Process:

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Piano students study a wide variety of musical styles, including but not limited to classical, jazz, blues, pop, rock, and rnb.  Pianists all study from the technique and warm-up book "A Dozen A Day," which is highly revered for providing its students flexibility and musicality, through a fun all-inclusive look at music that progresses gradually with the student's skill level.  Students also use Faber & Faber's Lesson book series which applies technique work into is a wonderful array of song styles.  This book is also accompanied by a Sight-Reading book which correlates to the song for the week.  For beginners, we start with the basics of reading and writing music through Schaum's "Notespeller" book.

 

Learning technical skills is very important to understanding music as a whole, and especially for the piano which is one of the most complex and all-encompassing musical instruments to learn.  While learning to read sheet music is not a requirement, it is strongly encouraged to deepen and have a visual grasp on how harmony and rhythm work.  All students learn the basics of chord study, music theory, and aural training.  Pianists are often introduced to solfege syllables and encouraged to sing while they play, too.  However, we always place a strong emphasis on expression and the use of dynamics to lift the music off the page and into the heart of the performer and listener.

 

Students select a performance song of their choice to study, memorize and later perform in The Tabor Studio Concerts.  It's really important to us that this song is one that's fun to practice and play.

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Practice Requirements:

 

We are happy to take on pianists of all ages and all levels, so long as they are capable of understanding that improvement comes from practice.  Usually that means students are age 7 and up.  They must agree to make time for it every day.  The best part is: just 5 minutes a day is all we require!  Yes, that's it!  Knowing it is only 5 minutes makes it easy to get started and establish a new routine.  That's just enough time to keep the brain subconsciously developing your musical "muscle."  As students advance in music, we then look for longer windows of time.  The more focussed energy and effort towards a new skill will obviously help supercharge a students growth.

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Required Books:

        • A Dozen A Day by Edna Mae Burnam

        • Technique & Artistry book by Faber & Faber

        • Lesson book by Faber & Faber

        • A performance song of choice

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Optional/Encouraged Materials:

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        • Notespeller by Schaum

        • Practice Tracker

        • Metronome or metronome app

        • Sight-Reading book by Faber & Faber

        • Theory book by Faber & Faber