Piano Blog, Play Piano Techniques, Piano Tips

Just in case you haven’t noticed – there are tons of child prodigy (musical ones) on youtube. I sat down with my daughter and watched quite a few of them this morning. She is so inspired — guess what? She practiced quite a bit today. I am excited about this. Nothing inspires her more than seeing another kid playing piano beautifully and get watched on youtube

This one especially inspires us:

We also discussed some positive and negative piano playing techniques and postures. It is a great way to talk about piano playing watching videos.

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Have you heard people saying so and so is a genius – he plays piano at 3 years old? Or, so and so is composing music at 5 years old. Is child prodigy a blessing or a curse? Why are the general public so amazed by what a younger child can accomplish?
Just the other day I was browsing through youtube and watching kids play piano – there are not just 1 or 2 video clips put up by the parents, they are tons of video clips titled music prodigy. Many of these video clips are lovely – I enjoy watching younger children playing music and express their passion. Yet, I am annoyed with the idea of parents pushing the kids so much that they want the kids to excel in piano playing in order to complete the parents’ unfulfilled musical dream.

I strongly believe a child needs to have a normal kid’s life – just like any young children in their neighborhood. Yes, a child may show interests in specific activities – that does not mean they need to be pushed so far into practicing the activities 8 hours a day.

Here are a few video clips that I enjoy watching on youtube, I think the kids and their parents have done a marvellous job:

Here is an impressive one (I would need to practice hard to play like that):

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Do you know what are some common new year resolutions? A few years ago I started a routine to always include concrete plans to improve my piano playing as part of my New Year resolution.

I know and understand that the moment I stop learning and practicing piano, my musical journey comes to a halt. Do you realize that this is true for all players, including you?

Many people think learning is only for children or the novice.

When you attend school, you learn many new things, and, once you grow up, you can take a break.

Right?—-Wrong! That is just not true. Your entire live is a continious learning process.
I have seen many disciplined adults learn a second language later in their life or learn to play an instrument for the very first time. They sure understand the fact that learning is not limited by age – it is the disclipine and will that helps them to succeed in learning something new.
I urge you to write down some concrete ideas and plans to take your piano playing to a different level this year. Statistics have shown that those who write down their plan and strategy for the coming year have a much better chance of succeeding, (almost 80%).
The reason is quite simple – if you take the time to write down your goals, you know what you are aiming for; it becomes concrete. If you can’t even spare 10 minutes to write down what you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months, chances are you may not accomplish much, you will have another year of the same old routine.
I am here to help you set a goal, a piano playing goal, for this coming year. Ideally your goal should include mastering new repertoire (at least 2 pieces a year and etc).
Here is my piano playing goals for this year to give you inspiration and an example of what I’m talking about:
1. Master at least 3 new pieces (one ballad By Chopin, one etude by Liszt, one suite by J.S. Bach). As you can see, I wrote down “master” and not “learn”. There are differences. By mastering I mean to really know the piece, and be able to perform it.
2. Improve on improvisation skills (spend about 60-80 minutes/week on it)
3. Improve sight reading skills (read new pieces by sight every week)
4. Spend a total of 30-45 minutes daily practicing, at least 5 days a week.
You see, I am here to walk the talk. It is useless for me to encourage you to set a new year resolution if I can’t even draft a goal myself. The one thing you can do right now is spend about 5-10 minutes writing down what you would like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Remember, you will be much more likely to achieve your resolution if you write it down.
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