I am pleased to announce the publication of my new e-book, 17 Success Strategies for Adult Piano Students. The book is oriented towards beginning and returning adult piano students who are seeking quick, accurate and actionable advice on a number of important topics, including:
- Instruments
- Teachers
- Effective Practicing and Skill Acquisition
- Music Resources
17 Success Strategies is short, clocking in at 27 pages, and includes a “quickstart” page summarizing the strategies for those who don’t have time to read the other 26 pages!
Topics and actionable strategies include:
- Types of instruments, and the kind you’d be better off not buying. Essenetial advice on pianos, digital pianos, synths, etc.
- The best digital piano models for beginners, with a few specific recommended models.
- A digital piano manufacturer entirely worth avoiding.
- The three sorts of piano teachers. This is a generalization, yes, but as with most generalizations, it can be useful, in this case when “shopping” for piano lessons.
- How to find the right piano teacher and what questions to ask them. I strongly believe students should ask prospective teachers a number of questions, as one might with a financial advisor or lawyer.
- Types of teachers to avoid. Again, generalizations, but useful ones.
- The success formula for piano lessons. In my opinion, there is one.
- The “Golden Rule” of practicing that will save you time and fast-track your progress. Every piano student should know about this. In my experience, many have never explicitly been taught this important rule by other teachers.
- The two best ways to learn new music (and one way to avoid). Before studying with a piano teacher, many players default to learning music in ways that don’t really increase their musical confidence or abilities.
- The best ways to become an excellent music reader. These strategies are important for just about every adult keyboard student.
- The best way to improve your musical ear. Hint: it’s something many piano students are too shy to do (until encouraged).
- The three forms of musical creativity and why you should try them. Playing and interpreting music is creative, but these three are even more expressive, and also a lot of fun!
- Why you can (and should) avoid tedious finger exercises. While I’m not against fundamental exercises like scales, I lay out a case as to why most other monotonous exercises are best sidestepped.
- Recommended adult piano methods. From someone who has used most of the major methods and developed his own (due for publication by 2020).
- Resources for reviews and comparisons of pianos, and my top recommendations for music notation software, best music recording software, and print music downloads.