Beginners, just like advanced students, need a routine to keep their piano promises to themselves. But young beginners don t have the perspective or the experience to appreciate this. Help your piano student at home by establishing a routine practice time. Over time this will make sitting down at the piano to practice feel more natural to your young child or your older beginner and make learning easier.

To help parents do this with as little friction as possible I ve developed a plan called WWW I. It s an acronym that stands for

W When

W Why

W What

I Institute

When: When will the piano practice time be? This is a choice. A choice is very powerful motivator, so get your child s input on this.

Why: Why is another powerful motivator? Ask your child, Why they wanted to play the piano in the first place? Have your child write this down. I want to be able to play really well, like Grandma, or Aunt Sally, or a pianist they heard at a concert. This is your child s inspiration. Next have your child draw a picture of themselves in the future playing the piano they way they dream they can play. Their picture might include “stars” and “rainbows” Imagination and inspiration are important to success. Put their picture on the refrigerator or over the piano where they will draw daily inspiration from it.

What: What will you child have to do in order to bring their piano dream to life? Have your child make a list and put this on the refrigerator too.

Institute: Institute is a hard word for kids. Explain that institute means order. In order to establish order you have to institute priorities.

1st = Piano

2nd = Homework

3rd = Friends

4th = Television/Video

By substituting the word Commitment for Routine it s easy to see why this WWWI plan works. Having a daily practice routine is a way of pre-committing to piano every day. This is important to success because the battle of choice is won ahead of time by focusing on long term goals rather than short term desires that will change on a daily basis.

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These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Have you ever seen someone playing piano without sheet music and wonder how are they doing that?

It’s like magic to the uninitiated. They think this person must have years and years of training under their belt. And while some pianists do have years of classical training it doesn’t mean a thing!

That’s right. In fact, having a classical background can actually hinder your ability to just sit down and freely improvise. No, what most improvising pianists know is how to use chords. Chords and knowledge of the scale the chords came from is all that is needed to make music at the piano.

Now, most of you have heard of triads. These are 3 note chords that sound something Mozart or Beethoven might have played for their children to get them interested in piano. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with learning triads - except for one thing… they’re boring!

Listen to this

What if you could learn a chord position that would give you a modern sound right away AND allow you to use both of your hands. And what if this chord structure could provide you with rich, lush sounding chords? You’d probably want to learn this kind of chord type over triad’s right?

Yet thousands upon thousands of piano students begin their studies with the age-old chord structure known as the triad. Now, thankfully, you don’t have to start this way.

Here’s the point. This is the year 2006. We have Jazz and contemporary styles that go beyond the triad and begin with something called seventh chords.

But how exactly do we play these? By using something called the Open Position Chord structure. Here we use both hands to finger a modern sounding seventh chord. And we use over 2 octaves of the keyboard as well. With this kind of chord, we can instantly begin creating our own music.

How easy is this? If I were to tell you that you could begin creating your own music within 1 hour would you believe me? Probably not. But if I were to show you exactly how to do it… well, then, that’s another matter altogether. Don’t take my word for it. Just take my free lesson below and see for yourself!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

You love playing the piano but are increasingly frustrated with only being able to reproduce what is in front of you. No sheet music, no play. Oh you only have it in the key of Eb? Well sorry I can’t play that. Does this sound like you?

Several years ago I could only play exactly from the piano sheet music in front of me. If I looked up from the music for a fraction of time I lost my place. I was only comfortable in the keys of C, F, and G. Sometimes D and Bb. But I longed to play and smile at the congregation in my church. Or check the worship leader to see if he was going to add another stanza. Then I started to learn Pachelbel Canon in D. Ever heard it? A study on the D scale. It opened my eyes to improvising or embellishing on a song at the piano.

Here are five key things to remember to help you do the same.

1.Learn and practice your scales in all keys. Nobody likes this. It’s not fun but it can greatly increase your playing proficiency if you are diligent.

2.Learn and practice chords. Especially the odd ones such as diminished, augmented, 6ths etc. These can quickly give color and style to your songs.

3.Fake it. Use a fake book to play. This will greatly encourage you to add to the harmony and melody because you only have a chord symbol and one melody line in front of you. It will sound very dry so you will be motivated.

4. Use the whole piano. Play those same notes just an octave higher. Now try one more octave

5. Don’t get discourage by your first results: You may not like your first results but don’t give up.

Visit the Struggling Church Musician Piano page for more resources to playing the piano by ear and chord piano.

About the author:

K Quinn has been playing the piano for 10+ years. She picked up the guitar 5 years ago and both for her church. Visit her website at http://www.strugglingchurchmusician.us for more church musician tools and tips.