write down your goals, you know what you are aiming for; it becomes concrete. If you can’t even spare 10 minutes to write down what you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months, chances are you may not accomplish much, you will have another year of the same old routine.
I am here to help you set a goal, a piano playing goal, for this coming year. Ideally your goal should include mastering new repertoire (at least 2 pieces a year and etc).
Here is my piano playing goals for this year to give you inspiration and an example of what I’m talking about:
1. Master at least 3 new pieces (one ballad By Chopin, one etude by Liszt, one suite by J.S. Bach). As you can see, I wrote down “master” and not “learn”. There are differences. By mastering I mean to really know the piece, and be able to perform it.
2. Improve on improvisation skills (spend about 60-80 minutes/week on it)
3. Improve sight reading skills (read new pieces by sight every week)
4. Spend a total of 30-45 minutes daily practicing, at least 5 days a week.
You see, I am here to walk the talk. It is useless for me to encourage you to set a new year resolution if I can’t even draft a goal myself. The one thing you can do right now is spend about 5-10 minutes writing down what you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Remember, you will be much more likely to achieve your resolution if you write it down.
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Here are some beautiful classical piano sheet music I put together for this past Valentine. This inludes The Swan, Moonlight Sonata, and Fur Elise. These are all time favorite beautiful songs.
Besides these classical pieces, I also enjoy Claire De Lune, Chopin’s etudes, and many other pieces.
This is Claire De Lune -By Debussy, performed by Liberace (you got to love that piano):

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Music rhythm is often a challenge for young piano players. I have taught many students who do not have a sense of rhythm. When they play piano, they cannot feel the pulse (or heartbeat of the music).

Some of the effective ways to train these players are by turning on the music accompaniment keyboard, or have them play along with another duet player who have stronger rhythm abilities.
I too struggle with rhythm when I was younger. I tended to ignore the rhythm and play at my own pace.
Below is a video tutorial on music rhythm I uploaded on youtube:

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I used to struggle with memorizing music pieces. There are so much to memorize….
Then, I discover the improvisational techniques. They seems to tie in together. You see once you understand how to arrange and improvise music, you can put all puzzles, bits and pieces together.
All of a sudden you look at the music from a different angle. It is not just memorizing pieces anymore. You can figure out why certain chords are used and why they are chosen (base on harmony or reharmonization). You can also predict the patterns.
One way to help memorize music is to analyze the pieces. It does take some time. Be a music detector, spot the key signatures, the rhythm patterns, the chord changes and so on. Pretty soon, you will be analyzing every pieces and feel confident about it.

Ornaments are used extensively in music. Certain ornaments such as trills or mordants were used quite a bit in Baroque period. If you have played Bach’s music, you probably came across many ornaments.

Musical ornaments are much like other ornaments

If you wear too much ornaments, it looks weird and out of style.
Similarly, if you use lots of ornaments when playing music, it gets to be showy and un-natural.

It takes certain amount of techniques to play trills -especially if you want to play it fast and clear. A good way to practice them is by using trill exercises in Hanon. Also, many of the earlier exercises in Hanon prepare the hands for trills.

I found it useful to practise the trill in various ways – crescendo, diminuendo, syncopation, or anything to make it fun.

Always keep your body relaxed. Even when playing forte movement (loud movement), let the hands drop down to the piano without using extensive muscular force.

I use printable blank sheet music or manuscript paper to write my own transcription and composition. It is a lot more natural to write than typing on computer. Nowadays there are lots of transcription softwares such as Finale, Notepad, Sibelius. Still nothing works better than a piece of manuscript paper.

Many of my younger students prefer playing disney’s music. Even my daughter likes to play from Disney’s sheet music. My philosophy – if the student can associate with certain type of music, let them play it. Kids that are grown up with Disney movie for sure enjoy playing Disney’s sheet music, it is understandable.
When I was younger, the only type of music I got to play was classical music. It was boring and uninteresting to me (not any more now). The practice session became very unproductive and even torturing. When I was in my teen years, I started to play music that was popular and familiar to me (pop song). Sure enough, my interests toward piano playing get stronger.
And because of the exposure to pop music, I mastered a few new techniques – improvisation and arrangement techniques.

If you likes Disney sheet music, check this out.

The New Illustrated Treasury of Disney Songs – 5th Edition Songbook for voice and piano. 264 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (HL.313100) See more info…

Have you watched Titanic? My piano students like to choose this song for their recital piece. I believe the original Titanic song was written in E major. It is not an easy piece for beginner or intermediate players (four sharps to play). You can get easier piano version for Titanic Song.

My Heart Will Go On – Easy Piano By Celine Dion, lyrics by Will Jennings, music by James Horner (1953-). Single for voice and easy piano. Love Theme From “Titanic”. D Minor. Series: Hal Leonard Easy Adult Piano. 7 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (HL.110080) See more info…

Another popular piece for piano students is the Jaws theme song. The following solo piano book has easier version.

Movie Music – Beginning Piano Solos (17 Songs from the Silver Screen Arranged by Phillip Keveren) Arranged by Phillip Keveren. Collection for easy solo piano. 47 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (HL.311213) See more info…