piano keyboardFind the core reason why piano students fail to achieve goals, and lose their way in piano class.  Learn a simple practice habit to keep this from happening to you or your piano students.

 

To unearth keyboard treasure and access musical potential, imagine a globe of the earth, or download the Googleearth program on your computer. Find the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere, and the equator. Now locate your city or town by typing your address in the find box and clicking on search. Watch as the view of the earth narrows as the locator flies across the globe to your home town, one location on the earth.Now visualize the grand staff of the piano. There is a top staff for the high notes, a bottom staff for the low notes, and in between the two staves is some white space where you will find a note with a short line through it - Middle C.  This is the equator of Piano Land. Can you find the North Pole of Piano Land? Sure you can.  It's the highest note on the piano keyboard. The South Pole is the lowest note on the piano.  There are 8 C's on a full size, 88-key piano, but only one of these is Middle C.  Just as your home town is one location on the globe, each line or space on the Grand Staff is one specific key on the piano. So you see, the Grand Staff is actually a map of the piano keyboard.

To unearth a great source of keyboard treasure, begin visualizing the keyboard while reading notes. Without this connection many students who can read notes fairly well still can't find them on the piano. That's why note reading books or notespellers can be ineffective. To overcome this learning gap students need to visualize the keyboard by keeping their eyes on the music, not always looking down at their hands, once they have the hand position.  This simple, down-to-earth habit of keeping eyes on the music makes learning scales, chords, memorizing music, music theory, and note reading much easier.  A keyboard in the imagination is a powerful tool.  Piano students have a world of musical treasure waiting to be discovered - Google it, by keeping your eyes on the music!

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com with this link Piano Adventure Stories for Children My exciting Piano Adventure stores for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her passionate, new piano student, Albeart Littlebud.  In these beautifully illustrted, inspirational stories children follow along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary's piano studio in Musical Acres Forest.  Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading "Little Bear's Musical Garden" and "Little Bear's Piano Goals."

For a wealth of free information and piano music online visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources  Don't Wait to Share the Gift of Music!

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