Continued from Part I
3. Video lessons
There are many options for video lessons, where you simply pop in a DVD and have the “lessons” whenever you feel it to be convenient. There is no need to schedule a time that’s convenient for a piano teacher, no need to leave the home and drive back and forth to lessons, and no need to spend extra gas money, all thanks to the wonders of technology.
They are available night and day, and, if you forget some part of the lesson, there’s no extra charge to go back and do it again. The video doesn’t know who’s watching, so it cannot charge per child like a real teacher has to.
Here, you are almost guaranteed to have nice teachers, (they can’t reach your children with that ruler even if they had one), they almost assuredly know music, and if they have bad breath, your children can’t smell it. If a particular approach of teaching does not work, it is relatively easy to turn off the TV and perhaps try a different program.
Video lessons often can do a good job of “show and tell.” Since many are professionally produced, the teachers tend to be enthusiastic and cannot “forget” to cover a specific part of a lesson, which may occur in “real life” lessons. Another benefit to this approach is that parents can also watch along with their children, learn with them, guide them, and generally get somewhat more engaged in the entire process with their children than in-person lessons.
They are often cost effective, but have some serious challenges.
First, they are not interactive, so they cannot tell your children if they are doing something wrong, or answer any questions, all of which are essential to the process of piano education.
Second, a DVD doesn’t know if your children practice (or if they even watch the DVDs), so it cannot hold your children accountable or check their progress. Finally, DVDs almost all rely on music notation, and have lots of explanations of the code before the children can begin to play anything interesting, just as in traditional piano lessons. These require great discipline, either with the parents, or children or both. Still, if one is highly motivated, this is an affordable way, though few excel or persist because it is a musical room without mirrors; feedback is totally absent.
Third, if they don't understand an explanation or idea, they have no resource to ask or consult, just repeat the lesson and try and guess. These gaps are often subconscious from the video professor, they think they are speaking English or their native language, but they often introduce musical jargon without realizing it, confusing the child and perhaps even the parent. This lack of interactivity and feedback put the burden very heavily on the person watching to get perfectly the lesson.
Finally, there is no engagement on the part of your children, so they may very quickly tire of watching a teacher talk “at” them, instead of to them, and the old issue of getting children to practice tends to remain a problem. A teacher can tell if they have practiced, this now falls to the parent to check, and then to see if the practiced "correctly" can be a real problem.
Video Lessons
Pros: Expert guidance, ready when you are, often affordable.
Cons: No feedback, requires lots of self-discipline and still requires pain of decoding traditional music notation to go very far. Can be boring for children as the person is talking “at” them.
4. Computer lessons
Over twenty years ago a computer protocol called MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) was developed to translate music notation and music playing into a format that computers could understand. This was heralded by many teachers, musicians, and composers alike as a revolution. In many ways it was, and some music instruction programs were devised to let the computer handle many of the rote and repetitive aspects of learning piano, but with interactivity.
This technology has several advantages.
First, unlike videos, it is interactive. It can possibly provide a feedback loop that could arguably be an improvement on real human feedback, both in accuracy and consistency (with no bad breath). Furthermore, with the proper program, practice can actually turn into a fun “game,” where children want to play because they enjoy the challenge. Children could practice for hours and not incur large costs, while still getting accurate, if not particularly musical, feedback.
This option, like the videos, tends to be fairly inexpensive, though it does require a MIDI or digital keyboard. Fortunately, these keyboards are a commodity, widely available in Apple, Radio Shack, Best Buy and of course music stores, or online. Try and get something smaller, that can be put in front of the computer and taken away easily for the first few years, so that the computer space is not monopolized by a big hard to move keyboard. Many are connected and powered by a simple printer cable type USB connector, requiring one less cord and outlet, even allowing you to play the game with the laptop batteries away from any outlet. That being said, one can also upgrade to a full size weighted digital keyboard as the child progresses, and wants to play more complex songs or upgrade their musical range.
Additionally, children can practice any time, day or night, with headphones to avoid disturbing others, sparing both the student and peers from the embarrassment of wrong notes.
Some of these programs allow you to import almost any MIDI file, of which there are tens of thousands online, though these are like a "box of chocolates", you will have to sift through to find suitable arrangements, and there is an issue of legal vs pirated content. Unfortunately, many of these computer programs have their own "proprietary" formats, greatly limiting the song selection to a few dozen or perhaps hundred songs available in that format, restricting the kind of music a person can learn to that selected by the designer of that program.
The challenges with most of these programs are two-fold. One, they are computer programs, and many people may not be comfortable with computer interfaces and procedures. Nothing worse than wading through a text based help system to decode how to hook up and use the computer, then only to find that the program spends hours of initial instruction drilling on abstract repetition to learn music notation before they can actually play. Two obscure confusing interfaces for the price of one!
Second, although the method of delivery is unique, most programs still use musical notation as the vehicle of choice for people to learn to play musical pieces. Check to see when music notation is introduced, if it is the end goal or the beginning phase. Starting with music notation basically puts the user in a kind of interactive pop quiz from hell, with painfully exact feedback, and can just feel like a drill sergeant with no real teaching involved.
So, now you have to deal with two obscure confusing interfaces for the price of one! Two strange interfaces in order to play music — computers and music notation to learn. It may feel like taking a test but with a computer instead of a teacher. Despite all the advanced technology, historically, this approach alone has basically failed to break through the traditional challenges and get people to play real music quickly, in spite of its obvious potential.
Computer Tutorials
Pros: Interactive, deals well with repetition, good for drilling, can be sequential and good for self study if motivated.
Cons: Interactivity is often just a variation of normal boring drills, but with a relentless and uncaring master. Cannot teach or model important skills outside of what can be measured by pressing a key at a particular time. Often starts with drills on music notation and so inherits those shortcomings, confusion and challenges.
We believe we may have found a fifth way to learn piano that solves many of these problems ~
Stay tuned for a SPECIAL OFFER for Home EDucators Resource Directory!
3. Video lessons
There are many options for video lessons, where you simply pop in a DVD and have the “lessons” whenever you feel it to be convenient. There is no need to schedule a time that’s convenient for a piano teacher, no need to leave the home and drive back and forth to lessons, and no need to spend extra gas money, all thanks to the wonders of technology.
They are available night and day, and, if you forget some part of the lesson, there’s no extra charge to go back and do it again. The video doesn’t know who’s watching, so it cannot charge per child like a real teacher has to.
Here, you are almost guaranteed to have nice teachers, (they can’t reach your children with that ruler even if they had one), they almost assuredly know music, and if they have bad breath, your children can’t smell it. If a particular approach of teaching does not work, it is relatively easy to turn off the TV and perhaps try a different program.
Video lessons often can do a good job of “show and tell.” Since many are professionally produced, the teachers tend to be enthusiastic and cannot “forget” to cover a specific part of a lesson, which may occur in “real life” lessons. Another benefit to this approach is that parents can also watch along with their children, learn with them, guide them, and generally get somewhat more engaged in the entire process with their children than in-person lessons.
They are often cost effective, but have some serious challenges.
First, they are not interactive, so they cannot tell your children if they are doing something wrong, or answer any questions, all of which are essential to the process of piano education.
Second, a DVD doesn’t know if your children practice (or if they even watch the DVDs), so it cannot hold your children accountable or check their progress. Finally, DVDs almost all rely on music notation, and have lots of explanations of the code before the children can begin to play anything interesting, just as in traditional piano lessons. These require great discipline, either with the parents, or children or both. Still, if one is highly motivated, this is an affordable way, though few excel or persist because it is a musical room without mirrors; feedback is totally absent.
Third, if they don't understand an explanation or idea, they have no resource to ask or consult, just repeat the lesson and try and guess. These gaps are often subconscious from the video professor, they think they are speaking English or their native language, but they often introduce musical jargon without realizing it, confusing the child and perhaps even the parent. This lack of interactivity and feedback put the burden very heavily on the person watching to get perfectly the lesson.
Finally, there is no engagement on the part of your children, so they may very quickly tire of watching a teacher talk “at” them, instead of to them, and the old issue of getting children to practice tends to remain a problem. A teacher can tell if they have practiced, this now falls to the parent to check, and then to see if the practiced "correctly" can be a real problem.
Video Lessons
Pros: Expert guidance, ready when you are, often affordable.
Cons: No feedback, requires lots of self-discipline and still requires pain of decoding traditional music notation to go very far. Can be boring for children as the person is talking “at” them.
4. Computer lessons
Over twenty years ago a computer protocol called MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) was developed to translate music notation and music playing into a format that computers could understand. This was heralded by many teachers, musicians, and composers alike as a revolution. In many ways it was, and some music instruction programs were devised to let the computer handle many of the rote and repetitive aspects of learning piano, but with interactivity.
This technology has several advantages.
First, unlike videos, it is interactive. It can possibly provide a feedback loop that could arguably be an improvement on real human feedback, both in accuracy and consistency (with no bad breath). Furthermore, with the proper program, practice can actually turn into a fun “game,” where children want to play because they enjoy the challenge. Children could practice for hours and not incur large costs, while still getting accurate, if not particularly musical, feedback.
This option, like the videos, tends to be fairly inexpensive, though it does require a MIDI or digital keyboard. Fortunately, these keyboards are a commodity, widely available in Apple, Radio Shack, Best Buy and of course music stores, or online. Try and get something smaller, that can be put in front of the computer and taken away easily for the first few years, so that the computer space is not monopolized by a big hard to move keyboard. Many are connected and powered by a simple printer cable type USB connector, requiring one less cord and outlet, even allowing you to play the game with the laptop batteries away from any outlet. That being said, one can also upgrade to a full size weighted digital keyboard as the child progresses, and wants to play more complex songs or upgrade their musical range.
Additionally, children can practice any time, day or night, with headphones to avoid disturbing others, sparing both the student and peers from the embarrassment of wrong notes.
Some of these programs allow you to import almost any MIDI file, of which there are tens of thousands online, though these are like a "box of chocolates", you will have to sift through to find suitable arrangements, and there is an issue of legal vs pirated content. Unfortunately, many of these computer programs have their own "proprietary" formats, greatly limiting the song selection to a few dozen or perhaps hundred songs available in that format, restricting the kind of music a person can learn to that selected by the designer of that program.
The challenges with most of these programs are two-fold. One, they are computer programs, and many people may not be comfortable with computer interfaces and procedures. Nothing worse than wading through a text based help system to decode how to hook up and use the computer, then only to find that the program spends hours of initial instruction drilling on abstract repetition to learn music notation before they can actually play. Two obscure confusing interfaces for the price of one!
Second, although the method of delivery is unique, most programs still use musical notation as the vehicle of choice for people to learn to play musical pieces. Check to see when music notation is introduced, if it is the end goal or the beginning phase. Starting with music notation basically puts the user in a kind of interactive pop quiz from hell, with painfully exact feedback, and can just feel like a drill sergeant with no real teaching involved.
So, now you have to deal with two obscure confusing interfaces for the price of one! Two strange interfaces in order to play music — computers and music notation to learn. It may feel like taking a test but with a computer instead of a teacher. Despite all the advanced technology, historically, this approach alone has basically failed to break through the traditional challenges and get people to play real music quickly, in spite of its obvious potential.
Computer Tutorials
Pros: Interactive, deals well with repetition, good for drilling, can be sequential and good for self study if motivated.
Cons: Interactivity is often just a variation of normal boring drills, but with a relentless and uncaring master. Cannot teach or model important skills outside of what can be measured by pressing a key at a particular time. Often starts with drills on music notation and so inherits those shortcomings, confusion and challenges.
We believe we may have found a fifth way to learn piano that solves many of these problems ~
Stay tuned for a SPECIAL OFFER for Home EDucators Resource Directory!
