Whenever I tell my friends that I’ve started my own website to promote my first ebook, Learn to Play the Piano in 12 Lessons, I’m often greeted with bewildered looks. Since most of them know that I’m a piano teacher, one of the first questions to pop out from their mouths is something like “Why are you doing this? Why aren’t you promoting your teaching services instead?” I’m actually doing what is known as a paradigm shift. It’s just another way of reaching the goal of learning to play the piano.
“Do-It-Yourself” has been prevalent as far back as I can remember. In a lot of countries, DIY has become a necessity, due to the fact that if you called someone to come to your home to fix something, you’d almost certainly have to incur a hefty charge. In this sense, I suppose Malaysians are spoilt, because more often than not, service charges are not that exorbitant. Still, if I can fix something myself, I will. Anyway, back to the topic.
Think of the things you’ve learnt on your own while growing up (OK, sometimes with a little help from others). You learned to brush your teeth, tie your shoe laces, toast the bread, etc. Later on, you went to more challenging stuff—how to operate your VCR/DVD player, your mobile phone, your computer, etc. Of course, the lazy (or busy?) ones among us would almost always try to get someone else to do it for us—reading the product manual was akin to mental torture. Still, plenty of us managed to learn stuff on our own—look at the success of the For Dummies series of books, for example. You can find practically any subject from A to Z in that series.
Now let’s return to the piano. Watching a competent pianist playing can be intimidating to a complete novice or beginner. “Man, how do they know which keys to press at the correct time? All those black and white thingies just look the same to me.” The solution is best described by the King in Alice in Wonderland: “Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” So what do most of us do when we want to learn the piano? Why we go to a piano teacher, of course. But, and this is a big but—what about those of us who are too busy, too shy, can’t afford lessons, too scared in the presence of teachers, __________ (you fill in the blank), etc? Does this mean that a sizeable amount of people won’t know the sheer joy of learning the piano?
This is where the DIY approach comes in. And before anyone objects, let me state that this approach will never be better or compete for the piano lesson approach. It’s just an alternative, like taking another route to get to your destination. Naturally there are pitfalls, but let’s focus on the bright side, shall we? And that’s where my ebook Learn to Play the Piano in 12 Lessons comes in. It’s on a special offer until the end of December 2008, so there’s no better time to get started.
This ebook is targeted primarily at the complete beginner. If you’re between 15 to 92 years of age, have never had piano lessons or played a piano before, you automatically qualify. I’ve tried hard to make the book as easy to understand for anyone who doesn’t know one bit about learning the piano at all. And once you purchase my ebook, even though you are learning the piano on your own, you can always get in touch with me through my website for questions or advice.
One last thing I’d like to emphasize (I do that in my ebook and my website as well) is that this ebook will NOT turn you into a budding genius of a pianist, unless you’re born a child prodigy (in which case, you wouldn’t need my ebook, would you?) To play the piano well takes time, in fact, years of practice, coupled with lots of patience, love, and enthusiasm for the piano. My ebook is just a starting point, hopefully it will encourage you to continue the journey where you’ll discover new possibilities and potentials in yourself, just like Alice did in Wonderland.
I do hope you’ll be encouraged to take the first step. Best wishes.
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