Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion piano keyboard?

That is so true! DS9 over here practices 45-60 minutes a day. If someone would have told me a couple years ago he'd be doing this willingly, I would have laughed. He sits down all the time and improvises, reads music, figures out sound by ear. He also took a theory class this fall which was great. Very challenging. It involved things like inventing left hands to go to right hands in different patterns. And transposing short tunes to different keys.

DD5 usually practices violin around 20 minutes a day.

I started really small 5-10 minutes a day. DS at 5 ramped up pretty fast. DD starting at 4 on violin was a little slower. Now that I've started a kid on piano and violin, violin seems MUCH slower and harder initially. So many different things to think about to even get a half way decent sound out of a little violin. She can play a bunch of folk songs and jingle bells, so she's very happy with that. I'm a little sick of it though!

I wish DS7 still took piano lessons. He was a natural but just hated practicing, especially as the songs got harder. We ended up buying a used upright piano (only $300 from a coworker) because he hated practicing on the keyboard. I still hope that one day he will ask for lessons again or one of his younger siblings (now 3 and 5) will want to play.

We used the Faber series and I liked them. Then we switched teachers and now spend a lot of time Bayer - which is the classical, traditional piano instruction book. If you want to learn technique, Bayer is better. Faber has nice songs, but their technique was weak. Bayer is all technique, so you'll need something else too (like Faber).

@kcab: yes, the Faber series. He is in the first one. The "Lesson/writing books A". His teacher is very technique oriented though. She is anal like me, which I appreciate. That's why I was concerned with getting a good instrument to begin with, as to not develop any bad habits. The weighted keys are exactly like a piano's.

My Mom came by to look at my keyboard. She said that it sounds great - better than the one they have at church. It does not have any funny sounds (DS wouldn't take it seriously - and it wasn't an option anyway, well, as far as I know - I haven't read the manual). I still have to get a bench for it.

Thanks for all the practice advice. 5-10 minute practice sessions/day sounds do-able.

The Frances Clark Music Tree series teaches comprehensive musicianship. DD8 can transpose pieces at sight because she learned to read by intervals

Beginning levels can practice up to an hour a day. To progress in intermediate levels, you should practice at least an hour a day (breaking it up into smaller sessions is fine.)