Piano Lessons in Pretoria!

We are extremely excited to announce that our piano lessons are moving back to Pretoria, this time, we will be teaching from the Newlands / Menlyn area, very central to a lot of locations. Pretoria East, specifically Menlyn is a popular area for shopping and recreation and within easy reach of most people.

The piano teacher is the same piano teacher that have been teaching first in Pretoria, then the West Rand, and is now moving back to Pretoria. With over 40 years of piano teaching experience, we are certain that your piano needs can definitely be met if you are looking for a piano teacher in Pretoria East, Newlands / Menlyn areas.

To find out more about lessons for piano in the Pretoria East area, please click on this link.

We are relocating!

There have been some significant changes to our services in the last two years. Our piano teacher has relocated to Pretoria in March 2021 and our violin teacher has relocated overseas, but is continuing to teach on YouTube!

For more information, please look at all the different sections on our website. You will find everything you need there!

We are sorry to leave the West Rand area, but it was necessary to relocate to these locations. For violin lessons in Pretoria, please fill in your contact details by clicking here!

Music stand tricks

Music Stands can sometimes provide trouble for performers. Especially if they are playing outside and there is a slight breeze that comes up.

How then do you overcome the common problem of a breeze blowing your music off the music stand or turning your pages when you don’t want the pages turned?

Now days, music stands come with clips that can be used to tighten your music sheets and hold them down. However this was not always the case and many musicians still work with older music stands.

There are many solutions to the music stand and music blowing off the music stand. I shall explain two of the most common here.

Solution one: go electronic. These days, music stands are really made well enough to be able to hold a tablet. There are several great programs out there that uses digital music and automatically turns the pages for you on the tablet, or scroll down as we like to say. This eliminates the problem of pages blowing in the wind.

Solution two: use pegs. If you prefer using the music stand the old fashioned way, then get some washing pegs to hold down your pages. The book or pages can be clamped to the music stand and the washing pegs will prevent the music from flying.

I hope these tips of holding down the music stand will help. These are common tricks many musicians use.

Piano Accompaniment Rules

Piano accompaniment – West Rand – Johannesburg

What does it take to hire a piano accompanist and do a music exam? Well, a lot of the effort depends on the musician doing the exam. In the same way, a lot of the effort is the accompanist.

You see, you need to practice for your exam. This involves putting the hours in to make the exam a success. Often, when you hire someone to do piano accompaniment for you, the piano accompanist is already well qualified and well practiced to be able to just site read the music. But, in order for you and the piano accompaniment to work together, you need to know your work well.

In addition to that, you and the piano accompanist will have to practice together for many hours. The reason for this is to get your counting right, to make sure you understand each other and can read each other’s signals. This is very important during an exam.

For piano accompaniment on the West Rand and Johannesburg areas, it’s important not to use a friend, but to use a qualified teacher or someone with a lot of experience. Click here to contact us for piano accompaniment.

How long does it take to learn piano

How long does it take to learn piano?

Our answer for this question, namely how long does it take to learn piano is a lengthy one. There are many things to consider, but one cannot expect to have three or four lessons and understand how to play the piano. It takes practice and dedication, as well as a good amount of talent.

Some people can learn the piano in a matter of months. These are people who have determination, talent and are dedicated hard workers. For others, how long does it take to learn the piano? Well that depends on them. We have seen people learn in three months and we have seen people learn in three years to do the basics. It all depends on the amount of effort put into it.

If you are wondering how long it takes to learn piano and if you would ever be able to do this, don’t give up. You will never know unless you try, whether you will learn to play piano or not. Like we always say, where there is a will, there is a way, even if it takes years to learn how to play the piano.

Playing piano – Pretoria East

Playing piano – Pretoria East

Playing piano is the basis of all instruments. The piano teaches you the basics of music, it doesn’t matter what instrument you want to eventually master.

Why is this? Why is playing the piano the core and the start of music? Well, to master the piano, you need to be able to know two different clefs (hands), namely the base clef and the treble clef. The piano includes them both. This gives you a broad understanding of musical notes and how they work. If you need to play an instrument in the base clef, knowing the notes that the piano would have taught you would help a huge amount. The same goes for instruments that would have been learned in the treble clef.

Knowing and playing the piano would also help in transposing the notes of music into a different clef. For example, playing a violin and having to read cello music. Playing the piano would have given you a thorough knowledge of the different clefs and you would easily be able to transpose from the one clef to the next.

If this is making no sense, just understand that playing the piano forms the basis of all instruments and music. It is important to get some knowledge of playing the piano before learning the instrument you want to master in.

If playing the piano is something you’d be interested in, our piano teacher in Pretoria East can assist you to learn all about playing the piano. Have a look at our contact page to contact the piano teacher in Pretoria East.

Music Theory Teacher Pretoria East

Why a music theory teacher is necessary

Playing the piano or any other instrument for that matter is a joy. But when your music theory knowledge leaves you lacking, a music theory teacher needs to be obtained to teach you the proper workings of music and theory and how it works together.

Understanding music depends on your knowledge of music theory. The theory is an important part of playing the piano or other instruments that enable you to read the sheet music. When you play the piano, you’re not just playing a song, you are also reading the notes and understanding the instructions. That is what music theory is. A set of instructions to follow.

In Pretoria East, we have a music theory teacher that can assist in understanding the theory and how it works. Remember, having a thorough knowledge of music theory is important to understand how the music works.

To contact the music theory teacher in Pretoria East, please click here or go to our contact page.

Reading Sheet Music

Why Reading Sheet Music Is Important

Many people learn the piano without learning how to read sheet music. This is not entirely a problem as they can play beautifully without reading sheet music.

Some people can read cords and play accordingly. Other people play by ear and play beautifully. Piano is a skill and art to learn, it does not matter how you play the piano.

Problems can come in when reading sheet music is not possible. When there is a beautiful piece that you want to learn, or you are playing in an orchestra or a band, reading sheet music for the particular work that is being played becomes essential, to get every note one hundred percent correct.

A good piano teacher will focus on teaching the reading of sheet music so that the skill can be used. The piano teacher will also focus on theory, which is included in reading sheet music. Theory helps you understand the music better and how to use it in different scenarios.

You will find as you play, that regardless of whether you can read the music or not, reading sheet music is an important and useful skill to have when playing the piano.

Online violin course

We have recently undergone some major changes. Since our one teacher has relocated overseas, we have started an online violin course instead. You can check out the online violin course here.

In addition to the online violin course that we have started, we have also closed our Pretoria division of piano lessons. Unfortunately, the piano teacher has permanently relocated to the Roodepoort area.

We are excited to bring you the online violin course and will be launching this in August 2019. In the meantime, while we are getting the final bits read of the course, you can look at the online violin course contents by clicking on the online violin course link.

The piano teacher in Roodepoort will continue to teach piano lessons. Please feel free to contact the teacher should you require lessons.

Exciting changes in the world of Music coming! Online violin courses and the piano teacher now permanently in Roodepoort!