Hi everyone…
I’d just like to bring you all up to date with a few new features on the website, as well as a few tips on how to make the service work best for you.
I have mentioned this before I think, but there is a new course on the site called ‘Understanding Keys and Chords’. It should live up to it’s title and deals with figuring out the key of a song, the Circle of 5ths and slash chords, among other things. Just go to the My Courses tab and it should be there.
There is another new course, again on the My Courses tab, called ‘Shorts’. This contains some videos on how to play other songs not on the main tuition video section. These have been requests from students over the last few months, and hence while the videos aren’t presented in quite the same way as the ones in the main section, if there’s a song there that you really like, you should still be able to get something from it. It also collates the videos with extra tips about the featured songs on the website. These were all posted on the Facebook Group but now will be available all in one place.
A more general point I’d like to make - for anyone struggling to keep up with the schedule of this Facebook Group - there are other ways to approach your piano learning. This schedule works for some people, but it won’t work for everyone, and that’s fine. You don’t have to do the challenges if you don’t want to. Or you can only do the challenges and not play if that’s what you’d prefer. Like I have always said, I will put lots of stuff out there, and it’s up to you guys to work out what parts you enjoy and like working on and what parts you don’t. You don’t have to do everything. There are 50+ songs on the website, plus the courses, plus now the Shorts, so there is a good back catalogue of stuff for you to try if you don’t particularly like the featured song of the moment.
If anyone is finding any aspect of their learning difficult, be it regarding direction, motivation or something else, I am always at the end of an email if anyone has any questions. Even better, ask them in the group if you feel like it so others can learn from them too.
It’s nice to make progress, sure, but at the end of the day if you’re enjoying your piano, that’s huge, especially in a pandemic! So make sure to give yourselves a break sometimes.
Finally, I will be launching a new newsletter for the Piano With Kieran service next week. It will be a weekly email, and will contain many of the features of the Facebook Group, but also some extras. It will be a handy place to find everything you need each week. Some of you are signed up already I think, but if anyone who isn’t wants to sign up, you can do that here.