•4:44 PM
Friday, August 6, 2010 4:44 p.m.
We made an exciting purchase last week, and because of it, there is going to be more music in our home, and less time for me to be online. But I think it will be a good trade-off.
Until now, our children have only been taking formal violin lessons, but in the back of my mind I felt that they needed some exposure to piano skills in order to lay a better music theory foundation. All the violin teachers we have had, though well-meaning, have not been especially effective in laying this foundation. Combine that with the fact that our kids are still officially "Suzuki students", and there has been a dearth of sight reading instruction. Miss S, our current teacher, has attempted to close that gap with our kids, especially Sweet Girl, who is younger, but even she hasn't offered a systematic approach to teaching sight reading. In addition, I have noticed that the most effective teachers of the violin are also skilled piano players, at least to the extent they need to be to accompany their students. So this has been on my mind for awhile.
Recently I began to do some research on digital pianos, since we didn't want to deal with the management and upkeep of an acoustic piano, and we were aware that digital pianos have come a long way over the past twenty-five years in imitating their acoustic predecessors. We perused the local online used piano marketplace, and quickly saw that most sellers expected to recoup too much of their initial investment on account of the piano being "lightly used", "gently used", "hardly used", or simply never used. There is simply no market for used pianos these days. Truth be told, the pianos have advanced so much that a new digital piano at the low end is superior to an older more expensive piano, like a Clavinova. We tried out a few in the music store, and settled on a Yamaha. It turns out that some of their models have just been discontinued, and the stores are just getting in the newer (year 2010-2011) models to replace them, so it made sense to try to find a discontinued model. Rather than purchasing one through Craigslist, a new discontinued model would come with a warranty.
I am happy to say that we did find a Yamaha Arius YDP-140, at a great get- it- off- the- showroom- floor price and although it is far from "top of the line", it is definitely all that we wanted in a digital piano. It has six voices (we felt that too many voices would simply distract our kids) and its amplifier is not all that powerful but it is still plenty loud for our house. One of the best features is that it can be silenced simply by plugging in headphones. This is a big benefit, since my only chance to practice might be after the children have gone to bed.
So I am picking up where I left off several years ago with the Alfred Adult Piano course books, and I am helping the children to be beginning students with the Alfred books for Late Beginners. Sweet Girl, especially, has had much enthusiasm for sitting under my teaching. Chips tends to be more impatient with the learning process, especially in the beginning when everything appears so simple to him.
We are happy to finally have a piano in the house, it definitely feels and sounds like many acoustic pianos I have played, and it is bringing more music into our home for certain!
We made an exciting purchase last week, and because of it, there is going to be more music in our home, and less time for me to be online. But I think it will be a good trade-off.
Until now, our children have only been taking formal violin lessons, but in the back of my mind I felt that they needed some exposure to piano skills in order to lay a better music theory foundation. All the violin teachers we have had, though well-meaning, have not been especially effective in laying this foundation. Combine that with the fact that our kids are still officially "Suzuki students", and there has been a dearth of sight reading instruction. Miss S, our current teacher, has attempted to close that gap with our kids, especially Sweet Girl, who is younger, but even she hasn't offered a systematic approach to teaching sight reading. In addition, I have noticed that the most effective teachers of the violin are also skilled piano players, at least to the extent they need to be to accompany their students. So this has been on my mind for awhile.
Recently I began to do some research on digital pianos, since we didn't want to deal with the management and upkeep of an acoustic piano, and we were aware that digital pianos have come a long way over the past twenty-five years in imitating their acoustic predecessors. We perused the local online used piano marketplace, and quickly saw that most sellers expected to recoup too much of their initial investment on account of the piano being "lightly used", "gently used", "hardly used", or simply never used. There is simply no market for used pianos these days. Truth be told, the pianos have advanced so much that a new digital piano at the low end is superior to an older more expensive piano, like a Clavinova. We tried out a few in the music store, and settled on a Yamaha. It turns out that some of their models have just been discontinued, and the stores are just getting in the newer (year 2010-2011) models to replace them, so it made sense to try to find a discontinued model. Rather than purchasing one through Craigslist, a new discontinued model would come with a warranty.
I am happy to say that we did find a Yamaha Arius YDP-140, at a great get- it- off- the- showroom- floor price and although it is far from "top of the line", it is definitely all that we wanted in a digital piano. It has six voices (we felt that too many voices would simply distract our kids) and its amplifier is not all that powerful but it is still plenty loud for our house. One of the best features is that it can be silenced simply by plugging in headphones. This is a big benefit, since my only chance to practice might be after the children have gone to bed.
So I am picking up where I left off several years ago with the Alfred Adult Piano course books, and I am helping the children to be beginning students with the Alfred books for Late Beginners. Sweet Girl, especially, has had much enthusiasm for sitting under my teaching. Chips tends to be more impatient with the learning process, especially in the beginning when everything appears so simple to him.
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| Sweet Girl practices during Chips' violin practice, thanks to headphones. |
We are happy to finally have a piano in the house, it definitely feels and sounds like many acoustic pianos I have played, and it is bringing more music into our home for certain!
 |
| Chips looks quite sure of himself in front of the keys. |
piano
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3 comments:
Good for you! I know your kids will enjoy the piano. Piano is my first instrument, and it is very useful for a lot of things--accompaning solos, playing for church, etc.
I think you're very wise to introduce piano at this stage. We are facing a catch-up here, which may be problematic at this later point.
If they enjoy the piano, then good for you! I have a grand piano, but I have room for it, which most people simply don't have. And while none of my kids play, my little guy likes poking at the keys. I bought him a small keyboard for his last birthday in hopes of encouraging him. I hope this does for your children all that you wish!