Monday, February 7, 2011

Playing a Paper Piano

Recently I read about a young gifted pianist who first learned to play piano on a paper piano.


was written up in Canada's, Globe and Mail.

Yes, learning to play on a paper piano means a piano keyboard drawn onto a piece of paper.  The paper lays flat on a tabletop and the child plays on the table...no sound.

This is a commercially-produced paper piano... 

I have a feeling Mr. Ghazi (above) had a hand-drawn one though...and look how far he has come!  

I did have a piano student once who learned this same way.  
The only time he heard his pieces were the days he had a lesson with me at my studio on my piano.  The rest of the week he played his tabletop paper piano.  His progress that year was comparable to children who played on real pianos at home.  

It was not my expectation...I mean...would you expect a child to make much progress when they can't even hear what they are playing?  Amazing...

I know another pianist (he loves to play Chopin) who first learned on a paper piano.   His first year learning to play as a little boy was on a paper keyboard at home.  He only played a real piano at his lessons.  He is a grown man with children now and has a real piano. 

I wonder how many other children there are out there who play on paper pianos?

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