Pianist Built by JoyTunes

Pianist Built by JoyTunes

I'm a piano teacher.  It was an accident.  I was an award winning musician but I never wanted to be a teacher.  Fortunately, it's in my genes because my Dad was a great teacher. So is my Mom.

I've been teaching for gazillions of years now and teaching techniques change as we learn more about how people learn.  This is a great thing because it makes learning easier and more efficient.  I'm all about EFFICIENT!

I have 2 kids, 6 years apart.  My son started piano lessons at 3. My daughter at 4.  My son does not like piano, although he loves his teacher, and I wondered why.  My daughter LOVES piano.  What's the difference?

Sure, temperment and personality have a lot to do with this dichotomy but more is the addition of technology.  Not gonna lie, I am a piano teacher and like my friend Donna says:  "The shoemakers children have no shoes"; my poor kids are hard pressed to find an available piano and time to practice.

When Max was little and learning to play, we used computer programs and cd roms.  They were effective but they were limited to the time the computer was available and so it was mostly done in his lesson.  END OF STORY.  Millie has an ipad. iPads are a family staple.  She's had one since she was 3.  She's also had the advantage of JoyTunes' app, Piano Maestro.   She plays piano every day because she can and she enjoys it. When she can't she can use her iPad to practice.  She gets reinforcement from Piano Maestro and what a tremendous difference this has made in her musicianship.

Millie has skills that I worked YEARS to acquire.  I was watching her learn a new song this week and this was her process:
1. Try to sightread the piece.  She failed to get 3 stars.
2. She decides to do the Learn mode.  Learn mode is a tool students can use to break the piece down section by section.  At the end of the steps, they put the whole song together and play it with a backing track.
3. She learns it through learning mode.
4. She begins to play it at full tempo and gets 3 stars.  YAY MILLIE!
5.  That's not good enough, she says.  She continues to work her way through it until she misses no notes and her timing score is 100 %.

(WHAT? She is 7!  Stats don't matter to a 7 year old!  But they do when it's a game!  This is the genius of Piano Maestro!)

6.  SHE KEEPS PLAYING because she loves getting that PERFECT score!

As I watched her play, I noticed something else.  When she was playing if she missed a key, she kept going and her eyes found the next down beat and she was fine.  She didn't panic that she missed a key, she just kept going.  If you've ever played with an ensemble then you know (and have probably just experienced it) the heart stopping moment where you blink a bunch and try to find your spot to get back in the song.  It takes years to master your emotions so you can even do this.  She's got it down.  I was very impressed!

This is a significant and completely awesome new way to learn! Adding Piano Maestro to a piano lesson adds  a whole new level of efficacy.  As I teacher, I'm all for it! As a MOM, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

I hope everyone who has a piano student uses this app.  I hope you if you don't play piano, you get this app and learn.  The process that I've just described?  It's LIFE SKILLS!

Go Play!