Since teaching all of my students on line for the past 6 weeks, I have noticed a lot of different instruments that my students work with on a daily basis. Some are digital keyboards ranging from 76 keys to the full 88 keys. Some of them rest on a secure stand and some do not. Other students have different types of acoustic pianos. Some of the pianos are in good shape and others are badly in need of a tuning. There are pros and cons for both types of instruments. The digital pianos always stay in tune. This is a definite plus. Most of them are touch sensitive which means with the weight of your arm or had and loud or soft sound can be produced. This is a must for all piano players. At least one pedal is needed for the digital pianos also. This is frequently used in all of the material. Acoustic pianos are great because the sound waves are produced from the vibration of the strings and they bounce off the walls of the room. Digital pianos are sounded through speakers which is not the same as an acoustic piano. The downside to acoustic pianos is the maintenance. Tuning once per year is very important. Young students need to develop their ear, so a true sound is necessary. The keys need to be in working order. None of them should stick or not work at all. The pedals need to work too. So when decided which way to go, digital piano vs acoustic piano, think about your monetary investment up front with the digital piano and the on going investment of maintenance for an acoustic piano. More importantly, think about getting the best you can for yourself or your child. No one wants to practice on a mediocre digital piano or acoustic piano.
Everyone has heard the saying, "Practice Makes Perfect". But does it? It really depends on how one practices their instrument. I believe that repetitions of a piece of music is the most effective. However this can be broken down further into how many times you repeat a section of a piece, repetitions of the RH, the LH, hands together, etc. This usually needs to be spelled out clearly to the student for him/her to understand that effective practice is to break the music down into smaller parts. What is the magic number of repetitions? At least 3 or more for the young student and it will increase as the music becomes more difficult. To help with this concept I have my students roll a dice with numbers 2-7 on it. Whatever comes up is the number of repetitions for that piece of music either hands alone, together, or in sections. We roll the dice for every song. Believe it or not, the students find this great fun, unless the dreaded 7 comes up. (Yes, I did change the 1 into a 7!) You can purchase the dice on Amazon of course!
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