Four reasons:
1) Effectiveness
- For students from early beginner to advanced intermediate levels, buddy lessons are equally as effective as private lessons, and sometimes even more effective. The choice of private or buddy lessons very much depends on the student’s personality. Buddy lessons encourage camaraderie, a spirit of teamwork and of having fun together but learning a great deal, of practicing together and making progress together. Sometimes, beginners in private lessons are self-conscious and feel ‘put on the spot’. Buddy lessons allow time for music games and for shared theory learning in an atmosphere that for some students is less intimidating.
2) Ensemble playing/musicianship
- Students learn, from the very beginning, how to make music with other musicians (not just with their teacher), extending the range of things that they can participate in as pianists.
- Students are excited at being with a friend/sibling/parent and working together on something as enjoyable as playing the piano.
3) Consistency
- Student in buddy lessons tend to practice more and to make being at the lesson a priority–they don’t want to let their duet partner down!
4) AFFORDABILITY! Group lessons for 45 minutes are about 1/2 the cost of private lessons of the same length.
Do you require that we have a ‘real’ piano?
I do not require that families have a ‘real’ (acoustic) piano with which to start lessons, even though an acoustic piano is optimal. An electric keyboard with full-sized keys is sufficient for beginning lessons; it is best that it have ‘weighted’ keys so that it responds more like an acoustic piano. After a certain amount of time (usually two-to-three years), if the student is going to continue with lessons, I generally recommend that a student obtain an acoustic piano.
In my buddy piano lessons, most of the keyboards are electronic keyboards with an organ-style/plain touch, and one is a weighted-key, touch-sensitive action Clavinova (an electric piano, the touch of which can be customized to match most normal styles of acoustic pianos). In the early stages of learning to play the piano–or a keyboard instrument in general–the non-weighted action of the organ-style touch helps students to focus on good finger technique instead of having to ‘hit’ the keys (very important with the younger students).
I utilize technology in helpful and fun ways; sometimes there are recordings available (on CD or flash drive, playable by a CD player or mp3 player or computer) that the student can practice along with to make sure they are playing the music correctly; there are also orchestrations for many of the lesson pieces so that the student can practice ensemble playing even while alone.
(One advantage to an electronic instrument is that there are often headphone jacks, so the student can practice as much as they like without disturbing others!)
Regardless of what your home instrument is, I take time to establish the ergonomically-correct position of student and instrument, which is supremely important in learning healthy technique and avoiding repetitive stress injuries. I will make a short video of the student at my piano showing what the healthy position looks like, so that families have a benchmark with which to compare to what they experience at home. ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is very true!