Learn to play beautifully

Question: Hi Albert,

My 14-year-old grandson will be spending a couple of weeks with me this summer, and I would like to find out if he has any interest in learning to play the piano. I would like to put together a “quick musical interest discovery package,” that will hold his...

Question: Hi Albert, I was wondering what you would suggest for a person that doesn’t really have any musical talent? My brother plays the guitar and now the piano. I am starting to learn how to play the piano.

– Alanna

Albert’s reply: One thing that is central to my teaching...

Question: Is it hard to learn how to play the piano?

– Danielle (Austria)

Albert’s reply: I think playing the piano is like learning English: I’ve heard it said that English is the easiest language to learn to speak… poorly. The piano is the most immediately accessible...

Question: I have private piano lessons that I started mainly to accompany harmony lessons.

Although my main interest was harmony, and in the past I enrolled in a conservatory and showed no particular interest in piano lessons, things have changed because my female teacher seems very strict when...

Question: Hey fellow pianists,

I need some advice for the following problem. Due to circumstances (moving, making ends meet), I haven’t practiced or gigged in a long time (about half a year). I am a professional player, I play jazz, funk, Brazilian and Cuban music.

Now that the waters have...

Question: Dear Albert,

As you may remember from our previous correspondence, I am 59, an absolute beginner at piano, and I will soon be on the lookout for a piano teacher.

In your article entitled ‘Piano Lessons Online’ you said: “Still, piano teachers are not all alike....

I was deeply saddened by the death of Earl Wild on January 23, 2010. Often described as the “last Romantic,” Wild enjoyed a career that spanned fully eight decades before his death at age 94.

Wild was both the first pianist to perform on television (1939) and the first to stream a...

Question: Dear Mr. Frantz,

How can one get accepted into a university and study piano after starting very “late”?

I just fell in love with music and it’s absolutely incredible. I feel this I have discovered what I want to do in life and it’s remarkable. The only thing is,...

Question: Read your email today. I am a trained musician and songwriter (guitar, voice, music major at college level) working as a physician/surgeon. I have forever wanted a legitimate comprehensive piano course that I can do on my own. There are a few out there that are more like “piano...

7 Common Beginners’ Mistakes

When beginning piano lessons, most students make a number of significant mistakes. I’ve listed the most common among them to help you along. This list is deliberately limited to strictly musical matters that cause confusion to beginning pianists; mistakes...

Seven Hidden Advantages

It is impossible to count the number of times we piano teachers have heard, “I wish I had learned piano as a child.” Adults assume that if they didn’t learn to play piano as a child, then it’s simply too late.

Yet not only are adult piano lessons...

Question: I’m a music student – a piano student – and also I want to start a fitness program. Can it damage my piano technique? I mean, how can push-ups, pull-ups, yoga, isometric training and so on bring me problems with practice, and if this is the case, what kind of fitness...