Piano Lessons by Nancy Frase

   Discovering your unique path to musical achievement

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The piano studio is located in the basement of our home at 629 Cedar Street, which is three blocks north of the intersection of Main Street and 7th Street in Windsor.  The studio has three rooms: the main room, the digital keyboard room, and the play room.

The main room has two upright acoustic pianos that are positioned back-to-back.  It also has a very comfortable couch situated a few feet away from the pianos from which parents may observe the lesson.  The room also has a jigsaw puzzle area and there is always a puzzle in progress; anyone can work on the puzzle.

Just off of the main room is the digital keyboard room.  This room has two digital keyboards in it, and each keyboard has a headset attached.  Therefore, family members who are waiting while another family member is taking a lesson can practice their piano or just mess around with all the cool sound features the keyboards have to offer.  There is also a desk area in that room that is available for use by those who are waiting.  This room has a door that can be shut to help manage noise.

The play room is also just off the main room.  It has a very comfortable couch, a desk area, a kids table, and a bunch of toys.  Family members who are waiting are welcome to use this room.  It also has a door that can be shut to help manage noise.

Wi-fi is available in the studio and clients are welcome to use it.

The two main pianos I use for teaching are Wurlitzer acoustic uprights (in other words, "real" pianos).  There is a bit of history behind one of the pianos: it is my childhood piano, the one on which I learned to play.  The other one is one I acquired since I started teaching piano.  The two acoustic pianos are back-to-back so I can comfortably play along with my students, or the two pianos can be used in ensemble format.

The two digital keyboards (in the digital keyboard room) have the full 88-key keyboards with weighted-action piano-style keys.  The weighted action is relatively heavy, which gives the keys a feel very consistent with a professional-quality grand piano.  One of the keyboards has a full bank of pedals that perform as do the pedals on a grand piano.  The other keyboard has a damper pedal.  Therefore, the keyboards provide an impressively realistic experience.

To enhance the experience of performing, arranging and composing, the two keyboards have all the bells and whistles one would expect from this caliber of instrument.  They each have over 500 "voices" (alternative sounds like organ, trumpet, etc.) with keyboard-splitting and duel-voice capabilities.  They also have a multitude of multi-fingering modes for easy chording, rhythmic accompaniment and other cool effects.

They also can record your original performances with a 6-track sequencer.  Those performances can be preserved in audio format and in automatically-generated written (traditional notation) format onto the keyboard's memory, onto a memory stick or directly onto the supplemental computer.  The written format can be displayed on the keyboard's own digital display screen.  A 64-track digital recorder/mixer is also available for perfecting a recorded performance.

Students get to compose their own music using a software program (Sibelius First) on the computer.  The software can communicate directly with the two digital keyboards through a MIDI interface.  The computer can be connected with a robust sound system that surrounds the three piano and provides audio support such as background orchestration for a concerto-type piano solo.

And, yes, students get to enjoy creating magic with all this neat hi-tech wizardry as a reward for working hard on the basics!