First, I have to state with complete honesty that my book is NOT a substitute for a piano teacher, especially for the beginner. A digital piano makes learning MUCH more fun and rapid, but I’ve never seen any instrument, system, or method which actually takes all the work out of learning to play. If you want to maximize your chances of becoming the digital pianist you’d love to be, then buy a good instrument and find a good teacher – and you must make sure that your teacher teaches DIGITAL piano, not just piano.

You see, there are TWO sets of controls on a digital piano: all those buttons plus the keys themselves. My book is intended to help players make the most of the buttons, the controls for the special features not found on regular pianos. However, unless you can manipulate the keys themselves properly, these buttons are worthless.  Put another way, the book is about the “digital” part of the digital piano. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is extremely likely that any beginner WILL need a teacher to learn to competently manipulate those pesky keys. Thus, we had best talk a bit about finding the right teacher.

Unfortunately, many people think of piano teachers as “a little old lady down the block who insists you play scales and classical music.” This stereotype has evolved for the very good reason that it isn’t merely a stereotype but a pretty accurate reflection of reality. I know my own field and piano teachers can be a fairly stodgy lot. Naturally, this is a turnoff for most beginners – of any age. However, teaching yourself to play is very, very hard to do. The piano is a difficult instrument. Thus, people have conflicting desires: they want to play but they don’t want a boring piano teacher.

Manufacturers of electronic instruments keep trying to solve the conflict by finding some way around it. This was true back when I started playing the electronic organ in the mid-1960’s. The Conn Organ Company’s slogan back then was, “Anyone can with Conn.” Their gimmick? Certain keys lit up to show you which ones to play, supposedly making it possible to learn to play without a teacher. Does this sound familiar? 

My two decades of experience as a piano/organ/keyboard instructor indicates an honest slogan would be, “Anyone can who wants to put some effort into it.” It’s only common sense. Sales people, on the other hand, have occasionally been known to neglect this “perspiration aspect” of learning to play. After all, they’re selling you an instrument and don’t want to tell you using that instrument costs work as well as money. “See? Just follow the little lights” This is fine, but someday very soon you’ll want to actually play the thing, and that’s where a quality musical education comes in.

Now some of you will be attracted to the ever increasing number of online piano lessons. These days, seems like everybody on the web has a “revolutionary new method” to “learn piano by ear” without “boring piano lessons.” I’d be worried about all of this, except that I’ve seen it all before. Here’s a claim from a music book in my collection, Winn’s How to Play Popular Music:

“Shows how to supply a full “swing” bass (left hand) to ANY piece of piano music, thus enabling ANYONE to play at sight ALL the latest popular songs in professional style for singing and dancing. Positively provides the quickest, easiest, surest way of learning to play piano.”

And here’s a claim I took off the Internet a couple years ago:

“In just a few hours you can learn enough secrets of the trade to make piano playing a part of your life…You will learn all the chords needed to play any pop song in this one session, any song, any style, any key.”

That claim was posted in 2002. That first book was published in 1928!

You get the picture. If piano was that easy, everybody would play the thing, no problem. Friends, I teach doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, teachers, people every bit as smart as you are. They all have their difficulties with this instrument. As to why, well that’s a big subject and the full coverage is in my other book How to WIN at Piano Lessons: Successful Piano Instruction Strategies for Non-Mozarts. Click here for info on that.

So I hope you beginners realize that a live piano teacher will be part of your future. This makes it important to know how to find the right teacher – and the easiest way is to examine the two ends of the piano teacher “spectrum.”

We’ve already described a bit about these two ends. The traditionalist end is represented by the type of teacher best described as “old school” and dedicated to improving the culture by stressing the classics. The instruction you’d get from such a person would be very regimented and probably focused on a particular “system” of piano training. There would be an attempt to convince you that, whatever type of music you want to play, a study of the classics is necessary first. Typical activities would be scales, exercises, and recitals.

The opposite end of the spectrum is represented by a that brand of teacher who claims to be able to teach you “the trade secrets of the pros” which will enable you to play whatever you want with almost no effort, sometimes by the end of a weekend seminar.

Friends, despite their snake oil claims, there is no such thing as an “Instant Ability to Play the Piano.” There never has been. There are no “trade secrets” that shortcut the need to teach your hands to make the complex series of motions necessary to manipulate the keys. I know – I’m one of those professional pianists these scam artists keep referring to, and I can tell you that the things the pros do takes lots of savvy and effort and was certainly NOT achieved in a single weekend.

Please. Let’s apply additional common sense. No, you don’t have to do years of lessons, scales, and recitals to play simple music. You don’t have to embark on a lifelong study of the classical music literature to learn to play Christmas carols for your family. But you sure can’t sound like a pro in a weekend seminar.

Nope, if you don’t already know how to play the keys, then you’ll need lessons from a successful, patient, friendly teacher who will help you achieve what YOU want. Click here for FREE guidelines on how to find such a teacher - one that will NOT force years of lessons on you. but who also won’t feed you false promises and create unrealistic expectations – someone in the middle of the piano teaching spectrum. Once you’ve found that special teacher and begin taking lessons, I hope you will also consider purchasing my other book How to WIN at Piano Lessons: Successful Piano Instruction Strategies for Non-Mozarts. That book can save you much time and money by making your piano lessons go faster, no matter who you have for a teacher or what methods they are applying. Click here to check out its full list of contents.

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