Piano Lessons
PIANO LESSONS IN UTRECHT, MAARSSEN(BROEK), ABCOUDE.
- INTRODUCTION
- TODDLERS
- PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS
- ADOLESCENTS & ADULTS
- RATES
- THE INSTRUMENT
- CONTACT
INTRODUCTION
For over fifteen years now we have been living and working in Kanaleneiland-Zuid, Utrecht.
SERVAAS JANSEN, a qualified piano teacher with more than thirty years of experience in teaching children and adults of all ages, and
KSENIA KOUZMENKO, concert-pianist from Byelorus, teacher at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague (see also her own website under LINKS).
Servaas Jansen also teaches at your home on Monday afternoons in Abcoude, and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays he teaches at your home in Maarssen and Maarssenbroek.
We offer you piano lessons on every level and for all ages: from toddler to adult, and from first beginnings to very advanced playing. We do this with all our professional knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm.
Over the years we developed an extensive collection of teaching material. Our joint knowledge of piano repertoire on every level is probably hard to match, and still growing.
In this way every pupil gets his own individual approach. So much beautiful music has been written for the piano, in nearly every style you can think of, that already from an early stage we are able, with every pupil, to look for music which especially inspires and challenges him or her.
TODDLERS
For young children (from about the 2nd year of nursery school) we use a special programme. At this age children usually don’t read notes. They learn to sing and play in lots of different ways. Songs will be taught on hearing, they learn to tell stories with music, how to make all kinds of sounds and how to remember a musical story by drawing the sounds. Basic musical concepts are introduced in narrative, evocative ways, fitting for children of this age.
Thus, without noticing it, they discover a lot about music, and what’s so special about it (and beautiful, exciting, funny, etc.). And about notation, and the piano and its possibilities. In this way every child arrives in his or her own pace and fashion at the next stage of note reading and everything which belongs to it.
PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS
To children from the first year of primary school onward we teach musical notation and a lot more with a playful elementary course on the piano. This course takes at most one season, and often less with older children. Instruction sheets are for free.
Along with familiar and less familiar songs the elements are introduced which are indispensable to learn to play, read and understand music: measure, rhythm, melody and accompaniment, intervals, major and minor, etc. It has to be stressed that this is no tedious theory: all knowledge is acquired in front of the instrument. When the elementary course has been mastered, we determine which method or combination of materials corresponds to the interests and abilities of every individual pupil.
ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS
Also for adolescents and of course for adults (of all ages! It now seems to be proven scientifically that you are never too old to learn!) we give lessons which are adapted to everyone’s level and wishes.
Did you at any time have music lessons, and do you want to take it up again, or do you want to start playing? Or are you an advanced player, and looking for a really professional approach? In all these cases we have a lot to offer you.
Some important principles:
– On every level, piano playing should be playing real music.
We think that it is possible to find real music for every level and every age. It is not necessary to play silly fake.
– Piano playing is not only note reading from a book
We like to teach everyone how to play chords, how to accompany a given melody, what tonality means, etc. Here too: no tedious studying from theory books. All knowledge is acquired in front of the piano. In that way you’ll understand much better how music is really working. Printed music, too, will become a lot more alive to you.
– Piano playing is not working through one method after another.
We like to acquaint our pupils with the unbelievable diversity of beautiful music written for the piano by special people, who put all their sensitivity and intelligence in the music they wrote.
Some of them have become very famous, others are less well known, or undeservedly have been almost forgotten. There too, a lot of special things are to be found. All we ask from our pupils is an open mind to our enthusiasm. In the end you yourself choose what’s of your liking and what you really want to get into.
– Piano playing is not only learning to move your fingers ever faster.
It is fun to know why this passage in a piece of music sounds so special, or what you can do to make it sound more exciting, more intimate, more intense, dramatic, or enamoured, etc. etc.
We think it’s fun and important to tell you stories about the period and the world in which a piece of music came into being, and about the person who wrote it. What happened there and then? What was so special about that? We like to tell you about these things, and give you tips on where to find out more about it.
RATES
In 2024 we charge the following rates:
Servaas Jansen: € 53,- per hour (so: € 26,50 per 30 minutes, € 39,75 per 45 minutes)
Ksenia Kouzmenko: € 57,- per hour (so:…)
THE INSTRUMENT
In order to really enjoy piano playing, and everything you have learned, it’s important to have an instrument at home that’s technically sound, and on which you are able to make a piece of music sound beautiful. To be perfectly honest, we have to say that we prefer a “real” acoustic piano (in a reasonable condition) to every electronic one. Even on the best electronic instruments a lot of the richness of sound, and possibilities for subtle nuances immediately are lost. A decent acoustical piano seems expensive, but, if well kept, does not lose much of its value. You will be able to sell it for a good price, if needs be. The same doesn’t hold true for electronics. Besides that, a lot of piano shops offer you financial arrangements, to make it easier to decide.
If in spite of this you prefer starting on an electronic instrument, which is perfectly feasible the first few years, look to it that you get a complete keyboard, with “real-size” piano keys, which imitate as much as possible the action of a real piano.
CONTACT
Did you become curious?
Feel free to contact us, and have a chat about the possibilities on offer. We will gladly answer all your questions. For example, are you still thinking about buying an instrument? We will gladly give you personal and impartial advice.
Servaas Jansen & Ksenia Kouzmenko
tel. 030-2341858
e-mail: servaas.jansen@planet.nl
