What Kind of Piano Should You Buy?
We’ve talked about why piano lessons are a great gift for your child. We’ve talked about the importance of practicing, how to get your child to practice, and how to get the most out of a practice session. You know that regular access to a piano for practice is key to making good progress.
But if you don’t already have a piano in your home, one of the biggest questions on the minds of new piano students — or their parents — is, “What kind of piano should I buy?”
First of all, realize that you don’t necessarily have to buy a piano right away. You may be able to rent a piano. Often a piano store is willing to rent an instrument, or at least arrange a rent-to-own deal.
Or, you may be able to work out regular access to a piano that someone else owns. Family member? Neighbor? Most pianos do not see constant use; schools and churches are just two organizations that may own pianos which are used only infrequently. If you ask, a school or your church may be willing to let your child practice on their pianos. At least, you may be able to work out such an arrangement long enough to be sure your child is serious about sticking with her piano lessons.
But let’s say you are committed to having an instrument in your home. What kind of piano should you buy?
The fact is, not only are acoustic pianos expensive, but they also take up a lot of room in your home. If you have enough money and clear space in your home, by all means purchase a baby grand piano. But most “starter pianos” are uprights. These can be pushed flush up against a wall and take up less floor space than baby grands.
Some piano teachers insist that their students practice on an acoustic piano; others are not so strict. Be sure and ask your family’s piano teacher if she has a preference — and if it’s truly a preference, or a rule.
Why would a piano teacher care? Well, as much progress as has been made in electronic or digital pianos, they still cannot fully reproduce the experience of playing on an acoustic model. The keyboard action, the sound quality, and the ability to use damper pedals are all stronger in acoustic pianos than in digital ones.
Yet these differences are unlikely to be noticeable to a beginner. And, the digital models have advantages of their own.
For one thing, price. A decent digital keyboard can be had for much less than a decent acoustic.
For another, the digital keyboard is much more portable than an acoustic piano. If the ability to take the keyboard with you to Grandma’s is important, then an acoustic piano will not serve your needs as well as a digital one.
And finally, the digital keyboard has… headphones. If you live in an apartment, or perhaps practicing must take place when one family member is asleep, this benefit is crucial. With headphones, the pianist can hear himself, but avoid disturbing others.
Eventually, most pianists discover that there is no real substitute for an acoustic piano. But that’s not to say that the digital keyboards can’t play a valuable role, especially for a beginner. Talk to your family’s piano teacher, and evaluate your family’s needs. Chances are, you can find an instrument out there that will work within your space, budget, and other constraints.
Piano Lessons: Why Should Your Child Start?
In my last post, I talked about when your child should start piano lessons. Now let’s talk about why.
Music education may seem like an expensive undertaking. The lessons, the music, the various accessories — metronomes and so forth. And for piano in particular — the instrument. No matter what kind of instrument your child takes up, from piccolo to tuba, the best models cost a lot. But you can usually pick up a decent student model for much less. A good acoustic piano, however, even if purchased used, can cost a couple thousand dollars right from the start.
Why should you go to this much expense? Because you’re really making an investment in your child. You’re helping her to build skills and abilities — even introducing her to a whole new way to enjoy life. And who can put a price tag on that?
Piano lessons will help your child…
(1) Gain confidence.
In meeting and mastering the challenges of piano lessons, your child will experience feelings of accomplishment in ways both large and small. From accurately copying a simple rhythm to learning a scale to performing for an audience, your child will learn that he can do it. He can overcome a challenge that seems hard at first. He is capable. He can learn and improve. He will take this sense of confidence with him wherever he goes in life. And it will serve him well.
(2) Gain a skill she can share.
When your child can play the piano, she can perform in things like a school talent show, a relative’s wedding, or a local nursing home. She can share the beauty of music with others. And this is a gift she can give to her family and associates for the rest of her life — because you gave her the gift of piano lessons when she was a child.
(3) Learn to accept guidance from a mentor.
For your child to succeed in any career, he will have to assess his own performance, realize he’s not perfect, seek expert guidance to improve — and actually put that guidance into practice. Dental school, law school, or skilled trades — it really doesn’t matter what your child ends up doing as an adult; the ability to take constructive feedback and learn from someone who has gone before him is crucial to success in any field. Piano lessons, and his piano teacher, will give him practice in this key life skill.
(4) Learn to break down a challenge into smaller parts.
During her piano lessons, your child will learn that success does not come overnight. Instead, it comes from overcoming countless small challenges over a period of years. As she moves from Book 1 to Book 2 and beyond, your child will realize that her new skills build on what she mastered earlier, and she can look forward to gaining even more skills in the years to come. This alternative to instant gratification will help her break down other life challenges into manageable parts, and will teach her persistence.
(5) Grow his brain in new ways.
Studies have shown that piano lessons help children learn analytical and memory skills — better than other types of lessons. Researchers believe that piano lessons encourage new connections to form in the child’s growing brain — and these new connections benefit the child in ways far beyond his piano skills alone.
Children who take piano lessons enhance their abilities to recognize patterns, to see how the parts relate to the whole, and to understand sequencing, or the order in which events take place. These are important foundational skills for math and other analytical subjects. And, studies have shown that children who take piano lessons tend to perform better on standardized tests.
So if your child wants piano lessons, encourage her. And when he needs to practice, remind him. The ability to make music is one of the most long-lasting gifts you can give your child.
Piano Lessons: When Should Your Child Start?
Mozart started at age three. Liszt started at age seven. And while most prodigies have started earlier, it’s not unheard-of for professional musicians to have picked up their chosen instrument as late as age twelve.
When should your child start piano lessons? The answers are as varied as the children themselves.
It’s probably better to think about whether your child has achieved certain skills and developmental milestones, rather than to think in terms of age in years.
Here are some signs that your child may be ready to start piano lessons:
(1) Does he enjoy listening to music, dancing to music, and participating in making music?
If your child shows these signs of basic music appreciation, that will give him a good foundation on which to start piano lessons. Some parents push their children into music lessons just because it seems like the right thing to do, but if the child doesn’t enjoy it, then he will not stick with it. A good rule of thumb is to let the child show signs of wanting to start lessons, and let him show persistence in asking for at least several months. Chances are, if this happens, it was not a passing whim but a true interest.
(2) Does your child show the necessary strength and dexterity in her fingers?
Many piano teachers recommend waiting until children are six or seven years old before starting them on lessons, because by this age they are more likely to have the necessary fine motor skills. But if your three-year-old shows good dexterity in holding a crayon to color, she may also have enough dexterity to start piano lessons.
(3) Can your child sit still and concentrate on a challenging subject for at least 15 minutes?
Not a movie or a video game, but a puzzle or a board game or arts and crafts. If yes, then he may also be ready to sit still on the piano bench and focus on piano for that length of time. For a preschooler, 15 minutes is plenty for a lesson or for a practice session. For a child in elementary school, 30 minutes is the norm.
(4) Can your child count?
Counting and rhythm are extremely important in learning to play piano. The concepts of whole notes, eighth notes, time signatures, and so on are crucial for a student to master. A child should be able to count to at least 5 (for a preschooler) or even better, 10, in order to grasp these ideas during piano lessons.
(5) Can your child recognize the first few letters of the alphabet?
The musical notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are integral to music and music education. Most piano lessons will introduce these right away. To succeed in piano lessons, a child’s mind needs to be ready to make several complex associations related to these letters: She must connect the spoken letter name with the visual (written) letter, then with a particular key on the piano keyboard and the sound it makes, and finally, with the musical symbol showing the note’s position on the musical staff. You can see that she’ll get off to a better start in piano lessons if she can already recognize the written letters.
If your child is really ready, giving her piano lessons may be one of the most long-lasting gifts she’ll ever receive. The joy of making music can last a lifetime. But if he’s not ready yet, pushing him too soon may cause him to quit in frustration. Be patient. Every child is different. If she doesn’t seem ready yet, ask again in a few months or a year.
The “right age” to start piano lessons? Whatever age your child shows all of these signs of readiness.
