Hi everyone! My name is Syd, and I’m the Front End Manager here at the Kitchener Academy of Music. Even though I work at a music school, I’ve actually never taken music lessons before- can you believe that? So I figured now is as good a time as any to get started! Join me as I take music lessons with some of our amazing teachers. So far I’ve taken Violin, Guitar, Vocal, Drum, Theory and Piano lessons! You can read all about them HERE.
Today I was SO excited to take another piano lesson! Piano is definitely one of the most popular instruments that we teach here at TKAM, and I spend a lot of my time listening to the beautiful music our piano students make- I’ll admit, I’ve always wanted to learn to play piano, especially after watching some of our incredibly talented students play! I had already taken a piano lesson with Jack where I spent some time learning the basics of the piano & the keys. Now that I had some of that knowledge under my belt, I was so excited to see how my lesson with Irene would build on that knowledge!
In addition to teaching piano, Irene also has some experience teaching music composition; I’d never written my own music before (I mean, I’ve only just entered the wonderful world of music!) so I was a little intimidated, but Irene was so welcoming and encouraging. We started with a quick review of the piano keys, and Irene spoke about the differences between the black keys and the white keys. The white keys are the notes on the piano I was more familiar with- A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The black keys, on the other hand, are the ‘half steps’ between the white keys. That’s where you get notes like C Sharp or A Flat.
After that, Irene got me started playing the piano! Irene would play a melody on the piano using the white keys, and she got me to improvise some notes on the black keys so that we could play together! Irene would give me a pattern, such as 4 quarter notes followed by 2 half notes, and I would play that pattern using black keys on the piano. I was so surprised to find that my improvised music actually sounded really good! While Irene gave me certain restraints such as the pattern I had to use, it was up to me to pick the keys and the order I played them in. This was a really fun way to introduce me to the keys on the piano, and the wonderful world of composition. While I still have a long way to go before I’m a composer like Mozart or Beethoven, it was SO much fun getting to try my hand at some improvisation at the piano today!
If you’re interested in taking piano lessons, or any music lessons, contact us today! Right now you can sign up for Music Lessons at The Kitchener Academy of Music by emailing us at tkaminfo@gmail.com, or giving us a call at (519) 893-2121. We can’t wait to hear from you!