Just for Kids

i guys! This awesome page is only for you! You can talk to other kids about piano, listen to the Taz-man, jump to other cool places, time travel to meet a famous composer or pianist, get a great tip to help with your lessons, get help with writing piano or music reports or even ask a piano teacher your own question! Go for it! The Note Brothers, Arnold, Steven, Jean, and the Twins (Mel and Danny) will show you around! Parents: be sure to read the note!

Meet the Composer | Piano Talk | Tip | Ask the Teacher | Cool Places | Finding Stuff | The Taz | Italiano! | Outta Here!

Meet the Composer

We have a new trip in store for us through Time And Relative Dimensions In Space (TARDIS). This time we'll have a chat with Domenico Scarlatti in 1752 Madrid, Spain. So, let's step into the old English phone booth that isn't really a phone booth and see if we can sweet talk the TARDIS into getting us there!

Click on the TARDIS to go back in time to visit Domenico Scarlatti

Other cool Meet the Composer interviews

Meet the Composer | Piano Talk | Tip | Ask the Teacher | Cool Places | Finding Stuff | The Taz | Italiano! | Outta Here!

Piano Talk

No, we don't mean speaking softly! We're talking about the "Young Students" forum of the The Piano Education Page Forums. This is a place for young piano students or students-to-be to talk about lessons, piano, teachers or any other piano-related subject with other students from all over the world. The Forums is not a live chat room, but it is a place you can leave messages and respond to messages from other piano students. You can do LOT more than that as well. Customize your own screen on the Board, send e-mails to other Board members, do polls, keep your own personalized notepad and much more. Read the Forums any time, but you'll have register if you want to post your own messages. Registration only takes a minute and the info is not used for any purpose other than the operation of the Board. Use of the Board is totally free. Tell your parents you're are signing up (there's a special forum for them, too), then go for it! Start talking with other piano students and teachers all over the world! You can also leave questions to be answered by all the piano teachers who visit the Board, so go for it!

Go to The Piano Education Page Forums!

Meet the Composer | Piano Talk | Tip | Ask the Teacher | Cool Places | Finding Stuff | The Taz | Italiano! | Outta Here!

Tip of the Month - Speed up that slow-poke hand!

If you're a right handed person, the left hand often lags behind.

The remedy?  Start by practising a very easy five note exercise. Hands an octave apart, start on C D E F G F E D C.  Do this five times slowly and evenly (preferably with a metronome, if you have one).  Then move your hand position up to D E F G A G F E D x 5.  Then move up to E, and so forth until you reach the next C. As you do this, only go as fast as your left hand will allow at a good even, steady pace.  Concentrate on the left hand - the right will follow.

Have the same attitude when practising scales.  Even, steady, only as fast as your left hand will allow.  Include scales in similar motion and contrary motion.  Begin slowly and well controlled.  Only when you feel confident increase the tempo, but always keeping even and steady. Vary your touch from legato to stacatto. Practise scales for at least ten minutes before you practise your pieces.

When sight reading, always play hands together.  If this is difficult, start with some really easy pieces.  Sight read through them once, and then proceed to the next piece.  Sight read through that piece, and then go on to the next etc.

Aim for slow but steady progress.  Work out what the weaker hand is (usually the left) and make that hand do extra work by itself, and then when working both hands, go at the pace of the weaker hand.  

Meet the Composer | Piano Talk | Tip | Ask the Teacher | Cool Places | Finding Stuff | The Taz | Italiano! | Outta Here!

Cool Places for Kids

These are places with neat pictures and sounds or they might be just plain weird! Check it out!

Meet the Composer | Piano Talk | Tip | Ask the Teacher | Cool Places | Finding Stuff | The Taz | Italiano! | Outta Here!

The Musical Reference Shelf

Got a report to write on the piano? Want to learn a little more about it? Need to find out who Charles Tomlinson Griffes (or almost any other composer) was? We have a whole shelf full of free articles that should help:

• The Musical Reference Shelf - Ever wonder what those funny foreign words on your piano music are and what they mean? Well, they're usually from Italian and they tell you what the piece is supposed to sound like and how you're supposed to play it. You can find out their meanings and a whole lot more by looking at this page.
• Listening List and Composer Resource - links to biographies of many composers, along with hundreds of music files to listen to
• The "Why" of the Piano - find out about the history of the piano, how it is constructed and how it works
• Purchasing and Caring For a Piano - how a piano is fixed and taken care of
• Downloadable Musical Graphics - dress up your report with some cool musical graphics!
• Piano Tuning - How It Is Done and Who Should Do It - Find out why tuning a piano is a job for a professional. Don't do this at home!
• Piano Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - all about pianos
• Music and The Home Computer series - a series of articles which talk about all kinds of ways you can use a computer to play or create music, how the computer actually makes the sound and how to get music software to work right.