Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Piano Online Lessons

Who is a great piano teacher who has product you can purchase that will teach you by ear from begginer to advance (I dont mind free either but you usually get what you pay for). Black Gospel style and or Country is a plus!

Are there no teachers in your area who could give you more personal one on one tuition?

^I assume you've already been through that ordeal (although a live teacher is best).

Check out the Ultimate Guide to Playing Piano.

Of course, it's not meant to replace your live teacher, but there are tons of video lessons and whatnot, whether you want to read notes or not. Free, as a bonus.

This is far too broad a range for any one program to do, you'll find. Depending on how long you've been playing, you may find it most time and cost effective (in the long run) to find a private tutor experienced in improvisation and playing by ear to get you started with a foundation for a few years.




The style of "country" would likely be included in the advice above (by this I mean learning your relevant scales and chords they can be used over), but depending on how advanced a competency you wish to acquire in a "gospel" style (I'll assume you mean music like hymns), it'll behoove you to familiarize with music theory up to including intermediate topics like voice leading and four-part writing. I find these are best covered in a private or class setting (you can find classes at your local community college), but you could also try and learn from the long list of free links in my thread here: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1948785.html

You have not told us much about your experience or current ability in playing. If you are a relative novice at the piano, the following may help:

PRODUCTS do not teach anyone to play the piano (or any other instrument). PEOPLE teach other people to play. The various products (lesson books, exercises, metronomes, videos, etc.) help both the teacher and the student cover a range of musical material in a sensible order.

If you are moving from traditional training, to learning to play "by ear", your need for a competent personal teacher is all the greater.

Ed

People make products that teach. You learn from the person through the product.

Everyone's different; maybe in the OP's situation right now, it is better to find something online. (Go at your own pace kind of thing.)

Sometimes it's better to get started yourself before looking for a teacher; that way you find your own learning style and get comfortable with the instrument first.

And you'll know what to look for in a teacher, more or less. Let me be plain: there are some pretty bad teachers out there.

On the other hand, a good teacher will correct your mistakes early on and prevent injury and bad habits from developing.

It depends on where you want to go with piano and what you're willing to put in.

If it's just a short whim, then an online product will be enough. If it's a long-term hobby/goal, then you'll want to look for more.

Also, let me make this clear:

There isn't a single teacher out there who's exceptionally good at teaching all levels.

Just like there isn't a single pianist out there who's exceptional at all types of music. (Taste, style, etc.)

It just doesn't happen. Watch out if someone tries to tell you that they're super good at teaching all levels.

For example, if you're a university professor (piano performance), then you probably like teaching older, advanced students and you're probably really good at it.

If you take in a complete beginner (adult), you'll be bored to death because you have to repeat the same thing over and over again. And the material is completely different from what you usually teach.

(Half the time you won't be paying attention.)

(Although everyone starts out by teaching beginners, university professors have moved beyond that.)

That's something for you to think about.

Piano online lessons are awesome, if you know how to play the piano but want to learn a small little bit of music. The trouble with learning piano is that it is a huge subject and so there will be HOLES and you will get lost because you don't understand something that they haven't shown you.

The best example is cooking. If you have lots of experience cooking, you can probably cook anything from a cookbook because you understand what it MEANS and WHAT IT SAYS so you know what to do. The same with piano, if you know, you understand and you can do it. But if you don't have previous knowledge you will fall down and you won't understand why you are falling down.


Nobody, but nobody understands what going slowly without mistakes and practicing for hours, days, weeks and months really means.

A beginner thinks you play a piece once or twice with a few mistakes and them move on to the next piece. What beginner would think that learning a one page piece of simple music would take many months to get it right.

The first thing you reading in postings here are: I used to play the piano as a kid and hated it, but now I am 50 and I want to start again, where do I start. Well, the best answer is you start at the beginning and go through all the music you learned as a kid which may take you a year or so to review and then keeping going slowly for the next 20 years to learn the piano.

It doesn't matter how young or how old you are, it will take the same length of time to reach the same point sitting on the piano bench everyday for 10 or 20 years.

Pianos and guitars are sold by the millions but how many people actually learn to play them well. Few - because it takes lots of time, many years practicing day after day. If you see a joe sitting on the sidewalk playing okay and singing okay, he has probably been playing 10 years, even though you would think he has only been playing a year in your mind!

Name one, please.

(I agree with, and enjoy, the vast majority of what you write. I can not agree on this point.)

Off the top of my head, I can think of Tara Stiles (celebrity yoga instructor) and Tyra Banks (model, producer).

I'm not saying there aren't better ways to learn, but if you find the right instructor that fits your lifestyle, then it'll work, because there is a person behind the product.

It also depends on where you're looking to go.

You learn at your own pace, you have a greater sense of self-awareness, and you learn to guage yourself early on.

P.S. Thanks, I like reading your posts too. Friendly disscussions are always very nice.

I'd like to add that students can learn from different sources. A lot of music study entails self-teaching. That is what they do when they are home practicing. The teacher, seen weekly or less frequently, helps guide that direction, but it's not a passive thing to be a student at all.

When I have a student that says, "I was reading this book" or "I went on youtube and heard this song" that shows me that a student has actually taken charge of their education. I love this and I try to let the student run with it as I guide them along.

So taking lessons from a teacher does not mean you only learn from what the teacher says. Of course, doing what the teacher says helps too

Teaching/Learning anything complex (like playing a musical instrument) is an iterative process:
(x) The teacher may first explain a topic.
(a) The teacher assigns something to be played.
(b) The student plays the assignment.
(c) The teacher comments and critiques.
(d) (Hopefully) the student modifies the way s/he plays, based upon the critique.

With a product, producted by a teacher or not, the last half of that learning process is typically (always?!?) absent.

Does the famous yoga instructor's product say, "Watch it now, Betty. You are going to pop your hip out of place again"?

Ed