Playing the piano brings a wide palette of colours for your creative expression!
My Piano Philosophy has evolved over many years of playing and then teaching the piano. Actually, I began playing the piano as a little girl
My Piano Philosophy has evolved over many years of playing and then teaching the piano.
Actually, I began playing the piano as a little girl – before I could really reach the keys.
Mum says I reached up high to play the keys one at a time, and enjoyed listening to the sounds.
I must have been about 4 years old I suppose.
Where I grew up on Queensland’s Gold Coast, then known as the South Coast, there were few piano teachers. This is in the early 1960’s. At that time the Broadbeach Hotel dominated the landscape because mostly it was sand, more sand and sun there. Memories!
Piano lessons began when I was 7 yrs old. I don’t remember my first teachers – there were a number of them. They were always the wife of an intinerant Woolworths or Bank Manager. Hence, my lessons lasted for about a year at a time. Naturally, I kept exploring in between teachers. By the age of 10 I had enough sight reading ability to play through albums of music. Fortunately my parents supported this with buying a lot of music which was shared amongst my older sisters and I. Over time I realised that there were patterns in the accompaniments of the music. I began to make up my own songs using those accompaniments. The 1960’s was a very rich era for absorbing musical influences.
So, it evolved that playing the piano became the means of my creativity. It also allowed me to express a wide range of feelings. When there seemed to be no one to talk to, I turned to the piano.
In time, I would play and my mother would say “what’s that piece, it’s beautifulâ€. My reply would be “I made it upâ€. Now my mother says she always knew how I was feeling by how I played the piano.
Here I am now, decades later, passing on the elements of this rich creatively musical upbringing. This is the foundation of my piano philosophy.
Piano is a great medium for expressing feelings.
Like it did for me, this can become a worthy part of your (or your child’s) personal support system.
It is about learning how to play the piano to express yourself. Calm yourself. Centre yourself.
It brings a better quality to your life.
Thing is, I know that music reaches where no words can!
Many times, during those inevitable dark nights of the soul we all experience, it has been playing the piano that has soothed me. It has reached in where talking or even listening to music didn’t help.
With the piano we have a wide range of sounds from rather high to very low, and their individual timbre to mix and match to how we feel.
This gives you a large palette of colours and feelings to express.
My approach is to encourage playing the piano as a practical way of expressing yourself and caring for yourself.
The way I experience playing the piano and what it has brought to my life
* way of being creative
* self esteem and self respect
* access to my higher self
* way to be in the higher modes and my imagination
* retreat or escape from the world when it’s a little too much
* coming home to my senses
* way to relax
* a personal meditative spiritual practice
* a way to bring musical joy to loved ones
Until next time, would you like to read about my Teaching Methods?
Pamela