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Health & Fitness

The Piano Lesson!

When I was a child, I always took piano lessons. My first teacher was Mrs. Woodworth in Belmont, MA.  I liked her a lot. She was your traditional piano teacher. I remember waiting in her overstuffed chair in the basement while my sister took her lesson first. When it was my turn, I walked up the stairs into the living room. There was the grand piano overlooking her beautiful lawn. I remember her perfectly sharpened pencils.  She was really nice but, yes, I didn't like practicing! 

Full speed ahead to high school. Another great teacher, Marilyn Neher in Lexington. Loved her. She was tiny, young, energetic and very passionate about the piano. While I played (she had two pianos next to each other in her small living room!), she would walk around the room with a cigarette in her mouth (!) yelling things like "now, louder!" "move this part", "bring it down" . She got me so excited about music.

To be honest, I never thought I would become a piano teacher as my full time occupation. I liked to play and have studied music at the Eastman School of Music, The Hartt School of Music, and taken lessons with New England Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music professors. But teaching it? Not so much. 

Then something changed. I cannot tell you exactly how but I have developed quite a passion for teaching music, both voice and piano. But particularly piano. 

There is so much more to playing the piano then most people realize and so many ways of teaching and playing the piano.  To begin with, let's list some genres of music you can learn to play:

classical
pop (contemporary, Elton John, Beatles, you name it)
jazz (modern, New Orleans and everything in between)
blues (12-bar, Rhythm and Blues)
new age
broadway (ballads, uptempo)
traditional (folk, patriotic, world)

And now I'm going to list some different approaches, all of which can be combined in piano lessons!

Playing by Ear (from memory or recordings)
Playing to Accompany yourself singing
Learning how to read from a fake book to play ANY song you like
Note-reading to play classical and other genres
Learning to sing and play at the same time!
Ear-training exercises to build musicianship
Music theory so you know what's going on behind the notes
Jazz and Pop chords.
Rhythmic coordination games and exercises

So, for me, piano is exciting to teach because it is different for every student. Whether it's Beethoven or Billy Joel there is so much amazing music out there to learn and some much beauty, artistry, and excitement to uncover. Yes, there is discipline required but the end result is worth it!

 So thank you Mrs. Woodworth and Marilyn for instilling this passion for music and playing piano. I didn't realize it at the time, but you were so important to me as people and musicians and teachers of life.

Debbie can be reached at #781-799-6439 in Burlington for comments or questions.



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