Discover the Joy of Piano with Joshua

I am an adult learning piano and have started going for lessons in my early twenties with different teachers. Through them, I am under the impression that taking ABRSM exams is the only way to learn piano. However, Joshua shows me that the theories and practical taught are more than just for the exams. The scales and fingering we learnt guide us in knowing where to place which finger on which note when playing different musical pieces and how they sound. Knowing the chords and intervals also help in sight-reading. After each Joshua’s lesson, I begin to understand and appreciate the importance and relevance of the theory and the different techniques when playing music. I think this is very important to people like me who finds it hard to progress further when I see theory and practical separately.

Joshua has been teaching my children (Noah, now 14; Caleb, now 12 and Esther, now 10) piano for years. It was our decision not to have the children take piano examinations. We wanted them to pick up the instrument, enjoy the process and always have music in their lives. We were initially worried that the lack of a formal yardstick would lead to unstructured lessons that achieve little but through the years, it was comforting to see the children play different pieces of music of their choice that they enjoy. As a teacher, Joshua is patient. As a practitioner of music, he is talented. Most importantly, the children see him as someone they can relate to. If we were not relocating to a different country, there would be no reason for us to have a change of piano teacher. We wish Joshua all the best.

Our son, Vivaan, had been attending group lessons at a piano school. Though he was progressing well, we felt it’d be good to have a private tutor who could make the lessons more fun and engaging and in the process instill a life-long interest in music and piano in Vivaan. We connected with Mr. Joshua through thehappypianist.com and couldn’t have made a better decision in engaging Mr. Joshua as Vivaan’s piano tutor. Over the past 6 months, Mr. Joshua has been an extremely engaging and wonderful tutor ensuring Vivaan understands the theory fundamentals thoroughly before proceeding to the playing aspect of the lesson. As a result, we are happy to see Vivaan’s technique and difficulty level of pieces he can play improving dramatically in such short time-span. Vivaan can’t wait for Mr. Joshua to knock at the door on Saturday mornings and spend time with him to move forward in his piano journey. This reflects Mr. Joshua’s compassionate and caring nature towards kids and someone who loves to see his students flourish. We are very glad to have Mr. Joshua as Vivaan’s piano tutor and would recommend Mr. Joshua to anyone who desires to develop a life-long friendship with music and piano.

I am an adult learning piano for pop songs after more than 10 years break from playing the piano. Our lesson is not in the conventional style in the sense that; we have our lesson on Zoom amidst the Covid-19, it was pure leisure (no exam to prepare), and we do not use books. Mr Joshua taught me how to write our own version pop songs (My Immortal by Evanescence) through hearing youtube, humming the melody, and singing the lyrics to recreate the song from scratch and playing them on the piano. We spent time trying to identify if a melody is in major or minor and building ‘sound’ vocabulary. It’s a lot of ‘ear’ training involves to capture the tune and understand the melody. Mr Joshua is very knowledgeable and has wide experience working with pop music and his input has been effective and easy to follow. More importantly, he connects the dot and brings my existing classical knowledge into composing. Who knew scales is actually important in writing pop songs. Even on Zoom, Mr Joshua is not boring as he’s able to create a good learning environment. His lessons are very relaxed and enjoyable.

I had wanted to learn the piano for a long time. I had searched the internet for a suitable and qualified piano teacher for a long time before I came across the Happy Pianist website. I had then made a few enquiries and within a day, I was introduced to Mr Joshua Lim or TJ. TJ has been a great and patient teacher, helping to improve my playing as well as other skills. In the span of a little over a year, I had learnt enough to go for my first exam, ABRSM grade 3. With his help and dedication, I was able to attain a merit in my first ABRSM exam.

I enjoyed learning under Joshua very much . He is very versatile and has a wide repertoire of music genre. He is not only creative but able to impart his knowledge generously to the student. He keeps his student motivated in his flexible and personalized teaching method.