Piano teacher

katiejane

Looking for a local piano teacher to take on my eight-year-old son. Anyone know of any?

sincers

The chap upstairs plays piano for Westend musicals like Oliver and Betty Blue Eyes. I think he also teaches. I'll ask him.

Reg

yes, a friend of mine is a piano teacher. She lives on MPC and is very good. Whisper me if you want her number

krappyrubsnif

Elephant Lady on Victoria Road is a piano teacher. You can sometimes see her tickling the ivories of her grand.

Personally I've tried teaching pianos, but they never learn.

andy

Can you be too old to start learning piano? I have long bendy fingers, but no sense of rhythm and no patience. I sometimes think learning piano would be good for me.

Ian

I've always wanted to learn piano as well. What we need is a Morefit version of piano lessons where we can all go on a Saturday afternoon and bang on pianos in a group, some of us fainting with the exertion.

Marquis

Andy, it is all about daily practice, don't know if an adult person would be humble and/or disciplined enough to submit to that routine (kids certainly aren't). I used to give piano lessons while at school and university but my quality of life doubled on the day that I stopped.

janez

We are taking lessons with Lizzie Fenner, and are happy with her, especially The Child. Will whisper the telephone to those who are interested.

checkski

I used to teach piano, amongst other things, but it wasn't my favourite activity. I much prefer teaching other things. Practice is indeed the big problem. Without it you get nowhere, but it's difficult to make it fun. As a kid I much preferred playing boogie woogie and ragtime to practising, and only learnt all my scales etc in my last month at music college, before my final exams!

Adults are much more self-disciplined, but are slower to learn. I wouldn't bother, Andy, unless you are pretty determined, and willing to put in 30 - 60 mins every day. Little but often is far more useful than a blitz every now and again.

Beek

If you want to learn to play an instrument, take up the ukulele! Ukulele playing is a breeze, with a few chords you'll be up and running... and the learning and practice is driven by how eeeeeaasy and fun it is to play....

woolly

Or the musical saw, you can learn how to make pleasing spooky noises within a few days.

Arkady

Or the harmonica. Anyone can learn how to play folk harmonica pretty quickly. Blues harmonica, on the other hand, is very tricky. It’s like rolling your tongue – some people are not physically capable of learning to bend notes.

Ian

We bought a uke at Christmas to play to our kid. It is great - really easy to bash out some popular classics. 10 years of classical guitar lessons not anywhere near as useful for sing-alongs.

andy

Thanks for the advice, all.

Marquis

I'm sort of tempted to make a stupid remark about being able to help with rhythm issues, but I'll leave it.

Arkady

Why Marquis, are you Catholic?

Marquis

I am - don't see how that should get in the way of stupid comments?

Arkady

Catholic - the rythmn method - never mind.

gardener-joe

...

katiejane

Blimey - what a great response!

@sincers, reg and janez - yes please could you whisper me the details of the people you know

@andy - I hear the suzuki method's a good one - you're welcome to hire out my son!

miss annie

I was looking for a ukele for a birthday gift for a pal of mine. I discovered that there is a website called Uke Hunt which I thought was quite funny.