Broadly speaking, you/your child learns the following skills: Playing by rote aka copycat games Playing by ear aka guessing games Improvising aka doodling games Note reading aka reading games Composing music aka music theory The least information students/parents should know: copycat games: look at the reminder videos if your child can’t remember what to play. …
Author Archives: Joseph Hong
Piano books to get
Method books The Joy of First Year Piano Sight reading books Initial – Grade 2, Grade 2 to 5, Grade 6 to 8 Exam books Trinity College London 2021-2023 syllabus Instructions for Pieces Your teacher would have advised you the grade to attempt. Listen to the pieces for that grade on Youtube, Spotify, etc: Grade …
Keyboard books to get
Method Books Step 1, Step 2 Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 Beyond Grade 3 – intermediate Jazz Works by Ann Collin, Lead Lines & Chord Changes by Ann Collin Sight reading books Step 1 to Grade 1, Grades 2-3, Grades 4-5
Music Theory Books To Get
Step 1, Step 2 These books are fun and delightful for 5 to 7 years old children or older children who find it difficult to focus. Stickers are provided with the book so this series work well for children who have limited writing experience. The presentation of the books feels like activity books which should …
Piano / Keyboard Recommendations
The MOST basic keyboard to start off with for the short term (below €200) Casio CT-S300 (or buy from Thomann) – if you aren’t sure whether you/your child will continue with lessons in the future and you/your child just want to try it out AND you/your child is not learning classical music, I recommend Casio …
I Actually Like Jazz Music
I remembered I was a teenager who’s fanatic about music. In my naive attempt to widen my listening experiences, I bought Bill Evan’s Sunday at the Village Vanguard. I didn’t like the album (and I still don’t). That album scarred me and put me off jazz for at least 20 years. I thought all jazz …
Creating Bass Lines is a Skill in its Own Right
I was practising to create a walking bass line in the left hand on the fly while I comp to Just a Closer Walk With Thee. Oh my, did I sound terrible even when this was my third time over the last two weeks trying to do so. It just occurred to me that creating …
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Celbridge Piano’s Teaching Methodology
The vision is for students to enjoy creating music on the keyboard/piano. The goals to accomplish is that are to acquire skills in the following order (for children): Students are able to learn by rote i.e. play by copying the teacher, someone else, youtube videos, etc. By learning by rote, students practice their skill in …
Improvise in Baby Steps
I remembered a particular lesson with a student advanced in note reading – he’s probably grade 7 or 8 in ABRSM music grade. That lesson focussed on primarily improvisation. I got him to “just play anything” based on a set chord progression. We did a bunch of other things as well. Towards the end of …
Improvise Using Ornaments
I was adding upper neighbouring notes to the melody of When the Saints Go Marching In today. Then I thought, why not go back to the original note after the neighbouring note? Oh, we end up with a mordent played slowly. I was then adding lower neighbouring notes to the melody. And then I went …