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Four reasons to learn the piano
by Genevieve
The piano is an instrument full of contradictions. Strangely, it can be considered both a string and percussion instrument. It is called the pianoforte because it can play notes both quietly (piano) and loudly (forte). Likewise, it is one of the most popular instruments in the world but is also regarded as one of the hardest instruments to learn. However, while all these contradictions may be true, one thing is for certain: the piano is an extremely rewarding instrument to learn to play.
In its early days, the piano was only accessible for the richest musicians, but now we have a spectrum of prices going from Marilyn Monroe’s baby grand at the upper limit, (currently going for around $662,500), to the £50 second-hand midi keyboard. There are kid’s versions, electronic versions, grand versions, and the good old upright version.
Needless to say, starting to learn the piano will involve you making some decisions about what style to play, and what type of instrument to buy. So, before the decisions start, here are four reasons why you should learn to play the piano:
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The piano has a full sound on its own
Compared with most other instruments (such as brass, wind, percussion instruments), a big advantage of the piano is that it has a full sound even when played alone. For most other instruments, while there are many solo pieces, many pieces are meant to be played with accompaniment, or even with a full orchestra.
This can be a problem when you don’t have people to play with constantly. This is not a problem you come across often with piano – duets are absolutely a possibility and not uncommon, but most music for the piano is solo music and sounds entirely complete on its own. Having the flexibility of being able to play completely on your own is a great advantage, particularly for the introverts amongst you.
2. Playing the piano can still be sociable
At the same time, the piano can be equally a sociable instrument: after a surprisingly small amount of lessons, you could learn basic chord structures, and accompany your friends (or even yourself!) singing all kinds of music.
If you are thinking of going into music for a career, piano is a great instrument to learn. For instance, if you wanted to teach another instrument, such as the oboe, having some piano skills to be able to accompany your students would be invaluable to their learning experience.
3. Learn treble and bass clef
Because it reads from both the treble and the bass clefs, you have to learn two different lines of music together. This gives you more versatility if you want to go into singing – if you sing bass, knowing how to read bass clef will help you, and if you sing any of the other voices, knowing treble will help you.
It will also help you if you want to transfer onto other instruments: some use bass, some use treble, and some even use other clefs, but being able to read in two clefs already will help you have the versatility to figure out new clefs.
Generally, reading two clefs and having an understanding of such a wide pitch range will help you to get a fuller grasp on music theory, which is a huge part of learning music.
4. Learning piano = teaches you to multitask
Playing piano requires you not only to think in two different clefs at the same time, but also to use your feet independently from your hands, and to move your two hands both accurately and independently. This is no easy feat!
However, while this may sound impossible, you will probably start off learning each hand separately first, and putting them together (and using the foot pedal), will come later. You will gradually learn to be able to think of more than one thing at once – certainly a skill that can be applied to daily life.
So there we have it – 4 reasons why you should start learning the piano. Why not make a start today and request one of our amazing tutors?
We offer varied Piano tuition rates to suit all budgets, with prices depending on the tutors' qualifications and their total number of hours of private tuition or classroom teaching experience.