Would you like to be able to play whatever you hear, whatever you can imagine? You can!
With your commitment and the help of a good coach, you can progress much faster than you might guess.
But it will take some work. Some focus. Some fundamentals.
A great painter must master technique before becoming a master of experimentation and innovation. Otherwise, the canvas is chaos. So it is with music. Understanding the foundation of music frees us as artists to express ourselves creatively.
Here at PicassoPiano.com™, we encourage musicians to work toward fluency in the language of music. Fluency allows us to understand and play what we hear, whether it’s music we hear all around us or our own musical ideas that we hear in our heads. Fluency also allows us to communicate with other artists so that we aren’t limited as to what we can play and who we can play with.
Music may seem magical when you watch a stunning performance. But let me assure you, behind those performances are thousands of hours of work. Even Mozart had to learn scales. The key is to make the most of your practice, to use your time efficiently and effectively, so you can learn a skill and move on to the next challenge.
That’s where good coaches come in. A good coach helps you to PROGRESS, to move past those stumbling blocks and put them behind you. A good coach helps you make the most of your time and effort, so you can keep moving forward.
5 TIPS FOR CHOOSING A PIANO COACH
When it comes to selecting a piano coach, the options may seem overwhelming. Here are my tips to help you choose.
1. Pick a coach who is fluent in good technique.
Good technique is necessary to play ANYTHING with EASE. Technique is that special sauce that allows a musician to play with seeming effortlessness and emotional impact. Great technique is how a skilled artist can play blindingly difficult passages with ease. But great technique will also make EVERYTHING easier, including the slower and mellower musical passages. Great technique also lets you covey the emotions that tell the story behind the notes.
Playing piano is an athletic endeavor that involves repetitive movement which can subject your body—hands, arms, fingers, back, legs, wrists—to repetitive stress if done incorrectly. You need a coach who can help you train properly from the beginning so that over time you won’t develop physical limitations that interfere your ability to express yourself musically, or worse yet, cause career (or hobby) ending injuries.
If coaches don’t live it, they can’t give it. Ask your coach to play something for you, or check out their videos. If the coach doesn’t show mastery of technique, keep looking. It is far easier to learn good technique than unlearn poor technique.
2. Pick a coach who is a fluent speaker of the language of music
Music theory is the common language of music. Knowing this language allows you to understand what you’re playing, rather than just memorize it, and it allows you to communicate with other other musicians.
Imagine you’re traveling to a foreign country and you’ve memorized a few tourist phrases. Great. You’ve even nailed the accent you’ve heard on your language tapes. You arrive at your destination and the locals seem to understand your phrases perfectly! Then you realize: you have no idea what the individual words and syllables mean in the phrases you memorized, so you can’t use those words in another ways. You’re stuck, unable to communicate in spite of the time you’ve spent and the cool things you’ve learned so far.
Learning music theory means learning to understand the underlying patterns of music so you can use those patterns at will.
If a coach tells you that you don’t need to learn theory, move on.
3. Pick a coach who is fluent in the written language of music.
Let’s face it. Everything is easier when you can read and write.
In our foreign language example, if you haven’t learned what the words look like, you won’t be able to read menus or read signs. You won’t be able to drive. You’ll forget words that you tried to memorize because you weren’t able visualize them or write them down. You’ll be very limited in how you can communicate with others. You’re stuck. You can’t move forward.
But wait, you say. You’ve heard from plenty of musicians who say they don’t read music. Rich, famous musicians. True. But I promise you, they know how to scratch out a basic song chart.
Reading music includes understanding how to communicate basic musical ideas such as rhythm, key, tempo, and song structure. As a piano player, if you can’t understand a basic song chart, you’re going to be very limited as to what you can play and who you can play with. Is that what you want in a coach?
Don’t start out with those kind of limitations. Find a coach who speaks, reads, and writes the language you want to learn, and be open to acquiring these skills over time.
By the way, if you want to play jazz, classical, or musical theater, reading music is non-negotiable.
4. Pick a coach who is fluent in understanding what they hear
In our foreign language example, imagine you’re speaking to the locals at your destination, but you have no idea what they’re saying in reply. You can talk at them, but you can’t communicate — until you learn to understand what you’re hearing.
It would be sad to spend a lot of time learning to play piano, but not be able to communicate musical ideas that you hear in your head, not be able to play music you hear in recordings or in live performances. Don’t choose a coach who is locked into “playing the ink” — only being able to play written music.
Ear training is a learnable skill. It’s a myth that you have to be born with this skill. It is learned, just like learning to understand a foreign language speaker.
If a coach can’t do it… keep looking.
5. Find a coach who you are comfortable with.
A coach is there for YOU! Not the other way around. If you are serious about learning to be a fluent pianist, you need a coach who listens to you and works with you as an individual, rather than expecting you to fit into a box they designed ten years before they met you. Ask about their approach and expect to work together to map out a strategy that works for YOU.
That said, a good coach is not a pushover. In my studio, if you don’t do the work, our relationship will be short lived. We work together and we both have a job to do. Otherwise, the canvas is chaos.
In conclusion, make musical fluency your long-term goal: playing with comfort and ease, understanding what you hear, and reading, writing, and speaking the language. Choose a coach who demonstrates these qualities and skills and who you feel comfortable with.
I hope these tips help you make a good choice! Good luck. We’ll see you on stage sometime.
Jeff Lantz
