Piano lessons by University Professor / Steinway Artist Lenora Ford Brown and Heather Thompson Smits, MTNA Nationally Certified Piano Teachers. Improve your technique, refine your playing and find the inspiration to practice! Learn beginning-advanced techniques and enjoy in-depth piano tutorials on specific classical pieces.
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BRILLANTE Piano Duo is an internationally recognized mother-daughter team. They travel globally, performing their own piano arrangements of classical music. They were first place winners in the 2017 U.S. Classical International Piano Competition and have performed together at various prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall. Lenora is a University of Utah Piano Performance Professor Emerita and a Steinway Artist. Lenora & Heather are both MTNA nationally certified piano teachers and have combined teaching experience of over 60 years.
Yes it looks very intimidating 😂 I promise it’s not as difficult as it looks! I have a longer video on our channel that teaches you how to tackle it if you’re interested.
@ honestly i already have it in my repertoire, just havent came back to the sheet music in a while and its as terrifying as i remember haha. Love it tho, fantastic piece
All I know is that if Heather were my piano teacher now, I would have the most attractive piano teacher I’ve ever had in my life! A little older now, I would listen to and do everything she said and most likely wouldn’t mind if the teacher crushed my fingers and twisted my ear lobe ! Of course only if Heather was my teacher. LOL❗️ Back when I was eight, living in Brooklyn, New York, I took piano lessons with a man named Mr. Cerillo. Looking back, those were some of the most terrifying times of my life. As a little boy, I faced his strict methods every week ! He would crush my hands if I didn’t keep my fingers curled while playing and to make matters worse, he’d twist my right earlobe every time I hit the wrong key because he sat on my right side, and those twists felt like complete torture. Despite these unbelievable traits, he was undeniably a good teacher. If I could see Mr. Cerillo today, I would say to him, "I’d like to see you crush my fingers and twist my ear now !!! I begged my mother not to send me to him anymore, explaining that he seemed a bit crazy. But she insisted, “He’s a great teacher. You have to go.” So, I endured nearly two years of lessons until I finally refused to go anymore. That said, I must acknowledge that Mr. Cerillo knew his stuff. A few months before I left his piano school in which he had approximately 100 students held a recital. Out of all his students, I was fortunate enough to be one of the 25 selected to perform. It was a big deal for me, especially since the recital took place at “Little Carnegie Hall” in Manhattan in front of about 500 people. Getting up on stage was the most terrifying time I can remember in my past. Man was I nervous ! I could hardly breathe when I sat down to play with people applauding. I played my piece, “Avalanche,” practically flawlessly, and I felt proud of myself. I might have misplayed 1 note but to me that’s flawlessly. Especially since I had to have played that song atleast 1,000 times the week before the recital. The only reason I made it that far was thanks to my mother, who always told me, “Timothy, nothing comes easy in life. Remember, whatever you love and want to excel at, you must practice every day, because practice makes perfect.” What I’ve seen oh Heather’s Course so far I’m definitely subscribing and most likely will enroll in her course 👍🏻 Thank You Heather for the great and easy to understand videos !
This story makes my heart ache honestly. I know it was common for teachers to be physically abusive a few years back ;) I’m so glad to hear the happy ending and that you had a positive performance experience at Carnegie! I really hope you’re still playing?! I am aware of the powerful influence I have on my students and I’m very careful about the things I say and my body language. Piano lessons can teach people so many important life lessons!
I am circling back now to report that I tried out the app and it’s AMAZING!!!! Anyone who is into the piano is going to absolutely love this app!!! Kudos to Heather for showing us this gem! BRAVO 👏 I am a fan!
I hardly play popular music. I love classical music! But my students play some popular songs, mostly from random arrangers on musicnotes.com I know Francesco Parrino has some good arrangements and Vika Goes Wild but they are usually pretty advanced arrangements.
Hi from Michigan: Great tips - I am a 73 year old front room pianist, Do 30 minutes in the AM hour and 30 minutes in the evening. I like playing tunes from the Big Band Era - No classical 🚂 ♬
Agree with you 100%. I started learning piano for a few months in my late thirties. Tried many ways. Most of the piano learning apps were not really helpful. They just teach how to play, and their progress is rather quick without building the essential foundations. Then I tried piano lessons from teachers. I am from India. It's really hard to find good teachers. They just teach scales and how to play some melodies and chords. Didn't find it helpful. Then I stopped for many years. It must be increadable to have your mom as your piano teacher. I will look for a teacher who is passionate about piano and has a deep desire and passion to teach others and is adaptable to the unique nature of each student. My desire to learn piano was so strong, I wanted to give it a try at 40 on my career break. Then I found out about Piano Marvel. The best music apps for learning piano. They take it slow, level by level. Its immediate feedback kind of substitutes a good teacher up to an extent. It helped me to learn the rythems and start learning the basics; level by level. One major problem with Piano Marvel is that it was supposed to be used along with piano lessons from a real teacher. It doesn't cover teaching much. I am able to substitute teachers with good piano courses online. I am learning music theory and other basics of site reading from courses. There are tons of apps and courses sold online that are supposedly the quick way to learn piano. There is no alternative for learning the basics the traditional/classical way. It's slow and painful sometimes. But in the end, we really get better at playing the piano. There is no substitute for learning quickly with shortcuts other than learning scales, site reading, and deliberate regular practice.
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You’re welcome! It’s so good to hear positive feedback about this new video format we’re trying. I will definitely put your request in the queue! We’re working as fast as we can to offer new tutorials and courses.
Confession: I strongly dislike the metronome😅 have never used one. I sense it would zap the joy out for me. I’m not playing for anyone else anyway lol but I may try it one of these days
Many people hate the metronome! Here are some reasons you may want to use it occasionally: 1) to stay steady and identify places you’re rushing 2) to challenge yourself with the speed and gradually increase the numbers 3) To help you learn a difficult rhythm. Most importantly, keep playing and enjoy the piano! Thanks for commenting!
I'm 57, played thru high school then stopped. I picked it up again in 2017 and been trying every since. The ONE thing that helped me the most in "getting back on that horse" (One that I was never that good at to begin with) was sight reading. I started with an old stack of sheet music that was about two feet thick/tall. I started at the top and I played or tried to play or looked over every one of them. It took me about 2 years! I never mastered much of it ,but what it taught me in sight reading was priceless. It really gave me a constant exposure to something interesting or challenging or whatever came along. I"m stil doing it now, but I'm now able to choose what I want to play. My biggest goal really was just to be able to play through an Elton John book or Billy Joel book at at least an acceptable or "intermediate" level. I have been working out of my Elton John book since 2020 when I got it and its taken me a few years of tackling. But I want to play Chopin now and other classical and its like starting all over again. Its like i never played the piano ever. HOW do I make the crossover???
Interesting insight! Thank you. Elton John and Billy Joel is very different from classical as you’re finding :) You should find that the rhythms are actually easier in classical pieces. I recommend that you start with some of the easiest classical works. There’s a great Alfred Masterworks series for various classical composers. So if you want to play Chopin, get the book titled “CHOPIN An Introduction to his piano works.” You’ll find this Introduction Alfred book for various classical composers.
My next exam is AMEB grade 3. I have 5 pieces in my rep; list 3 compulsory and 2 selective. I would like to know how to practice this amount or rep; plus method and technique.
It’s great that you’re doing this exam! I definitely recommend breaking your repertoire into A Day / B Day and then try to practice 6 days per week so you get to each piece 3 days during the week. It’s always important to practice scales and arpeggios every day. If you have a lot of technique for this exam you could also break this up into A Day / B Day. If all of the repertoire is pretty challenging for you, you may not have time for anything else. But it’s best to always work on at least one easy piece that you can master in a few weeks for sight reading improvement.
Yes it’s very fun! You can get the 30% discount by joining our biweekly newsletter. Email us at info@brillantepianoduo.com and I can give you the discount code. Thank you!
I will take a look but the issue I have with these types of apps is that usually the transcription/arrangement of popular music is really poor when compared to what you can find on Musicnotes.
This sounds like something that will be very valuable to me down the road, when I have reached the needed level of proficiency. Right now, I am a beginner, and I'm ready to choose an electronic keyboard that will work with one of the apps out in this sea of technology choices such as scoove or yousician. I may have to go to a store and grill the keyboard specialist a little for information. If you have something to offer of opinions on this, then please share.
This app does have a lot of beginning level arrangements. So you could try the 14 day free trial and see if you like it. I definitely recommend piano marvel for learning to play and for sight reading improvement. I’ve been teaching with it for a few years and I can’t say enough about it. I have a video on our channel about sight reading improvement and piano marvel if you want to check it out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nZnvWQr9d4E.htmlsi=UD7pgz8GCxhRM1D5
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Yes I could make a course on this topic. Great idea! We have piano lesson courses on our website but they are advanced and about specific classical pieces. We are working on some courses that all pianists can benefit from. Thanks for your comments!
Really nice and you’re mother is also a cool women much blessings from Jehovah almighty god trough Jesus Christ I prayed I learn also piano I hope you will get much subscribers and can live from it good thanks for the content
This was terrific. I am 64 and have played all my life with very little in the way of teaching. No theory until 60. I have a gorgeous piano just like yours, (assuming a D), and it brings out the beauty in Chopin incredibly well. If I can hear the song, (the rhythm), I can pretty much handle it. If no sound available to me, I am lost. Except in easy things like hymns. My current homework is to transcribe a song my teacher improved. I have it in my hands, and improved it, but I can't write it down. I simply don't know how ... rests, rhythms, it's beyond me so far. Would really appreciate a video on that. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much for your nice comment and request. I do have a video on our channel about rhythm and time signatures here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_Eb3vsHtGm0.html si=zts0CfzBIEJScL8l I recommend watching that. You struggle with rhythm primarily?
@@BRILLANTEPianoLessons thank you so much for breaking it down! Yes, my achilles heel. My teacher as a young child would always play the piece for me, I’d lock that melody away, learning the notes was easy. Lots of gold stars for years until a new teacher put up cold music, and I was mute. No idea how it went. She told me with disgust, i had such talent but it was too late to undo the damage. Right! I carried that for decades but no more. The song I’m trying to write out was improv, not improved. Now that the kids are grown, I sit at that piano hours every day. Playing Francisco Parrino. I can hear him; and then can read his music. Plus, YESTERDAY is a song everyone knows!
Oh my goodness! You had some bad experiences with piano teachers. I feel sad about that. It’s never too late and you can still learn rhythm. Maybe I’ll make a piano course teaching rhythms and how to count music. That’s amazing you can play Francesco Parrino! I love his arrangements. And I’m sure you have so much fun playing those. Enjoy!
If you look at the other comments on this video you’ll see that many people have said the same thing :) I take it as a compliment! Thank you. I started teaching when I was 16.
@@BRILLANTEPianoLessons In all seriousness I appreciate your videos and they are an important part of my growth and study. I've been playing piano for over 50 years and I often feel as though I'm just now starting to get the hang of it.
I love piano marvel with one exception. The available sheet music. Not enough different genres and they say you can upload your own but they don't tell you that you need a 400.00 app to do that. I keep editing for them to add more but it never happens. I don't know why they don't upload more technique books and expand their genre's
I think there’s plenty of genres and they’re adding new titles continuously. What kind of music do you want to see? The main reason Piano Marvel is incredible is because it really helps pianists improve their sight reading, ear training and it does include a lot of technique like Hanon, scales, chords and arpeggios. Thanks for your input!
Years ago I read an account of Chopin's playing and the author of the account said that Chopin transferred fingers continuously while he played. The author also said that some people joked about his continuous finger transferring and said that he was more suited to playing the organ than the piano. Well, Chopin was an organist and had played the organ starting in his early school years. In fact, he became the school organist. So, he learned very early in his life how to achieve a flawless legato without using the sustaining pedal and, like you, he became so proficient he never had to think about it, but it was a skill he had to learn so it is a technique that can be learned by all aspiring pianists and should never be thought of as being too difficult to master, it just takes practice and of course, a touch of dedication. This is such a great video, thanks for producing and sharing it.
Thank you for sharing about your experiences, Heather. I know how hard it is to get back out there after traumatic recital experiences. I'm so glad you decided to get back out there and perform again because I love your videos and find them so helpful for me and my kids who are learning piano as well.
Yes hymns are surprisingly difficult because of the chords. Flashcards are great too! I used to use those with my students but they prefer apps nowadays because they’re more interactive. Thanks for commenting!
@@BRILLANTEPianoLessons I’m probably giving away my age group with the flash cards… The hymns too... My teacher often laments I am her only student who WANTS to play hymns and also KNOWS many hymns. Her other students know only a handful to none and don’t want to play them. Too old fashioned.
Thanks for the tips! One suggestion, is somewhere within the video to play the piece in its entirety. I've always been a big believer in the "inspiration factor"; inspiring students to play by hearing a piece played by their teacher. Certainly technical suggestions are important and have their place, but so does the intangible let's say, of being inspired and thinking "wow, I wish I could play the piece like that!" I've mentioned this to a lot of the pop online piano teachers as the principal holds true there too! ❣😊
I hate to admit but I’m not a fan of Bartok. But some people enjoy this book. Sometimes I use Bartok with students who need to improve their sight reading and rely on their ears too much.
@@BRILLANTEPianoLessons Yes the opening section is done with very little or no pedaling so that it sounds sharp and precise (almost Bach-ish) and then the syncopated pedaling begins with the high melody notes to smooth out and carry the melody and also to make entire piece sound cohesive with overtones as music from the impressionistic period often does (especially Debussy and Ravel). I play this primarily with my right hand including the high melody notes in the beginning but I have seen others cross their left hand over to play those ringing tones as well.....BTW My post was certainly not a critique but just an observation from a former child prodigy who has been playing nearly sixty years...Overall you play it well and are an awesome teacher....Good Job!
Yes there are a lot of different pedaling techniques that could be used in this piece. I feel like no pedal on the beginning theme is too dry but it sounds like you have excellent technique and would be able to make it sound great! Thanks so much for commenting.
Hopefully you got more from this video than that! Improving our sight reading definitely takes time and practice. There are people who are naturally better at sight reading than others but the more music we learn, the better our sight reading will get.
one of the most boring videos about sightreading and piano learning, sigh! this lifeless presentation is worthless. I hope you treat your students better….no like, no subscribe…..
