A very important factor in helping to motivate a child to learn piano is for them to have their own piano or keyboard so they can practice their music and have a sense of ownership and pride about their musical instrument. Hopefully this will work to inspire the child to practice and continue to improve their piano playing skills. Of course, it is wise to determine how much enthusiasm the child has about learning to play piano prior to your decision to purchase one just for them. When a child is first learning to play on a piano, they won’t need a full size 88-key piano keyboard, but as their skills grow and they become more advanced piano players, they will certainly want to have a full piano with a regular sized set of keys.

A digital piano or keyboard is a wonderful idea for an introduction into a child’s piano playing study. A digital piano usually has the ability to record music and even download music files from the internet, which can be great learning tools to aid in the child’s piano playing development. Another added benefit of these features on digital pianos is the capability to save the music you play, and can e-mail it to anybody you want. Children can send songs they have played and recorded on their digital piano through email to grandparents or other relatives, and won’t they be proud! There are many more great features on most high quality digital pianos and keyboards as well. A majority of them have several pre-recorded songs that can be utilized as learning tools as your child plays along with the recording. On most digital keyboard pianos, the child can mute certain parts of the recorded songs and play the muted part themselves on the keyboard. This is a fun and excellent way for a child to learn piano, when it comes to learning to play piano, there is nothing better than hands-on experience.

But in the last couple years I made a discovery about creating pleasant sounds on the piano that I never would have believed during my earlier piano teaching career.

I recall a physician friend asking me if I had any kind of course he could take that didn’t involve learning to read music or music theory or any of the traditional materials.

He had purchased a beautiful Yamaha grand for his daughter to take lessons on when she was growing up, but now she was married and moved away, so he had this grand piano in his living room with no one to play it. He was much too busy in his career to take traditional piano lessons;he just wanted to “doodle” after work in the evening and relax after a stress-filled day at the hospital.

Unfortunately, I told him “no, I don’t have anything like that available, sorry!” and that was the end of that story.

But a few months later another student had heard a “new age” pianist somewhere, and loved the sounds he produced so much that they wanted to do the same, and asked me how in the world he got those sounds. They weren’t really songs but more like the sounds of nature and running water and nature in bloom.

I have taught piano for 30 years and I’m a firm believer in learning to read music, understand music, and really master the keyboard. I’m no fan of mindless “shortcuts” because I know in the long run they just don’t work because you’ve got to have understanding.

But I also know now that there are many people like my doctor friend that would love to be able to make their own “pleasant sounds” on the piano just for their own satisfaction, relaxation, and amusement. They know full well that they will never be full-blown piano players, but still, they would like to sit down now and then and just make some sounds on the keyboard that sound good, feel good, and give satisfaction to them and/or their family.

I should have understood that earlier, because as I think back to my own youth, I recall my Dad sitting down at our old upright piano for a half-hour on a Saturday night and playing some kind of chording pattern that absolutely delighted my Mom and my big brother and I. I guess you know that if I could call him back from Heaven and have him play that again for me, I wouldn’t trade the entire London Symphony for that half-hour.

There is a style of music that is quite popular these days known as “new age” music. It tries to capture the sounds of nature such as water flowing, birds, wind, and that kind of thing. It is very descriptive music, and very relaxing. It’s fun to play, too, because there are really no “wrong answers”; anything that sounds nice and pleasant is “right”.

After trying for several months to create some of these sounds on the piano, I was delighted to discover that there are some very simple finger patterns that can create some wonderful impressionistic sounds using patterns that can be repeated in various places on the keyboard and in various ways.

And so for those people who just want to make some nice sounds on the piano (or keyboard or synthesizer, it doesn’t matter what kind of keyboard) I discovered some 15 different sound patterns that anyone can duplicate. I named some of them:

Cascading waterfalls
Wind in the forest
Rainbow after storm
Oriental gardens
Stroll in a meadow
Peaceful morning
Playful kittens
Gentle waves
and 7 others.

After I discovered each sound pattern, I then linked those sound patterns together in various ways so that anyone can create their own song, their own creative improvisation that expresses the feelings they want to express.

I guess an old doctor friend who just wanted to make some pleasant sounds on his grand piano can teach and old dog piano teachers like me a few tricks after all!

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced piano replacement, look no further than the DGX-230. It is the music student or professional musicians answer to I need more keys! and many music teachers encourage new students to get a keyboard that will grow with their needs. It features 76 non-weighted keys that not only look like piano keys but have a Graded Soft Touch (GST) action with different levels of resistance, making it easier for a budding musician to move to an acoustic or digital piano. The DGX-230 delivers on its piano theme with a special mode of fingering called Full Keyboard Mode. This allows the player to play the keyboard like a piano; for example a chord with the right hand and bass notes with the left. When using the accompaniment feature, the virtual band will follow these chords. Traditional portable keyboards normally require you to chord on the left side of the keyboard, in the bass section, which is foreign to most piano players. The DGX-230 is a (more…)

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced piano replacement, look no further than the DGX-230. It is the music student or professional musicians answer to I need more keys! and many music teachers encourage new students to get a keyboard that will grow with their needs. It features 76 non-weighted keys that not only look like piano keys but have a Graded Soft Touch (GST) action with different levels of resistance, making it easier for a budding musician to move to an acoustic or digital piano. The DGX-230 delivers on its piano theme with a special mode of fingering called Full Keyboard Mode. This allows the player to play the keyboard like a piano; for example a chord with the right hand and bass notes with the left. When using the accompaniment feature, the virtual band will follow these chords. Traditional portable keyboards normally require you to chord on the left side of the keyboard, in the bass section, which is foreign to most piano players. The DGX-230 is a (more…)