Keyboard Tuition
When coming to me as a beginner, we have a few lessons to get to know each other and I also work to get an understanding of what you want to gain from your lessons.
My keyboard lessons are structured around my student’s preferences for learning and I teach on lots of different keyboards but the majority of my students have Yamaha instruments as they all have a very similar layout. I own a Yamaha instrument which is great fun to play and has 1000 different sounds and about 200 different styles along with lots of different function buttons. The keyboard is very enjoyable to play as it has a built-in accompaniment and it is of course portable.
Many people believe that the keyboard and piano are the same but what they don’t realise is how different the keyboard is from the piano. The main difference is that the keyboard uses chords in the left hand which is which is played as soon as you press the accompaniment button on any keyboard, whereas, the piano requires you to learn to read the bass clef notes which make up the accompaniment. The more advanced pieces in keyboard exams require one piece to be played as if the instrument was a piano which requires bass clef reading too.
I enjoy teaching all level of keyboard players but I really enjoy teaching the pieces with my students who are taking the more advanced grades as the pieces are great fun to learn and often include a medley of familiar tunes which are really enjoyable to play and perform using as many different sounds and styles as possible.
There is a wide variety of music available for keyboard players from Musical Theatre to popular music and film and television soundtracks, and I teach mostly from the Hal Leonard series as the arrangements are very well written. I teach my beginner keyboard players using the Hal Leonard tutor books.
I teach mostly in the Norwich area but I also cover Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft and my lessons vary in length from 30 minutes to an hour. For more information or to book a lesson with with me call 07967 023 568 or email [email protected].
Advice For Buying A Keyboard
There are a lot of secondhand keyboards available on various websites, social media and apps such as the NextDoor app. I do ask my students to avoid buying an instrument off some websites as you don’t know what you are getting.
I always ask my students to request to go and try the instrument before buying it to check that all the buttons and functions work properly. The keys on a keyboard are touch sensitive and play at the same dynamic as the main volume button of the keyboard.
When and if you decide to take the grade exams, when you reach intermediate standard, you will need to have an instrument that has touch sensitivity and outlets on the back of the instrument for a sustain pedal and expression pedal which is used to play dynamics, as these techniques are required when progressing further up the grades.
A basic keyboard costs around £150 and they are suitable for beginners and for the first few exam grades, but following that, they will need to be replaced for a better instrument which have more sounds, more functions and programming included within the memory.
The higher grades on the keyboard require you to be able to programme the memory to play certain sounds at certain times in your pieces and a few of the exam pieces require you to play using either the sustain pedal and expression pedal or both.
Some of the pieces also require you to play the keyboard as if it was a piano with no background style which is when the dynamic and expression pedal are used.
I have taught using other makes of keyboard in the past, but I find the Yamaha instruments easier to use as I prefer the way that they are laid out in terms of all the keys and settings.
Why Learn The Keyboard?
The keyboard is great for playing at weddings and outdoor events as it can do the job of several instruments all in one, as long as you have an amp plugged in to the keyboard to enhance the volume in an outdoor setting.