Piano Forte Music School provides piano lessons for adults in levels ranging from beginner to intermediate and advanced. In beginning lessons, the foundations of piano are emphasized in order to provide a basis for more advanced concepts. Intermediate and advanced classes take on classical pieces and music theory while honing performance skills.
Adults with a love of music and the motivation to learn will find that it’s never too late to start learning piano. In fact, adults experience advantages in their learning experience over children, as they have more highly developed critical thinking skills, a greater attention span and can learn complex concepts much easier. For adults, piano lessons can reduce stress and anxiety, strengthen eye-hand coordination, increase memory, discipline and concentration and boost self-esteem.
Piano lessons for adults may be the key to bringing musical fulfillment to anyone who dreams of becoming a skilled pianist or just wanting to add more music to their life.
Piano Lessons for Adults - Curriculum
Piano lessons for beginning students will emphasize building the foundations of proper technique. The basics of music theory are introduced.
Several of the concepts that beginning students learn include:
- Correct body posture, hand position and arm movement
- Notation, note and rest values
- Key names
- Accidentals (sharps and flats)
- Time signatures (4/4, 3/4, 2/4),
- Musical articulation (staccato, legato, accent, tenuto, fermata, etc.),
- Musical symbols, terms and dynamic signs (f, p, mp, mf, crescendo, diminuendo, etc.)
- Introduction to the five finger pattern
- Introduction to intervals, whole and half steps
- Tetrachord and major scales and tempo marks
Resources: The Alfred Basic Adult Piano Course books are used in the study of piano foundations.
As adult beginning students develop, they are introduced to additional skills including:
- Introduction to Major and Minor scales
- Introduction to arpeggios, triads and inversions
- Introduction to cadences
- Deeper knowledge and understanding of musical signs and terms
- Melodic phrase structure (motif, repetition, sequence)
- Introduction to the damper pedal
- Development of musicality and introduction to classical repertoire: Introduction to composers such as J.S. Bach (From Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach), J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, F. Schubert, R. Schumann, P. Tchaikovsky, D. Shostakovich, D. Kabalevsky and more.
- Development of technique:
- Introduction to Junior Hanon exercises
- Practicing scales and arpeggios on 2 octaves
- Introduction to chromatic scale
- Introduction to Etudes (C. Czerny)
Students in our Intermediate level will learn to play a classical repertoire from all four periods of music: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary. Students will develop musicality and an understanding of each musical period. In intermediate piano lessons for adults, we’ll focus on developing overall technique and finger dexterity, and students will dive deeper into music theory. A wide range of exercise materials is individualized for each student.
Adult intermediate students will study:
- A greater understanding of Major and Minor Key Signatures
- Major, Minor, and Chromatic Scales
- Intervals (Major, Minor, Perfect, Augmented, Diminished)
- Primary and Secondary Triads
- Introduction to the Dominant Seventh Chord
- Cadences (Authentic, Half, Plagal, Deceptive)
- Melodic phrase structure (Motif, Repetition, Imitation, Sequence)
- Transposition and Modulation
- The four periods of Music History: The Baroque Period, The Classical Period, The Romantic Period, The Contemporary Period
- A deeper development of musicality through understanding different periods of music and composers:
- Baroque Period: J.S Bach, G. F. Handel, D. Scarlatti, etc.
- Classical Period: introduction to Sonatina and Sonata-Allegro form; M. Clementi, A. Diabelli, J. L. Dusek, J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, etc.
- Romantic Period: F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn, C. Debussy, etc.
- Contemporary Period: D. Schostakivich, A. Khachaturian, D. Kabalevsky, etc.
- Development of technique:
- Extended Hanon exercises: Hannon Virtuoso Pianist
- Practicing scales on four octaves
- Practicing triads on four octaves
- Etudes (C. Czerny)
Piano lessons for advanced students will focus on working on more technical exercises, as students perform more complex pieces from the four periods of music and acquire a deeper knowledge of music theory and music history. In advanced piano lessons for adults, an emphasis on performance technique helps prepare students for public performances.
Advanced students learn concepts and skills such as:
- Scales and Intervals
- The Secondary Dominant
- Cadences, Chord Progressions, Augmented Sixth Chord
- Nonharmonic Tones
- 20 th and 21st Century Compositional Devices
- Sonata-Allegro Form
- Rondo Form
- Themes and Variations
- Music History: the four periods of music and composers such as J.S Bach, L. Beethoven, W.A. Mozart F. Chopin, S. Rachmaninoff, F. Liszt, C. Debussy, M. Mussorgsky, S Prokofiev, etc.
- Development of technique:
- Extended Hanon exercises (on white keys, on black keys, staccato technique)
- Scales on four octaves, contrary motion
- Chromatic scale, contrary motion
- Triads on four octaves
- Brahms - 51 Exercises for piano
For more information on piano lessons for adults, contact us today.
Piano Forte Music School provides adult music lessons for those who are interested in learning to play piano. We teach students from Foster City, Woodside, Menlo Park and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Piano lessons for adults are available at our piano school in Redwood City, California. Enroll today!
"Piano Forte Music School does an amazing job at teaching piano! Ms. Marie is great at teaching as well as very fun and engaging. I highly recommend anyone looking for a piano teacher to go to her."