ONLINE PIANO LESSONS at Piano Lessons PLUS

In these days of isolation and your child needing a companion. TRY MUSIC!!

I am excited.  Teaching piano lessons remotely for the past several weeks, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has forced me to rethink piano lessons to its possibilities in an online environment.

I have found that online environment quite capable of giving students quality musical instruction.  In these past weeks I have made many adaptations to my new “teaching center” by adding hardware, internet capacity combined with a lot of research to expand my creative capabilities and make my lessons more exciting and engaging.

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I have found ways of communicating with my students that gives them guidance on how to master their material; even exceeding what I was doing in my private studio lessons.  I have been researching how other online math teachers have been using the internet and adapting their innovative techniques to piano lessons.

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I have also found, because of my student’s online savvy, that they have taken to online learning positively and enthusiastically.  It has been a very natural adaptation.

I think there are a lot of parents who have recently been made aware of online learning.  Many students are getting their education online.  In my area many students are using iPads as a natural tool in their school day.

The exciting thing for me is that two of my major teaching programs are already perfectly suited to online learning via computers or iPads.  What I have been doing at my studio is now formatted for immediate use to any online learners.

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My programs ready to go today are Keyboard Kids and The Discovery Piano System.  My Keyboard Kids program is the perfect program to help children, age 4-6, begin to reading music.

My Discovery Piano System is so much more than a method that gets young beginners to read music and play a few songs.  It is a system that gets students composing, arranging and creating music.  It makes music a functional part of their lives, a very part of their person.  They become individually creative with music, even at the elementary level of study.

In days of like today music may be your child’s perfect companion.

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Please contact me today at 724-524-3500 or fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

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What You’ve Been Missing at FREEBIE FRIDAY (Part 1)

About six months ago I began FREEBIE FRIDAY over at PianoTeacherPress.com  Every Friday I offer a free excerpt from one of my Piano Teacher Press products.  I was recently looking over the wide variety of products that I’ve given away and I thought it should be something more widely known to my loyal readers and your piano teaching friends.

Not only do I give away a FREE excerpt each week but I provide a short commentary on the selection explaining how it can benefit a student in your studio.  To find out what we’re offering this week please click [here] on our FREEBIE FRIDAY LINK.

Here’s a smattering of what you have been missing by not being part of our FREEBIE FRIDAY GIVEAWAY!!

If you have difficulty getting the very young preschool student to read music KEYBOARD KIDS reading method may be your answer.  Our reading method introduces one music symbol at a time in a leisurely paced manner where young students are never overwhelmed.  Suzuki teachers have found KEYBOARD KIDS as a great supplement to introduce their young students into reading music notation.  I have used it for a over quarter century and it has been a great success.  One week I offered The Cool Ghoul as a FREEBIE FRIDAY GIVEAWAY.

Each symbol on this page was introduced individually before The Cool Ghoul appears in their book.  … the quarter note (walk note), the rest, the bar line, the staff line, the treble and bass clef, the time signature (only the top number is given at this stage of learning), the double bar; even the fingering and the stem direction of the notes were introduced as in individual concept.

Reading is introduced to students as STEPS and SKIPS and students are given assignment pages to cement this critical reading concept into the students thinking.  This is introduced from the very beginning.  Students are taught to understand notation where reading becomes a natural process.

To help students understand STEPS and SKIPS we have My Very First Theory Book.  This book gives students exercises to help students think in steps and skips.  One FREEBIE FRIDAY I offered a page that helps student think in steps; not through notation, but through the alphabet.

NOTICE:  This page gives the student the musical alphabet where “A” follows “G”.  After students gain mental facility in learning to think ahead one (musical) alphabet letter; students are given pages to help them think one step backwards.  The same exercises are repeated for skips.

These little exercise is a very good one to help students in doing simple thought exercises in basic reasoning and is one of the ways where understanding music is very beneficial for mental development.

This book provides a very good supplemental book to the KEYBOARD KIDS series of reading books.

Another week I also used The Cool Ghoul as my Freebie Friday Giveaway but this time as part of an exercise designed to build a students rhythmic skills.  This exercise is found in our Discovery Piano System – THEORY Book 1.  I will speak in more detail about The Discovery Piano System in a subsequent blog about our Freebie Friday program.  In THEORY Book 1 there is a section of nearly a dozen pieces that have student and teacher play in ensemble.  One player is the pianist and the other provides a rhythmic background played on a common rhythm instrument.

In this example the rhythm player must play on those beats where the piano player rests, almost always on beat 2.  On the first exercises of this rhythm section of THEORY Book 1 the rhythm part emphasizes the easier skill of playing on the downbeat (beat 1).  This exercises begins to develop the skill of having the student learn to feel an offbeat.  Even though the exercises are designed around simple concepts they are designed in a progressive manner where success is most easily achieved.  Students discover musical concepts in an almost seamless stream of little steps.

As I hope you can see our FREEBIE FRIDAY Giveaways not only give you free music but they give you pedagogical information where you can use the free excerpts and maybe even give you some ideas you can use in your own studio teaching.  To join our growing list of FREEBIE FRIDAY teachers go [HERE]– find the RED BUTTON that looks like the link below (which will be red and not purple) and in your correspondence write – SUBSCRIBE FREEBIE FRIDAY. Be on the lookout for future blogs that go over all that we’ve been giving away each FREEBIE FRIDAY!!

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MR SEVERINO PRESENTS – Character in Music

Monkeys, Lions and Turtles (and even Butterflies) …….. OH MY!!

Four very different creatures.  Four very different characters!!  Let’s talk about each one.

What is the character of a MONKEY?  Think of a word that describes a MONKEY?  What’s your word?

My word is PLAYFUL.

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What is the character of a LION?  What is your word that describes a LION?

My word is MAJESTIC.  This is why LIONS are known as the KING OF THE JUNGLE.

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What is the first thing that pops in your mind when thinking of a TURTLE?  What is your word?

My word is S—L—O—W.  My mom would often tell me I was as slow as a turtle.

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Finally, what one word best describes the character of a BUTTERFLY?

That one is pretty tough.  My word is FLIGHTY.  Butterflies quickly bounce from place to place.

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Music can express these same characteristics.  Music can be MAJESTIC.  Music can be SLOW.  Music can be PLAYFUL.  Music can be FLIGHTY.

You are going to hear four excerpts of music.  Listen closely to see if you can hear its characteristics.  Is it MAJESTIC?  Is it SLOW?  Is it PLAYFUL?  Is it FLIGHTY?  Which animal is best pictured by each musical example.  Are we listening to LION MUSIC or TURTLE MUSIC or MONKEY MUSIC or BUTTERFLY MUSIC?

SET ONE

Which of the four examples was MAJESTIC ….. which one was SLOW ….. which one was PLAYFUL ….. which one was FLIGHTY?

In no particular order you just heard …..

1) March from the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens.

2) Concerto for Recorder, Oboe and Bassoon by Antonio Vivaldi.

3) Etude in G flat major by Frederic Chopin.

4) Offenbach melody from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens.

Let’s try again with another set of musical examples!!

SET TWO

Listen to each example and ask yourself; which one of the four examples was MAJESTIC ….. which one was SLOW ….. which one was PLAYFUL ….. which one was FLIGHTY?  Are we listening to LION MUSIC or TURTLE MUSIC or MONKEY MUSIC or BUTTERFLY MUSIC?

The MAGIC of music is that it can express almost anything even without using words.  In fact, some people say music is one of the most powerful languages that humans can experience.

In no particular order you just heard …..

1) Birds from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens.

2) Fragments for Woodwind Trio by Robert Muczynski.

3) Jupiter from the Planets by Gustav Holst.

4) Cello Sonata in D major (excerpt) by Johannes Brahms.

Thanks for listening to MR SEVERINO PRESENTS —Character in Music   and until next time — KEEP PRACTICING!!

“Click” on the Piano Lessons PLUS picture to visit Piano Lessons PLUS WebSite.

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MR SEVERINO PRESENTS – An Old Man in Front of a Window

Look at this picture.  What do you see?  Most people would say I see an old man.  If that was your answer you are absolutely correct.

But is that ALL that we see?  What else do we see?  Do you also see the window in back of the old man?  YES!  This picture also contains a window behind the old man.

This picture teaches us about FRONT and BACK.  The old man is in the front of the picture.  The window is in the back of the picture.

Music also has a front and a back.

What we see first in the picture we can call the FOREGROUND.

What we see next in the picture we can call the BACKGROUND.

Music also has a FOREGROUND and a BACKGROUND.

The FOREGROUND is what our ears hear most easily.

But if we listen closely we will notice other musical sounds.  These other sounds make up the BACKGROUND.

Let’s now listen to a piece of music to find the FOREGROUND and the BACKGROUND.  Let’s listen to a song by the famous composer Franz Schubert.  Franz Schubert lived 200 years ago when the United States was a very young nation.  George Washington could have seen Franz Schubert as a little baby had they lived in the same nation.  Franz Schubert was born in Austria, one of the nations of Europe.

Franz Schubert composed beautiful songs with beautiful melodies.  The song we are going to listen to is called Hedge-Roses.  Let’s listen!

What did you hear FIRST?  What was in the FRONT or in the FOREGROUND?  Did you hear the singer?

But, upon listening a little closer did you hear a different musical instrument?  Did you hear an instrument that was in the BACK, or BACKGROUND?  Did you hear the piano?

This song by Franz Schubert has a FRONT and a BACK just like the picture of — An Old Man in Front of A Window.

The next time you listen to music listen for FRONT and BACK.  Listen for the FOREGROUND part and the BACKGROUND part.  This will help you to listen to music better and you will enjoy it more.  Learn to be a GOOD LISTENER!!

Thanks for listening to MR SEVERINO PRESENTS — An Old Man in Front of a Window   and until next time — KEEP PRACTICING!!

“Click” on the Piano Lessons PLUS picture to visit Piano Lessons PLUS WebSite.

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CYBER PIANO (Where the Parent is the Main Teacher)

I would like to invite all parents with pre-school children to consider my Keyboard Kids – CYBER PIANO Program.

Between the explosion in online learning and the ever growing interest in homeschooling I’m ready to begin a pilot program that combines these two ideas where parents become the child’s first piano teacher.  Imagine yourself giving your child their first piano lessons under the guidance of an experienced piano teacher!

The concept of online education is one that’s only going to expand.  The following quote is from an article How Tech Is Changing College Life

Community college students are less digitally connected than students at four-year schools, but more and more people are making the Internet their education gateway. Twelve million students take at least one class online today — in five years, that number is projected to exceed 22 million. By 2014, analysts say, more than 3.5 million students will take all of their classes online.

If you read of the greatest musicians you will find that most began very young AND many were given their first training by one of their parents.  Mozart’s first teacher was his father.  Chopin’s first teacher was his mother.  I’ve been teaching young pre-school age children since the 80’s.  I have always been most successful when the parent accompanied the lessons to provide support and reinforce my instruction between each lesson.

I have found that many courageous home schooling parents feel confident to teach their child almost any subject EXCEPT MUSIC.  In that field they don’t feel confident.  My Keyboard Kids – CYBER PIANO Program is going to fix that.

What I am going to provide you is my Keyboard Kids Method Books 1 and 2 and My First Theory Book.  These books are geared for 4-5 year old beginners.

For an article on my Keyboard Kids go HERE. I will also provide Powerpoint presentations that accompany the Keyboard Kids Books that will give you detailed instruction on how to cover each and every page of the Keyboard Kids series.  If you don’t have Powerpoint you can obtain a free run-time version that will play Powerpoint files HERE.  Just follow the links.

Keyboard Kids – CYBER PIANO Program will also provide you, as part of the program, a weekly online consultation that you may use any way you wish.  We can use any of the free online video conferencing available; e.g. Skype.  I can A) answer any of the question you may concerning your teaching of the Keyboard Kids Curriculum OR B) I can give personal instruction to your child OR C) a combination of each.

If you’re interested in Keyboard Kids – CYBER PIANO Program and want MORE INFORMATION you can eMail me at dan@pianoteacherpress.com and if you live in the Wexford, Cranberry,Gibsonia area north of Pittsburgh call Piano Lessons PLUS at (724) 935-2840.

For more information about other exciting programs offered at Piano Lessons PLUS point your browser HERE!!  or HERE!! We not only offer piano lessons at our studio on Route 19 at 11565 Perry Highway in Wexford but we offer a variety of plans that keep your traveling down to a minimum.  Check that out HERE!! or HERE!!

Piano Lessons PLUS

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(724) 935-2840

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dan@pianoteacherpress.com

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Call TODAY

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Begin teaching your own little Mozart!!

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