Lin’s Piano Studio
TungLung and Sheng Lin
林老師鋼琴教室
Welcome to visit my piano studio, and learn more of the lessons.
林東龍老師, 美國北德州立大學理論作曲博士，匹茲堡州立大學理論作曲碩士(KS)，國立臺灣大學哲學系學士。
林聲老師，美國北德州立大學音樂理論碩士，德州女子大學鋼琴音樂教學碩士，匹茲堡大學鋼琴演奏學士。
教學有耐心、具啓發性
提供表演、檢定、比賽機會
德州音樂教師協會會員
歡迎打電話查詢及安排參觀音樂教室。
One on one weekly private piano lessons for 30, 45 or 60 minutes
Teaching young beginners to advanced college level
Experienced, professional, patient, age appropriated, and inspiring teaching
Opportunities for recitals, competitions, PMTA festivals and TMTA theory tests
Reasonable tuitions
Develop balanced techniques, note-reading, ear-training, music theory and expressive performance for students
Provide variety of interesting music repertoires for fun learning (major music books: Faber Piano Adventure, Keith Snell Piano Repertoire, Hanon, and other sheet music)
Members of Plano Music Teachers Association, Texas Music Teachers Association, Music Teachers National Association and Society of Composers.
TungLung Lin D.M.A. (University of North Texas, music composition, 2000), Master of Science (UNT, CECS) , Master of Music (Pittsburg State University, composition), Bachelor of Art (National Taiwan University, philosophy)
Sheng Lin M.M. (UNT, music theory) M.A. (TWU, piano pedagogy) B.M. (PSU, piano performance)
Accepting new students, Call for details.
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Highlights of Plano Music Teachers Association Events:
Festivals: American Festival, Fall Festival, Sonatina Festival (earn ribbons, certificates and trophies)
TMTA state theory test (earn medals and long-term participate awards) :
Videos for 4th grader learning major scales playing with right hand
PMTA Trophy Competition
TMTA Performance Contest
Recitals: All Boys Recital, Halloween Recital, Honor Recital, Duet Recital, High School Recital
Help with preparation for ABRSM (UK) and Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada) exam repertoire
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Notes:
* Preparation and daily practice is the key to successfully piano learning. 30 minute lessons require 30 minutes of daily practice; 45 minute lessons required 45 minutes of daily practice.
* 45 minutes and 60 minutes lessons are recommended for most students. 30 minutes lessons are suitable for young beginners.
* Come to the piano lessons at regular time routinely will enhance learning.
* Taking the piano lessons is a high level thinkings. The students need to come to the piano lessons with proper rest and fresh mind. Exhausted sports and intensive math activities right before the piano lessons should be avoided.
* At early stage of piano learning, emphasis will be given to the ability of reading the music notation, as well as hand positions, music theory and listening skills.
* There is no short cut for learning the piano. For beginners, priority will be given to note reading. Learning the note reading is similar to learn a second language. Sounding out the language verbally and ambitious of recognizing the language text or musical notes are critical for successful learning. The students could not master the basic note-reading skills fluently tend to quit and develop negative experience of piano playing. For advanced students with note-reading deficiency can only be taught by rote, and could not develop high level of music understandings and artistic playing.
* For beginners, piano playing is easy to tell the mistakes. It needs a lot of work to get the note and rhythm right. Parents supports of positive reenforcement and routine practice at home will contrubute to learning achievement and pleasure. Frequent negative comments put down all the student’s interests and state of high level learning mind. Praise while you can, no matter how small the step the progress is.
* Bring all assigned books for the lessons. Some students did not bring practice theory tests, theory writing books, class note books and sight reading books.
* Short good quality focus practices work much better than long time absent-minded practice. Absent-minded practice is just a physical exercise, it does not improve note-reading skills and make progress for performances. Listen carefully to the sounds oneself produces will make a big leap in musicality. Imagine the sounds beyonds your musical instruments can produced.
* Be able to the read music notations well or not is a personal decision. We could not force the students to recognize the notes unless the students want to. The more one “care”, the better one can master the music notations. Sing the musical alphabets verbally while playing, will help with the learning process.
* If the students only practice in class, up to a certain limit, the students will stop progress. The speed of improvement will be equal to the speed of forgetting, no matter how many years the students learn and how hard the teachers try.
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* Digital Piano and Piano:
Digital piano and piano are different. Some parents might consider digital piano to subsititute the piano for the beginner. It is quite not recommended. The piano has unlimited layers of dynamics response. The speed of striking the keys and different ways of touching the keys create very refined nuances of sounds. It is very important for young pianist to experience the touch of real piano from the very beginning to develop good hand position and sensibility to sounds. The students practice only on digital piano or even keyboard can hardly develop good hand position, fingering strength and understand rhythm and phrase structure in time. The digital piano though fully weighted, has only one tone and limited dynamic layers. It has only up to 4 dynamic layers and could not produce any harsh tones.
Common digital piano:
* https://amzn.to/3VPrE46 (Yamaha)
* https://amzn.to/3VIRYwD (Casio)
* https://amzn.to/3z1EJgS (Roland)
* https://amzn.to/3TGcc8s (Korg)
* https://amzn.to/3TmhdmC (Kawai)
* https://amzn.to/3Tjhgjp (Donner)
* Donner DDP-80
* portable compact Casio digital piano
* Local Sheet Music Store:
— Music and Art
— Nadine’s Music Manors
* Online:
— sheetmusicplus.com
— imslp.org
* Local Piano Stores:
— Steinway Hall, Plano
— Kawaii
— Metroplex Piano
— Jack Whitby Piano (great for used Yamaha)
— Dallas Piano Restorations (used Steinway)
* Common good used piano models to consider: Yamaha U1, U3, G3, C3; Steinway model O, model L
* 4 space notes in treble clef: FACE
4 space notes in bass clef: All Cows Eat Grass
5 treble clef line notes: Every Good Boy Does Fine
5 bass clef line notes: Good Boys Deserved Fabulous Award, Goofy Boys Did Fail Again, Good Birds Do not Fly Away, Good Boys Do Fine Always.
* Benefits of Playing the Piano:
Playing piano is high level thinking. It engages many parts of the brain to accomplish the piano performance activity. Learning the piano helps with brain development to become a more smart person, enhances student’s academics ability, self-fulfillment and enjoyment of life.
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Method Books:
- Faber Piano Adventure (publisher web site)
- Keith Snell piano repertoire
- Henle edition
FaceTime virtual lessons
(1) Please position the phone that can show the student’s face and hands on the piano. A phone tripods will help.
(2) Do not connect the phone with other bluetooth speakers or videos. It might create serious feedback, sound distortion or delays.
(3) Have all books ready as in person lessons. Mark the measure numbers for long pieces.
(4) Have a working metronome ready.
(5) Send digital copy of finished Theory Homework weekly. The theory homework should match the lesson book.
(6) Text the photos of assigned music to teachers before the lessons .
(7) Make sure your WIFI is good and working on the piano room. Use your best device for lessons.