Thoughts on Note Reading

Question: I'm getting frustrated with learning to read music. Do you have any hints on how to solve this problem?

Spend a few minutes a day, just reading music. I know it's a struggle at this point. If you work on it extensively, it will get better. Progress may seem slow at first, but it will get better.

At the same time use your other senses to figure out a melody. Your memory is one. Repetition is the key to that. Play the same song ten times a day every day, and in a few weeks it should sound close to perfect. You're learning it.

I assume you are only trying to play songs that are familiar to you at this time. Familiarity is another one of the senses. If you know the song, depend on your familiarity when trying to recreate it on the piano. Remember that reading music is just a tool. Don't get hung up on the fine points of deciphering notes on a page. That isn't the goal. That's just a means to an end. Curtail the reading, and start using your heart.

Your intuition is another sense you can use. Take a guess. And if you hit a wrong note, don't react to it. Just keep going. It's much better to protect the integrity of the flow of the song than to micro manage the correct playing of each note.

This too gets easier and more accurate with time.

Some noted jazz players will tell you there aren't any wrong notes. There are just ways the artist controls the contrasting dissonance of the melody. This concept isn't as New Agey as it sounds. But it will be a while before you get to this level of controlling dissonance.

Here's something else you can start to do in about six to nine months. Begin learning the major scales in all twelve keys. Volume Two of Hanon or any scale book can help you with that.

You are at the beginning of your journey. And you have a long way to go. And you'll never arrive at your destination. You just keep getting closer to it. Make sure you have plenty of fun along the way.

Resources:

Free Pamphlet on Note Reading:

http://www.pianofun.com/downloads/notes.pdf

Free Newsletter Subscription:

http://www.pianofun.com/newsletters.html

Instructional CD and booklet:

http://www.pianofun.com/catalog/detail_NTR.html

How to Accompany a Singer

Since the word got out that I taught a piano course for
accompanying singers at music camp, people have asked
me if I have a training program for that topic so that
people could learn at home. Surprise. I do not.

But as I went through the course over a period of seven
days, one thing became very clear. Almost every aspect
of piano accompaniment style relates either directly or
indirectly to just about every other aspect of playing
piano. (With one important exception which I'll reveal
in just a moment.)

For example, using the piano as an accompanying tool
will often incorporate elements of the blues, left hand
and right hand variations, the Circle of Fifths,
playing by ear, introductions, endings, power chords,
and various piano style.

Yet it's on the whole easier to use the piano to
accompany a singer than it is to play solo piano. And
this brings us to the important exception I mentioned a
second ago. When accompanying a singer, a piano player
does not play melodies. That's the singers' department.
Much like a guitar player, a piano accompanyist
"strums" chords. And that's something that can be done
with just one hand on a piano.

If you play guitar, imagine how much easier it would be
if you could make chords by using just one hand instead
of two. But that is indeed what it's like with the
piano.

Of course there is more to good piano accompaniment
than merely playing chords with one hand. But that's
the basis of it. So will I ever write a book about
accompaniment? That's yet to be answered. No immediate
plans. But I will continue to educate people on the
fundamentals of chord piano. And remember, the
techniques are all applicable in one way or another to
piano accompaniment as well as solo playing.

And I do plan on repeating the class again next summer at
Lark Camp. (www.larkcamp.com)


Robert