Top 10 Easy Piano Lessons Teachers near Brooklyn, NY
Reviews for Brooklyn easy piano lessons teachers
Jason R.
Sonya is an extremely talented musician and teacher. Both my 9 year-old daughter and I have been taking piano lessons with Sonya for over a year now, during which time we’ve made great strides. Whether you’re an adult learner (like me) or a child studying music for the first time, Sonya can fluidly adjust lessons for age, musical interest, or skill level. Her suggestions are easy to follow and help not only play songs but also understand music on a deeper level. The lessons are also a lot of fun, and both my daughter and I look forward to them each week. I’ve had several piano teachers and I can confidently say Sonya is the best!
Sonya Belaya's Music StudioJacqueline B.
Kris is just all around awesome, he is down to earth, articulate, and relates the material in a way that's easy to understand. I would recommend him to anyone in need of piano lessons any day. He's really about finding what works and is supportive of your learning. So happy to have found him!
Kris' Keys Online Piano and Music AcademyMolmol K.
We started piano sessions with David in September 2021. Both me and my 13 year old are taking piano lessons from David Chang, with a few years and no prior expereince respectively.
David has a special teaching style -- sets, adding in reverse, the specific notational system, spaced repetition, musical details, mental practice, and musicality.... that have helped me progress rapidly and helped my pre-teen stay engaged and curious.
David is super responsive and easy to reach when we have questions.
David Chang Music - Online and Brooklyn, NYHarry W.
I highly recommend David as a piano teacher, especially for adult beginners. He helped me rapidly improve my technical proficiency by having me work on a goal piece immediately while introducing the necessary theoretical knowledge as needed. This approach is great for adult beginners as it allows you have fun playing what you want immediately instead of wasting months on slowly working through beginner pieces. As someone brand new to piano, he was able to coach me into being able to play 1min30s of my goal piece for his studio class within 4-5 lessons.
I can also attest to the effectiveness of his methodologies. David teaches you how to break down difficult sections and efficient ways of practicing in order to learn new pieces quickly. In addition, his experience/skill as a teacher was readily apparent in my lessons with him. During one of my one hour sessions with David, I was able to progress past a section I was stuck on in my personal practice for a week. Also, he is also easy to reach for questions outside of lesson hours and will help you develop a plan to achieve your piano goals.
If you are in the market for a piano teacher, consider taking a trial lesson (1 hour at a discounted rate) with David to experience his methods firsthand. I was not disappointed and I don't think you will be either.
David Chang Music - Online and Brooklyn, NYStephanie J.
Sherry is an exceptional piano teacher. In addition to teaching my kids for two years, she recently gave me my first adult piano lesson since I stopped playing at 12. I learned more in one hour than I did from my childhood teacher in nearly a decade!!
She has been warm, flexible and reliable and also is playful but challenges our kids to learn. She has been working with them since they were 5 and they have learned both theory and to play beautifully. She adapts her teaching style to meet their needs and is always available and positive. She works well with parents and gives parents and students a voice in the learning process.
She is down to earth very relatable and will meet you where you and your child is at. She is capable of being highly rigorous for those parents and students who are interested in developing to competitive levels. At the same time she can be laid back and easy going if the goal is primarily growth at an easy pace. Always fun and bright Sherry is delightful and well versed in all kinds of music.
Sherry Kim Piano StudioJonathan F.
David is fantastic. He is an amazing teacher and resource, and I unequivocally recommend him.
I played piano for several years growing up but when I started working with David, I hadn't touched a piano in 20 years. Although I had a decent amount of experience, I set modest goals for myself to learn a few intermediate pieces for my own enjoyment. With David's encouragement and instruction I've been able to wildly surpass my own expectations for what I thought I was capable of playing. I've learned my dream piece, Chopin's Ballade No.1, as well as other pieces that were daunting before David helped me learn them (Rachmaninoff's Etude Op. 33 No.4, Chopin Etude Opus 10 No. 9, Bach's Partita #1).
David has a unique approach to helping you learn, memorize, and correct your mistakes. It involves learning sections of pieces in small sets and then stringing them together like a patchwork quilt, rather than trying to practice the whole piece all at once.
David also emphasizes learning these smaller sets in reverse, so you practice the ends of measures, which ordinarily get less attention as people usually play from the beginning and then stop when they make a mistake. He also teaches "spaced repetition," which involves practicing areas and then coming back to them later on, which is more effective than repeating the same few measures over and over again. David's approach has helped me learn pieces much more quickly and effectively than I can remember learning them as a kid.
I've also learned so much about the musicality in my playing, more than I ever did growing up. One thing David emphasizes are huge contrasts between loud and soft sections (he says they should be as different as night and day), as well as constant shaping of measures even within loud and soft areas, so that you always hear a rise or fall in volume. These huge contrasts and continuous shaping are what makes music interesting to hear. I can feel how much better my playing sounds when I pay close attention to these dynamics and shaping.
I've also received great advice on technical solutions for difficult pieces. David has suggested several techniques to help me relax my hands and arm, and to avoid holding notes longer than necessary. These technical suggestions were invaluable for helping me with Chopin's etude Op. 10 No. 9, which involves large reaches between notes with the left hand. I often find David can hear things in my playing that I would not be able to pick myself. I find his advice invaluable in spotting mistakes and errors, as well as musical suggestions, that have helped me learn pieces better and faster.
In addition to his lessons, I feel part of a welcoming community of students who form David's studio. He holds studio classes at no cost four times a year where students play for each other and offer advice and suggestions on improving. I look forward to these sessions both to improve my own playing and to encourage other students in the studio. Students of all levels play in studio classes and I have seen David help advanced students and complete beginners.
The studio has recitals twice a year. I never performed my pieces when I played growing up so it was challenging and exciting to perform for an audience. David had lots of great advice for handling the emotional rigors of playing in front of other people under the spotlight. I had the opportunity to play my piece at Steinway Hall in Manhattan for about 60 people which was one of the greatest thrills I've had playing piano. I've now amassed about 40 minutes of repertoire and am working toward putting together a one hour solo program, something I didn't think possible when I started.
David has been a patient and eager teacher. He is easy to reach and responds very quickly when I send him a message. I feel he is invested in my success and wants to see me reach my potential as a pianist.
I feel fortunate to have found David when I was searching for an instructor and I am sure you will too.
David Chang Music - Online and Brooklyn, NYChristine E.
I played piano as a child but stopped when I was fifteen. 15 years later, I had the urge to take lessons again which is how I discovered David Chang Music. The process of enrolling was seamless from start to finish, David was kind enough to set aside 2 hours of his time for a Zoom meeting where we had a very detailed and helpful chat to figure out which of the offerings would be best for me. We decided on the Pianist Collective as I really wanted a sense of community to help motivate me and provide accountability. My goal piece was Scarlatti Sonata K. 517 which at the time just felt impossible. I’d tried to learn it myself a couple years prior and couldn’t even make it past the first 2 measures. But with the Collective, I was able to learn it in just 2 months! I’m now able to play it at speeds that seemed completely out of reach for me just a short time ago. Having learned it, we decided I should learn a 2nd goal piece - Chopin Op. 25 no. 2, which I was also able to learn in about the same time frame. When playing as a child, I stopped at ABRSM Grade 7, so it’s been amazing being able to perform pieces that are much beyond that level after such a long gap in my learning.
A big issue I struggled with when self-teaching was motivation, and the Pianist Collective helps so much with that. We have a platform where people chat, post questions, and showcase their progress, fingerings etc in addition to the online classes where we are encouraged to perform for each other, so it definitely keeps the flame lit when learning as there’s a sense of accountability to each other. This has been invaluable in helping keep me motivated.
Another ongoing issue I have is stage fright, so being able to perform for other students and David on a very regular basis has helped SO much with that. It’s not an overnight fix, but I’ve seen leaps & bounds of progress in relaxing my nerves when performing for others. The amount of “exposure therapy” we get to help with stage fright / performance anxiety is amazing. David curates the students impeccably so you’ll find that everyone is extremely friendly and supportive, we get In addition to being able to perform for each other during class calls twice a week, we also have two recitals each year and a mock recital studio class, plus weeks of performance training to prepare us for it. In such a such time, I’ve learned so much about adding musicality to my performances, and especially keeping a healthy mindset when performing. We are encouraged to give each other critiques when listening to our performances, and on multiple occasions, I’ve received some invaluable help and information from other class members. I’ve also seen improvement in critiquing myself from the knowledge I’ve gained hearing others’ helpful critiques and critiquing others in turn.
There are even in-person meetups hosted by fellow members of the group where we just hang out casually and play for each other, which has been so fun! I really wanted some element of in-person interaction when searching for a piano instructor, so it was exciting when David mentioned that this was something that was an informal part of the Collective as well. It’s kind of a Gumbo class - it has the best parts of everything! Personal instruction, recitals, performances, get togethers, even one-on-one instruction as well. As mentioned earlier, everyone in the group - students and instructors alike - are SO warm and friendly, and I was very quickly able to make concrete friendships with fellow class members. We’re also quite a diverse bunch in terms of age, skill level, background and ethnicity if that’s something personally important to you, so you’ll find you feel almost instantly comfortable in the class. We have complete beginners and quite advanced players - and everyone is as enthusiastic and encouraging as though we were all virtuosos haha. Even if you were only able to manage the first two measures of Mary has A Little Lamb, you will find only supportive faces commending your improvements and offering helpful critiques and advice. It’s truly a fantastic community.
When I first approached David, I had a more traditional idea of piano instruction in mind: show up to a location somewhere, put in my 1 hour for one-on-one instruction, then spend the rest of the week practicing and dealing with issues completely on my own, saving all questions for the following week (and hoping I remember them). Rinse and Repeat. However, I cannot stress how much better the Pianist Collective is than that. The online platform is incredible - at any point and any time in the day, I can post a question, my fingerings, metronome practice or just a video of me playing, and be sure to wake up to a comment from David, one of the adjunct instructors, a student (or all three!) addressing my question or issues within a few hours, or the following morning if posted late at night. The responses you receive on the platform are also SO detailed. Yet none of that takes away from class time. So you receive almost real-time feedback, all the social benefits of a group community, AND still have 4 hours of class instruction (2 calls per week) with performance training in addition to that. David also has a wealth of knowledge posted on the platform and on YouTube, which he can refer you to, where he goes over certain concepts and personal methodologies in extreme detail. It’s quite amazing the amount of value you get at a cost that would amount to maybe 1 hour of weekly one-on-one instruction at best (and no feedback in between) in a more traditional setup.
And on the topic of methodologies, I’ve gained a lot of improvement from David’s videos and personalized instruction alone. Relaxation & Musicality are still big struggles for me, but I’ve come quite some way in the past few months. I’d also never practiced with a metronome before or gotten into the habit of writing out my fingerings on the piece - and certainly never paid much attention to detail (good enough was my mantra for years haha) but David’s instruction in these areas have been key in my improvement. And of course mindset.
David is very responsive and communicative - super easy to reach out to, and is so kind in his interaction with all students. He is also quite attentive - I remember being at a very, very low point with my second piece, and he picked up on just from my changed demeanor and tone of voice during class and sent me a well check message shortly afterwards, which ended up in a detailed conversation about how to improve my mindset and not be so hard on myself, etc. that I really needed at that time. Some of his words of guidance are actually things that I find myself applying in my daily life. There is a very special personal touch he has with each and every one of his students that really makes you feel like you are part of a family when taking instruction with him and especially when being a part of the Collective. He is also of course an amazing virtuosic pianist and an incredible teacher - often times people with an incredible amount of skill might find it difficult to parlay that into instruction, but he is uniquely skilled in his ability to guide both absolute beginners and advanced students alike. I truly cannot adequately express how grateful I am to have him as an instructor and be a part of the Pianist Collective. It’s been such a fantastic experience that I hope to continue for a long time.
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