Benefits of Team Piano

The value of Team Piano work lies in the process of creating art together. The learning and living with a beautiful piece of music over time helps integrate piano skills and deepens musicianship. A more cohesive ensemble sound is created when the pianists live and breathe as one.

Playing with other musicians is the key to making rapid progress. Playing with others acts like an embedding process where the skills learned in an individual lesson are solidified and refined. A student's artistry deepens and matures as a result.

Ensemble rehearsals create an environment where the student has to rise to the challenge. The most obvious example of this is rhythm skills. In order to play together each student must play their rhythm with precision and clarity in order to match what their team mates are playing. If someone is playing a sloppy rhythm everyone knows right away. There is a whole range of skills that are necessary to play the piano. In a team setting, the skills become so much more obvious that it's easier to talk about them and make corrections.

Rhythm is only one of many skills that are enhanced by playing with others. Another skill is matching your team mates volume level so as to blend in together. In the same way pianists must learn to match the timbre of their piano, or blend, and match the other pianist's timbre. This requires that pianists shape their tone and blend the sound of their pianos together. Sometimes the shaping is about bringing out a melody to highlight it against a background of harmony. These shaping skills allow five pianists to play musical phrases that are so together that the group sounds like a single whole.

Another skill is learning to shape phrases together. Team members also learn how to cue each other as there is no conductor. They also gain practical experience working with other musicians. The specially arranged scores provide students with different parts, creating a single, orchestrated, ensemble sound.

Team camaraderie and just being able to enjoy the piano as a social experience is so unusual.

Structure

Prerequisites, Tuition and Books

Pianists must commit to at least one semester because they become members of a team. The team depends on each student's part at the rehearsals. There is one rehearsal each week with a performance at the end of the semester.

Pasadena Piano Institute's students who are paying for an hour lesson each week do not have to pay for Team Piano separately. It is included in the weekly tuition. For students who are taking 30 minute weekly lessons, there is a separate $20 per rehearsal tuition.

Students must also purchase the music so they can take it home to practice. Team Piano scores are published in separate books. Each book is between $10 and $25.00.  Generally, two books are needed each semester.

‍