Music school for adult classical piano course, pls recommend

[liuhao]

Hope anyone can recommend me a music school for adult classical piano lesson. i search the forum and seems for adult, most are interested at pop piano course but what i really like to have is a classical piano course, ie, ABRSM way. hehe...

ok little background of me. i am 35 years old. i know i should have started at 5 years old but my parents didnt accommodate. it was not my fault. however, i learnt violin for sometime between 10 years old and 15 years old, though it was hardly a structured way as i expected. i also learnt classical guitar and electronics bass at around 20 years old by myself. i played electronics bass intensively in a band during 22-25 years old. i am not short of music knowlege/experience and i got flexible fingers.

hope it's not too late for me to start. my plan is to reach grade 5 in 2 years and grade 8 in 5 years. not sure if it's feasible.

anyone can show me the way? a recommendation of a music school would be best, if it does exist. thanks a lot.

 

[newbie100]

yamaha

 

[zenguan88]

christophric too what, i teach there lols.

but yea yamaha is not bad lar. to improve finger excerise you can request ur teacher to let you get the HANON book which is very good even for the experts. even though your finger might be flexible you might not be familiar with the keyboard yet HANON is a grade book to start with and can improve you drastically if you prastice alot

after which you might want to get a SONATA book that like you have a taste of what classical piece is like, actually the learning curve steep is quite high you may take more than 2 yrs to reach grade 5 and den take just a short 1 yr to grade 8. but you shouldnt rush foundation too , cos i guess its the core in every learning once you got the foundation it wont be hard stepping up the stones. i guess this implies to piano learning as well.

Frankly i think ABRSM standard drop alot, and i don think that their given certs is to of any use accept to get jobs like being a piano teacher etc, well if you got grade 8 in the past pple will think that you are good in playing , but now everywhere also got grade 8 and not all grade 8's are good though.
aim for the ABRSM dip though i heard is quite hard to get the piano dip.

however i recommand you to search for a good personal piano teacher this way you can discuss with him personally what you want to learn and how he can help you achieve it. show your enthuism too the teacher will want to teach pple with enthuism !!!!

well hardwork is most importance i guess work hard good luck

 

[liuhao]

yamaha

erm...does seem yahama got adult piano course.

http://www1.yamaha.com.sg/314.html

 

[liuhao]

thank you very much for your guidance. will check out christophric.

christophric too what, i teach there lols.

 

[iansoh]

christophric or cristofori?

 

[mingguan]

I also wondering that...

 

[liuhao]

cristofori. the cristofori toa payoh hdb hub branch is very close to my company. it's also the same place that my kid goes to enrichment course every Sat. for the convenience, i will choose it and going to register soon.

was also looking for a piano. tried yamaha LU-90 and cristofori one in cristofori office. i was wondering...how come such big different sound? the yamaha one seems to be very sensitive. very gental pressing of the key can produce reasonable sound level. the cristofori one, i pressed pretty hard but no sound which made me think it was a digital piano without powered on. only when i hit it really hard then it produced some sound.

how about a digital piano? i may get a yamaha p140. the manual says the key feeling "virtually has no difference from acoustic piano". since i might be moving house soon, it would be good to have a digital piano which is highly portable. also digital piano has volumn control and headphone output. i can practice during night without disturbing family and neighbourhood. i would only be free to practice after 9pm.

how do you guys suggest?

thanks a lot.

 

[Cheez]

If your aim is classical piano, don't go for anything other than the real acoustic piano. No matter how good a digital piano is, the feel is always different. It'a also the way the sound reverberate (resonate) inside the piano body that makes the feel - something you can't get in a digital piano. The moving parts connected in the keys cannot be entirely emulated to create the exact feel. It will affect your technique. So if classical is your aim, please don't go for digital piano.

9pm is not very late. You can still practice for half an hour to an hour.

 

[zenguan88]

ya is cristofori, darn i am even lazy to remember my company names. lol.
yea cheez is right the real acoustic touch is really different. and also this can improve on ur finger strength and touch.

ohoh and i studied in the toa payoh hub there too last year. theres this piano teacher name miss gan, i think shes a china lady, whos really really good in technique. You might want to source out this teacher she is pretty famous in cristofori and had get several of the students top prizes in the cristofori internal piano competition.

 

[mingguan]

I dun think any classical teacher will recommend digital piano to his/her classical student.

 

[liuhao]

oh that would become an issue.

seems i need to build an air-tight room first...

 

[Cheez]

You don't need a sound-proof room. It's not as loud as you think. Furniture in the room tends to absorb some of the sound. It's not as bad as you think.

 

[liuhao]

ok just went to yamaha showroom to feel the difference between acoustic piano and digital piano. apparently the acoustic piano is much more responsive and the subtle details are produced faithfully. but what makes me exciting is i found they actually have the "silent" addon for almost all upright piano models. looks to me like a small microphone and amplifier attached to each key. once the practice pedal is pressed down, the piano is muted and sound only comes fom headphone. that's very cool and exactly what i need in the evening. thinking to get a JU109 Silent as start...any other brands got this feature?

 

[Cheez]

I've not actually tried these midi pianos. I'm pretty sure they are costly. Once the mute rail is engaged, the hammers will not strike the strings which also mean that the feel may change slightly - theoretically. I've not tried it - so can't comment more. Part of the feel comes from the striking of the strings.

How does it feel to you when you engage the mute rail?

 

[liuhao]

I've not actually tried these midi pianos. I'm pretty sure they are costly. Once the mute rail is engaged, the hammers will not strike the strings which also mean that the feel may change slightly - theoretically. I've not tried it - so can't comment more. Part of the feel comes from the striking of the strings.

How does it feel to you when you engage the mute rail?

yes the hammers will still strike but to the damper instead of strings. the microphone/sensor stays 1cm next to the hammer and it picks up the vibration and translate it piano sound (digital emulation). all the subtle details are there because they are part of the vibration, although the sound will be different (the digital emulation is slight brighter and sharper than strings to my ears but not big difference). due to my limited experience i couldnt sense the difference of key feeling between practice pedal on and off, unfortunately. wish someone who is more experienced can try it and explain. however this is way better than digital piano because digital piano does not have that hammer mechanism and strike therefore it losts all the subtle details.

i didnt know it's called midi piano. anyway i guess this "silent" design is good when i only want to practice technique. it's far from replacing the expression and emotion of real piano sound.

i thought all recent pianos all got that practice pedal? in cristofori case, it just greatly reduce the sound level.

the keys of JU109 seems lighter than higher end models, or even lighter than P-140 digital piano. good for beginners? hehe

 

[Cheez]

Wonderful. Wish I can try it.

However, do note that once in the mute mode, the sound you get is at the mercy of the quality of the sound module that comes with the piano. And Yamaha digital piano sounds are not one of the best our there - although you should be able connect to other modules via midi. And in the mute mode, you also lose the reverberation of the piano body that adds to the touch. You still lose a lot of definition. You lose overtones of the notes etc and many things only a real piano can do. That will actually still affect your playing.

If you want to play classical piano, I will still suggest not to use the mute mode so you get the full feeling of a real piano. This also means getting a pure acoustic piano will suffice - save money anyway. I wouldn't go for anything less than pure acoustic action and sound. If your aim is not classical, then it's a totally different story.

 

[liuhao]

Wonderful. Wish I can try it.

However, do note that once in the mute mode, the sound you get is at the mercy of the quality of the sound module that comes with the piano. And Yamaha digital piano sounds are not one of the best our there - although you should be able connect to other modules via midi. And in the mute mode, you also lose the reverberation of the piano body that adds to the touch. You still lose a lot of definition. You lose overtones of the notes etc and many things only a real piano can do. That will actually still affect your playing.

If you want to play classical piano, I will still suggest not to use the mute mode so you get the full feeling of a real piano. This also means getting a pure acoustic piano will suffice - save money anyway. I wouldn't go for anything less than pure acoustic action and sound. If your aim is not classical, then it's a totally different story.

understood. thanks for your advise. the headphone mic and amplifier are basically based on sensors. only it stays very close to the hammer. there is no physical parts attached to the hammer mechanism. once you lift up the practice pedal, the digital/electronic module is offline. it will be back to a pure acoustic piano. yes i will only use the mute mode when it's absolutely necessary. thanks.

 

[zenguan88]

don buy midi piano i got. the touch sucks. my mum trade in my old piano for the new midi one and i still super hate the touch. ITS THICK AND STIFF . and i don feel good playing it. but its the christophric brand de don really know which model.

and if you close the door an acoustic sound wont travel far. if you really want to amplifier different sounds you could invest in a workstation instead . if you want the touch get a proper acoustic. i hate the MIDI piano i dono why i just hate the touch.

 

[Cheez]

zenguan, the "stiffness" or responsiveness of the keys is probably not specific to midi pianos. It's probably the brand of the piano rather than a midi vs acoustic problem.