Piano is one of the most versatile instruments in the world, a veritable orchestra in a single instrument.  Piano probably has the greatest stylistic and expressive range of any instrument and as teachers we recommend it for many musicians of all ages, children, kids, teens, and adults.  We think it is best that a student begins on the kind of music they love: blues, classical, classic or modern rock, country and western, folk, gospel, jazz, pop, R&B (rhythm and blues) or whatever.

Any kind of pianist has the ability to play 3 primary ways, as a rhythm instrument (providing more or less the background to another instrument’s melody or a voice), solo or lead playing (where the keyboard player has the solo over a band’s or other instruments’ rhythm), or solo pieces – with the keyboardist by his or herself. There are also 3 ways to play solo piano: “note” pieces (where the keyboard player succeeds by reading notes accurately – mostly commonly seen in classical pieces), improvisation (where the chord structure is set but the keyboardist makes up the melody), and combination pieces (where the melody and chord structure is established but the pianist chooses or makes up many of the specifics of how the song is played).

Most of our piano students take private, one-on-one lessons; we also offer group classes (when comparing studios online over the internet, be sure to clarify whether you are talking about private or group keyboard lessons.  Semi-private lessons are group lessons).  We offer consultations (one session without obligation to continue) and coaching sessions (multiple sessions without obligation to continue).  We also offer elessons, which are online lessons conducted through the internet.  We have gift certificates for all of these musical experiences.  And twice a year we have exciting music seminars (master classes, workshops) for all students that allow them to hear big ideas about music and their piano.  These increase their knowledge and abilities to play.  In these music seminars (again, like workshops or master classes, in-depth teaching on piano) we might talk about improvisation, or ear-training, or specific skills for jazz soloing or how to interpret Debussy pieces – but all to give you, the performer and piano player, teaching you can use right now. And they’re fun!  About 40% of our students are adults and 60% are children, kids, and teens.

As teachers, we know it is essential that musical coaching be enjoyable.  This is a key for all students, not just children.  That’s one of the reasons we let students pick their music within a few guidelines and why, along with playing awesomely by note and reading music, we encourage students to playby ear and/or improvise.  We don’t want to be a stuffy academy or music conservatory; we want our school of music to be filled with happy, amazing performers having a blast.  Whether reading music, playing by note, learning to improvise or learning songs from their iPod, our students steadily learn things that interest them, coached by their instructor.  We believe it’s best to allow students to playtheir favorite music, not their instructor’s.

Our teachers take your goals seriously, so, as the wise mentors they are, they look ahead to teach you all you'll need to get where you want to be.  It’s vital that musical educators coach each learner on how to grow as much as possible, whether that person just wants to learn chopsticks, goof off at home, be in a band, teach at a music conservatory, or be the soloist in concerts.  So, coming from Addison, Allen, Carrollton, North Dallas, Farmer’s Branch, Frisco, Garland, Lewisville, McKinney, Park Cities, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett, Wylie or anywhere within 50 miles of here in Texas (or worldwide over the internet online through elessons) we are committed to your personal success.

We have piano teachers at Promethean Studios for beginning, intermediate, advanced, and professional piano students.  Our keyboard instructors customize our teaching to the music each player loves, with personalized instruction going on right now in blues, Contemporary Christian, classic and modern rock, classical, country and western, folk, funk, fusion, gospel, latin, pop, praise & worship, ragtime, R&B (rhythm and blues), smooth and traditional jazz, soul, stride, and traditional hymn styles.  Each lesson includes learning technique (to make the learner’s fingers work for them), instruction in music theory (to use the learner’s brain to help make music easy), and half of each lesson is devoted to the student’s songs.

While we never require anyone to play in public, we believe performing is one of the most important factors in producing someone who can actually play instead of someone who just takes lessons, and so we provide two opportunities a year to be in a recital or concert.  We also put bands together with current students and people who don’t take courses with us, with a coach to mentor and lead, in country and western, jazz, classic and modern rock, R&B (rhythm and blues), praise & worship, and blues styles.  Dedicated students of all styles may also be eligible for our performance clubs, in which students perform for their fellow learners with a master musician to critique, advise, and mentor on improving abilities.  We also encourage all our musicians to participate in any musical competitions, concerts, contests, festivals, improvisations, master classes, and performances we can find – BUT we never force anyone to perform.  Performing is great to improve your skill level, but we encourage you to do it, not demand you do it.

Our goal for pianists is to allow students to playby ear and also by note, and for them to be able to improvise if they want to (make stuff up); to be able to read music, or just pick music out from a CD or play spontaneously with another musician just by listening.  This is a well-rounded piano player.  A school of music should enable keyboardists to be the soloist or play in the rhythm section, or to just sing and play at the same time – but at our “academy” we base everything on what you want to do and how to best get you there.  Therefore, the technique exercises piano players do in our courses fit the kind of music they like and the way(s) they want to play as a performer.

Music theory (brain work) is one of the most misunderstood and undervalued short cuts in the world of learning.  Usually educators ignore it entirely, treat it as a necessary nuisance, or act like it’s the entire purpose of music.  Basically it’s one of the three easy tools you can use to make your kind of music as quickly as possible (the other two tools are your ear [ear-training] and your fingers [technique].  And this isn’t just for beginning keyboard players but intermediate, advanced, and professionals as well.

Though slow starting at first, in a few months students with an understanding of music theory will begin to surpass their peers and continue to progress more and more over students who don’t actually comprehend what they’re doing - and oddly enough many classical players don't really know what they're playing, they're just reproducing what they see on the page.  Knowledge actually makes even performanceby ear or improvising easy, explaining what to do and what to listen for.  The parts of theory we commonly work on in lessons are ear-training, sight-reading, rhythm counting, and music knowledge.  Reading music is just the foundation; we’re talking about knowing what chords are normal in each key or cool style, or being able to use one scale to play in many keys and modes, etc – that is, taking a little info and making it go a long way, for playing and improvisation.

To the student who says “teach me piano", we would say this is the best school of music in the Metroplex.  Our educators have made your success and enjoyment their goal.  We are trying to cross the attitude of a music conservatory or piano academy, even a university, with just jamming with your buds or playingby ear in your room – getting better and having fun.  Coming to lessons, improvisingat home, impressing yourself and your friends, playing Chopin in a music festival, attending cool workshops and music seminars, learning great songs, cutting albums - we want to produce students who learn and enjoy, all across Texas.

For more information about classes and our teaching philosophy, click the buttons on the left.  Every person in the pictures on this website is either our student or one of our teachers.