Beginning… Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September the 29th, 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana. His nickname is ‘The Killer’, and for a very good reason. But before we get to that, let’s begin by looking at his early years. Lewis was born into the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis, and began playing the […]
Blog : General
Our general blog posts category covers questions you may have about learning the piano and articles that are related to music generally.
Should you push your child into piano lessons?
If your child wants to learn to play the piano, then it’s important to give them encouragement. But there is a fine line between encouraging your child, and pushing them into something they don’t want to do. The difficulty however with children is that they don’t always know what’s best for them, and as a […]
Keeping in tune with the piano
Having recently written a fair few blogs, articles, FAQs and what not, I’ve been studying and researching the internet in some depth. I try and read as much as I can to see what everyone else is talking about, and to also get the creative juices flowing. So, after reading lots of blogs and watching […]
How to get better at the piano
The obvious answer is to practice – and the more you practice the better you will get! However, although this is easy to say, it’s not so easy to do. There is a lot more to learning the piano than the application of practice, and there are many effective ways to get better a lot […]
Piano covers – The Godfather theme
‘I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse’ – Don Corleone For the first time ever I recently watched all three Godfather movies. For some strange reason I’d never gotten around to watching them, so I finally caught up with the rest of the world. It took me a while as you can imagine, bearing […]
Why buy a digital piano?
There are many arguments for and against the digital piano, but technology has advanced so much in the last few years that the arguments against are diminishing rapidly. The digital piano was first introduced in around 1984 by Yamaha, and was designed to serve as an alternative to a traditional acoustic piano. The sound that […]
A brief history of the piano
Who invented the piano? A man called Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1732) is generally thought to have invented the first piano in Florence, Italy around 1700. He was a craftsman who repaired harpsichords, and decided one day to create a keyboard that had hammers which struck the strings rather than pluck them like a harpsichord. The fundamental […]
Musical misconceptions
I was talking to my wife the other day and we were discussing the topic of misconceptions, and how easy it is to misunderstand a situation or someone, or to judge them instantly without any thought for other alternatives. We have all judged someone at one time or another and first impressions are something we […]
Why the parent is also a piano teacher…
If you have a child who’s attending piano lessons, then the most important thing to realise is that you are their piano teacher at home. And don’t worry, you won’t need to learn to play the piano yourself, but just be there to motivate and push your child in the right direction. However, I would […]
Why do we need music?
Well, we don’t really need music to actually survive. It’s not a need, like food and water; shelter and warmth. But what would the world be like without music? I would like to think that it would be a very dull place indeed! Music is a part of our lives, whether we realise it or […]