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How to Tune Your Guitar

When taking guitar lessons, one of the first things you need to learn is how to tune your guitar. A lot of beginners struggle with tuning their guitar quickly and accurately. Although there are different ways to tune the guitar, stick to the easiest method in the beginning and don’t get discouraged. If your guitar is extremely out of tune or you have just replaced the strings, you may want to have someone else tune most of the way first. It’s best if you’re only making small adjustments when you first start to tune since it’s easy to get lost and tune the notes an octave or more too high which can result in breaking a string.
There are alternate tunings that may be used for certain songs or styles as a more advanced student explores certain songs or styles but ‘Standard’ tuning is what most players will use the majority of the time and is all that is necessary to learn in the beginning.

Different ways to tune

• Use a guitar tuner or tuning application. (Easiest way to tune-see below.)

• Tune to the notes on a piano. This requires being able to hear and match the notes on the guitar with notes sounded on the piano which can be difficult to do accurately in the beginning. It also requires that the piano is in tune. See ‘guitar string notes’ below to find the notes on the piano.

• Tune to the harmonics. (A piano or tuner will still be needed to tune the first string.) This is a more complicated method to tune. It requires being able to create the harmonic on the strings then listening to the beats of the sound wave until they line up as the tuning peg is turned. The advantage of this method is that the relationships between the notes from string to string should be perfectly in tune with each other. Save this method for later.

The Guitar’s Headstock And Tuning Pegs

The headstock is on the end of the guitar neck, opposite the body. On the headstock, there will be six plastic or tuning pegs. Turning these pegs will either tighten the guitar strings making their pitch higher or loosen them making the pitch lower.

Guitar Headstock and Tuning Pegs

Using a tuner

1. Clip tuner on head of guitar. (if non-clip on model, set near guitar)
2. Turn on tuner.
3. Locate low E string. (String closest to ceiling.)
4. Locate low E peg. (Follow string to attached peg.)
5. Pluck string and let ring. (Don’t pull at string.)
6. As string is ringing, turn pin until correct letter lights up.
7. After correct letter lights up, tune string up or down until needle is centered over letter.
(Make sure there isn’t a sharp or flat next to the letter.)
8. Continue tuning the strings in the order below:
E 6th String (closest to ceiling, lowest in pitch)
A 5th String
D 4th String
G 3rd String
B 2nd String
E 1st String (closest to floor, highest in pitch)

• Tuners may look slightly different but most have a letter or screen that lights up to show when the pitch is correct. Some have a needle that moves to show whether sharp, flat and correct pitch.

Tuning Tips

Only turn peg while string is ringing, otherwise your ear and the tuner can not tell how much the pitch is changing.
Move tuning pegs by VERY small increments. Making big turns will result in overshooting the pitch and make it hard to hit in right on. You may find yourself stuck jumping back and forth between’ too high’ and ‘too low’.
Pluck string loud and clear so it will ring for a long time giving you more time to adjust the tuning peg. You can also hit the string over and over as you turn the peg to keep it ringing while you adjust the pitch.

Suzan’s favorite Guitar Tuning App: Guitar Tuna

Guitar Tuna (Android, iOS or PC) is my favorite for teaching students how to tune. I find that students learn how to tune quicker and with less confusion. It has a grid that shows the pitch moving in real time that gives a clear visual picture of what’s happening as you turn the tuning peg. It shows ‘too high’, ‘too low’ and then lights up when it’s in tune. Some tuners only show the letter of the pitch sounding and use a needle to show if you’re sharp or flat of the letter you’re on. This can be very confusing as as the needle will reset each time the letter of the pitch changes. Between the letters flashing and the needle bouncing around from high to low, I find that students easily get confused. This app also has some other great learning features that I’ll review in another article.

Low E String Tuned Too Low	Low E String Tuned Too High	Low E String Tuned Correctly

We’ll use a cake and a measure of music to explain rhythm, but first a quick OVERVIEW.

Each line and note on the staff stands for a note.

• What kind of note is used tells how long to hold it.

• Symbols are placed on the staff to show what to play and show time going by.

 

 

Notes go up and down on the staff.

Time goes from left to right

• Time is separated into beats (counts) and measures.

  

• Time signature  shows how many beats per measure (top number) and what note gets the beat (bottom number)

.

(2 = half note, 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, 16 = sixteenth note)

     Imagine that a measure is a cake.    

     

 

• It is already cut into 4 even pieces or beats (counts).
• Each piece is numbered 1, 2, 3, 4.

• Imagine that people are eating cake and the notes are the pieces of cake.

• If one person wants cake they get the whole cake = 4 pieces

     Whole note = 4 counts

• If two people want cake, we split the cake in half and each person gets two pieces.          

     Half note = 2 counts

• If four people want cake, each person gets one piece.                                   

     Quarter note = 1 counts

• If eight people want cake, each person gets a half a piece of cake. (each piece is cut in half)

     Eighth note = ½ a count

• If sixteen people want cake, each person gets one-fourth a piece of cake.

     (each piece gets cut into 4 smaller pieces)

     Sixteenth note = ¼ of a count

Counting Rhythms

• In order to be able to count rhythms, each part of the beat is named.
• Each whole beat gets a number  1 2 3 4

     Counting Whole notes

     Counting Half Notes

     Counting Quarter Notes

     Counting Eighth Notes

• The beats need to be cut in half for eighth notes, the first half of the beat is called the        number, and the second half of each beat is called ‘&’ (and).  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.

     Counting Sixteenth Notes

• The beats need to be cut in fourths for sixteenth notes, the first fourth of the beat is called the number, the second fourth of the beat is called ‘e’ (long ee), the third fourth is called ‘&’ and the last fourth is called ‘a’ (uh).

Choosing an instrument to purchase can be a difficult decision for students, from beginner to advanced. There are many factors that go into choosing the piano or keyboard that will suit your needs. Modern music technology has made affordability less of an issue but it’s still important to avoid getting a poorly made instrument that can add an unnecessary obstacle to learning.

This depends on your situation, space and budget. There are piano teachers that will insist you MUST have a real acoustic piano to learn on. This is simply not the case. Having a nice digital piano is better than a cheap or poorly functioning upright. Acoustic pianos are wonderful if budget, space and noise level aren’t issues. Unfortunately, they are not always a realistic option for city dwellers. Making a good choice may require compromising between what you want and what you need.

The piano is a universal instrument. If you start there, learn your theory and how to read, you can go on to any other instrument. -Eddie Van Halen

We’ve created the following chart to help in your decision between a piano, digital piano or small starter keyboard. The small starter keyboard is only offered as a temporary beginning option for those that need it and not recommended as long term practice instrument. A general recommendation for both piano and keyboard purchase is to go with a well – known brand at least one step up from the entry – level model. Pianos and Keyboards are complicated instruments that end up flimsy and not very functional if you buy the cheapest available model and brand.

Features/Issues	Piano	Digital Piano	Small Starter Keyboard
Purchase Cost	New – $3000 – $100,000 Used – Free* to $3000 may be hard to assess condition without technician	New – $400 – $1500 Used – $300 – $1000	New – $100 – 300 Used – $50 – 100
Moving Cost	$100 – $600 Depending on upright or grand and also flights of stairs involved	Minimal to none – possible to move by self.	Minimal to none – possible to move by self.
Repair Cost	Varies, older pianos are more likely need repairs	Unusual	Unusual
Tuning	$100 – $200 twice a year	No Tuning Needed	No Tuning Needed
Space requirement	Differs by model but at least: Uprights – 58” long X 2.5’ depth Grands – 4’11″ to 9’ plus space for bench	Differs by model but at least: 52 ” width X 12” depth	Differs by model but at least: 37” width X 14” depth
Mobility	300 – 1200 lbs not easy to move, requires bonded professional piano mover	30 – 70 lbs easy to move	10 lbs easy to move
Space Requirement	Differs by model but at least: Uprights – 58” long, 2.5’ depth Grands – 4’11 to 9’ plus space for bench	Differs by model but at least: 52 ” width X 12” depth	Differs by model but at least: 37” width X 14” depth
Volume Control	No – may limit playing hours ** Practice Pad installation can help	Yes Adjust volume knob or use headphones	Yes Adjust volume knob or use headphones
Action: feel of keys being pressed down and how they spring back up again	Dependent on piano model and brand. In general usually better than most digital pianos.	Poor – Good Dependent on model and brand. Better models have better action and feel good to play. Cheaper models often sorely lack in this area.	Poor Not recommended as sole practice instrument over long term. Ok for very beginning note reading, playing chords or theory. Not possible to work on technique (other than hand position) on this instrument.
88 keys	Yes There are some pianos that have less than 88 keys. Although they take up less space than most uprights, they still take up more space than a digital piano and are usually not great instruments.	Yes There are models that have less but if you’re going to spring for a digital piano, the difference in price is negligible. The size difference is marginal so there’s no much space saving.	Some have 88 keys. Many do not. Not recommended with less than 61 keys since it is not practical for most music. Even so, 61 keys is outgrown fairly quickly by most students.
Weighted Keys: the resistance required to press down keys. Graded refers to the upper range having less resistance than the lower range the way it occurs on an acoustic piano	Naturally part of the mechanical nature of acoustic pianos. Can vary depending on brand and model. Keys in the upper range generally have less resistance than the lower range. Grand pianos have more heavily weighted keys than upright pianos.	Be careful of ‘thumpy’ or ‘flimsy’ feel. Extremely dependent on model and brand Most keyboards in this category don’t have weighted keys. You can instantly tell from the shallow key depth	OK for very beginning note reading, playing chords or theory. Not possible to work on technique (other than hand position) on this instrument. Be careful. Some keyboards claim to have weighted keys but are so lightly weighted that they don’t feel anything like real keys. Also never mistake “velocity” for weighted keys, as this refers to response of keys to the pressure applied to keys during attacks.
Sensitivity: how keys responds dynamically (louds & softs) to pressure	Good – Very Good Dependent on piano model and brand.	Dependant on model and brand. In general digital pianos have better sensitivity than other types of keyboards but usually less sensitivity than most pianos.	Poor – Ok Most models will respond to some louds and softs but there isn’t a lot of subtlety. Ok for very beginning but not suitable for working on in depth dynamics and musicality.
Midi Allows information to be sent and received between instruments and computers. Used for recording programs.	No There are midi triggers you can install on a piano but it’s expensive. (thousands of dollars)	Yes – Either through MIDI USB or through standard MIDI ports. Major brands and models all have midi capability. No-name brands may not.	Yes – Either through MIDI USB or through standard MIDI ports Major brands and models all have midi capabitlity. No-name brands may not.
Polyphony – How many keys can be pressed down at one time and all still continue to sound. Becomes an issue when using sustain pedal.	Not an issue. Pianos have strings that are struck by hammers and continue to ring until the string stops vibrating.	Good – Very Good Should have 128 note minimum polyphony. Beware of no-name brands that often cut corners in this area. Keys on a keyboard trigger samples of each note. More notes being held or played at the same time require more processing power. Once the maximum amount of voices (notes) in the polyphony are reached, the keyboard will cut off held notes.	Not great but good enough for beginners. If only 61 keys, you need a minimum of 64 note polyphony.
Ease of Resale/Resale Value	Good pianos hold value well and can be resold without losing a lot. However, it is not always easy to find a buyer, especially when there’s a moving deadline.	There is a demand for used 88 key digital pianos but in order to sell, it needs to be priced enough below a new one that there is an advantage to buying used.	Not as easy to resell unless super cheap. However, it’s easier to store and can be used for practice when traveling.
Outgrowing Instrument	Not an issue since all essentials needed to learn from beginner to advanced are present. Exception: Concert pianist who needs a finer instrument cable of more nuance.	Not an issue if a decent 88 key model is purchased since all essentials needed to learn from beginner to advanced are present. Exception: Concert pianist who needs a finer instrument cable of more nuance.	Student may quickly outgrow the number of keys, lack of sensitivity, and action. Continuing to practice solely on a beginner keyboard beyond the beginning stage can allow bad habits to form and don’t allow work on musicality or technique.
Key size Refers to the size of each individual key not how many keys the instrument has Not an issue since all essentials needed to learn from beginner to advanced are present.	Full Size	Full Size	Full Size Make sure keys are not ‘mini’. Muscle memory and dexterity will be formed with smaller distances and will not transfer to a standard keyboard or piano..

* Occasionally it is possible to find pianos being given away for only the cost of moving it out of its present location, which can cost several hundred dollars at least. As is the case with every piece of older equipment, pianos can have issues that are not obvious and are more expensive to repair than they are worth. It can be difficult to dispose of a piano if you get stuck with one that won’t hold a tuning. Since moving a piano costs several hundred dollars, even piano rebuilders or charitable organizations may not decide it’s worth the effort. Free pianos can be wonderful for both the person that needs to get rid of it and the person that receives it, just be sure to bring along a piano technician to ensure that it is functional. Practicing on a piano that won’t hold a tune or has keys that don’t work can be an obstacle to learning.

** Practice Pads can be installed on most pianos for a few hundred dollars (some come already installed). This puts a layer of felt between the hammer and the keys to reduce the volume of the sound. There is no volume control but it can significantly reduce the volume. It does affect the tone of the piano giving it a muted sound.

Piano Purchasing:
If you’re interested in purchasing a piano, we recommend the following book as a resource for your due diligence before investing in the right piano for your home.

The Piano Book: Buying and Owning a New or Used Piano

Keyboard Purchasing
See blog topic “Buying a Keyboard for Piano Lessons”

I once asked my classical piano teacher, “What pieces should I learn?” I think I was feeling like in order to be a good example for my students I needed to complete some specific list of repertoire. She was a concert pianist so I really expected to hear a list of pieces I must know in order to deserve to call myself a piano teacher. I was pretty surprised when she said, “You couldn’t learn all of the great music if you tried. You should choose music that you love. You’ll be more motivated to practice.” She knew that when you tackle something that is challenging you need to have a strong desire to stay at it in order to finish it and master it.  She also reminded me that I had a huge list of things I was dying to learn and only so much time. It’s a shame to waste that time slogging through things out of obligation instead of love. Most people that take lessons don’t have music as a job so I think this is especially true for the majority of students. I don’t mean to imply that you should only do the things you want to do and not the things you need to do. I am suggesting that you can use your desire to play specific music as a way to motivate you to learn the skills you need.

There is no reason why music you love can’t be a vehicle for learning. Each piece of music has lessons waiting inside of it, whether it’s technique required in order to play it beautifully or theory embedded that reveals how it works. Seeing the skills and knowledge related to music in action makes for more powerful learning. A deeper level of understanding happens when you can see the purpose of learning something. That’s one of the things that I love about music. When you put in the work, it gives you the instant gratification of being able to play a piece.

Make sure that your teacher can actually teach you the style or skills you need. EXAMPLE:  I often get students that want to play and sing pop songs and had a previous teacher that was giving them official sheet music from publishers. Even though the teacher clearly wanted to help the student learn the music they wanted, they were trying to approach it with the wrong tools. Learning how to comp with chords using a chord/lyric sheet or lead sheet is the best approach for a play and sing situation. Reasons why:

1. Seeing song form laid out in clear groupings allows easier memorization and a better understanding of how songs work.
2. Trying to do two things at once is hard enough; singers need to be able to put their primary focus on the singing not on reading through eight pages of a detailed piano part.
3. It’s unnecessary and usually not desirable to have two parts doing exactly the same thing. Sheet music (unless it says ‘transcription’) is not specifically arranged for piano/vocal which means that the melody which is intended for the singer is ALSO worked into the piano part.  Publishers do this to try and make the sheet music work for as many purposes as possible so they so they can sell the same thing to as many people as possible.  If you listen to any pop song, you’ll notice that the piano does NOT duplicate the melody along with the singer. The piano’s role in this situation is to support the singer not step all over them by playing their part over the top of them.

Music really needs to be arranged for the instrumentation it’s being used for to work the best. The arrangement that will work best for a piano solo is not going to be the best arrangement for a piano/vocal or for a full band. This is all to point out that the tools and skills for one kind of music are not exactly the same for all music. You need to have a teacher that understands what you’ll need to learn to do the music you’re interested in.

 

I often remind my students (especially adult students!) to remember why they’re at lessons. Most people, even kids that may not have chosen to do lessons, have music that speaks to them and a desire to be able to play an instrument and ENJOY it. If it’s turning into drudgery, it’s time to change things up. Look for new music and make sure that you have a teacher that inspires you and cares about what YOU want to get out it. It’s your lesson!

The ‘pursuit of happiness’ is the dreamy, American idea that if ordinary people work hard to improve their lives they will be happy. Our schools encourage us from the time we’re little to “follow our dreams”.  We expect happiness will happen when those dreams are achieved but it turns out that maybe that it doesn’t.

When I was very little, I remember being happy at the smallest things and hopeful about everything.  As I got older, I felt the natural childish joy being extinguished as the weight of responsibility made me grow up before I really wanted to.  I would escape into a book, music or various forms of creativity for moments of happiness but otherwise was passing time meeting my obligations with this future promise of happiness.  “I’ll be happy when….”  I wondered if losing happiness was a by-product of learning to be a responsible adult but I really didn’t want this to be true.  I had this sense that happiness could be a choice in how you perceive the world and that maybe it was something that I could teach or pass on to my child or my students.

One of the reasons music became a crucial part of my life was because it was always this pocket of happiness that I could dip into.  I couldn’t even really understand why it made me feel so good; I just knew that it did.  I felt like there were some clues on how to be happy waiting there to be figured out. I first became aware of the Science of Happiness, reading “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi over 15 years ago. It immediately made me start making connections between the way I feel inside music and happiness in general.  It seemed to lead to the conclusion that we can choose to be happy and got me to thinking that music might have a unique ability to help get us there.

The science of happiness studies what makes people happy and the results seem to be pretty consistent.  People are happiest when they can be in the moment of what they’re doing and less happy when their attention is divided or the mind wanders. Psychologist and author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this phenomenon “flow”, which is a state of complete absorption within an activity where sense of time or other concerns completely go away.  Others might describe this state as ‘zen’, ‘in the zone’ or ‘in the moment’.

Matt Killingsworth is a happiness scientist who studies the causes and nature of human happiness. He says in his TED talk that people are substantially less happy when they’re mind-wandering.  He gathers data through a smartphone app he developed called “Track My Happiness” (http://trackmyhappiness.org). Users respond to periodic texts throughout the day and answer questions about what they’re doing and rate their level of happiness at that moment.

1. How do you feel? Rate from very bad to very good.
2. What are you doing?
3. Are you thinking about something other than what you are currently doing (mind-wandering)?

Killingsworth says in his NPR Ted Radio Hour interview that when he analyzed data across all activities that people are universally more happy when they are fully engaged in the activity and not mind-wandering.  The big question that NPR’s Guy Ross asks Killingsworth is, “How do you get to that ‘in the moment’ place?” Killingsworth’s answer: “That is the million dollar question.”  At this point in the interview, I’m practically jumping up and down because I feel like I KNOW the ANSWER to this question.  MUSIC!

There are some people who seem able to achieve this state easier than others.  There are many activities such as gaming, sports and learning where people report achieving this state but MUSIC is unique because it also has the ability to be a FACILITATOR for getting to that ‘in the moment’ place just by listening to it.  It can be the activity through the playing, practicing and learning of music or it can help get you into the mood of the activity you are doing.

Listening:  If you choose music that fits the state you are trying to ‘get in the zone’ with, it puts you there effortlessly allowing you to laser-focus in on the thing that you need it for.  A perfect example is exercising.  Put on some heart-pumping music and you are primed and motivated to get in the zone and work out.  An example at the other end of the spectrum is relaxing music that forces you to slow down and let go of the day.  Pretty much any mood you want to create, you can with the appropriate musical choice.  There’s an app called ‘Songza’  that curates playlists depending on mood or activity. The app’s success is based on music’s universal power to affect our moods.  People have been using music to alter moods and focus concentration and involvement in activities for as long as music has existed.  It’s been used in meditation, religion, war, celebration, romance, exercise, dance, film.  The list goes on and on. Think about it for a moment and imagine any of these things and the music that would go with it. Then imagine those same instances without the music to go along with it. All of those things lose their immediate power to be immersive without music.

Practicing/Playing/Performing:  The power to be in the moment becomes even stronger when you become involved in the doing of music.  In this case the music isn’t just helping you get and keep in the groove of the activity you are doing, it is the activity.  Because Music is a picture of time going by, it requires you to be in the moment or it doesn’t work.  Music is a deep and diverse subject that can not be fully mastered in a lifetime allowing it to continue to provide new challenges and new excitement. Csikzentmihalyi names nine component states of achieving flow (below). The “doing” of music can easily engage all of these.

1. Challenge-Skill Balance:  Balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. If too difficult it results in frustration, if too easy it results in apathy.  Music works well for this because it can be enjoyable to perform at many levels of difficulty yet always offers new goals, challenges and excitement.  I still get just as excited about learning a new song or piece of music that I love as I did decades ago when I began learning.
2. Merging of Action and Awareness: All of a person’s relevant skills are needed to cope with the challenges of a situation allowing their attention to be completely absorbed by the activity.  Performing music takes a balancing act of paying enough attention to guide action while at the same time trusting muscle memory and mental memory to do it’s part.
3. Clear and Compatible Set of Goals: An activity has a clear set of goals and rules for action that make it possible for the participant to act without questioning what should be done. In music, this is very clear. Music is written out with clear notation rules guiding how to read as well as theory rules describing how music works.  You may have goals of improving skills and level of difficulty or being able to play specific pieces or even just to express an emotion or idea.  Although there can be other goals in music, these are basic ones that universal.
4. Immediate and Unambiguous Feedback: You can tell right away how well you are doing or if you are improving. In music, while practicing you get the immediate result of being able to play a piece of music or being able to play it better.
5. Concentration on the Task at Hand: The clearly structured demands of the activity impose order and allows one to forget about unpleasant aspects of life or allow worries to intrude on consciousness. Music engages conscious and automatic skills at once and often emotions as well allowing the performer to lose themselves in the ‘doing’ of the music.
6. Paradox of Control: The sense of exercising control in a difficult situation with a lack of worry about losing control or fear of failure.  In music you can tackle a challenge and make mistakes with no major life failure or injury.  You can work at it until you conquer the area where the mistake happens.
7. Loss of Self-Consciousness: When an activity is thoroughly engrossing, there is not enough attention left over to allow a person to consider the past, future or be preoccupied with one’s self with distracting thoughts or irrelevant feelings. A person invests their psychic energy in part of a system that is greater than oneself which creates a sense of unity with things outside of themselves. Playing music and especially playing music with others achieves this easily.
8. Transformation of Time: Person is absorbed in the ‘doing’ of the activity and loses awareness of time going by. Playing music can be so absorbing that time disappears.
9. Autotelic Experience:  A person performs acts because they are intrinsically rewarding, rather than to achieve external goals. Music is a perfect example of something that feels worth doing for its own sake and not for any external goal or reward.

Why does music work? Bodies naturally try to match with their environment. With music the environment is sound and it travels not just around you but through your body. The speed of the music affects our heart rate, breathing and pace of activity. We feel the sound vibrate areas throughout our bodies.  Brains react to physical stimuli that trigger different regions of the brain to take control.  Different areas of our brain are designed to take over depending on what is needed. Fear kicks the amygdala into gear if there is a threat with a fight or flight response. The left hemisphere of our brain takes over when we need to engage logic. The right hemisphere of our brain is the intuitive. Music seems to launch our brain into the part of our brain that lets go of time and experiences intuition and inspiration.

Dr.Jill Bolte Taylor, a Neuroscientist who suffered a left hemisphere brain stroke describes her experiences and links them with what is known about the right and left hemispheres in her book, ‘My Stroke of Insight’. One of the striking realizations she has while immersed in her right hemisphere with her left hemisphere not functioning was how she felt emotionally as time and self-preoccupation disappeared. The right side of the brain where inspiration, intuition and religious experience all live, created a sense of euphoria and transcendence.  I immediately recognized the state she was describing as the state I experience when listening to music that I connect with.

Music seems to have a power to instantly transform our mood and allow us to shift to that euphoric right brain state. I believe it also is a great facilitator for getting into the state of ‘flow’ whether to be in the ‘flow’ of doing music or to enhance the ‘flow’ of some other activity. I like to call this mood-shifting. Although we can choose our actions, it is much more elusive to have control over our mood and how we feel emotionally. Mood-shifting can be used to change gears when immersed in negative emotions or as a way to work through those emotions in a healthy way. Being able to shift our mood to whatever state we need to be in to be motivated to do an activity and experience ‘flow’ is a huge advantage. This makes music uniquely qualified to aid in the pursuit of happiness. Engage music. Happiness achieved!

Suzan Stroud
Founder-Treblemakers Music School
Author- Treblemakers Piano Method Series
Full Time Piano Teacher 20+ years

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Sources:

‘Simply Happy’ TED Radio Hour

Ted Talks ‘Dan Gilbert’

‘Flow’  by Mihalyy Csikzentmihalyi

‘Finding Flow’ by Mihalyy Csikzentmihalyi

‘My Stroke of Insight’ by Dr.Jill Bolte Taylor

www. pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/Mihaly-Csikzentmihalyi/

1. So much amazing singing. As a singer, I’m often disappointed in the singing when I go to musicals.  Usually there’s one or two singers that are great and even then they aren’t always given the material to really shine.  I really loved the writing, both script and music. ‘Waitress’ was a dream for singers. Singer after singer blew me away.  Sara Bareilles’ voice was breathtakingly beautiful and emotional. Caitlin Houlahan as ‘Dawn’, Charity Angel Dawson as ‘Becky’, Chris Diamantopoulos as ‘Dr. Pomatter’, and Christopher Fitzgerald as ‘Ogie’ all gave stand-out vocal performances that gave me chills.  I was high on gorgeous voices by the time it was over.
2.  Vocal harmony and orchestration.  The musical is full of beautiful vocal harmony and sparsely orchestrated for rhythm section rather than   orchestra.  It really created a clean beautiful background that allowed the vocals to encompass the audience and soar.
3. Those Skies!   Backdrops of gorgeous skies complete with power lines behind each internal building scene transported me in a way that just having the internal rooms could have never accomplished.  I believe it’s supposed to be set in the south but it could just as easily be the midwest in the summer. I felt my heart skip a beat as I missed my own midwest skies.  
4. The Pie! Jenna experiences her life through every pie concoction she imagines and bakes.  It holds all her dreams, feelings and connection to others. The first song is called ‘What’s Inside’ which highlights the way that Jenna is closed on the outside but has all these rich feelings she keeps hidden inside.  Maybe my connection to this was made even stronger by own memories of learning about baking and life from my own grandmother just like Jenna learns from her mom. Added bonus: They pumped pie-smell throughout the theater for extra effect!
5. Lovable Characters and Dialogue.  Almost every character got huge applause at the end because they each had a moment where you get to know them and love their quirkiness, personality and humour.  The only actor who didn’t get a lot of applause at the end was poor Earl.  I gave him a few shouts.  He deserved it for a job well done of making the audience dislike him and forget that this is an actor playing an unlikable guy named Earl.  Come on people, Will Swenson deserves some props here!

There is an attitude among many teachers that they should only teach students that have a natural aptitude and diligently practice. I hear parents say, “Well, maybe music isn’t their thing” after they’ve had an unsuccessful experience with music lessons. Having taught piano lessons several decades, I disagree with this premise. If the majority of students are not successful at learning and quit within months maybe the problem is not with the students but in how the subject is being taught. I’m going to say something radical here: Everyone can learn to play an instrument. There are a lot of benefits to learning and having music being part of your life. Music is universally powerful which is why almost everyone feels a connection to it. Not every kid is cut out to be a rocket scientist but we don’t just let them abandon math and say maybe it’s not their ‘thing’. It’s still worth learning for the benefits and skills it brings to their life even if they won’t make a career out of it. This is also true of music. I think not only a change in how music is taught is called for but also a change in attitude.

What attitudes do we need to change about teaching music?

1. It’s okay that most people quit music lessons in the first year. This shouldn’t just be accepted as the way things are. If as a whole, teachers are failing to the get MOST students past the first crucial hump of learning, then some reflection needs to happen on what could be done better. We should be focusing on getting more successes and not only giving attention to ‘good students’ and letting the rest weed themselves out. This makes me sad when I think of how many students could have learned but quit thinking maybe they weren’t cut out for it. It shouldn’t be all on the student. Teachers are paid experts in the room that should be figuring out how to get learning to happen and how to help ease students past obstacles that can be common points where students give up and quit.
2. Students quit lessons because they weren’t willing to work hard enough, didn’t want it bad enough or didn’t have musical ability. Most people are capable of being musical, learning and enjoying playing an instrument. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Lessons need to inspire students so they want to be there. Information and material need to be taught in a way that allows students to be successful in learning and able to play music that is satisfying to them. Unlike many other things, music has the reward of instant gratification built into it. You work on a passage of music which leads to being able to play the whole piece at the end. It also important to work on building skills that allow students the independence to learn and play new music. Once some basic skills have been learned it should be easier and more enjoyable to learn new things but if students don’t get past the first level they won’t discover this.
3. Students would learn if they would just do what their teacher told them to do. Learning is so much more successful and profound when the student is on board with WHY they should do something. Teachers need to be salespeople for ideas. Students don’t always understand what teachers are asking them to do or aren’t sold on why it’s important. Teachers need to be prepared to explain things a lot of different ways and sell students on why those things will help the student do what THEY want with music. Even if a student wants to take something on faith, it’s hard to get motivated to do something if you can’t see it’s purpose.
4. Students can’t learn or progress if they don’t practice.Most people are not highly disciplined or self-motivated. Especially young kids who don’t do anything on their own yet. It’s not logical to expect that suddenly they be “responsible” about this one thing. You can certainly hope to inspire practice by getting students excited about playing music they love or giving them advice on practicing, but nagging is not effective except in getting students to quit. It’s true that practice is going to make progress happen faster but lack of practicing shouldn’t make progress non-existent. It does, however, mean that how things are done in the lesson need to change.  If the whole lesson plan relies on the student practicing on their own time and they’re not practicing, the plan is designed for failure. Teachers should focus on taking a few notes, concepts or chords and doing lots of activities and songs that use them. Build skills that can be used to do new things while giving plenty of fresh things to do so that it doesn’t get boring or feel discouraging. Focus on building a solid foundation that can be added to over time. Often times as things get easier, students start going to the instrument more on their own.
5. Every student wants to be a concert pianist or performer. Students come to lessons for many reasons. Learning plans need to be tailored to what the student wants to get out of it, even if they don’t know at first. Sometimes, it’s a process of exploring until they discover what really excites them. The student may want to play and sing pop songs, play classical music, play jazz, learn to improvise or write music. They may or may not want to perform in front of others.  Each of these goals and motivations have different skills and priorities needed.
6. Anyone can teach. Teaching is a talent just as much as playing an instrument is. Teachers need to not only have something to teach but have the gift to teach it. Just like learning an instrument, teaching needs to practiced with the goal of constantly improving. It isn’t enough to want to teach, it takes the ability to communicate, break things down, explain things in many different ways, inspire, organize information, earn trust, relate to students, problem solve and lead by example.

1. One-on-one lessons should have learning plans tailored to meet students goals and pace; not be a pre-packaged process where the teacher teaches everyone exactly the same way with the same music. Students are often taught in a way that is not only unexciting but isn’t designed give them the specific tools they’ll need to do what they want to do with music.     
2. Obstacles holding each learner back need to be evaluated and focused on first. Whether this is building focusing stamina, managing frustration, playing in time, using good fingerings, understanding concepts, dexterity, note-reading, etc. Sometimes until the main obstacle is removed, learning can’t happen. For instance, if the student gets frustrated easily and resists repeating things, it’s going to be hard to get traction. There are strategies that work. Teachers need to be invested in learning how to deal with a multitude of issues so they have tools ready to address problems as they happen.  
3. Teachers need to get better at actually diagnosing what is holding students back instead of assuming students aren’t trying or aren’t listening. You can’t address a problem if you’ve misdiagnosed what’s wrong. Learning to pay attention to the information that students give by their actions, words and body language gives valuable insight.
4. Teachers need to build trust so there can be an open, judgement-free dialogue with students about what they are experiencing and how they are feeling. Students often don’t want to disappoint their teachers or admit things that may make them feel stupid. They don’t have the perspective of seeing other people’s learning experience, only their own so they don’t know a lot of struggles are common. I much prefer students being honest about what they like, what they want and how they’re feeling.  Otherwise I have to rely on instinct and guessing. I want my students to be happy and successful in reaching their musical goals.
5. Don’t assume that just because something looked easy for a student to do that it FELT easy for them. I recently saw a teacher arguing with a student about how easy something was for them.  The student didn’t want to play the part again and said, “It’s too hard.”  The teacher said, “You just did it. That was so easy for you!” I know the teacher had the best of intention, but that student was giving them valuable feedback that they were ignoring. That’s an opportunity to get to the bottom of why that felt hard to the student. Is it because they have a low focusing stamina and haven’t learned yet that repetition is part of learning? Is it that they were using their working memory to do too big of a chunk and it felt mentally taxing. It often can look like a student has something automatic before they’ve truly mastered it. Students don’t fight the easy stuff. If they’re giving pushback, there is a struggle there somewhere. A lot of teachers or parents will immediately jump to the conclusion that the student is just being difficult or lazy.
6. Teachers should focus efforts on working within the boundaries of what they have, not what they wish they had. Assume most people will practice very little or not at all. This means adjusting goals to make sure progress can happen in the lesson. Yes, it can be done! Take concepts you want to master whether it’s a note-range of reading or a set of chords and do as many activities and songs as you can with those in it. This way the student is mastering a skill while not being stuck on the same song for too long. Months on the same song without progressing doesn’t feel good for teacher or student.
7. Put the focus on what the teacher CAN control which is making progress during the lesson instead of on what happens with students when they are at home. It’s very difficult for teachers to change what happens in the home environment.
8. Learning strategies need to be adjusted to work with how people actually have music as a part of their lives instead of how teachers wish it was. Method Books are still being used from 50-100 years ago and even newer ones are still following the same format as the old ones. We’ve learned a lot about how to learn, memory and how the brain works since then. That information should be being used to create curriculum that is more effective. Today’s student is also not the same as a student 50 years ago. Today’s kids have a lot of commitments and choices competing for their time.
9. Make reasonable goals that can be maintained over the long haul.  Although learning the piano is most successful when it’s approached as a long term project, it shouldn’t be a burden or drudgery. Music should add to student’s lives not add guilt or unhappiness.
10. Don’t expect students to do the ‘hard work’ at home. Tackle the hard stuff in the lesson where they have support and guidance. They will be more likely to practice it if they can already do it when they walk out of the lesson.  Playing it during the week will solidify the learning and make it automatic.
11. Learning an instrument shouldn’t be all discipline or all love. The all-discipline approach tends to drive the joy out of learning while the all-love approach accomplishes very little real learning.  It needs to strike the balance between the two.  
12. Learning music should be a combination of structure and freedom. Students need to have the structure to build a good foundation and understand how music works but freedom also needs to be nurtured. Musicians stop having ideas when they’re discouraged or corrected every time they try to do things their own way. I’ll give an example, I was working with a young drummer the other day who is just beginning. I gave him a specific pattern he had to play every time during the A section of a song (which I was playing along with him on the piano). Then I told him he could do whatever he wanted in the other sections. Did he do a lot of things that didn’t make sense?  Sure, but he also did some things that were pretty musical and got the satisfaction of being creative. Down the road, the conversation can begin about how to recognize the idea gems and develop them. What works, what doesn’t and why.

What am I personally doing to contribute to music education?

• Changing lives one at a time through the students I teach.
• Mentoring other teachers to help broaden their perspective and add new tools to their teaching skill set.
• Creating Content for teachers, parents and students to make learning engaging and effective.
• Writing to educate on both music and learning.