Are there NO teachers with Clavinovas?

[Pawz81]

I'm new to this site & this discussion group, but I was curious about this echoingly empty forum.

Are none of the users here teachers? Or was this forum full before the site moved?

[Howard]

I am currently trying some of the on-line tuition at various sites.
One that I have found that is really good is www.playpianotoday.com (http://www.playpianotoday.com)

It includes video and audio, both are really good quality. Most of the lessons are completely free with the more advanced lessons available to download for just $6.95. The downloadable lessons are the best value for money that I have ever seen for music lessons because you can just keep going over and over the lessons as often as you want.

There is a course on playing the Blues that I have tried. This takes you from the basic blues structure through a whole range of riffs and techniques that enable you to really get to grips with this style. This is suitable for all levels and is lots of fun.

There is a complete course for beginners, although I haven’t tried this as I had 'classical' piano lessons as a youngster - I can read music and know where all the keys are - playing them in the right order is the challenging part!

There are lots of other lessons, some of which I am just downloading these again are great quality and really easy to follow. Highly recommended.

If anyone is interested I will post any other experiences that I have as my foray into the world of on-line lessons continues.

[Pawz81]

Well, it's good to know there's something worthwhile out there to teach yourself..

but what about teachers. Does anyone here actually teach piano to anyone??

And if so, do you use your clavinova and how useful is it for teaching?

[karenjo1]

I am a K-6 music teacher. About a year ago, our school acquired a Clavinova. Although I have played the instrument frequently as a regular piano, I still have much to learn about all the wonderful capabilites of the CVP. Next week, I will spend some blocks of time studying how to save songs and how to set up various sounds. If any of you have gone through this process, or have any tips for use of the Clavinova with classes of children, I'd love to hear your ideas.

[Pawz81]

Neat.. I wasn't even thinking of teachers as in classroom teachers, but hey, 1 student at a time or 20...

I'm an RCM Gr. 8 level pianist who's been thinking about taking on some students in the somewhat near future..I just bought myself a CVP 207 and now I'm learning how to use all it's features as well.. including saving/editing etc.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get my registration banks to work properly so I can save all my music settings . . . like I said, I'm new at all this ;)

[karenjo1]

Pawz81, have you taught piano before you had the 207? What does RCM mean? I have taught lessons on electronic keyboards before. I like to have the student learn a melody by ear, then add a rhythmic style to the melody. Do you understand the cvpug's "Junior Member" designation?:confused:

[Pawz81]

Junior Member just means you have lower than a certain number of posts (I think the number is like 50 posts or something)

RCM means the Royal Conservatory of Music - It's a widely accepted Canadian standard for grading piano students, with 12 grade levels.

Here's their site : www.rcmexaminations.org

The nice thing about the RCM exams is that the students who finish a certain level get an actual high-school course credit (for those who are still going through highschool ;))

I haven't really done any teaching yet - the closest I got was getting my younger sister started on the piano and teaching her the basics.

Interesting that you mentioned adding the styles to the student's playing - Personally I've always hated the metronome.. for some reason I just can't play to something that goes tick. But with the addition of the sync button and the styles, I've found it much more intuitive for my ear to stay in time to a drum beat.

[wizardofmid]

Don't know about Canada but there are a bunch of teachers in the US with Clavinova. During the summer, Yamaha US does Summer Technology Seminars for teachers. They are 3 day events where teachers learn how to really use a Clavinova with students.

[sonatina]

wow, I didn't even notice there was a teacher's forum here until I read your post. Thanks! I've been to some other piano teachers forums and they mostly frown on teachers (or students) for that matter that use anything except accoustical pianos. It would be nice to lead other teachers with digital pianos here. I have a new CLP 175 and I am anxious to learn how to better use it with my piano students.

[MikeinNC]

This appears to be an old thread but I would like to add my two cents worth. I'm a retired instrumental music educator. I would have loved to have a Clavinova for classroom use, in my case to accompany a class of instrumental students, especially at the beginning level. In recent years, method book publishers have been including recorded CD accompaniments to the practice exercises in method books, usually a simple but catchy accompaniment played by a simulated rock combo. It's so much more interesting and exciting for young students to have an accompaniment to "Frere Jacques" or "Twinkle, Twinkle" or whatever they are learning. To be able to create instant accompaniments in many different styles would be great.

[Ian J. Evans]

Hi MikeinNC

You could create accompaniments very easily in many, many styles if you had PG Music's "Band in a Box".

Check out their website at www.pgmusic.com

I use it to make bass and drum rhythm accompaniments for practice exercise purposes. Much more fun than using a metronome.

You can save the files as midi files and copy them to a floppy disk to play in your Clavinova or any keyboard that has a disk drive. I play them at my speed/tempo until I can play accurately and then speed up a bit at a time.

They have a demo version on the website for you to try. The full version is very reasonable, about $100 US I believe.

Ian

[MikeinNC]

Ian: I'm familiar with "Band In A Box" although I have not used it. I think I would really enjoy it just to make accompaniments to jam with. My major instrument is trumpet and I can't get motivated to practice regularly. Sure would help to have a combo to play with.

[wally]

Karenjo1, one place you might want to go to learn how to use the CVP to teach students is the CVPUG FAQ. Look under Tips and Techniques for the question titled: How will the Guide Control help me learn to play new music? There's a pretty good write up about how to use the guide control to help learn music. You can easily adapt these techniques to help your students.

[Lorraine]

I just jointed this forum today. As a very recently retired piano teacher of the last thirty years, I would like to encourage any piano teacher out there to use a Clavinova as a very helpful teaching tool. I had an acoustic piano and a Clavinova in my studio (picture "living room") and would allow my beginning and intermediate students the option of having their lesson on either instrument.

The more I taught using the features of the Clavinova, the more I found it to be motivating. I purchased my first one in 1993, and upgraded a few times until I bought my most recent one, a CVP207.

I would be very happy to share some of the ideas that I found helpful in teaching with the Clavinova.

Clavi-One

[wally]

Lorraine, I would love to read some of your insights into using the CVP's unique capabilities to teach or to learn.

[Ian J. Evans]

Lorraine

I second Wally's comments, please don't be shy and share your expertise. I will anxiously await your replies.

Ian

[Lorraine]

I used to tease the salespeople where I bought my Clavinova, because they could not tell me the features I could use in my teaching. They couldn't, of course, because they were salespeople, not piano teachers. Having bought my first one soon after they came on the market, I knew I would have to develop my own uses with the features available. It would take too long to share all of them, but here is one:

I had a student come to her lesson totally unprepared on a piece she had just been given the previous week. She informed me that it was "too hard" for her. (I often found that the greatest hump to get over in teaching young children is their own lack of confidence in their ability.)

I had her just play the first eight measures, one hand, slowly. When that was mastered, I turned on the metronome, and she recorded it on track one, slowly but accurately. (It is fun for them to see the actual notes they just recorded when you press the score button.)

Then the other hand was learned, and practiced while listening to the first recording. When that hand was mastered, we added it on track two.

Then I "zapped" the speed up to where it belonged, and watched her jaw drop as she heard herself play a part of the piece that was "too hard for her" perfectly and up to speed.

I told her that that was the way I wanted to hear that piece next week.

If you find this helpful, let me know and I will share more ideas.

[Chuck Olson]

Excellent post, Lorraine. I have done something similar with a small book of Christmas duets in which I have recorded the teacher's part slowly, and can then enjoy "duet-ing" at any (often ridiculous) speed when I get the urge.

I'm curious, of course, how quickly that student was able to play the piece up to speed. I'm a "halting" music reader, and hardly ever wind up playing a piece up to speed without errors (not to mention page turning). Please feel free to describe more ideas and techniques you found effective in teaching piano with the Clavinova. Unfortunately we can only offer our thanks for your hard-earned, valuable experience.

Chuck

[Lorraine]

If you want to learn to play the piano, the Clavinova can be a great motivator. In my somewhat biased opinion, no machine will ever be able to completely take the place of a teacher giving one-on-one instruction.

But - here goes with another idea.

When you have a measure or two that is giving you trouble, try this: Record it at a ridiculously slow tempo, whatever it takes to make it perfect. If the rhythm is still not exactly as it should be, use the quantize feature. Make sure that the score printout looks just like the original music.

Then, turn on the metronome, play your recording at the speed for which you are ready, and then, leaving the metronome going, echo it. Do this as many times as necessary, playing, and echoing.

I must assume that you know that there are book/floppy disk combinations available that will have the recording already done for you, and the instrument can be made to repeat passages for drilling on those hard spots.

The Cue-time books would be more "forgiving" if your rhythm is halting, but then, you would not be learning the right rhythm that way. I would recommend the strict rhythmic recordings, and slow them down to learn them.

I commend you for taking on a new skill as an adult. It keeps the gray matter from atrophying.

[Chuck Olson]

I'm a bit unclear about the idea of "echoing" a section of MIDI recording. Tell me if I'm right - - you might use the "repeat" feature of the Clavinova, but press the stop button to create the space for playing the measure or section to echo what the recording sounded like - - is that what you mean by "echo"? I don't know if the "repeat" function will work through "stop" - - maybe if you just press "stop" then "rewind" a measure or to the start point each time, that would work, too.

Thanks for your kind advice.

Chuck

[Lorraine]

I can see where I could have been more clear.

Let's say that you want to perfect a four-measure section of a piece of music. Set a slow tempo, turn on the metronome, record those four measures, but let the recording continue for four more measures. When you play it back, set the metronome going again, and it will continue to tick during those last four measures, during which time you will be "echoing" or repeating the part you are trying to perfect.

It may take doing this a few times before you can do it perfectly, so be patient. It really works. Besides, how often can we be perfect in anything? :D

[Ian J. Evans]

Interesting concept, Lorraine

I am a senior who decided to learn piano after retirement.

I do something similar to you; however, I do not record myself.

I divide a new tune into 4 bar sections, but because I do not like playing with the click of the metronome, I use one of the styles, like Cool8Beat and slow it down until I can play the 4 bar section OK. Then I just play a continuous loop of the 4 bars at that tempo until i feel that I can speed it up a notch or so. I suppose I could record the first session and have it handy to replay each time i practice. I have done something similar with my Band in a Box program and saved the section to a midi file on floppy disk. Somehow playing with drums and bass makes it more interesting and fun for me.

Right now I am trying to learn stride piano using 1st and 5th on beats 1 and 3 and four note chord voicings on beats 2 and 4. The above method helps a lot.

Thanks a lot for your post.

Ian

[Lorraine]

Hi Piano Girl,

There have been Clavinova Festivals in my neck of the woods for the last four years. They are WONDERFUL! The music stores know, in their wisdom, that once a teacher has a teaching tool like that in their home they would be loathe to part with it.

I was fortunate to discover the existence of the Clavinova in the early 90's and have been using it ever since. The music store where I have always traded started leasing them last year. I think it is a store-by-store decision. You might ask your Yamaha dealer if they would consider doing that. It gives you a great tax break as well, whether you buy or lease.

I just remarried and retired in May after 30 years of teaching private piano, and still have my Clavinova. I love it!

Did you know that if you have a technical question about it, you can call 1 800 PRO YAMAHA? They are on the west coast, and can answer any specific question you have.

[Lorraine]

Hi Pianogirl,

The fee is dictated by the store. In my case, they tied it to the Clavinova Festival. The more students you had at the festival, the lower the cost to lease. I had 25 students enrolled, and I think the charge was somewhere around $75 per month. I don't know what you are charging for your lessons, but if having a Clavinova in your studio gets you a few more students, it might just pay for itself.

If it is leased, of course, there is no down payment. However, I would not want you to become concerned about being out of date in 5 years, should you decide to purchase. Although you can count on them adding more bells and whistles every couple of years, the model you buy is still dependable, and that CVP 208 will keep you and your students happy for a long time. (I had my first model for 7 years.) Actually, when you are ready to upgrade, you can usually find a buyer among your students. I have upgraded twice, and each time sold my old instrument for about $3000, making the purchase of the new one much easier.

I don't know what price they quoted you, but my favorite store gives piano teachers the school price, which saves a couple thousand dollars right there. They should also give you incentives for sending interested families to them who purchase a Clavinova.

In my case, the first Clavinova I bought was probably the most challenging to buy, and I took a few years to pay for it, but I certainly never regretted it.

One idea: After it has been an integral part of your studio, (assuming that you also have an acoustic piano,) and your students have a leg up on how to use it, you can have your students come 15 minutes early, warm up on the Clavinova with earphones, or stay 15 minutes later and practice their assignment. Although the length of their lesson is the same, you could be quite in order to raise your fees. When I did this, I got NO complaints from the families.

Come recital time, because it weighs only about 160 pounds, I always had a couple of volunteer fathers help me transport it to and from the library to include it in the recital. It is always a great addition and a big hit.

Hope this is helpful.

[pianogirl]

Lorraine,

It has been very helpful.

Thanks!

pianogirl

[dbjorck]

Hi!

I only have one student, but the CVP is certainly great as a teaching aid. I have followed the above suggestions, and recently I've been doing something else which has been helpful.

When I feel that my student plays a piece well enough, I record it. Then until the next session I compose some backing using various instruments and make it all sound professional, and finally record it on a tape which she can then take with her and play to family and friends. This is truly a motivator for her, and we are gradually creating a really nice tape.

Brgds

Danny

[Lorraine]

Great teaching idea, Danny!

If your student is a beginning or intermediate student, they will often have a short piece to learn that has a basic rhythm throughout. I would sometimes record one of the many accompaniments available, with an intro and ending, that would fit the piece. The student usually wants SO much to play with that accompaniment, that they will pay more attention to the rhythm that they are playing. In fact, I will record their piece with the right hand on something light, like a celeste, while I play the chords with the left hand for the accompaniment. That way they know exactly where they are in the piece.

This works well even with the little 8-measure pieces in their book. The CVP 207 will store this accompaniment for me, and I store it in a folder with the student's name. They love seeing their name on the screen.

Hope you have tried those accompaniments. They are wonderful.

[dbjorck]

Hi!

I do indeed plan to use the accompaniments in order to spice up her interest, but she is struggling with the pieces we are currently doing, so I'm solely using the guide function for the moment. As she gets better I plan to turn on the extra tracks so she can experience the joy of playing with a band, which I'm certain will then improve her rhythm.

BTW, I have prepared the pieces I intend for her to play the coming 6 months, saved them in a folder with her name, and as you say her eyes do indeed light up every time she sees her name on the display! Little things... However I recorded both hands using piano, I now see that for instance celeste would make it possible for her to more clearly hear what it is supposed to be like when playing along. I will use that tip in the future.

Brgds

Danny