Learn Piano your way with a TakeLessons expert

By Nadia B. - New York City Piano Teacher

Are you looking to take piano lessons in Long Island City? Do you play the piano, and want to feel the pulse of the NYC piano scene? It’s a vibrant, varied world - full of possibilities for learning, listening and growing. Read on to discover some of the best places to get your piano fix in the city.

One of the coolest stops for piano is right in Long Island City: the Steinway & Sons Piano Factory. You can take a guided tour and see the complete cycle a piano goes through to become one of the prized Steinway pianos. It’s a fascinating tour, full of informative details that will help you understand the mechanics and art of creating sound at the piano. If you make an appointment ahead of time, you can also try the finished pianos at the conclusion of the tour. Watch out, though: to go on this free tour, you often have to make a reservation months ahead of time, so plan ahead! I went on this tour with another pianist friend, and it was a highlight of our piano life in NYC.

Once you know how pianos are made, you can head to Midtown, which is home to all the major piano showrooms. You can meander along 57th Street and encounter showroom after showroom, filled with gleaming pianos. It’s a little slice of heaven for any pianist, and it’s a great way to get to know how different brands of pianos sound. This is useful information for when you’re ready to buy or upgrade your piano, as well as to know how different pianos sound when you’re playing an unfamiliar piano in a competition or concert and need to quickly adjust to it.

Another thing I love to do in NYC is go to concerts, and, as you know, they’re plentiful. My favorite spot for piano recitals is Carnegie Hall (check out this link specifically for piano: http://www.carnegiehall.org/piano/), but you can also hear piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic. If you’re interested in jazz, you can hear great piano music at Birdland, Smoke, Blue Note and many other famous spots. You can also catch free piano recitals at the Juilliard School, where there are many free concerts offered by the students. If you’re into experimental and modern piano repertoire, student recitals can be a great place to hear cutting-edge works, sometimes performed for the first time. Getting to know a wide breadth of repertoire gives you inspiration for pieces you’d like to learn and increases your knowledge of standard piano repertoire.

If you want to play the piano outside of a practice room or showroom in NYC, check out http://www.streetpianos.com/. This innovative project places colorful pianos throughout cities, allowing pedestrians to sit down and play a tune. It can be a great way to reconnect with the joy of playing the piano, and to share what you’re working on in an informal concert with passerby.

The best part about the NYC piano scene is that you never know what you’ll encounter. Innovation is omnipresent, and you have the chance to hear some of the best pianists of today in recital. If you’re a resident of NYC, you can take advantage of the new NYC Identification Card, which may offer discounts to certain performances.

These are just a few helpful tips of things to do and see in NYC while taking piano lessons in Long Island City. Best of luck in your piano adventures, and happy playing!