What Was YOUR First Piano Lesson Like?
Hello, my name’s Brandon (aka Brannie Dii) and I’m the creator of Get Piano Lessons.com
On this page I’m going to tell you a little about my first piano lesson, and how it shaped my decision to make this website.
You see, I have always believed that learning how to play the piano, or any muscical instrument should be a fun and exciting musical journey.
A journey that doesn’t necessarily require a great deal of overemphasis on all the tedious music terminology.
But lo and behold… when I was a child, my first music lesson began with a lecture.
My piano teacher told me that (next to the violin) “the piano was the most difficult of all the musical instruments to learn”.
Other so-called “knowledgeable adults” at that time seemed to confirm the widely-accepted belief that it would take me years of practicing and studying music to get any good at it.
To this notion I would merely say, that if you ultimately see yourself playing sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall, then yes, (as the old saying goes) … practice, practice, practice is the way to get there (along with some serious training in musical theory).
But let’s face it, how many of us really care to become concert pianists?
I sure didn’t, and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of us just want to be able to sit down at home in front of our own piano, relax, and play beautiful music … period.
No MBA degree required, and you don’t need to know what a “mixolydian scale” is or a “diminished C7 chord” is before you actually start touching the piano keys.
Now, I’m not saying you won’t need to practice or engage in at least some musical studies. Any skill worth developing will take some time and effort.
I recommend you practice a piano lesson each day for at least 20 minutes to see consistent results.
And if you’re like me when I first started (I doubt it) you’ll even squeeze in a few 3 or 4-hour sessions from time to time.
But that’s when I was a young passionate teenager with no other responsibilities to tend to! 😀
How My First Piano Lesson Began
I still remember the day I first sat down in front of a real acoustic piano for my very first piano lesson.
At the tender age of just 8 years old I could barely see over the piano keyboard.
But I was SO excited!
I wanted to dive right into those black n’ whites and belt out some kind’a crazy boogie-woogie tune!
I’m tell’n you… I wanted to jump right in and crank out my very first power ballad on the spot!
But what did I get? … “G clef, diatonic scales, whole steps, half steps”… the occasional wrap on the knuckles! … and the dreaded: “Every, Good, Boy, Does, Fine!”
Whoa! .. all I wanted to do was play not join the marines.
So yea.. whether you’ve already had a piano lesson or two, or you’ve only just “dabbled” at piano off and on, I’m sure you can relate to the experience I’m describing.
It’s this general idea most piano teachers have in their heads that it will take many years of intense training and studying to become good at playing the piano.
Most piano lesson courses are designed with that very idea in mind. Well I can tell you from my own experience.. thankfully this is not true.
But first, I must confess that although I began my first piano lesson at age 8, I was so discouraged by all the technical stuff being forced down my throat that I really didn’t grasp a love for the piano until I was about fourteen.
That’s when I finally had more independence and control over how I pursued my piano lesson studies.
I suspect many young or beginning piano students experience this same thing. That’s probably why piano lesson programs fail just as often as diet programs.
Luckily for me, my elementary school had a pretty decent music curriculum. So I was still exposed to music and was able to continue learning it through violin and guitar classes. That’s when I got really good at note reading.
My Band Years
It wasn’t until my first year of high school that my piano lesson story truly took off! I got my first 49-note Casio keyboard for Christmas during my H.S. freshman year.
In just a matter of a few weeks I was already playing my favorite songs from the radio relatively well. By the time I was 16, I was good enough to play in high school bands and talent shows.
Heck, later for Carnegie Hall! … this was good enough for me.
This opportunity gave me a chance to meet and collaborate with a lot of other young musically inclined teens like myself and we’d jam for hours after school!
We would all teach each other something new. They’d ask me to show them a piano lesson or two, and pretty soon I was learning guitar, drums and bass from them!
Now I will admit that my drumming stunk like something awful, but I actually became a half-decent guitar player too.
(Although piano was always where my heart is)
That’s me back in the day (not a very flattering picture), reading an issue of “Guitar School” and trying to brush up on some techniques before band practice.
The absolute best feeling in the world was when we’d all perform in front of a live audience! That was always such a thrill during my high school and early college years.
My band mates in this photo include: Vladimir on drums, Ronnie on bass, Rondell on vocals, and “Yours Truly” struggling to play that dang’ guitar!
My friend, Phil (amazing guitar player, btw) loaned me his guitar for this performance. Thanks Phil!
I remember there would always be a gnawing sensation in my gut just before our “act” was announced. My fingers would be so cold and trembling with anticipation, almost to the point where I didn’t think they would even function.
Keep in mind, we were performing in front of a bunch of loud and rowdy youths. So there was a lot of pressure not to mess up! Especially if we were competing against another act or there was a prize to be won.
Our performances were always tight when we rocked the house. The audience cheered, chanted and stomped their feet! We really felt like rock stars up there on that stage! It was great.
These were some of the best years of my life, and it made me realize how much I enjoyed playing in front of people.
I’m glad to still have some photos of these experiences. But best of all, I also have the audio recordings of some of these very memorable performances! So, stay tuned…
As soon as I work out the technical part, I’ll be posting some pretty cool audio clips up here too. Including a totally smashing performance of myself (on piano keyboard), Renee (on vocals) and Vladimir (on drums) doing (what turned out to be) an inner-city rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”!
The funny thing about this performance is that everything was going fine, until the drummer (Vladimir) went totally NUTS during the guitar solo, and somehow turned “Stairway to Heaven” into a hip-hop song!
Sounds crazy, right? Well it happened. So like I said, stay tuned!
Performing in front of an audience of screaming youths was always pretty exhilarating. But it wasn’t until I had the unexpected pleasure of playing for a much older demographic that I realized how powerful an effect music can have on people.
My Tribute To a Musical Legend
Okay, my Bio would not be complete without mentioning one of my all-time favorite musial influences. So I hope you’ll take a moment and watch my special piano tribute to:
Michael Joseph Jackson
1958 – 2009
On June 25, 2009… the world lost something irreplaceable. A super-talented singer, songwriter, dancer and innovator, who despite being known as the “King of Pop”, was more comfortable being thought of as an “Instrument of Nature”.
He was as he still is and always will be a major source of delight and inspiration for countless fans, musicians, singers and dancers all around the world.
I mean… there would be no Usher today if there was no Michael Jackson!
There would be no Justin Timberlake today if there were never a Michael Jackson!
A thousand years from now … I don’t believe there’ll ever be another Michael Jackson.
Michael was truly “Nature’s Delight”…. and as for me… he was the first musical voice I ever heard that made me wanna stop and learn more about music.
Of course there were lots of great music floating around when I was a child. But nothing really sparked my desire for wanting to learn music until I heard the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” on the radio one day. It wasn’t long afterwards that I found myself sitting down at my dad’s old upright accoustic to get my very first piano lesson.
So let me show you how Michael Jackson helped me get started out on my own Musical Journey!
Thanks for watching!
Please let me know what you thought of my tribute in the comments below.
**Oh by the way… … I just wanna say that if any Viagra users were watching this video… don’t worry… the screen is supposed to turn blue! 
Playing The Piano for Seniors
If you’ve watched any of my piano tutorials, you may figured out by now that I’m from New York. (the accent is world renowned) 
But occasionally I do actually get out and explore the other parts of planet earth from time to time… and on one trip to Denmark, my mother and I flew out to see my grandfather who was living in an Elder Center up there.
Now somehow the staff members at the Elder Center figured out that I was a piano player. Hmmm.. maybe they saw one of my videos online.. who knows?
But anyway, upon arrival at the Elder Center, the staff asked me to play something for the residents on the piano in their recreation room.
Well alrighty then (I thought)…
I was a bit surprised and totally unprepared. But I agreed to play a couple of tunes for them, not realizing this would become a special moment in my piano lesson journey.
The TV in the recreation room was on, and all the seniors seemed quite bored. There was also on old piano in the recreation room, and as I took a seat, the residents hardly seemed to notice my presence.
They were completely fixated on that TV as they sat silently still. At first I felt a bit hesitant to play, fearing I would interrupt their television viewing. But after the staff reassured me, I started to play.
And Wow! … I couldn’t believe the reaction I got! It was like a light switch had been turned on and everyone came to life.
At first, I was a bit worried they wouldn’t like my “Generation X” selection of tunes, since I really had not prepared anything for this surprise performance.
The oldest tunes I could remember at that particular time were only from the 1980’s. So I didn’t know if they would even recognize the music I was playing.
But as I soon discovered, it really didn’t matter what I played. They seemed to really enjoy everything. They were stomping their feet and waving their hands back and forth with the rhythm.
I even played some original material I was working on for my (not-yet established) piano lesson website and they seemed to enjoy that too. My Grandfather was also getting into the spirit of the music as well.
One elderly gentleman began striking his cane against the floor very loudly, and I wasn’t sure if he was enjoying the music or if he hated it. But the staff told me that this was just his way of “having a ball”.
The staff worker told me she had never seen him so worked up before. So she snapped these photos of me while I was playing the piano for all the residents in the recreation room.
I must have played for almost 45 minutes. Then all the residents and staff gave me a huge round of applause when I was finished.
Most of the seniors reached out to shake my hand as I got up and walked away from the piano. Many of them spoke languages I was not familiar with, but it was obvious they were trying to communicate their gratitude and appreciation.
Although this was a totally unexpected experience, it turned out to be one of my most fulfilling performances ever. I had not performed in front of an audience in years. So this day reminded me of how wonderful it can be to share the joy of music with others.
Playing the piano for those elderly folks and watching them “come alive” the way they did was truly a defining moment in my piano lesson journey.
Some of them were very sick. Some of them were depressed. Some were physically disabled. But at least for a short while, they seemed to forget about all that, and let the sound of the piano soothe whatever discomfort they were feeling.
This special moment filled me with an incredible sense of inspiration, and ultimately put me on track towards creating my new piano lesson website…
The Dawn of Get Piano Lessons.com
When it came time for me to decide on a concept for my new website, the decision to create a site based on my personal piano lesson journey was a “no-brainer”.
Music has always been an important part of my life. Learning the piano has not only been a source of entertainment for me as an adult, but it also helped me achieve the self-discipline, confidence and the physical coordination I needed as a maturing adolescent.
I also knew there were probably many other people out there who would love to learn how to start learning the piano and experience some of the same benefits I did.
I had also seen first hand how music, particularly the piano, can also have a “healing” effect on those who are sick, depressed or frail.
But then it occurred to me that unfortunately, many people have been lead to believe the misconception that the piano is much too difficult of an instrument to learn without classical training.
Or it could be that most are intimidated by the mysterious looking 12-note pattern of black and white keys to even attempt a piano lesson.
When I designed Get Piano Lessons.com, I wanted to create a website that could easily show anyone how to understand the piano keyboard, and begin playing great sounding tunes on their very first piano lesson.
My goal was to challenge this ridiculous idea that the piano is the quote-on-quote “2nd most difficult musical instrument to learn”, and address many of the same obstacles I had to face during my first piano lesson.
There is absolutely no reason to start your piano lesson story off with a complicated Beethoven masterpiece, when what you really want to learn are pop tunes off the radio (like I did).
My childhood piano teacher always told me that all conventional piano lesson programs were taught this way, and I should just “accept it”. 
In fact, he said that when he was a child, not only was he forced to learn his first piano lesson with classical music…
his piano teacher never even allowed him to touch the piano keys for the first 6 weeks…
until he was able to identify and name all the notes on the treble and all the notes on the bass staffs first!
What??
No wonder why people think learning the piano is hard!
Anyway, I talk a lot about my first piano teacher. But I really have to give him credit for starting me out with my first piano lesson on that fateful day while I was a still a young, eager and impatient child.
(Even though it was a pain in the neck!)
So anyway, here’s na picture of him today playing his own piano…
Thanks Dad!
Actually… he wasn’t all that bad. 
And Thank You for taking the time to read through my entire piano lesson journey! I hope my website is able to provide you with the ease & fun you’ve been looking for in a beginner piano lesson course.
So with that said, I hope you’ve got your acoustic piano or digital piano nearby, because here is a collection of free beginner piano lessons that will get you off on your way to creating your very own piano lesson Journey!
What Was YOUR First Piano Lesson Like?
Hi, my name’s Brandon (Brannie Dii) and I’m the creator of Get Piano Lessons.com
On this page I’m going to tell you a little about my first piano lesson, and how it shaped my decision to make this website.
You see, I have always believed that learning how to play the piano, or any muscical instrument should be a fun and exciting musical journey.
A journey that doesn’t necessarily require a great deal of overemphasis on all the tedious music terminology.
But lo and behold… when I was a child, my first music lesson began with a lecture.
My piano teacher told me that (next to the violin) “the piano was the most difficult of all the musical instruments to learn”.
Other so-called “knowledgeable adults” at that time seemed to confirm the widely-accepted belief that it would take me years of practicing and studying music to get any good at it.
To this notion I would merely say, that if you ultimately see yourself playing sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall, then yes, (as the old saying goes) … practice, practice, practice is the way to get there (along with some serious training in musical theory).
But let’s face it, how many of us really care to become concert pianists?
I sure didn’t, and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of us just want to be able to sit down at home in front of our own piano, relax, and play beautiful music … period.
No MBA degree required, and you don’t need to know what a “mixolydian scale” is or a “diminished C7 chord” is before you actually start touching the piano keys.
Now, I’m not saying you won’t need to practice or engage in at least some musical studies. Any skill worth developing will take some time and effort.
I recommend you practice a piano lesson each day for at least 20 minutes to see consistent results.
And if you’re like me when I first started (I doubt it) you’ll even squeeze in a few 3 or 4-hour sessions from time to time.
But that’s when I was a young passionate teenager with no other responsibilities to tend to! 😀
How My First Piano Lesson Began
I still remember the day I first sat down in front of a real acoustic piano for my very first piano lesson.
At the tender age of just 8 years old I could barely see over the piano keyboard.
But I was SO excited!
I wanted to dive right into those black n’ whites and belt out some kind’a crazy boogie-woogie tune!
I’m tell’n you… I wanted to jump right in and crank out my very first power ballad on the spot!
But what did I get? … “G clef, diatonic scales, whole steps, half steps”… the occasional wrap on the knuckles! … and the dreaded: “Every, Good, Boy, Does, Fine!”
Whoa! .. all I wanted to do was play not join the marines.
So yea.. whether you’ve already had a piano lesson or two, or you’ve only just “dabbled” at piano off and on, I’m sure you can relate to the experience I’m describing.
It’s this general idea most piano teachers have in their heads that it will take many years of intense training and studying to become good at playing the piano.
Most piano lesson courses are designed with that very idea in mind. Well I can tell you from my own experience.. thankfully this is not true.
But first, I must confess that although I began my first piano lesson at age 8, I was so discouraged by all the technical stuff being forced down my throat that I really didn’t grasp a love for the piano until I was about fourteen.
That’s when I finally had more independence and control over how I pursued my piano lesson studies.
I suspect many young or beginning piano students experience this same thing. That’s probably why piano lesson programs fail just as often as diet programs.
Luckily for me, my elementary school had a pretty decent music curriculum. So I was still exposed to music and was able to continue learning it through violin and guitar classes. That’s when I got really good at note reading.
My Band Years
It wasn’t until my first year of high school that my piano lesson story truly took off! I got my first 49-note Casio keyboard for Christmas during my H.S. freshman year.
In just a matter of a few weeks I was already playing my favorite songs from the radio relatively well. By the time I was 16, I was good enough to play in high school bands and talent shows.
Heck, later for Carnegie Hall! … this was good enough for me.
This opportunity gave me a chance to meet and collaborate with a lot of other young musically inclined teens like myself and we’d jam for hours after school!
We would all teach each other something new. They’d ask me to show them a piano lesson or two, and pretty soon I was learning guitar, drums and bass from them!
Now I will admit that my drumming stunk like something awful, but I actually became a half-decent guitar player too.
(Although piano was always where my heart is)
That’s me back in the day (not a very flattering picture), reading an issue of “Guitar School” and trying to brush up on some techniques before band practice.
The absolute best feeling in the world was when we’d all perform in front of a live audience! That was always such a thrill during my high school and early college years.
My band mates in this photo include: Vladimir on drums, Ronnie on bass, Rondell on vocals, and “Yours Truly” struggling to play that dang’ guitar!
My friend, Phil (amazing guitar player, btw) loaned me his guitar for this performance. Thanks Phil!
I remember there would always be a gnawing sensation in my gut just before our “act” was announced. My fingers would be so cold and trembling with anticipation, almost to the point where I didn’t think they would even function.
Keep in mind, we were performing in front of a bunch of loud and rowdy youths. So there was a lot of pressure not to mess up! Especially if we were competing against another act or there was a prize to be won.
Our performances were always tight when we rocked the house. The audience cheered, chanted and stomped their feet! We really felt like rock stars up there on that stage! It was great.
These were some of the best years of my life, and it made me realize how much I enjoyed playing in front of people.
I’m glad to still have some photos of these experiences. But best of all, I also have the audio recordings of some of these very memorable performances! So, stay tuned…
As soon as I work out the technical part, I’ll be posting some pretty cool audio clips up here too. Including a totally smashing performance of myself (on piano keyboard), Renee (on vocals) and Vladimir (on drums) doing (what turned out to be) an inner-city rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”!
The funny thing about this performance is that everything was going fine, until the drummer (Vladimir) went totally NUTS during the guitar solo, and somehow turned “Stairway to Heaven” into a hip-hop song!
Sounds crazy, right? Well it happened. So like I said, stay tuned!
Performing in front of an audience of screaming youths was always pretty exhilarating. But it wasn’t until I had the unexpected pleasure of playing for a much older demographic that I realized how powerful an effect music can have on people.
My Tribute To a Musical Legend
Okay, my Bio would not be complete without mentioning one of my all-time favorite musial influences. So I hope you’ll take a moment and watch my special piano tribute to:
Michael Joseph Jackson
1958 – 2009
On June 25, 2009… the world lost something irreplaceable. A super-talented singer, songwriter, dancer and innovator, who despite being known as the “King of Pop”, was more comfortable being thought of as an “Instrument of Nature”.
He was as he still is and always will be a major source of delight and inspiration for countless fans, musicians, singers and dancers all around the world.
I mean… there would be no Usher today if there was no Michael Jackson!
There would be no Justin Timberlake today if there were never a Michael Jackson!
A thousand years from now … I don’t believe there’ll ever be another Michael Jackson.
Michael was truly “Nature’s Delight”…. and as for me… he was the first musical voice I ever heard that made me wanna stop and learn more about music.
Of course there were lots of great music floating around when I was a child. But nothing really sparked my desire for wanting to learn music until I heard the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” on the radio one day. It wasn’t long afterwards that I found myself sitting down at my dad’s old upright accoustic to get my very first piano lesson.
So let me show you how Michael Jackson helped me get started out on my own Musical Journey!
Thanks for watching!
Please let me know what you thought of my tribute in the comments below.
**Oh by the way… … I just wanna say that if any Viagra users were watching this video… don’t worry… the screen is supposed to turn blue!
Playing The Piano for Seniors
If you’ve watched any of my piano tutorials, you may figured out by now that I’m from New York. (the accent is world renowned)
But occasionally I do actually get out and explore the other parts of planet earth from time to time… and on one trip to Denmark, my mother and I flew out to see my grandfather who was living in an Elder Center up there.
Now somehow the staff members at the Elder Center figured out that I was a piano player. Hmmm.. maybe they saw one of my videos online.. who knows?
But anyway, upon arrival at the Elder Center, the staff asked me to play something for the residents on the piano in their recreation room.
Well alrighty then (I thought)…
I was a bit surprised and totally unprepared. But I agreed to play a couple of tunes for them, not realizing this would become a special moment in my piano lesson journey.
The TV in the recreation room was on, and all the seniors seemed quite bored. There was also on old piano in the recreation room, and as I took a seat, the residents hardly seemed to notice my presence.
They were completely fixated on that TV as they sat silently still. At first I felt a bit hesitant to play, fearing I would interrupt their television viewing. But after the staff reassured me, I started to play.
And Wow! … I couldn’t believe the reaction I got! It was like a light switch had been turned on and everyone came to life.
At first, I was a bit worried they wouldn’t like my “Generation X” selection of tunes, since I really had not prepared anything for this surprise performance.
The oldest tunes I could remember at that particular time were only from the 1980’s. So I didn’t know if they would even recognize the music I was playing.
But as I soon discovered, it really didn’t matter what I played. They seemed to really enjoy everything. They were stomping their feet and waving their hands back and forth with the rhythm.
I even played some original material I was working on for my (not-yet established) piano lesson website and they seemed to enjoy that too. My Grandfather was also getting into the spirit of the music as well.
One elderly gentleman began striking his cane against the floor very loudly, and I wasn’t sure if he was enjoying the music or if he hated it. But the staff told me that this was just his way of “having a ball”.
The staff worker told me she had never seen him so worked up before. So she snapped these photos of me while I was playing the piano for all the residents in the recreation room.
I must have played for almost 45 minutes. Then all the residents and staff gave me a huge round of applause when I was finished.
Most of the seniors reached out to shake my hand as I got up and walked away from the piano. Many of them spoke languages I was not familiar with, but it was obvious they were trying to communicate their gratitude and appreciation.
Although this was a totally unexpected experience, it turned out to be one of my most fulfilling performances ever. I had not performed in front of an audience in years. So this day reminded me of how wonderful it can be to share the joy of music with others.
Playing the piano for those elderly folks and watching them “come alive” the way they did was truly a defining moment in my piano lesson journey.
Some of them were very sick. Some of them were depressed. Some were physically disabled. But at least for a short while, they seemed to forget about all that, and let the sound of the piano soothe whatever discomfort they were feeling.
This special moment filled me with an incredible sense of inspiration, and ultimately put me on track towards creating my new piano lesson website…
The Dawn of Get Piano Lessons.com
When it came time for me to decide on a concept for my new website, the decision to create a site based on my personal piano lesson journey was a “no-brainer”.
Music has always been an important part of my life. Learning the piano has not only been a source of entertainment for me as an adult, but it also helped me achieve the self-discipline, confidence and the physical coordination I needed as a maturing adolescent.
I also knew there were probably many other people out there who would love to learn how to start learning the piano and experience some of the same benefits I did.
I had also seen first hand how music, particularly the piano, can also have a “healing” effect on those who are sick, depressed or frail.
But then it occurred to me that unfortunately, many people have been lead to believe the misconception that the piano is much too difficult of an instrument to learn without classical training.
Or it could be that most are intimidated by the mysterious looking 12-note pattern of black and white keys to even attempt a piano lesson.
When I designed Get Piano Lessons.com, I wanted to create a website that could easily show anyone how to understand the piano keyboard, and begin playing great sounding tunes on their very first piano lesson.
My goal was to challenge this ridiculous idea that the piano is the quote-on-quote “2nd most difficult musical instrument to learn”, and address many of the same obstacles I had to face during my first piano lesson.
There is absolutely no reason to start your piano lesson story off with a complicated Beethoven masterpiece, when what you really want to learn are pop tunes off the radio (like I did).
My childhood piano teacher always told me that all conventional piano lesson programs were taught this way, and I should just “accept it”.
In fact, he said that when he was a child, not only was he forced to learn his first piano lesson with classical music…
his piano teacher never even allowed him to touch the piano keys for the first 6 weeks…
until he was able to identify and name all the notes on the treble and all the notes on the bass staffs first!
What??
No wonder why people think learning the piano is hard!
Anyway, I talk a lot about my first piano teacher. But I really have to give him credit for starting me out with my first piano lesson on that fateful day while I was a still a young, eager and impatient child.
(Even though it was a pain in the neck!)
So anyway, here’s na picture of him today playing his own piano…
Thanks Dad!
Actually… he wasn’t all that bad.
And Thank You for taking the time to read through my entire piano lesson journey! I hope my website is able to provide you with the ease & fun you’ve been looking for in a beginner piano lesson course.
So with that said, I hope you’ve got your acoustic piano or digital piano nearby, because here is a collection of free beginner piano lessons that will get you off on your way to creating your very own piano lesson Journey!
What Was YOUR First Piano Lesson Like?
Hello, my name’s Brandon (aka Brannie Dii) and I’m the creator of Get Piano Lessons.com
On this page I’m going to tell you a little about my first piano lesson, and how it shaped my decision to make this website.
You see, I have always believed that learning how to play the piano, or any muscical instrument should be a fun and exciting musical journey.
A journey that doesn’t necessarily require a great deal of overemphasis on all the tedious music terminology.
But lo and behold… when I was a child, my first music lesson began with a lecture.
My piano teacher told me that (next to the violin) “the piano was the most difficult of all the musical instruments to learn”.
Other so-called “knowledgeable adults” at that time seemed to confirm the widely-accepted belief that it would take me years of practicing and studying music to get any good at it.
To this notion I would merely say, that if you ultimately see yourself playing sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall, then yes, (as the old saying goes) … practice, practice, practice is the way to get there (along with some serious training in musical theory).
But let’s face it, how many of us really care to become concert pianists?
I sure didn’t, and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of us just want to be able to sit down at home in front of our own piano, relax, and play beautiful music … period.
No MBA degree required, and you don’t need to know what a “mixolydian scale” is or a “diminished C7 chord” is before you actually start touching the piano keys.
Now, I’m not saying you won’t need to practice or engage in at least some musical studies. Any skill worth developing will take some time and effort.
I recommend you practice a piano lesson each day for at least 20 minutes to see consistent results.
And if you’re like me when I first started (I doubt it) you’ll even squeeze in a few 3 or 4-hour sessions from time to time.
But that’s when I was a young passionate teenager with no other responsibilities to tend to!
How My First Piano Lesson Began
I still remember the day I first sat down in front of a real acoustic piano for my very first piano lesson.
At the tender age of just 8 years old I could barely see over the piano keyboard.
But I was SO excited!
I wanted to dive right into those black n’ whites and belt out some kind’a crazy boogie-woogie tune!
I’m tell’n you… I wanted to jump right in and crank out my very first power ballad on the spot!
But what did I get? … “G clef, diatonic scales, whole steps, half steps”… the occasional wrap on the knuckles! … and the dreaded: “Every, Good, Boy, Does, Fine!”
Whoa! .. all I wanted to do was play not join the marines.
So yea.. whether you’ve already had a piano lesson or two, or you’ve only just “dabbled” at piano off and on, I’m sure you can relate to the experience I’m describing.
It’s this general idea most piano teachers have in their heads that it will take many years of intense training and studying to become good at playing the piano.
Most piano lesson courses are designed with that very idea in mind. Well I can tell you from my own experience.. thankfully this is not true.
But first, I must confess that although I began my first piano lesson at age 8, I was so discouraged by all the technical stuff being forced down my throat that I really didn’t grasp a love for the piano until I was about fourteen.
That’s when I finally had more independence and control over how I pursued my piano lesson studies.
I suspect many young or beginning piano students experience this same thing. That’s probably why piano lesson programs fail just as often as diet programs.
Luckily for me, my elementary school had a pretty decent music curriculum. So I was still exposed to music and was able to continue learning it through violin and guitar classes. That’s when I got really good at note reading.
My Band Years
It wasn’t until my first year of high school that my piano lesson story truly took off! I got my first 49-note Casio keyboard for Christmas during my H.S. freshman year.
In just a matter of a few weeks I was already playing my favorite songs from the radio relatively well. By the time I was 16, I was good enough to play in high school bands and talent shows.
Heck, later for Carnegie Hall! … this was good enough for me.
This opportunity gave me a chance to meet and collaborate with a lot of other young musically inclined teens like myself and we’d jam for hours after school!
We would all teach each other something new. They’d ask me to show them a piano lesson or two, and pretty soon I was learning guitar, drums and bass from them!
Now I will admit that my drumming stunk like something awful, but I actually became a half-decent guitar player too.
(Although piano was always where my heart is)
That’s me back in the day (not a very flattering picture), reading an issue of “Guitar School” and trying to brush up on some techniques before band practice.
The absolute best feeling in the world was when we’d all perform in front of a live audience! That was always such a thrill during my high school and early college years.
My band mates in this photo include: Vladimir on drums, Ronnie on bass, Rondell on vocals, and “Yours Truly” struggling to play that dang’ guitar!
My friend, Phil (amazing guitar player, btw) loaned me his guitar for this performance. Thanks Phil!
I remember there would always be a gnawing sensation in my gut just before our “act” was announced. My fingers would be so cold and trembling with anticipation, almost to the point where I didn’t think they would even function.
Keep in mind, we were performing in front of a bunch of loud and rowdy youths. So there was a lot of pressure not to mess up! Especially if we were competing against another act or there was a prize to be won.
Our performances were always tight when we rocked the house. The audience cheered, chanted and stomped their feet! We really felt like rock stars up there on that stage! It was great.
These were some of the best years of my life, and it made me realize how much I enjoyed playing in front of people.
I’m glad to still have some photos of these experiences. But best of all, I also have the audio recordings of some of these very memorable performances! So, stay tuned…
As soon as I work out the technical part, I’ll be posting some pretty cool audio clips up here too. Including a totally smashing performance of myself (on piano keyboard), Renee (on vocals) and Vladimir (on drums) doing (what turned out to be) an inner-city rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”!
The funny thing about this performance is that everything was going fine, until the drummer (Vladimir) went totally NUTS during the guitar solo, and somehow turned “Stairway to Heaven” into a hip-hop song!
Sounds crazy, right? Well it happened. So like I said, stay tuned!
Performing in front of an audience of screaming youths was always pretty exhilarating. But it wasn’t until I had the unexpected pleasure of playing for a much older demographic that I realized how powerful an effect music can have on people.
My Tribute To a Musical Legend
Okay, my Bio would not be complete without mentioning one of my all-time favorite musial influences. So I hope you’ll take a moment and watch my special piano tribute to:
Michael Joseph Jackson
1958 – 2009
On June 25, 2009… the world lost something irreplaceable. A super-talented singer, songwriter, dancer and innovator, who despite being known as the “King of Pop”, was more comfortable being thought of as an “Instrument of Nature”.
He was as he still is and always will be a major source of delight and inspiration for countless fans, musicians, singers and dancers all around the world.
I mean… there would be no Usher today if there was no Michael Jackson!
There would be no Justin Timberlake today if there were never a Michael Jackson!
A thousand years from now … I don’t believe there’ll ever be another Michael Jackson.
Michael was truly “Nature’s Delight”…. and as for me… he was the first musical voice I ever heard that made me wanna stop and learn more about music.
Of course there were lots of great music floating around when I was a child. But nothing really sparked my desire for wanting to learn music until I heard the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” on the radio one day. It wasn’t long afterwards that I found myself sitting down at my dad’s old upright accoustic to get my very first piano lesson.
So let me show you how Michael Jackson helped me get started out on my own Musical Journey!
Thanks for watching!
Please let me know what you thought of my tribute in the comments below.
**Oh by the way… … I just wanna say that if any Viagra users were watching this video… don’t worry… the screen is supposed to turn blue!
Playing The Piano for Seniors
If you’ve watched any of my piano tutorials, you may figured out by now that I’m from New York. (the accent is world renowned)
But occasionally I do actually get out and explore the other parts of planet earth from time to time… and on one trip to Denmark, my mother and I flew out to see my grandfather who was living in an Elder Center up there.
Now somehow the staff members at the Elder Center figured out that I was a piano player. Hmmm.. maybe they saw one of my videos online.. who knows?
But anyway, upon arrival at the Elder Center, the staff asked me to play something for the residents on the piano in their recreation room.
Well alrighty then (I thought)…
I was a bit surprised and totally unprepared. But I agreed to play a couple of tunes for them, not realizing this would become a special moment in my piano lesson journey.
The TV in the recreation room was on, and all the seniors seemed quite bored. There was also on old piano in the recreation room, and as I took a seat, the residents hardly seemed to notice my presence.
They were completely fixated on that TV as they sat silently still. At first I felt a bit hesitant to play, fearing I would interrupt their television viewing. But after the staff reassured me, I started to play.
And Wow! … I couldn’t believe the reaction I got! It was like a light switch had been turned on and everyone came to life.
At first, I was a bit worried they wouldn’t like my “Generation X” selection of tunes, since I really had not prepared anything for this surprise performance.
The oldest tunes I could remember at that particular time were only from the 1980’s. So I didn’t know if they would even recognize the music I was playing.
But as I soon discovered, it really didn’t matter what I played. They seemed to really enjoy everything. They were stomping their feet and waving their hands back and forth with the rhythm.
I even played some original material I was working on for my (not-yet established) piano lesson website and they seemed to enjoy that too. My Grandfather was also getting into the spirit of the music as well.
One elderly gentleman began striking his cane against the floor very loudly, and I wasn’t sure if he was enjoying the music or if he hated it. But the staff told me that this was just his way of “having a ball”.
The staff worker told me she had never seen him so worked up before. So she snapped these photos of me while I was playing the piano for all the residents in the recreation room.
I must have played for almost 45 minutes. Then all the residents and staff gave me a huge round of applause when I was finished.
Most of the seniors reached out to shake my hand as I got up and walked away from the piano. Many of them spoke languages I was not familiar with, but it was obvious they were trying to communicate their gratitude and appreciation.
Although this was a totally unexpected experience, it turned out to be one of my most fulfilling performances ever. I had not performed in front of an audience in years. So this day reminded me of how wonderful it can be to share the joy of music with others.
Playing the piano for those elderly folks and watching them “come alive” the way they did was truly a defining moment in my piano lesson journey.
Some of them were very sick. Some of them were depressed. Some were physically disabled. But at least for a short while, they seemed to forget about all that, and let the sound of the piano soothe whatever discomfort they were feeling.
This special moment filled me with an incredible sense of inspiration, and ultimately put me on track towards creating my new piano lesson website…
The Dawn of Get Piano Lessons.com
When it came time for me to decide on a concept for my new website, the decision to create a site based on my personal piano lesson journey was a “no-brainer”.
Music has always been an important part of my life. Learning the piano has not only been a source of entertainment for me as an adult, but it also helped me achieve the self-discipline, confidence and the physical coordination I needed as a maturing adolescent.
I also knew there were probably many other people out there who would love to learn how to start learning the piano and experience some of the same benefits I did.
I had also seen first hand how music, particularly the piano, can also have a “healing” effect on those who are sick, depressed or frail.
But then it occurred to me that unfortunately, many people have been lead to believe the misconception that the piano is much too difficult of an instrument to learn without classical training.
Or it could be that most are intimidated by the mysterious looking 12-note pattern of black and white keys to even attempt a piano lesson.
When I designed Get Piano Lessons.com, I wanted to create a website that could easily show anyone how to understand the piano keyboard, and begin playing great sounding tunes on their very first piano lesson.
My goal was to challenge this ridiculous idea that the piano is the quote-on-quote “2nd most difficult musical instrument to learn”, and address many of the same obstacles I had to face during my first piano lesson.
There is absolutely no reason to start your piano lesson story off with a complicated Beethoven masterpiece, when what you really want to learn are pop tunes off the radio (like I did).
My childhood piano teacher always told me that all conventional piano lesson programs were taught this way, and I should just “accept it”.
In fact, he said that when he was a child, not only was he forced to learn his first piano lesson with classical music…
his piano teacher never even allowed him to touch the piano keys for the first 6 weeks…
until he was able to identify and name all the notes on the treble and all the notes on the bass staffs first!
What??
No wonder why people think learning the piano is hard!
Anyway, I talk a lot about my first piano teacher. But I really have to give him credit for starting me out with my first piano lesson on that fateful day while I was a still a young, eager and impatient child.
(Even though it was a pain in the neck!)
So anyway, here’s na picture of him today playing his own piano…
Thanks Dad!
Actually… he wasn’t all that bad.
And Thank You for taking the time to read through my entire piano lesson journey! I hope my website is able to provide you with the ease & fun you’ve been looking for in a beginner piano lesson course.
So with that said, I hope you’ve got your acoustic piano or digital piano nearby, because here is a collection of free beginner piano lessons that will get you off on your way to creating your very own piano lesson Journey!