Class Dismissed – Teacher is On-line
The Increasing Popularity of Piano Video Tutorials
These days, some people claim that you can teach yourself to play piano if you have the right course, the motivation, and the determination to follow through. Some people decide to study piano by downloading tutorials by an experienced piano teacher because they feel more comfortable by doing the learning at home. With some rare exceptions, you can’t just teach yourself to play piano without some kind of guidance.
Either way, with some planning ahead and some consistency, you can teach yourself how to play piano from video tutorials, by following each tutorial and lesson.
“Clair de lune from Scratch” is a YouTube piano lesson series designed to teach absolute beginners who have never played the piano or read a note of music before. Combining old-fashioned pedagogy with cutting-edge technology, pianist Hugh Sung breaks down Claude Debussy’s masterpiece into small, manageable portions, with each lesson comprising a highly focused, 5-10 minute video that uses the piece itself to teach the basics of music notation and piano technique.
“Pianist Hugh Sung’s online piano lessons are a refreshing example of multimedia and virtual interaction at its best, especially when he breaks every rule.” – Helsinki Times
Piano Street Urtext – Sheet music to download and print
Lesson 1:
The complete set of DVDs can be ordered here.
Comments
This is not so much a lesson as a teaser. Whilst Mr Sung certainly plays very well, for a clip lasting 5 min long, it would have been more useful from my point of view to see some teaching here and some evidence of his pedagogical approach in action. What exactly is being taught and how?
I find it terrifying, appalling and, unpardonable that this side would support an initiative as lacking in pedagogical knowledge and imagination as this one. There are many matters and sensitivities involved in teaching the piece of this caliber, starting with those of motoric nature, which will all be totally disregarded here.
To promote it here is not just “to encourage” hopefuls to play, it’s to grant them the license to butcher music. What’s next, Chopin’s 2nd Concerto for absolute beginners in 23 lessons? What sort of pianism is this idea bringing upon us all? More interestingly, why do you support it?
Just a response to Andrew on questioning about what exactly Mr. Sung was teaching. I guess Andrew have not yet clicked lesson no.53 to see the interesting things shown in the video with the bold attempt to teach beginners to play a piece with quite an advanced level. I am surprised and happy to see we have now got the automatic page turner using the computer! How does it work? Besides, it is very useful for learners to be able to see the sign of the use of pedal. It easily draws students attention to the pedalling.
wonderful, i wanna play this song!
Mr. Sung,
I love tyour way to teach, especially the fingering numbers.
I’m 63 and started to learn to play the piano 3 years ago. No prior knowledge. I paid a lot of money during those last 3 years, and have no regret. Still, at my age, I want to enjoy playing some favorite tunes, not performing in front of public. Hugh Sung’s approach to teaching is excellent, and I can always go back to a passage w/o bothering the teacher. His enthusiasm is marvelous. So, what if I, the student, butcher a piece. I get to appreciate music that much more because he made it available to the beginner. I feel sorry for the elitists! Thank you for spreading his way of teaching.