Improvisation & Meditation
Online Course
Grand Piano Studio is a learning environment built to unleash and inspire your inner musician. Whether guiding beginners, advanced students, or seasoned professionals, Grand Piano Studio's methodology is based on the equal integration of three parts: Reading Music, Improvisation, and Music Theory. Beginners young and older will be able to play beautiful music after their very first lesson! All Grand Piano Studio students learn these three components in tandem with one another. Some people call improvisation "playing by ear.” Learning how to improvise is just as important as learning how to read music and understanding basic music theory concepts. All three are necessary in order to grow into a complete musician. Great classical composers and performers over past ages were great improvisers as well as great sight-readers. Improvisation is rarely taught today either privately or in conservatories, along with traditional classical piano studies. It has become a lost art.
Music theory is the “architecture” of music and lies at the heart of improvisation and music composition. Though music theory is complex, The Grand Piano Studio can teach even the youngest children basic theoretical concepts that they can immediately use and begin joyfully to experience playing beautiful piano music. Older children and adults who may already have studied piano can continue to become better readers and performers and learn how to improvise in contemporary styles such as jazz, blues, pop, R & B, and Hip Hop. Advanced students and professionals alike grow musically at Grand Piano Studio.
The Method
Whether guiding beginners, advanced students, or seasoned professionals,
Grand Piano Studio's methodology is based on the equal integration of three parts:
Music Theory
Reading Music
Improvisation
Reading Music
Learning to read music is the entryway into the amazing world of performing the greats of music literature, from classical to jazz and everything in between. Your marvelous journey begins with getting to know the notes on the five lines and four spaces of the treble and bass clefs.
Music Theory
Music theory is the glue that bonds together the music you read and improvise. To master both, you must know how music is constructed; that's where music theory comes in. music composition and music improvisation is applied music theory. It reveals what I call the deep mysteries of music!
Improvisation
Musical improvisation is the immediate, spontaneous creation of music. All well-known composers have been great improvisors; it is essential to learn the art of improvisation to become a complete, well-rounded musician.
Meet Robert Lepley
Robert Lepley is the founder of Grand Piano Studio. He has been teaching and playing the piano professionally for over fifty years. Mr. Lepley is also a composer; his works include the beautiful choral album “Visions Within” featuring Meryl Streep and the New York Voices, and the double-album jazz recording, "MacDougal St., NYC". As a music educator, Mr. Lepley’s unique concept of teaching students to improvise while they are learning to read music enables even his youngest students to experience the joy of making music quickly as well as to learn to read music proficiently. Whether teaching young beginners, advanced students, or seasoned professionals, Mr. Lepley is a patient and gentle teacher who is loved and appreciated by his students.