If you are a real newbie at learning piano then you’re going to need some proper piano lessons for beginners. Think twice about getting a human piano teachers because there could be all sorts of problems that you might not have thought of.

1. Not all piano teachers can teach. For generations, people who have learned piano as a child and have become reasonably adept at it have turned to teaching piano as a way of earning a living. And it’s a perfectly decent occupation of course. If you’re fortunate enough to find a good piano teacher for your lessons then good for you. For, the unfortunate fact is that there are many people out there, who, no matter how good they are at playing piano, are just not good teachers. Being able to impart information in an effective and memorable way is a skill that has to be learned, and may piano teachers seem to focus on the technicalities of piano playing to the exclusion of the educational aspect. The result is that you might have a piano lesson every week for years and still feel you haven?t learned very much at the end of it all.

2. You might find your teacher difficult to get on with (or they might find you difficult instead). Everybody is different and I?m sure you?ve had the experience where you take an instant dislike to someone, even if you can?t put your finger on the actual reason. Such a thing occurred to me a while back when I booked a course of lessons with a guy that a friend had mentioned was particularly good. I was told that he was knowledgeable, friendly and polite. He arrived ans was just as described but I’m afraid from day one, I just found it difficult to get on with him. I just didn?t like his manner and couldn?t get on with him at all. Of course, an extreme example like this doesn’t occur very often, but if anything like it does happen, it’s likely to interfere with your learning. It?s just something to think about, that?s all.

3. Real live piano teachers don?t come cheap. It depends where you live of course but you?ll probably find that most piano lessons for beginners come in at between $35 and $75 per hour. If you?re learning piano from scratch then the likelihood is that you?ll need at least one piano lesson per week for a year. It soon adds up, I can tell you. You might end up spending two or three thousand dollars on employing a piano teacher before you know it. It?s as well to be aware of this commitment before you start because it?s not always easy to get rid of teachers once they start teaching you. They?ll tell you that you need a few more lessons, then a few more, then a few more. You don’t think you should stop because they’re the professional and you’re the beginner.

You might think that I’m a bit prejudiced against humans for piano lessons – not at all. Many piano teachers provide a first class service at a reasonable price, but they?re not always easy to find. In reality piano lessons for beginners aren’t very complicated. If you’re a beginner then you need something simple and straightforward – you don’t want a piano teacher breathing down your neck.

Proper piano instruction is an element extremely vital to learning the instrument well. Though it’s very possible to be a self-taught piano player, piano lessons can really increase the speed and efficiency with which one learns the instrument.

That’s not to say that great piano instruction makes great piano players overnight; even the most naturally talented pianists still play for years before they consider themselves advanced. But proper piano lesson instructions will maximize those years to the fullest and ensure that the student is learning the correct techniques.

Though teaching styles always vary from instructor to instructor, piano instruction generally covers the same basic areas: fingering, music reading, scales, technique, and sight reading. The early lessons will cover fingering and posture, making sure the student knows how to hold his or her hands and where to put them on the keys; series of scales practiced repeatedly will be the basis of this area. Piano instruction will then move on to notation essentials, starting with the basics of notes and key signatures and time signatures and then moving forward to more advanced concepts in rhythm, tempo and dynamics.

Many of these concepts are introduced into the piano instruction while the student is learning to read music, a practice that runs through the entire course of the piano instruction. Teachers will assign short, easy pieces to kick start the student’s music reading knowledge and eventually move forward to more advanced pieces. Sight reading, the ability to play a piece of music without ever having seen it, is sometimes placed sporadically throughout the piano instruction, after a student is fairly well-versed in reading music.

One crucial element of piano playing that is often left out of traditional piano lessons is the study and practice of chords and music theory. To learn to read music without understanding the theory behind the music and the chords and chord progressions that form the music is almost like teaching a surgeon to cut without understanding the human anatomy and it’s interrelated parts. The student will be able to play the piano from a piece of sheet music, but take that music away or have it blow off the piano and he or she is immediately in big trouble.

There is a famous anecdote about a lady who was a concert pianist and could impress people with her playing, yet when asked to play “Happy Birthday” at a party had to decline with great embarrassment because she didn’t have sheet music for the song handy. To be tied to the written music is a shame, when learning chords and music theory adds so much to the value of piano instruction.

Given a healthy dose of music theory and chord instruction mixed in, all of the other elements of piano instruction eventually begin to work hand in hand. Piano instruction then becomes an intricate web of gaining bits of detailed knowledge little by little and understanding the music that’s being played without fully realizing that it’s being gained.

Playing the piano then becomes more fun and a joyful event that can be shared with full understanding of the music theory and form and chord structure that lies behind each song.