How to WIN at Piano Lessons

Successful Piano Instruction Strategies for Non-Mozarts

Dan Starr
Piano Instructor and Performer
Chapter Contents:
One: How to Choose the Teacher and Lessons which are Right for You
Two: How to Develop and Maintain an Attitude which Promotes Success
Three: How to Read Music More Efficiently
Four: How to Practice Joyfully and Successfully
Five: How to Express Yourself When Playing
Six: How to Succeed at Other Piano Skills
Seven: How to Rapidly Learn New Music
DAN STARR is a "real world" pianist and piano teacher, not an academic. Privately taught and trained, he spe-
cializes in teaching ordinary people to make music a part their busy lives on THEIR terms, fulfilling THEIR
musical goals.
"I wrote this book for engineers, housewives, doctors, lawyers, clerks, and waitresses; everyday people who
don't have endless hours to focus on piano yet wish to enrich their lives with music. The essays in the book are
the same ones I provide my students."
What students have to say about How to WIN at Piano Lessons and its author:
"This book is outstanding for those individuals wanting to have fun playing the piano and those who want to
quickly improve their piano skills. Dan has a unique way of making difficult concepts simple and easy to learn."
Dick Lear, Pharmaceutical Representative
"A trail guide who has great knowledge of the terrain encountered in the process of learning to play the piano."
Mike Pavon, Businessman
"My son, 7, has been taking lessons for over a year. His progress has been amazing. He has told me that he feels
good about himself after he leaves the lessons.
Pam Murray, Mother
i
A Word Regarding the
Copying of This Book
Although the laws of the United States provide me with opportunity to recover damages against any person ille-
gally copying my work...
I couldn't care less! In fact, I encourage copying.
You see, I want this information as widely disseminated and used as possible. I consider it a part of my mission
as a music teacher. So... go right ahead! Copy and use what you need to help others. And if it happens that
some less-than-ethical little person copies this entire book and sticks their little name on it, well, I'll simply
mount a public relations campaign that will make them look like the thief they truly are! And then Ill send them
a thank you note for the free publicity!
ii
INTRODUCTION
Why I Wrote this Book and How to Use It
This book consists of essays Ive written for my piano students over the course of several years. All the essays
have been rewritten for this publication. Additionally, many completely new essays appear here for the first
time. Each essay deals with an aspect of piano study encountered by the ordinary piano student. Thus, the focus
is definitely on the basics. I suspect the advanced player would find the material quite mundane. There exists
a wealth of good books for the professional classical pianist but almost nothing for the rest of us who also love
the piano but who only want to play at a modest level.
This book, then, is for the bulk of piano students, young and old. It is for anyone who wants to "play for their own
enjoyment." Adults and teenagers will be able to understand any of the essays since they were all written with
beginners in mind. Parents of younger pianists can and should read the book as a way assisting their children.
Because the essays were written one at a time, often months apart, they reflect different moods and different
writing styles. Some essays are rather formal but many are... well, you'll see! Let's say I often write the way I
teach. You will also find that I say the same things many, many times just as I do with students. Fundamentals
are seldom fully understood with a single exposure. Repetition is part of education in any subject.
Do I cover everything concerning the piano, lessons, performance? Is this material "the last word" on these sub-
jects? Of course not! I fully expect to revise, update, and add to this book on a regular basis. The edition you
hold in your hands contains, however, the best of my current skill and understanding, with ideas and techniques
I know will help you.
You can read this book in a normal, page-by-page, fashion, but I think you'd probably enjoy first browsing the
essay titles, reading those that most catch your interest. Do make sure you read the entire book eventually. I
haven't wasted your time with anything of little importance.
Regarding my "lighthearted" style of writing, I strongly suggest you adopt such a style regarding piano study as
a whole. Not to say that the piano isn't a "serious instrument." It is, and will require a long-term effort to mas-
ter. However, we generally speak of "playing" the piano, not "working" the piano or "having-a-grim-faced-this-is-
going-to-be-painful-but-I'm-an-adult-and-I-can-take-it" the piano. Lighten up and you'll do much, much better.
You'll probably find yourself agreeing with some of my ideas and disagreeing with others. I am fully aware that
I am a bit of a maverick. My priorities seem to be different than many of my colleagues. Alas, I cannot list my
degrees in this introduction because I have none. I never saw the need for any. Like the majority of great com-
posers, I am privately taught. Not to compare my talent with theirs, but I certainly come from an outstanding
tradition! Also, I believe a lack of formal indoctrination helps me to be a bit freer in my approach. I am more
concerned with what works and the student's enjoyment of music, rather than enforcing my taste in music or
winning competitions.
iii
What I AM deeply concerned with is the scarcity of pianists. Think for a moment about your circle of friends.
How many of them play the piano? How many would like to? How many had lessons as children but no longer
play, even if they own a piano? Ask these questions around a bit and I think you'll see that there is a problem:
too many music consumers and not enough music producers.
I see two reasons for this, the first being the introduction of consumer electronics, beginning with Edison's orig-
inal phonograph, proceeding up through radio, to TV, to tape and CD players, and now the Internet. It's
become ever easier to be a part of the audience. In fact, we are awash in music, so much music that we often
do not even hear it.
The second, and uglier, reason is that music teachers themselves have come close to killing music study.
Now that's quite an accusation. Years ago, having had an excellent teacher, I wouldn't have believed that accu-
sation for a minute. Then I became a teacher myself, and students begin to tell me about their previous teach-
ers. They described quite a "rogues gallery." First, there were the nuns who beat children with rulers. Then,
there were old ladies who forced people to play the same miserable tunes for months on end. Then, grumpy
professional musicians who insulted and yelled at their students, people with no patience at all, whose foremost
desire seemed to be making music study as stressful and unpleasant as possible. I've grown sick of the hundreds
of such tales I've heard over the years. These abuses continue in present time. Don't believe me? Ask ten peo-
ple who have taken piano lessons. Have them describe their experience. Do they still play? I rest my case.
Now, of course, no stereotype is 100% valid. For every ruler-wielding nun nut case there is probably a wonder-
ful Mr. Holland type who inspires and encourages and creates real musicians whose lives are permanently
enriched by music-making. But stereotypes often rest on facts, unfortunately. It's a reality I deal with daily as I
teach students whose previous "teachers" made piano lessons a thing of worry, stress, and fear, emotions which
we must now try to change in order to succeed.
Most people would be thrilled to be able to play Christmas Carols, some light classical, and a popular melody
from Broadway. Some piano teachers say, "Wonderful, let's begin!" and get on with helping that human being
enrich their life with music. These teachers work patiently and diligently and with the cooperation of the stu-
dent, help bring a new pianist into this world.
Unfortunately, too many piano teachers take their professional level of musical comprehension and a superior
attitude and try to mold the student to their purposes and tastes. "The ignorant masses must be shown a high-
er truth." And having this sort of an attitude makes it okay to be impatient, verbally abusive, and sometimes
even strike the student.
Why? Maybe such teachers can't admit the truth that, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Their taste in music
(almost always the classics, what is called "the standard literature") should be everyone's taste, their opinion on
what makes great music should be everyone's opinion. Possibly, they just don't like people all that much, cer-
tainly not enough to treat their own students with the respect they deserve. Or maybe their lessons aren't very
effective because they want to keep the students coming back and paying for more lessons. Or...well, who
knows?
Enough ranting. Perhaps this book will help more people enjoy the piano, despite their responsibilities, hec-
tic schedules, and the deficiencies of some of their teachers. There has never been a shortage of interested stu-
dents, just piano lessons which make it easier for people to simply press the "play button" on a CD player. Let's
see what we can do to change that. Let's make some musicians around here!
Dan Starr, February, 2001
iv
About the Revision of September 2006
I have extensively revised, edited, and added much new material to this online edition of my 2001 book.
Additionally, I have made good on my promise from the earlier edition to refine and improve on the methods I
recommended. Frankly, it has been quite a validation of my earlier ideas to undertake revising them. After five
years and some 500 more students, Im pleased to find that my original ideas were correct. What you find in this
revision are better ways of explaining these ideas, plus new understandings Ive reached in their application.
In reading over my original introduction, I find that Id like to say a word about the anti-piano- teacher teach-
ers who have been cropping up lately. These are the folks that promise the sun, moon, and stars (in the piano
sense) with almost no investment in time and effort. This is wonderfully illustrated by this exact quote from one
of their promotional flyers, Learn all the chords needed to play any pop song in this one session, any song,
any style, any key. Anyone over the age of 11 should be able to figure out that this is essentially impossible. But
hope springs eternal within the human breast and people keep looking for something for nothing so these guys
flourish. Plus, theres enough truth to their claim that traditional lessons are not very effective to lend their
alternative some credibility. But, cmon one session consisting of one workshop? How believable is that?
Sorry, friends, but reasonable effort over a reasonable period of time is needed. There are no Instant Piano
Secrets Used by Professional Pianists which will give you instant ability. Im a professional, almost certainly as
good as these teachers, and I can tell you such things dont exist. Thats because there is no substitute for cor-
rect and adequate effort. Please, having avoided the standard classical stick-in-the-mud teacher, please dont fall
victim to the fast talking, Heres the total and instant cure for all your piano ills snake oil salesman teacher.
Correct and adequate effort. THATS what my book is about.
You can always reach me!
Email: danstarrorg@yahoo.com
The Web: www.danstarr.com
Mail: PO Box 12266, Tucson, AZ 85732
Phone: (520) 327-8044
v
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the finest teacher I've ever met: Linda Swartz, classroom teacher, artist, my editor,
and my friend. Linda, you have helped catalyze every significant improvement I've made in my teaching
approach for the last several years. Without you, this book would never have been finished, nor many of its
strategies made successful. Thank you for being my teaching mentor and my friend.
vi
How to WIN at Piano Lessons
Successful Piano Instruction Strategies for Non-Mozarts
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Choose the Teacher and Lessons which are Right for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Do You Really Need a Teacher to Learn How to Play? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How to Choose a Piano Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Adult Students It's Not Too Late! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
How to Evaluate Lesson Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Real Time to Mastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How to Succeed at the Piano. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How Much Practice is Enough. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Skills Every Pianist Must Have. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
How to Enjoy Piano Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Keyboards vs. Pianos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Chapter Two: How to Develop and Maintain an Attitude which Succeeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
How to Succeed at the Piano. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
How Do I Judge My Degree of Success?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
What is Good Piano Playing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Three Steps to Good Playing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Truth about Patience and Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Attitudes That Promote Success and Attitudes That Dont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
I Play So Much Better at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
More about Playing So Much Better at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Dont Be a Victim of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
I Have to Take a Short Break from Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter Three: How to Read Music More Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
When is Reading NOT Reading? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Three Parts of Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Workable Methods of Improving Your Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Written Music: Its Main Points and Its Fine Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Reading Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Basics of Fingering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Beware the Fingering Trap! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Sustain Pedal: Helping Out the Fingers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Getting the Timing Correct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
What is Counting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Make Sure Your Counting Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Proper and Improper Counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Do You Hate to Count? Read This!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Dealing with Dotted Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
vii
Chapter Four: How to Practice Joyfully and Successfully . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
THE Fundamental of Successful Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Assume the Position at the Piano! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Hands, Fingers, Fingernails: Their Pros and Cons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
How Much Time Should You Practice?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
How to Practice: Six Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Your Friend, the Mistake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Lets Do That Again, Shall We? (How to Create Good Habits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Still Making Mistakes? Read This!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Programming Your Auto-Pilot and Flying Blind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Rewards of Flying Blind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Concentration, How to Use It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Numbers You Must Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Practice vs. Performance: BIG Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Worship of Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Day by Day Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chapter Five: How to Express Yourself When Playing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Music vs. Mechanics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Memorizing Music: Natural and Necessary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Making Music to Make Others Happy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Playing Expressively: The Fundamentals of Feeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Playing Expressively: Tempo and Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
How Loud Should I Play? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Phrasing a Melody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Keeping the Audience Interested. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Repertoire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter Six: How to Succeed at Other Piano Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Lets Go Shopping! How to Choose and Buy the Right Piano Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
What Good is Sight Reading and how is it Done? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Improvisation How-tos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
What is Music Theory?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
You Can Write Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter Seven: How to Rapidly Learn New Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
viii
CHAPTER ONE
Choose the Teacher and Lessons which are Right for You
The piano is the most popular instrument in the world. More people take piano lessons than any other type of
instrument training. Because of this, our society has evolved a sort of mythology regarding piano lessons, piano
students, and piano teachers, made up in equal parts of things we hear from friends and relatives and what we
read in books or see in movies and on TV. It probably won't surprise you that much of this mythology is exact-
ly that myth. New piano students are constantly surprised (and delighted) when they experience the realities
of piano training.
In this initial chapter, I want to share with you the realities I've experienced during the last 32 years as a musi-
cian and 13 years as a full-time piano teacher, teaching 30-50 lessons per week. Here are my observations of
how things really work in the real world with ordinary people who want to play the piano. I have no interest in
academic theories, only with what works to make the dreams of my students become reality. I think you will
find the truth encouraging and refreshing.
Essays in this chapter:
Do You Really Need a Teacher to Learn How to Play?
How to Choose a Piano Teacher
Adult Students It's Not Too Late!
How to Evaluate Lesson Fees
Real Time to Mastery
How to Succeed at the Piano
How Much Practice is Enough
Skills Every Pianist Must Have
How to Enjoy Piano Lessons
Keyboards vs. Pianos
Do You Really Need a Piano Teacher to Learn to Play?
Need? No. You could learn it all on your own.
And you could also design and build your next automobile in your basement.
You could, really! There are people who do and they derive great pleasure from their work.
However, it might just be more enjoyable to allow someone to guide you, motivate you through the inevitable
rough spots, catch your mistakes before they become bad habits, and generally save you a huge amount of time
and frustration.
1
Now, you've probably heard of or maybe even met pianists who play without ever having had a lesson. What
they could do impressed you and made you think, "Hey, if THEY could do it, I can do it." I've heard such sto-
ries for years of magical people who supposedly could "play anything after hearing it once." Or, "my brother's
cousin's sister plays beautifully and never had a lesson in her life."
Such stories always turn out to be a bit different once a trained musician examines them. First off, no one in
the history of the world has ever, ever been able to play ANYTHING simply from having heard it once. Not
Mozart, not idiot savants, no one. Such claims come from being uninformed on the actual reality of mastering
the piano. Yes, prodigies learn at a remarkable pace at a remarkably early age but they, too, reach a level of dif-
ficulty where serious effort must be expended to continue. There's no "free lunch." And besides, are you
Mozart? I sure ain't!
Actually, most of the self-trained pianists I've met during thirty years in the business can play only certain pieces
well, pieces they took forever to learn and which they play over and over as the years roll by. Present them with
a new task and you get to see the struggle they really have. This is not to belittle their efforts and successes, but
to clear away the hype non-musicians build up around anyone who is self-taught so you can make a good deci-
sion about taking lessons.
The truth is that for the vast majority of people, finding and working with a piano teacher is the best thing to
do. It's faster, it's more fun, it's less frustrating, and above all, considering the difficulty of the task and the con-
fusion of daily life, it represents your best chance to succeed at your musical goals.
How to Choose a Piano Teacher
Work backwards.
Start by visualizing the result you want.
Can you see yourself playing the piano? How well? What music are you playing? For whom? And how often?
Think this over carefully, until you have as clear an idea as possible. Now go find a teacher who:
a. truly cares about YOU accomplishing YOUR goals, and
b. has the experience, knowledge, and patience to help.
Some critical things to do:
1. Call around. Don't ask for prices first. Instead, say something like, "I'm an adult beginner and want to take
lessons. What can you tell me?" The first thing the teacher should then ask is, "What do you want to
accomplish?" People are not clones, and are not looking for exactly the same results. Some, most folks
want to play simply for their own enjoyment. Other students have particular styles of music they would
like to play, or even particular pieces of music. Private lessons are NOT like school, where everyone is
cookie-cuttered through the assembly line. In private lessons, you pay someone to help you with the goals
YOU set, goals they need to know about from the very start. Everything should be tailored to your desires.
Any teacher who fails to inquire about these desires should be crossed off the list. Add to that any teacher
who is curt, rude, or sounds pompous or overly serious.
2. Ask for an interview. Would you buy a car you've never seen? Would you attend a college you've never vis-
ited? Any teacher unwilling to grant an interview is a waste of time and money. Plus, a teacher is going to
want to evaluate you as a prospective student and decide whether they are willing and able to help you.
3. Don't take the cheapest lessons. See the essay "How to Evaluate Lesson Fees" for the reasons why.
4. Music enriches lives. It's fun, even though you will have to work hard to get good. Any teacher who is "not
fun" should be crossed off your list. There's a reason we call it "playing" the piano. Let's keep "play" part
of our musical life!
2
5. Does the teacher teach because they love teaching? Anyone teaching "for a little money on the side" or
"until something better comes along" will not ensure your success. Plus, it happens all too often that such
teachers just quit teaching, move, get married, or start failing to show up for your lessons.
6. Studio policies should be written down, understandable, and acceptable to you. Be sure you follow them
if you agree to them in the first place.
7. The teacher may or may not have a degree. This "credentials" business has been promoted by degreed
teachers as a key qualification, often the main qualification. It's not very hard to figure out why, is it? The
only credential that has any meaning is this one: will the teacher succeed in helping me get what I want
out of music? A degree says nothing about this at all. Review the points I have already made. Ask the
teacher if you can talk to any students and do so. Make a decision based on your ability to evaluate the
results of your investigation. Think for yourself.
8. Both the teacher and you the student are "on probation" for a few weeks. Even though everything may
seem okay, you both need proof that the other person will hold up their end of the bargain. The teacher
may not be as patient as they let on. The student may somehow never get around to practicing. Thus, don't
sign a long term contract. Do it for at least a couple months and then decide to stay or go. After all, you
will be working together for at least a year and maybe several.
Adult Students: It's Not Too Late!
Many adults would like to play the piano. I am thankful for this fact every time I go to the bank, for most of my
income comes from adult students! These are folks who ignored the "conventional wisdom" that says you must
start piano as a child if you want to succeed. They are adults who are successful enough at their piano training
that they pay me good money, week after week. This leads one to wonder how much truth there is in the "con-
ventional wisdom" and how it originated.
The origins of this "earlier is better" concept are obvious. I am convinced that a survey of concert pianists would
reveal that 100% began their studies at very young ages. The complexity and difficulty of performing the world's
most advanced piano music allows nothing less than a life lived for the piano right from the start.
More recently, findings in brain research point to a window of opportunity in preschool children when music
is most easily learned. Lending credence to this is the Japanese Suzuki Method of violin instruction in which 3
years olds play cut-down violins at an astonishing level of skill. Piano companies have been very diligent in pro-
moting these findings for reasons that should be obvious.
Thus, history and modern research come together and create in the mind of the average person that it is nec-
essary to start piano at a very early age... AND that those who miss their chance are unlikely to be successful
at later ages.
Luckily, this is not the case. Adults can, and should, take up the piano. Plus, there is such as a thing as begin-
ning piano too young. Let me explain.
The first thing to consider is that the vast majority of the humans who take piano are NOT prodigies, nor will
they become professional pianists, let alone concert pianists. Thus, observations made and conclusions reached
concerning the extremely small group who do follow "The Life of the Piano" have little bearing for the rest of us.
Secondly, research into early life music learning and appreciation is NOT research into how well various age
groups do in learning the piano. Despite the impression the piano manufacturers give, studies about music
learning and appreciation are NOT studies about success at learning to play a particular instrument. It's hard-
ly scientific to state that they are. It is, however, good for business!
I have conducted my own study over the course of 18 years of teaching piano. Included in this study are approx-
imately 1000 children, the youngest 5, plus an equal number of adults, the oldest 83. Although a scientist would
3
want to design the study a bit more strictly by teaching every student exactly the same materials, I doubt that
their results would differ hugely from mine.
My study tells me that most children learn piano much more slowly than most adults. It also tells me that the
older child generally learns faster than the younger child. Why? Well, stop and think about it for a moment.
Think about a child's mind and body, especially that of a very young child. What is their attention span? What
is their familiarity with the learning process? How big are their hands? How well do their eyes track over a line
of printed symbols? How easily discouraged are they? How well do they conceptualize? How much music have
they been exposed to? How well can they control their bodies?
Now there are, indeed, "gifted children" who pick things up rapidly. The gifts they have often consist of a bet-
ter emotional state, better control of their bodies, and higher intelligence that allows them to apply themselves
more successfully to whatever they do, not just the piano. They may also come from a musical home where
exposure to music and its delights is part of life. And there is most definitely a "musical intelligence" in each
person which helps determine success and learning rate. These things are a real recipe for success in piano.
The average child, however, will always lag behind the average adult. Adults bring many skills to the table, men-
tal, emotional, and physical, not the least of which is the knowledge that perseverance will be rewarded. This
is a piece of knowledge no 6 year old has lived long enough to gain.
What, then, are the special problems faced by adults, if any?
The main problem, that problem most likely to defeat an adult, is nothing more than TIME. Time to practice
each day, despite a 1000 other things to do, time to continue lessons long enough to get somewhere. If that
problem is solved, the vast majority of adults will succeed in learning to play.
I do occasionally encounter adults who retain some childish character traits and these do not help. Also, age
sometimes brings arthritis and difficulty hearing. These can be so bad that playing is just not possible.
Also, adults must be willing to re-experience having parts of their body not follow their orders. Playing piano
requires some very complex motions, many of which are made with fingers not normally used for anything com-
plex. The wrist, elbows, arms, and actually the entire body must be carefully trained. Adults are sometimes dis-
mayed to find their bodies disobeying and being clumsy, something children live with each day. Adults must be
tolerant of this factor and all will work out.
So take heart you adult piano students! You should do fine if you will only make the time in your life for piano.
How to Evaluate Lesson Fees
The best way to make sure you get your money's worth when purchasing piano lessons is to understand the
exchange being made:
YOU...
pay the teacher money and then spend a large amount of time and energy in daily practice.
THE TEACHER...
provides the necessary information and then guides your expenditure of time and energy so that it produces
the skills you desire.
The majority of the learning occurs during your personal, private practice. The teacher can teach you how to
read the music, but then YOU must practice reading music. The teacher can teach you how to practice correct-
ly and successfully, but then YOU must actually do the practicing. The teacher can tell you what music to learn
and in what order, but then YOU must do the learning.
4
Notice how much of the job is yours. No teacher can hold a gun to your head and force you to do your part.
This is the "discipline" so often spoken of regarding piano lessons.
Thus the first thing to realize is that the more you follow the instructions, the harder and smarter you work, the
shorter the amount of time needed to succeed and the less money you will pay in the long run to get the skills
you desire. Assuming reasonably good teaching, YOU have the ability to save yourself lots of time and money.
The next thing to consider is the idea of "getting the skills you desire." Piano is a complicated subject and not
all its parts apply to any one person. The individual playing for their own enjoyment does not need all the skills
the concert pianist must master. The classical music student doesn't need to know about the blues. Playing
Christmas carols does not require a jazz technique. So money spent on acquiring skills which do not relate to
your personal goals is money wasted. An ethical teacher will first determine what you, the customer, want from
piano study and then create a program to guide you in that direction, including everything you need and noth-
ing you don't. Of course there are basic skills all pianists must master, but there is also a very long list of spe-
cialized activities which must be personalized.
Additionally, judging value on a "per lesson" basis is deceptive. When the final total is computed, you will have
spent a certain amount of money and achieved a certain amount of skill over a certain amount of time. Adult
programs usually run about 2 to 3 years, at the end of which the person plays to their own satisfaction. I recall
a man in his 5th year of lessons with a little old lady teacher who knitted while he played the same piece over
and over and over... I discovered he lacked basic skills my students get in their first three months. That little old
lady cost quite a bit less per lesson than I do. But who got the better value?
Maybe the most important point is this: the real purpose behind your desire to play is the knowledge that your
life will be better and happier when you can play the piano. Happiness, through music, is the real goal. Thus,
the tone and attitude of the lessons are very important. Unfortunately, some teachers are "user-friendly" and
some aren't. "User-friendly" means being patient, polite, and positive so the student can find happiness in music
study. Arrogance, unreal expectations, frowns, scowls, and negativity certainly make student happiness difficult
and thus are not worth anything at all. Such a teacher is worthless to the person hoping to enjoy the presence
of music in their lives. Personally, I want to enjoy my teaching experience and this is only possible when stu-
dents are smiling and winning and that means they are achieving their musical goals. I insist they do succeed,
but I insist with a smile, gobs of patience, and good feelings all around.
These ideas should guide you as you interview teachers. Request a visit to their studios and a half-hour of their
time. They should offer you ample opportunity to see how your money will be spent. They should be pleasant.
And they should be professional that is, someone who teaches for a living, not as a way "to make a little money
on the side." A professional teacher is not necessarily the one with lots of degrees either. Instead, they are some-
one who teaches for the pleasure of helping people enjoy music and has both personal and financial reasons to
make sure they are successful.
Real Time to Mastery
The other day one of my best students made me think hard. He told me, "Dan, I love your essays but there's
one point on which I completely disagree with you. You say that adults need 1 to 3 years to fulfill their goals.
After one year of lessons I realize that I know nothing!"
Well, he had me. Although he is a fine player already, he is correct in stating that there is more road ahead than
he has traveled by far! For that matter, there is a whole continent of highway in front of ME, his teacher! And
I think any honest pianist, at any level, would say the same. You are always aware of your own shortcomings,
no matter how good you are. The mind can always conceive more than the hands can achieve.
I had to examine this time matter. Should I change the figures I usually give out? And where had my estimates
come from in the first place?
5
The figures of 1 to 3 years are the result of my experience in the length of time most adults actually take les-
sons. "Most" means 90%. This figure begs for the question, "why do most adults quit lessons?" The answers fall
into just a few categories:
1. Financial problems,
2. Work problems,
3. Family problems,
4. Health problems, or
5. They got what they came for.
1-4 amount to 90% of the adults who only take 1-3 years. Yep, that's right; only 1 out of 10 adult students go
the distance and become the players they want to be.
This used to worry me. Then I wised up. Exactly what can I do to solve the person's problems with their boss,
their kids, or their checkbook? Sure, I can make the lessons interesting and fun and successful, but in the final
analysis, piano lessons are a luxury item and the rest of life largely is not. When money is tight, food counts for
more than music.
My handling of these unfortunate facts is to make the lessons focus tightly on exactly what helps the student
enjoy music. I stress fundamentals such as reading and knowing how to practice correctly because these skills
will allow the student to go on learning without a teacher. I figure I don't have a long time to help the person
so I had better get as much done in as short a time as possible.
You might think that a certain number of failed students just have no talent. That number, the number of adults
so "non-musical" that they can't learn the most basic piano pieces is extremely tiny. I can recall no more than
five out of 2000. Chances are that you personally are NOT number six!
Now let's return to my original estimate. Yes, 2-3 years of lessons is both true and false. It's true, in that the few
who get through the 2-3 years generally have met enough of their goals to let the lessons go. And their playing
is good enough for non-pianists to hear them and marvel!
But mastery? No, not a chance. Any dreams of achieving real ability on the piano are the dreams of 5-10 years
of solid effort. I hope my very talented student, the one who brought this point up, will give me at least 4 years
of his time. In that period I can teach him to become his own teacher and turn him loose, knowing that he WILL
continue the learning process and could even go professional if he wished.
How long should you take lessons, then? As long as it improves your life to do so, taking into account your fam-
ily, friends, finances, and enjoyment of the lessons.
How to Succeed at the Piano
It is easy to state the main ingredients to success at the piano:
Intention,
Intention,
Intention,
...and Practice!
So what is "intention"? It is your drive, your strength of purpose, your inner desire to become a pianist. Why is
intention so important? Intention is like the gas in your car: no gas = no go, poor gas = poor performance.
You can be sure that you'll face barriers: not enough time, the needs of family and friends, the stress of work,
and the demands of just keeping everything going. Add to this the frustration experienced while learning any
new skill and you have a situation which only a strong, unrelenting intention will see you through.
6
Modern life is complex for adults and priorities must be set. It is not true, however, that a student is a victim of
time and circumstance. A student will MAKE time and ALTER circumstance if their intention is strong enough.
Thus, we see that your intention is the most precious resource you have. It must be guarded at all costs and
increased in every way possible. The instructor can provide the materials and training, but YOU must handle
the day-to-day threats. You must set aside enough practice time despite everything. Examine your intention care-
fully. Is it strong enough to do this? Is the reward of being a pianist enough? Your answer will determine the
result of your lessons.
How Much Practice is Enough?
There are two things at work in piano study:
1. That mix of physical and mental skills we call "talent," and
2. Plain old effort.
Simply put, the more talent, the less effort needed (except that the truly talented often work like dogs anyway
because they get such good results from that work!), and the less talent, the more effort needed (except that,
unless there is lots and lots of correct practice, not much happens and the person does less and less work any-
way and fails miserably.)
My years dealing with ordinary people (including myself, certainly NOT a prodigy) shows me that 20-30 min-
utes of correct practice, 4-5 days per week, is the minimum that will produce satisfactory results. I hate to say
it, but if that is just not possible, don't bother getting started, unless you want to take lessons for MANY years
rather than 2-3, the norm to produce reasonable skill for adults.
Skills Every Pianist Must Have
Surprise! There are only two skills every pianist must have:
1. Fingers and the ability to press down the piano keys, and
2. The sense of hearing.
It's true! These are the only universal needs, and I could make a convincing debate that someone, sometime in
history has played with their toes or after having become deaf.
However, I need to expand on this before all my students quit! Individual pianists need many, many other skills,
but not necessarily the same ones. It all depends on what you wish to accomplish musically.
You could compare creating your own personal skill list to designing and building your dream house. First you
get a general concept of the size, shape, and design of this house. Next is consultation with experts to deter-
mine the house's exact plan. Then there is the creation of a schedule of actions. If the plan is realistic and well
drawn, if the actions are properly scheduled and then competently executed, you will have your dream house.
That house will have been built with the exact materials needed and the exact actions required to put these
materials together. You certainly don't want your builder using excess materials or wrong materials or perform-
ing unnecessary actions and charging you for them!
We begin music lessons with an interview. I question the prospective student regarding their musical interests
and background. I find out what music they wish to play and what level of professionalism is desired. From this,
I organize materials along an educational curve of increasing difficulty. The lesson plan must contain all the
information and training needed to build each student's musical "dream house." If I do my job of creating the
path and the program and if the student follows these despite all distractions, then that student will be playing
what he wants with the proficiency he wants to play it.
7
In short, your needs are determined by your goals. There are no lists of "thou must study" that are valid for
every music student, although quite a number of my fellow teachers keep trying to create them. You can dip
into the well of music as deeply or as shallowly as you desire. It is my job to help you achieve YOUR goals in
music, not to set them for you, or to try to convince you to change them. That is why you pay me and it is a per-
fectly honest and fair exchange for both of us.
Do not listen to experts who have their own agendas and ego trips. You are welcome to do whatever you please
with music. You will simply have to master the skills that relate to your own goals. Other skills are simply irrel-
evant, a waste of time and money and energy.
Go for your goals.
How to Enjoy Piano Lessons
There is only one purpose for taking piano lessons and that is to improve the quality of your life by making
music a part of it. The details of exactly how this happens may differ. A very few students feel called to become
professional musicians. Another few would like to exercise their creativity and write music. Most folks, howev-
er, are tremendously happy if they can learn to adequately perform the songs they know and love for them-
selves, family, and friends. This is certainly a worthy goal there should be more such live music in this world.
It is extremely important to your enjoyment of piano lessons that you keep your goal in mind.
Your purpose is NOT, repeat NOT, to play without error. Few and far between are perfect, error-free perform-
ances. Ask any honest professional musician how many times they have played with complete perfection!
Your purpose is to enjoy the presence of music in your life. Lessons simply help you do this.
If you become fixated on such things as:
how rapidly you are progressing,
how many notes you are missing, or
whether you are progressing "normally,"
...you have lost sight of your overall purpose and set the stage for frustration and failure.
A fixation on mistakes has the effect of increasing the quantity of mistakes. Worry over errors breeds more
errors, which increases worry which... well, you get the idea!
Learning, teachers, instruction, lessons, students, assignments these things seem to be matters of stress to
99.99% of the people I have taught. I believe this says something extremely negative about the way our socie-
ty has approached education. That may be true but try to rise above it by keeping your overall purpose in mind
as you progress, day by day, week by week, month by month.
Incidentally, progress in a single practice session can be measured by the question, "Am I playing this better
now than when I played it yesterday?" If the answer is, "Yes!" you have progressed, even if only a little. It is truly
surprising how rapidly a series of little improvements can add up to major ability!
Create music as you would put together a jigsaw puzzle find a little burst of pleasure with each new piece
you discover. Enjoy yourself!
Keyboards vs. Pianos
It's a funny thing. If you were thinking of learning a band or orchestra instrument you would know what your
choices are trumpet, tuba, flute, violin, cello, etc, whichever instrument you thought you would enjoy. Once
you made your choice you would know exactly what instrument to acquire in order to learn and practice.
8
Not so with the piano, however. There are lots of instruments with keys. There are regular pianos, uprights and
grands, portable keyboards, things called synthesizers, workstations, and digital pianos. Each is different in
cost, controls, what it will and won't do, and, most importantly, whether or not it is right for you.
Your choice is made additionally complex by needing to factor in things like budget, type of music you'd like to
play, space available, and whether the instrument looks good as a piece of furniture. It's a complex choice, and
not one that can be made for you by salespeople. Your best bet is to talk with someone who can sort through
your options based on your needs and wants someone who doesn't have a preset prejudice in favor of one
choice or another.
Unfortunately for the music world, too many music teachers DO have such a prejudice and will steer you
toward THEIR choice of instrument regardless of your needs. They will use their experience and superior
knowledge to push their personal agenda and you, recognizing your own lack of knowledge, may well just buy
into it. Don't.
YOU will be the one purchasing the instrument and then spending the minutes of your life learning to play the
thing. You have every right to spend that money and time as you see fit. As a comparison, if you needed a van
for your big family, you wouldn't let some car salesman convince you to purchase a sports car. So don't let some
stuck-up music teacher convince you that you must own a grand piano when what would really work for you
right now is a portable keyboard.
Do your homework. Learn all your options.
Make your choice based on your needs, not someone else's fixed attitude.
9
CHAPTER TWO
How to Develop and Maintain an Attitude Which Promotes Success
In sports there are players and coaches. Coaches can inspire and guide but only the players actually play the
game. The success of that game is in their hands. So it is in music lessons. The student has the majority of con-
trol. The teacher inspires and guides, but the student "plays the game." It is largely up to you whether you suc-
ceed or fail, and the first place to start ensuring your success is with the proper attitude. Your mind is the most
important part of the process. The majority of failures stem, not from lack of musical talent, but from lack of
thought, will, hope, and commitment.
Essays in This Chapter
How to Succeed at the Piano
How Do I Judge My Degree of Success?
What is Good Piano Playing?
Three Steps to Good Playing
The Truth about Patience and Discipline
Attitudes That Promote Success and Attitudes That Dont
I Play So Much Better at Home
More about Playing So Much Better at Home
Dont Be a Victim of Time
I Have to Take a Short Break from Lessons
How to Succeed at the Piano
It is easy to state the main ingredients to success at the piano:
Intention,
Intention,
Intention ...and Practice!
So what is "intention"? It is your drive, your strength of purpose, your inner desire to become a pianist. Why is
intention so important? Intention is like the gas in your car: no gas = no go, poor gas = poor performance.
You can be sure that you'll face barriers: not enough time, the needs of family and friends, the stress of work,
and the demands of just keeping everything going. Add to this the frustration experienced while learning any
new skill and you have a situation which only a strong, unrelenting intention will see you through.
Modern life is complex for adults and priorities must be set. It is not true, however, that a student is a victim of
time and circumstance. A student will MAKE time and ALTER circumstance if their intention is strong enough.
10
Thus, we see that your intention is the most precious resource you have. It must be guarded at all costs and
increased in every way possible. The instructor can provide the materials and training, but YOU must handle
the day-to-day threats. You must set aside enough practice time despite everything. Examine your intention care-
fully. Is it strong enough to do this? Is the reward of being a pianist enough? Your answer will determine the
success of your lessons.
How Do I Judge My Degree of Success?
The most powerful ideas are often simple and easily stated.
Success is measured by answering the question, "Am I closer to my goal at this moment than I was the last time
I asked this question?" If the answer is, "Yes!" then you are succeeding. Your degree of success is the degree of
improvement over last time.
I have learned over the years that many students measure their progress by asking, "How far am I from perfec-
tion?" Thus, from the beginning of a new piece until it is fully done, the answer is always, "Not there yet." Such
practice yields little enjoyment and never seems successful till the very end IF the student holds out that long!
What Is Good Piano Playing?
This is a short essay. Basic truths are often short and sweet.
1. "Good piano playing" is piano playing which produces "good music."
2. "Good music" is music which the listeners judge to be "good."
3. The overwhelming majority of listeners base their judgment of goodness on three things, given below
in their order of importance:
A. familiarity with the music,
B. the steadiness of the underlying beat, and
C. the quality of the melody.
4. The purpose of technique and theory is to make A, B, and C possible.
The goodness and badness of music is nothing but opinion, regardless of the musical sophistication of the per-
son with the opinion and any formal training they might have. Once we recognize that music, like any art form,
is a HUMAN subject, quite different from math and science, then we can understand music and its importance.
Remember:
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Three Steps to Good Playing
Did you know that only three things ever really happen when you play sheet music at the piano? True! All
those thousands of details, the instructions on the page, and the actions made to follow them, fit into one of
three categories:
1. Reading the music,
2. Training yourself to play the music, and
3. Playing the music in an expressive manner.
Or, to put it a different way:
1. Understand the instructions,
2. Learn to follow them, and
3. Follow them with feeling!
11
Each of these three can take enormous effort, but looking at your task this way can make it more confrontable
and much less scary!
Not getting a good result with some piece of music? Ask yourself if it's a problem with #1, #2, or #3 or per-
haps some combination. Locating the problem this way will help to solve it. Are you sure you are reading the
directions correctly (#1)? Check that first. If that's okay, then is some movement of the hands, fingers, wrists,
or arms not being properly executed (#2)? If all the physical movements are correct, then are you playing too
slowly to make the music "come alive," or not considering the phrasing of that section (both #3)?
Learning a new piece is quickest and most fulfilling when you deal with #1 and #2 instead of reaching for #3
immediately. Follow the 1-2-3 sequence and practice will be fun, quick, and successful. Ignore #1 and #2 due
to your impatience to reach #3 and I can guarantee you frustration. Of course every student wants to accom-
plish #3. We hear a professional play with expression, feeling, and style and want very badly to do that. We take
piano lessons and find that we spend our time on #1 and #2 (especially #2!) Many resent this but it can't be
helped. Expression occurs when #1 and #2 are mastered, and not a moment before. It starts with the details
and proceeds to the overall.
I tell my students, "If your attention is stuck on 'what is the next note?' then you are NOT thinking about how
that note fits into the whole to make good music." Only when #1 and #2 are done thoroughly and you have
complete confidence in their details will #3 show up in your music. Again, this is true whether you are work-
ing on single measure, a phrase, or the whole piece.
The moral is: learn to enjoy every step of the process, have fun putting each piece in its place, and you will make
your musical journey as enriching as possible. Find your joy in both the journey AND the destination.
The Truth about Patience and Discipline
Theres no doubt that a correct attitude is necessary for success in learning to play. Thus, its no surprise that
we ask ourselves, What IS the winning attitude? How do I get it and how do I maintain it? And how do I get
it back if I lose it?
There are soooooo many ideas about music lessons and piano lessons in particular floating around in peoples heads,
most of which find their way in via TV, movies, and what uninformed folks say. Most of these ideas have a kernel of
truth to them, but that kernel is surrounded by a whole lot of ...well, horse-pucky ! (Im trying to be nice here).
These misapprehensions and exaggerations would be okay, except that piano students often apply them to les-
sons and to their practice sessions and the incorrectness of such unexamined, unspoken, everybody knows
ideas hinders student progress and dampens enjoyment.
I spend quite a bit of lesson time setting people straight on what they should expect during their journey learn-
ing the piano. How should practice feel? What is normal progress? These and other questions make the
psychological aspects of piano lessons as interesting as the nuts and bolts of music reading and practicing.
Patience and Discipline rank high in the list of factors misunderstood by students. Many, perhaps most,
think that these two things are keys to their success.
Im here to tell you that, as virtues in learning to play for your own enjoyment, they are highly over-rated!
Please note that my further comments apply only to hobbyists, those folks whose goals are modest and direct-
ed towards the enjoyment of music for self, family, and friends. A whole different set of criteria apply to the
professional and aspiring professional.
Thats the point, you see. Your purpose is enjoyment. All your practice, all your effort, needs to serve your pur-
pose. Technique must serve pleasure in making music. Ask yourself this, now and often: Is what Im doing
enriching my life? If it is, then your attitude is the winning attitude. If it isnt, then you need to take stock.
12
If you are trying to be patient, waiting to be rewarded sometime in the future, then youve missed the point com-
pletely. Many people waiting for enjoyment want to BE a pianist, and HAVE what a pianist has, but dont want
to DO what a pianist does, namely practice pieces, work on technique, think about such things as fingering and
counting, etc. If the ACTIONS of the pianist just dont give you any pleasure, even after your instructor has made
sure you are doing correct and successful actions, then piano is not for you. You should just be a listener.
If you need to discipline yourself to sit down at the piano and DO what a pianist does, namely practice, again,
something is wrong. It is very possible that you are practicing in such a way as to fail rather than succeed. Bring
this up to your teacher. Perhaps your music is too hard. Perhaps something vital has been missed along the way.
Whatever, a good teacher will get to the bottom of it and explain clearly how to sort it out. Your goal will be to
get things set up so you look forward to sitting down and working on your weekly assignment.
How can you tell when things are as they should be? Let me use one of my endless supply of comparisons to explain.
Working up a song is much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. A puzzle can be too easy or too hard. A kids
puzzle, consisting of a few big pieces, is no challenge for an adult. It goes together as quickly as you can move
the pieces, its done, yawn. Then there are those puzzles for the real puzzle fan, consisting of a pizza with top-
pings, or nothing but the color red. These are too tough for the average person. You spend 5-10 minutes locat-
ing a single piece. There is a very long time between the burst of pleasure that adding a new piece brings. Again,
the result is yawn. Youd have to use a great amount of patience and discipline to keep on working on these
puzzles, the too-easy or too-hard kind. What you want is a puzzle that offers a bit of a challenge, but not too
much. In the same way, working out and fitting together the pieces of a tune can be tremendously fun and
almost addictive IF you are succeeding in constructing the music at the proper rate. Today this verse, tomor-
row this chorus, etc. Sure its not done yet, but in each practice enough gets completed to give you a feeling of
accomplishment and pleasure.
And thus you look forward to each practice session. No discipline or patience is needed.
My experience is that when students get this right, they have to discipline themselves to STOP practicing and
tend to their chores, families, and work! They look at the clock and an hour has gone by and they are shocked.
Listen; if you have to drag yourself to the piano, then something is very wrong. Your attitude needs adjusting
and that adjustment has nothing to do with patience and discipline. Your teacher needs to know this NOW. You
CAN learn to find the fun in learning the piano, but you need to work with the instructor to do so. And ignore
a good portion of what you have been told about taking piano lessons.
Attitudes That Promote Success and Attitudes That Dont
During my entire career as a piano teacher I have made a habit of being positive, upbeat, and hopeful and I
have tried with reason, smiles, and cheerfulness to impart this attitude to my students. This is more than just a
"nice thing to do." Nervousness and self-invalidation infect almost all piano students to one degree or another
and these "attitudes of failure" have an annoying way of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies.
I have been fairly successful at keeping things upbeat, but not nearly as successful as I would like to be. I find
myself giving the same pep talks and speeches day after day, week after week, year after year. It's time for me
to put some of these speeches to paper in the hope that each student can refer to this material as needed.
1. Nothing succeeds like success.
Of course, success itself is the ultimate morale builder. With every student, assuming they go the distance
and play better and better, there comes a point when they realize, "HEY I ACTUALLY CAN PLAY THE
PIANO!!!" Before this point, it was all hope. After this point, confidence begins to build on itself. The stu-
dent's playing somehow sounds more polished, the rhythm stronger, the melody clearer. They begin to
experiment a bit with personal expression. Each improvement adds to the feeling of success which in turn
13
causes improvement in the music itself. Not surprisingly, the amount and quality of practice increases.
And so it goes, building and building, improving and improving.
Thus, the first and most important lesson is: DON'T QUIT BEFORE YOU REACH THE CONFI-
DENCE POINT!"
2. Make correct comparisons.
This is a big one. Let's say you have been assigned a brand new piece to learn for the next lesson. On the
day its assigned you can't play the thing at all. However, after your first practice, despite all the mistakes
during that practice, you now have some ability to perform the piece. This is certainly an improvement
over no ability at all. You should feel satisfied. Now the next practice you must solidify that gain and find
some way to add to it. If you are smart, you will not leave that second practice until you are playing the
piece even better than after the first practice. And you should be happy with that improvement as well.
Finally, after some more practice sessions, each better than the last, the piece is totally learned. Excellent!
And all the way from zero to completeness you succeeded.
But... that's NOT the way many students make evaluations of their progress. Oh no!
Instead, they begin by comparing where they are NOW with PERFECTION. Instead of telling themselves,
"I have improved considerably from my last practice session." they get very busy saying things like, "I
should be done by now." "This music is not perfect yet." And, of course, the real message is, "I have no tal-
ent, I'm bad... (you fill in the blank with your favorite self-invalidation.)"
Let's say this same student does persevere and get the thing correct, and is reasonably satisfied. Their
usual next step is thinking that the piece will now remain perfect till the end of the world. As if anything
at all does that, as if there are no "bad days" or "low points!" Nope, the day always comes when they are
tired or somewhat ill and they totally mess up "their song." Oh my, more cause for negativity!
Folks, get real, okay? Shrug off the stupid way we practice education in this world, by stress, threat, and
invalidation. Use your reason to combat these irrational feelings. You may not completely succeed, but
each time you remind yourself of the FACTS of improvement, not your obsessive FEELINGS of failure,
you have won a battle. And eventually, you will win the war itself.
I speak the truth here, learned over thirty years as a performer. I don't worry about troubles and bad days
and mistakes in my pieces for the simple reason I KNOW that I can correct them by proper practice. You
must learn that too, and until you do, trust your reason and my reassurance.
3. "I play so much better at home."
Really? No kidding? Well, of course you do! After all, it's your own piano on your own turf. Are you hon-
estly surprised that you play less well under the stress of being at the lesson, playing for the teacher to
judge? Ive written two essays on this topic. Read them below and quit adding to your problem by worry-
ing about this matter.
4. Starting the lesson with negativity. Some students feel it is absolutely necessary to start each lesson by list-
ing the week's failures. Maybe they think this is honest and will keep me from yelling at them.
Wrong. This approach is a complete mistake. I have never, never expected any particular amount of
progress during the course of a week. There is just no predicting life that closely. If you were taking les-
sons with a specific deadline, such as becoming a professional, it might be different. But as someone who
simply wants to enjoy playing you will get there when you get there.
When you begin the lesson with a list of this week's failures, you have cast a shadow over everything from
then on. You have made a prediction which will almost certainly be fulfilled. Your worry and upset will
cause mistakes leading to further worry and upset.
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I have a simple solution: STOP IT.
That's not a request, it's an order. I have no desire to hear your list of failures as the first communication
of each lesson. What I DO want to hear is what has gone right, what has been a pleasure, what you have
accomplished even if it is very little. Tell both of us what went right, not what went wrong. Set a posi-
tive tone for the lesson right from the start and we both will get more out of what follows.
In short, we do NOT fail during music lessons. We may not go as fast as we might wish, or quite as far,
but we DO advance. And we DO enjoy the journey as we go. If you just cannot find pleasure in the effort
of learning music, then give up now because you're doing the wrong thing. Find something else in life to
bring you joy.
"I Play So Much Better at Home."
How many times I have heard students say these words! And I know that they are telling the truth. But why is
this so, and what can be done to fix it? Should we even worry about it?
We are talking here about "performance anxiety" and probably every person on Earth has it to some degree. A
very common cause of performance anxiety is speaking before a group. Another is performing your music for
the teacher. All students want to play their best, and they worry about doing so. The worry itself makes it hard-
er to perform. They wish they could relax. They are afraid of making mistakes and become very upset when
they do. This is performance anxiety. Over the years, I have tried to minimize it during lessons by being as pos-
itive and upbeat as possible, but this has only worked to some degree. By now, I have completely given up on
the hope of eliminating performance anxiety from the minds of all students! Instead, Ive found a way to USE
performance anxiety to improve each student's ability to play! Rather than fight it, I am going to make use of
it. Here's how.
Performance anxiety (which I will now refer to as PA) tells us something very valuable, namely which of our
skills are strong and which are weak. PA is nothing more than stress, and stress is the very thing you use to test
the strength of a skill. Engineers building a new car subject all its parts to stress, often far in excess of daily
requirements. They try to induce failure in the laboratory so that weak parts can then be re-engineered to
ensure they hold up during everyday use.
The PA you experience in lessons tells us exactly which skills need further practice. Any skill which can't be suc-
cessfully performed for your instructor is not mastered well enough to proceed. Notice I am not saying that the
piece of music itself must be 100% perfect. I am referring here to whatever particular skill that piece was
designed to teach. That is what must be solid enough to withstand the test of playing for the teacher. A few
minor mistakes in a song are not a problem. It is the underlying skill we are concerned with.
Please note that you are not on TV or at a recital. Skills must be even more solid to function under that level
of PA. However, that is something for professional musicians, not the student playing for their own enjoyment.
You must simply learn your skills well enough to demonstrate them at your piano lesson.
Why do you personally experience PA? Each student has their reasons, mostly subconscious ones. I suggest you
quit spending time trying to discover the buried roots of your upsets and instead focus all that energy and con-
centration on improving your skill at playing the piano!!!
More about Playing So Much Better at Home
To most students it's their final exam, a matter of "do or die." It's where they show that authority figure, their
piano teacher, that they have been good and practiced the way they should. Who knows? If they do well in the
exam, maybe they'll get a good grade and a pat on the head! Or a sticker to put in their book!
15
I'm making jokes here, but the way most students feel before and during each week's lesson is none too funny.
The vast majority feels some degree of "performance anxiety" and some few are almost crippled with it. Indeed,
one of the goals of most students is to feel relaxed while playing for teacher.
This does happen eventually, sometimes in mere weeks, sometimes after months or even years. The patience
and support that any decent teacher continues to provide helps the student get over their anxiety given time.
In the meanwhile, however, the teacher may be going totally insane, hearing student after student say that
famous line, "I played this better at home. Really!" And the student many times is secretly afraid that the teacher
thinks they are lying or making excuses.
Let me set your mind at ease. I know for a fact that you DO play better at home. After all, it's your turf and
your mind and hands know exactly what to expect, since it's your instrument. Plus, you're relaxed, since the
mean piano teacher isn't there! Of course you are going to play better. Plus, I can tell if you've "done your home-
work." The improvements you've made since last week are obvious to me as you play your pieces. Quit worry-
ing. I believe you!
Let me also take another stab at changing your idea of "success at my music lesson." To most students, perhaps all,
this means that you come in, sit down, and play your pieces perfectly. If this was my standard for success, I would
make sure that every piece I assigned was simple enough that you could master it completely and play it perfectly
no matter the situation. You'd always play perfectly every single lesson and you'd never advance an inch.
Now hear this!!! The only thing I'm looking for is improvement in your basic skills as a pianist. Have these
improved since the last time I saw you? Excellent. You are a success. As a professional pianist and profession-
al piano teacher, I know that if you keep making such improvements you will become the pianist you want to
be. Whether you play perfectly in lesson is not the real goal. Whether you play better at home is not relevant.
STEADY IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR PIANO SKILLS IS THE ROAD TO COMPLETE SUCCESS. My task is
putting you on this road and keeping you moving.
Now how do I judge these improvements, your movements along the road to success? I observe how they hold
up under the stress of the lesson! For this reason, I think of lessons not as a "final exam" but as a "stress test."
That's right! Rather than be dismayed by the stress you experience when playing for me, I make use of that
stress to help you progress as a pianist!
Consider for a moment the creation of a new automobile. After the designers get through, the company will manu-
facture a few and put them through their paces to see if the designers got it right. Does the car hold up in practice or
just look good on the drawing board? For example, do its doors open correctly? And will they continue to open as
the years go by? This is where the "stress test" comes in. The auto will be hooked up to a machine which opens and
closes the doors, over and over, literally thousands of times. Will the hinges stand up? Will the door windows shat-
ter? Only the stress test will tell. This test is actually designed to stress out that part much, much more than normal
usage. If it's going to fail, it should fail at the factory where it can be redesigned and made totally safe for normal usage.
Can you see how this applies to your weekly lesson? Sure, you are stressed. That's good! I'll say it again. The
point of lessons is NOT to play your song perfectly for the teacher, but to evaluate how well your basic skills
are coming along and thus what to assign next. Your stress in the lesson demonstrates your improvement. A
basic skill learned thoroughly and completely will NOT falter under stress. A skill only moderately mastered
most certainly WILL. Such half-learned skills need more work, a fact I absolutely must know so I can assign fur-
ther effort. Simply put, you can't fix what you don't know is broken!
Think of it this way if you can only play well under the best of conditions (fully relaxed, on your own piano,
neither tired, hungry, sick, distracted, worried, etc.) then most of the time you can't play well at all! Your lifelong
enjoyment of playing the piano depends utterly on your thorough mastery of basic skills, not so-so renditions on
"a good day." Thus, the stress test that is a piano lesson is the surest way to evaluate the actual state of your knowl-
edge and skill. Your stress serves a very, very valuable and necessary purpose, unpleasant as it may be.
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Dont Be a Victim of Time
Introduction: As your teacher, I am giving you this short essay as the last chance to change failure to success
regarding your piano lessons. This is not intended to be a criticism of you. It is, however, blunt. It also contains
the cold facts I have learned over 19 years of teaching. These points are not some theory of mine, just observa-
tions on how life works.
Are you a smart person? A competent person? Well, good, I have some happy news for you: you will definite-
ly learn to play the piano...
...unless you decide you are a "victim of time."
What is a "victim of time?" Somebody who can't "find" the time to practice piano, who can't "find" the time to
do something they want to do for themselves.
Week after week, some students tell me, "I didn't get much chance to practice this week." Real translation: "Other
parts of my life have a greater priority than playing the piano, despite my statements to the contrary." Which is
fine. A person has every right to decide what is important and how important it is compared to other activities.
What is not fine is a certain element of dishonesty in all this, primarily dishonesty to oneself. Blaming a non-
offending item called "time" for a lack of piano practice is just not honest. It is denying an unpleasant reality,
namely, that playing and practicing the piano are simply low on your list of life's priorities, at least for that par-
ticular week.
Please. Let's be honest here and perhaps something will change. It may be that piano should be dropped, peri-
od. It may be more work than it is worth. Or it may be that you need to consider your life and see if you really
want to sacrifice piano for the demands of job and family.
Regarding your job, it should be obvious to any adult with significant work experience that your employer will
take as much from you as you allow. That is no complaint against employers, just a statement that they are more
concerned with their business than with your personal life. The ability to say, "NO" seems to be missing with
many employees. Do you really think that you are that expendable? Do you really think that your work is val-
ued so little? If so, you had better think about another job, since your position could be blown away with any
little wind. Are you working for your own life or the life of your employer?
Regarding your family, is there any way that they could be persuaded to help you create more time for your
piano practice, if you were to explain to them that this action makes you happy, and thus makes you a better
spouse or a better parent?
These are really hard questions, but I have no choice but to ask them, since you paid me to help you learn to
play the piano, and it is these things which are preventing your success.
Underlying any life situation, however, is your own opinion of whether you are in control or not. Are you a vic-
tim of time, of circumstance? Can you see any way to change this, maybe little by little? Is this piano thing just
another example of a more general reality of being moved rather than being a mover? Maybe more than just
piano lessons is at stake here.
"I Have to Take a Short Break From Lessons."
Let me be blunt and offensive. Your "short break" will be permanent. Once stopped, you're going to stay stopped.
"Not me," you say. "I love piano, and this is only for awhile."
Sorry, but I've heard it before, in fact, many hundreds of times before, from people every bit as sincere and
smart as you are. They all intended to come back soon. They all loved the piano, etc.
But they didn't come back. I can count on fingers and toes the number who actually returned after a break.
17
Does life get any simpler? Do you suddenly become independently wealthy and can stop working for a living?
Does your family become perfect in a month or two? Unlikely.
I upset people when I don't happily agree with their plans to take a leave of absence. They feel slighted; prob-
ably believe that I think badly of them. Their pride is hurt. Surely they are the exception to this rule.
Folks, unless you are physically not going to be in town, DON'T TAKE A BREAK FROM LESSONS. Just don't
do it because YOU WILL NOT BE BACK.
I have had people continue their lessons through hell and high water, divorce, a death in the family, financial
trouble, and illness. And I have had students who quit with the first difficulty, making promises to return.
If you want an activity to last, schedule life around that activity, not that activity around life.
Sorry if this offends you, but you don't pay me to give you reassuring lies, do you? This is the truth:
DON'T QUIT!
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CHAPTER THREE
How to Read Music More Efficiently
Reading music is the main worry of new piano students. How happy they are to discover that reading is quite
easy! Honest most students, especially adults, learn to read basic music rather quickly. The essays in this sec-
tion assume that the reader already has some familiarity with notes, clefs, staves, and other fundamentals of the
musical notation system. You will most definitely need a good paperback music dictionary. Two would be better,
enabling you to compare and contrast the definitions. Additionally, although this chapter will greatly assist your
efforts in learning to read, it will not actually teach you to do so. Only actual effort will result in actual ability.
Essays in this chapter:
When is Reading NOT Reading?
The Three Parts of Reading
Workable Methods of Improving Your Reading
Written Music: Its Main Points and Its Fine Points
Reading Ahead
The Basics of Fingering
Beware the Fingering Trap!
The Sustain Pedal: Helping Out the Fingers
Getting the Timing Correct
What is Counting?
Make Sure Your Counting Works
Proper and Improper Counting
Do You Hate to Count? Read This!
Dealing with Dotted Notes
When is Reading NOT Reading?
When its reading music!
I truly regret the use of the term. Thats because it gives a false impression to the beginning student concern-
ing what is required to actually play an instrument.
Consider what happens when we read a book, newspaper, or this essay. Our eyes skim the pages while our
minds convert the symbols: letters, words, and sentences, into ideas and mental images. It is a silent process
whose purpose is mental.
Now consider what must happen when we read music at the piano. Our eyes skim the lines of symbols: notes,
numbers, and other symbols. Our minds convert these to meaning and THEN send commands to our hands
19
and fingers which must respond instantly with a continuous series of complex and unusual motions to manip-
ulate a machine that makes musical sounds. The most obvious result of this process is, of course, music!
It is NOT reading music to simply look over a piece of sheet music and say, Thats a C, thats an A.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what is done in many grade school music classes. The person learns some silly lit-
tle sentences which allow them to add letters to notes on the staff. No instrument is played and no notes are
actually sounded. But the student now thinks they can read music.
Sorry, but reading should be called performing. Or executing. Or doing. Or some such word that
stresses the fact that the purpose of the activity is to actually make sounds with an instrument. It is most defi-
nitely NOT a mental process. It is physical, involving an instrument (this includes the human voice.)
From this new way of looking at music reading, you can see that reading is actually specific to your instrument
of choice. For example, I can read piano music well, finding and making the notes on the page rapidly.
However, give me a violin and Im dead in the water. I have no idea how those symbols on the page become
real sounds. Yeah, I could identify As and Bs and Cs but no music would result.
Keep this in mind for the rest of this chapter about reading and youll progress rapidly.
The Three Parts of Reading
Each note contains 3 pieces of information:
1. Its identity,
2. Its fingering, and
3. Its length.
Each piece of information must be UNDERSTOOD AND ACTED UPON CORRECTLY AND ON TIME for
the music to be played correctly. Additionally, ALL three pieces of information must be processed and acted
upon together for the music to be correct. You cannot work on ONLY the identities, or ONLY the identities
and the fingering, or any such combination.
I point this out because a favorite trick of new pianists is to learn to play a piece in stages. First, they think,
they will simply practice striking the correct keys. Then they will attempt to add the timing. Such students
usually dont bother to consider whether their choice of fingers is a good one or not.
Funny how this process results in complete disaster and terribly wrong music as well as a mystified and high-
ly frustrated student who wonders what went wrong and why this piece is just not working out.
This student has failed to consider that the body, the thing which actually does the playing, is fully willing to
learn whatever we allow it to do. If we permit alterations in the music, then the body will cheerfully memorize
those mistakes. If we play with no sense of the notes proper lengths, then what the body learns to do is play
with no sense of the notes proper lengths. If we use a certain finger on a certain note, whether that is a good
choice or not, the body will memorize that motion and repeat it blindly.
In other words, by trying to practice in stages we have carefully taught our bodies bad habits for playing this
particular piece. Now we must unlearn these habits and teach it the correct ones. Our work and frustration
is doubled at the very least. Also, I must tell you that numerous students find it almost impossible to unlearn
these bad habits after so carefully grooving them in.
So what to do? A great deal of this is covered in the next chapter How to Practice Joyfully and Successfully
but for now you can say this: go slowly enough to process and act upon all three parts of reading and thus make
the music sound as it should, just in a slow version. As the body develops the good habits of playing correct-
ly, you can speed up the music until it reaches its full tempo.
20
Workable Methods of Improving Your Reading
The material below is intended as a summary of workable methods. I cant stress enough that a live piano
teacher will make learning these methods VERY much easier.
1. Note identity
This is the first piece of information you must process and act upon. Think of it as which key to play, not
what is the name of this key? After all, there are 7 or 8 Cs, Fs, etc on the piano and knowing the notes let-
ter name still doesnt tell you EXACTLY which key you must play.
There are three good, reliable ways to determine and act upon note identity and the wise pianist uses whichev-
er is most efficient at that particular point in the music:
A. The symbols location on the staff. Each symbols location on its staff, its particular line or space, repre-
sents the location of a particular key on the piano. You must memorize the corresponding locations using
rote memory, the same rote memory used in memorizing the alphabet or the multiplication tables.
B. The spacing between the notes. The line-space-line arrangement of the notes allows us to rapidly identify
notes in a series such as C D E F G without bothering to identify each individual note. Spacing can also
be used to instantly recognize pairs of notes which have one or more keys between them.
C. Patterns in the music. To be music, the notes must make recognizable patterns. Many of these patterns
can be used to identify notes in groups, thus taking big bites. There are also patterns in note length and
note fingering and these are also used in reading.
2. Fingering
This is the choice of which finger will play which note. The human hand has a shape, the piano keys have shapes
(black and white keys), and each piece of music can be said to have a shape. You must make these shapes
match. Common sense and observation are absolutely essential. The goal is to do the least amount of physical
labor in order to create the music properly.
This common sense activity is sometimes made more complex by various theories and methods proposed
by authorities. It has been my observation that many of these folks are more than willing to have the pianist
work extra hard in order to validate their theories. For this reason, I always assume that fingering instructions
given in books are guilty until proven innocent and thus examine all finger numbers very carefully, changing
them as I see fit. Happily, these changes are seldom more than 20% of the suggested fingering but that 20%
can make or break playing the piece!
It should also be noted that no two human hands are identical and, as the music gets more difficult, these dif-
ferences become more critical. The motto is to make the fingering work for both your hand and the needs of
the music.
3. Note length
This is usually referred to as timing and there are also three ways to accomplish this. Again, we use whichev-
er is most efficient.
A. By ear. Timing communicates most rapidly by ear, allowing us to make a mental recording which then
guides our playing. Unfortunately, we may remember the melody, the right hand, but not the accompani-
ment, the left hand. Thus, we usually have to use another method to get the left hands timing.
B. By note shape. The shape of each note shows its length. Good pianists have the ability to see these shapes
and react to them instantly by making their notes last the indicated length. We often call this skill a sense
of timing. It is a skill which can and must be developed.
21
C. By counting. Everyone has heard musicians count their music, 1 and 2 and... Counting creates a kind
of clock which tells us when notes start and end. It is a complex skill, frequently disliked, but vital to
pianists. It may also require a metronome, a mechanic device for keeping the beat steady and determin-
ing how fast to count.
I will close by pointing out that these three pieces of information MUST be processed in the order given and
then acted upon simultaneously. Why? Consider you cant make a decision about the fingering until you have
identified which key is to be played. And it makes no sense to worry about how long the note lasts if no finger
can find it.
The sequence, which plays out in a good musician almost instantly, is to identify which key is to be played,
decide which finger will play it, and decide how long that particular finger will hold that particular key down.
And then DO exactly that. Amazing, isnt it? But the vast majority of us are able to accomplish this with cor-
rect training.
Written Music: Its Main Points and Its Fine Points
The directions you see in your music can be divided into two categories: main points and fine points.
Understanding that each category must be treated differently will greatly assist your reading, practicing, per-
forming, and overall enjoyment of piano.
MAIN POINTS
There are three main points. You must learn to follow these directions to play the music at all. The directions
are quite explicit, very specific in what you must do.
1. What keys do I play?
2. What fingers do I play these keys with?, and
3. How long do these notes last?
It is the execution of these instructions that creates the music in the first place. It is baking the cake while the
next instructions are putting on the icing.
FINE POINTS
The fine points consist of those directions which are finishing touches to the basic music. They are given as gen-
eralities and thus actually insist that the performer make choices. Here is where the performer puts his stamp
on the music.
1. How fast should I play? Called the tempo, this is often given as an Italian term at the start of the piece.
Interpreting this is an essay in itself, but we can say that there is a range of tempos rather one exact tempo
for any piece.
2. How loud should I play? Volumes are also given by Italian words for loud and soft. It should be obvious
that loud and soft will mean different things to different players, and thus this is also a range of activity.
3. How should the notes connect? In other words, should the notes flow together or be played in a separat-
ed and distinct manner. Also, how should the notes be grouped? And should the music be played with the
sustain pedal?
4. There are other fine points (more so in classical music than in pop) but these subtleties almost always
require demonstration by a teacher.
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A few further ideas regarding the main points and fine points:
First, only work on the fine points if you truly enjoy that particular piece. You will simply never be able to make
good choices with music you dislike. Dont bother trying. There are millions of pieces of music. Find something
that moves you and then make it sound wonderful!
Second, one reason to study classical music is that merely performing the main points will create good music,
due to the quality of the composition. This can give you some wonderful success before you become a truly fine
pianist. Some students never do anything else but choose great music and thus sound pretty decent without
much ability with the fine points. Of course, it is far better to master both main AND fine points, but failing
this, learning great music even modestly well can produce a very pleasing result.
Third, the handling of the fine points requires a certain attitude of ownership on the part of the performer.
Although written by someone else, that someone else is NOT the person sitting at the piano at the present
moment. The person at the piano has the inherent right to play the music as they see fit. Perhaps they will not
play it as its original composer might have wished. However, that composer is not the one doing the practicing
and spending the irreplaceable minutes of a life. The composer was paid for his work by the music publisher
and the rest of us owe them NOTHING. If you miss something because you chose to alter the fine points, well,
thats your choice to make. Own the music!
I will say that I personally attempt to sample the genius of the great composers. I want to know what they did
and how and why. However, I do so because I CHOOSE to do so, not because I feel a debt or a responsibility
or, Heaven forbid, a sense of worship.
Finally, the main points are like an open-book test in school. The answers are right there for you to read and
apply. Too many students spend their valuable lesson time learning answers that were in front of them all week.
Once you have learned to read music, your lesson time is best spent discussing how to practice and how to work
with the fine points. Get your notes, timing, and fingering done during the week, not in your lesson.
Reading Ahead
One thing few students ever consider, but one which can make incredible improvements in your playing, is mak-
ing sure that your eyes are reading ahead of where your fingers are playing.
Go to the piano now and perform a test. Find two pieces of music, one you have already mastered and one which
is brand new. Play the first couple measures of the right hand of each piece. As you do, notice exactly what your
eyes are doing as your fingers are playing. Are you looking ahead to the next note while your finger is playing the
current note? Or, do you see a note, play the note, and THEN move your eyes ahead to the next note? How are
your actions different in the two pieces? Which is easier to read? What have you learned from this test? In all but
the slowest tempos, failing to look ahead results in pauses, missed notes, and all sorts of breaks in the flow of music.
Reading ahead is the same skill used in reading books aloud. Try that right now and you will see the skill at
work. Your eyes scan ahead as your mouth speaks the words. Often the eyes are several words ahead.
When reading music, the farther ahead the better, because you not only have to read across the page but up
and down between bass and treble staves!
Heres how to develop this skill. Start by reading some very simple music, material you have already played. Be
aware of your eyes and fingers and force the eyes to move as far ahead as possible of the notes you are hear-
ing. Do this until you can do it easily. Now find some equally simple, but this time unfamiliar music. Read ahead
on this material until you are consistently a couple notes ahead. Now play through the music you are working
on for your lesson. Have your eyes learned how to move forward, even on this harder material? If not, return
to some easier level and increase the difficulty more slowly.
Eventually, this habit will be completely subconscious. Its a skill all good readers need.
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The Basics of Fingering
There are many, many details and tricks to the subject of fingering, and learning them well enough to remove
all the pain from fingering will take some time. We can, however, examine the basic principles in one essay, and
this will help guide our study of the details.
1. Fingering is NOT optional. The fingering of a piano piece is the statement of which fingers are going to
press which keys and in what order, and if you never decide that you simply cannot practice. Being a piano
player means that you control the machine called the piano with your fingers so that it makes musical
notes. The better your control, the better the music that the piano makes, and there is no way to control
a piano well without deciding which finger is going to play which key at every point in the music.
2. A proper fingering is an efficient fingering. Dont think of fingering as a set of rules but rather as a state-
ment of how the fingers can most easily press the keys in the correct sequence. Simply looking at your
hand can answer lots of fingering questions. Remember that you have five fingers, and even though some
do not work as well as others, we need to use them all.
3. Hands are stupid! If they were smart, they would learn their motions after one repetition! Since they
dont, you must always repeat the EXACT fingering EXACTLY the same way. Only constant repetition of
the same exact fingering will allow the hands to learn to play their notes without the constant supervision
of the conscious mind.
4. It is always okay to pencil (pencil, please!) in your fingering choices. It is not something only students do.
Its just part of what pianists do. Also, do not simply accept the finger numbers given in the music. Each
human hand has its own strengths and weaknesses, and these must be taken into account in designing
each fingering. Most of the fingering in the music will be correct (that is to say, efficient) but there are
some really clumsy exceptions! Think for yourself, with the help of your teacher.
5. Try to match the shape of the hand to the shape of the music and the shape of the piano keys, white
and black.
6. The enemy is sideways motion! If we had 44 fingers per hand, we would never have to move sideways at
all! We would simply always push straight down! We dont, and this causes lots of trouble. We minimize
this by using the fingers efficiently when we must move sideways. Our means to do this are:
A. Extensions: also called reaches, these are motions where we spread the fingers sideways. Playing
Middle C with the thumb and the next C up with the pinkie is an extension. Playing Middle C with the
index and the E above it with the middle finger is an extension.
B. Thumb crosses, such as cross-unders in which the thumb passes under the other fingers and the right
hand walks up the keys (or the left hand down the keys), and cross-overs, in which the fingers pass over
the thumb and the right hand walks down the keys (or the left hand walks up the keys.)
C. Whole hand motions: Unfortunately, there are many situations where we must lift the hand and place
it elsewhere. As you will learn, the sustain pedal can help this. These hand replacements will be hard
to master, but master them you will with determination and persistence. It will be worth your trouble,
as hand motions are the key to playing huge amounts of wonderful piano music!
7. One nice thing about fingering is the fact that many trouble spots in pieces can be solved by simply
inventing a more efficient fingering. You should examine the fingering as the first step in correcting any
trouble spot.
Well, thats it. Ive tried to convey a sense of simplicity in stating these basics. You will be learning a lot about
fingering and all will go better if you keep these ideas in mind.
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Beware the Fingering Trap!
There is a trap which many good pianists fall into regarding fingering. This trap often prevents the pianist from
learning new pieces rapidly and advancing in general ability so avoiding it is critical.
Consider the development of a piano student. Over time, a student teaches his body to execute many different
motions at the piano. These include such simple, basic things as:
How to hold the elbows, wrists, and fingers over the keys,
How to curve the fingers properly, and
How to play a note with each of the ten fingers.
This is followed by more complicated motions such as:
How to reach out and locate distant notes (extensions),
How to cross the thumb under the fingers,
How to cross a finger over the thumb, and
How to move the whole hand to a new location.
Each of these motions is a part of the fingering activities of a piece of music. Each is learned by means of repeat-
ing that action over and over, many, many times until the fingers and all the associated body parts move smooth-
ly, easily, successfully, and the whole motion is executed with little conscious control. These new skills feel won-
derful and the student finds that a new piece of music is often only a new arrangement of fingering activities
already mastered. Thus, the student can play the piece almost immediately, since the skills necessary for per-
formance have already been mastered on earlier pieces.
And here is where many students fall into the trap!
New pieces may indeed be mostly a rehash of previously learned fingerings. However, challenging pieces are
seldom 100% pre-learned. Each new piece usually contains some section or sections which require the student
to teach the fingers a brand new skill, some motion they cannot, as yet, execute flawlessly. Flawless execution
requires that the student determine an exact fingering and then proceed to repeat that exact set of motions
enough times to make it automatic. This takes time, however, and is usually a lot less satisfying than breezing
through the easy parts of the piece.
You see the trap, I hope. Since the student can play most of the piece on automatic, they assume they can
play all of it that way. Once they get to the part which requires conscious control and a careful working out of
the fingering, they either stumble through that part over and over or just dont play it at all. The result is an
uneven, choppy rendition of the music, and, more sadly, no mastery of a new fingering skill.
The moral of this story is this: dont believe that endless repetition of a difficult passage will magically solve
things. If you cant play something smoothly and easily, with total confidence, then you must, must, must:
1. Determine an exact fingering, and
2. Teach the fingers to play it via exact repetition.
Only in this way will you continue to add to your bag of tricks and thus advance your ability to play the piano.
The Sustain Pedal: Helping Out the Fingers
The sustain pedal, the pedal on the far right, is the most useful of the pedals. It functions the same way on all
pianos. The other two pedals can be studied later. When pianists say, the pedal they mean the sustain pedal.
There is much to know about this seemingly simple tool. This essay covers only the basics. Successful use of the
pedal is a long study.
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How it works.
1. Open up your piano so you can see the entire mechanism. Strike a key and keep it depressed. You will
notice that a hammer hits the string, making it vibrate, just as a felt-covered lever, called a damper, moves
off the string. Release the key. The damper falls back onto the string and the sound stops, damped out.
These two mechanisms, the hammer and the damper, allow us to start a note, sustain it, and stop it. Thus,
the finger does is all start the note, sustain it, and end it (by releasing the key.)
2. Press the sustain pedal and hold it down. All the dampers now move off their strings without any key
action at all! The strings are free to vibrate. Shout into the piano and listen to it echo! The air from your
voice moving across the strings puts them into motion all at once, producing a pleasant background mur-
mur. Release the pedal and the murmur ceases as the dampers fall back and stop the strings.
3. Press the pedal, strike a key and let it go. The note is sustained, even without holding that key with a fin-
ger. Now the fingers job is simply to initiate the note. It is the job of the pedal to sustain and end it. In
addition, the sound waves from that string cause the other undamped strings to produce sound of their
own, just as they did when you shouted.
4. Press the pedal, strike a key, let it go. Now strike another. And another. How many notes can you sound
at once in this way? Well, ALL of them, of course, even though you only have ten fingers. Now you can
begin to see the value of the pedal! The sustain pedal makes it possible to play complex strings of notes
by allowing a note to be sustained while the finger that played it is moved a distance sideways to another
key. Composers of piano music make full use of the pedal and the possibilities it creates. Much piano
music cannot be played without the pedal because the choice of notes assumes its use!
5. The sustain pedal creates a full, rich background murmur which greatly adds to the depth and quality of
the music. Play the keys Middle C, E, and G and listen to their sound. Now play them again, this time
keeping each key depressed and thus stacking their sounds. Now depress the pedal and play the keys,
releasing each as you play. The resulting sound is the richest of the three ways. Not only are the sounds
stacked but you also hear the other strings faintly in the background. The sound could be said to have
more body. This adds a lot to piano music, especially ballads and pretty melodies.
As stated above, the pedal allows us to play and sustain more notes than we have fingers. Plus, it allows us to
perform combinations of notes impossible without its use. Thus, the fingering of the music can be completely dif-
ferent if the pedal is used. A student working out the fingering of a new piece of music which makes use of the
pedal MUST work out that fingering while using the pedal. You cannot finger it first then add the pedal later,
since the pedals purpose is to assist the action of fingering the piece. Pedaling and fingering are inseparable.
Getting the Timing Correct
Getting the timing correct is one of great problems of piano, along with, My left hand doesnt work! and,
How do I get the hands to play together? Students with two or even three years of lessons will sometimes
admit that they arent sure if they are playing with correct timing. This leads to hesitant playing which leads to
mistakes and a poor quality of music. Thus, getting the timing correct and KNOWING it is correct are neces-
sary for good performance.
Timing can be thought of as a mathematical code used by the composer to express his wishes. You are proba-
bly aware that the shapes of the notes indicate different durations based on division into halves, quarters,
eighths, etc. This is the math of it, and solving the math will produce the basic knowledge of the timing. Good
players know that you must then rise above mathematical, mechanical timing, and play in a musical fashion
which introduces subtle timing changes. These subtleties are not the subject of this essay, for they really require
demonstration by the instructor. Getting the timing correct refers to solving the mathematical basis of the
timing, which is where it all begins.
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Here are the methods of achieving this, listed from easiest to most difficult. You should try the easiest method
first and progress down the list until you have it solved.
1. By ear. You simply listen to the music, live or recorded, enough times to learn the timing. This is the best
and fastest way. Timing information travels much better by ear than by eye. You get both the mathemat-
ics AND the subtle changes at once. Unfortunately, you can seldom find the exact recording of the music
you want to learn, or there may be no one around who can play it for you. As a pianist, you will usually
be forced to read the music to get the timing information. Even with a familiar melody, the left hand
accompaniment will be largely or totally unknown to you. Unless you wish to be a right hand only pianist
you simply will have to master the timing techniques given below.
Incidentally, when a student asks me to, Play it so I know how it goes. they are actually asking me to give
them the timing by ear. Its fast and its painless and it leaves the student with no long term abilities, just the
knowledge of one song. Not a good value in terms of lesson time and money.
2. By note shape. This is the best way to read. To do it, you make all the notes with the same shape the same
length. All quarter notes will be the same length, all half notes twice that, etc. This requires an accurate
and trusted sense of timing, as well as complete understanding of the symbols. Its a fast and very effec-
tive approach, once you are trained to do it.
3. By counting. Everyone has heard musicians count, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4, at the start of a song. They are creating
a clock used to time the length of the notes. For example, a particular note can start on count 2 and last
until count 4. Counting gives you the mechanical accuracy of the timing. It can be tough and should only
be used when methods 1 & 2 are not working. In order to de-code the timing symbols, counting must
be steady, and the counts must be placed in the measure correctly. Your instructor will show you how to
do this. Counting gives you the confidence you need because, if you are doing it correctly, whatever you
hear is definitely what the composer intended. With this confidence, your playing changes. It sounds much
more polished, more musical.
What is Counting?
A little old lady stands next to a young boy sitting at a piano, his face a study in concentration. As the child plays
through the music, every note a struggle, the old lady counts aloud, 1 and 2 and 3 and... now pay attention, Billy!
This image may well be the most common idea of what happens during piano lessons, and even though quaint,
it illustrates how much the counting of music is a part of piano instruction. Its one of the skills necessary for
most pianists.
The reason is simple. Counting is actually the action of decoding the musical symbols which express the
length of each note. Misinterpreting these lengths is quite fatal to the music. Imagine your favorite song. Now
imagine that every note in the tune is exactly the same length. Sing the tune this way. Rather strange, isnt it?
Counting is how we make sure each note has its proper length.
Please note that I am NOT saying that a pianist must constantly count as she plays. Thats neither possible nor
necessary. Counting is used when there is no other way to discover the correct timing of the music. I AM say-
ing that counting is a tool which can solve our confusions regarding the proper length of each note and that we
should use it correctly and as needed.
Make Sure Your Counting WORKS!
As stated in this chapters opening remarks, we will not cover the most basic points of reading music, just strategies
for improving your skills. Any book on piano can tell you how to count. Read one, or better yet, read several. You
will learn basic counting. There are, however, some points which most of the books Ive seen touch on too lightly.
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You will need, at least at the start of your piano study, to actually pencil in the counts. Do NOT simply try to
keep track of them in your head. You will also need to actually count ALOUD, not silently to yourself.
Remember that this is new skill and not an easy one. Do not try to shortcut it at first. If you do, chances are
you will NOT learn to properly count unfamiliar music and instead will ensure that you always have problems
with timing.
To make sure that your counting works, go through the full procedure of penciling in the counts, counting out
loud slowly and steadily, and playing the notes with their proper counts. Make sure you actually listen to what
comes out of the piano because THIS is how the timing goes!
To summarize, IF you have:
A. penciled the counts in correctly,
B. counted STEADILY, and
C. played the notes with their proper counts.
...then you can be assured of have performed the correct timing. However, if any one of these are incorrect,
then so is the timing.
Counting unsteadily is, of course, the main error in counting. This is why we count aloud. Being able to hear
the counts physically, rather than just in your head, makes it much more likely that the counts will be steady.
Sometimes even this is not enough to ensure steadiness. This is where the famous (notorious?) metronome can
help. This machine, invented in the 19th century, is primarily a device to force a steady count. Since the speed
of its ticking can be adjusted, the student can set it to tick slowly enough that he can keep up and play along.
It has other uses which will be covered in the chapter on practicing.
If it is too difficult to count aloud and play the hands together, than start by counting aloud and playing each
hand separately. Use the metronome as well. If you still cant keep up, then the music is just too difficult for
you. Find something easier.
Proper and Improper Counting
There are several systems of counting used in bands, orchestras, private lessons, choirs, etc. Some work. Some dont.
And some appear to work but really dont. Many piano students have learned to count but not count correctly.
The purpose of counting is the creation, within the mind and body of the performer, of the knowledge of the
timing of the notes and the rhythm of the music.
To achieve its purpose, counting must establish a clock with which to time the notes. This clock must tell us
when a note begins, how long it lasts, and exactly when it ends. This clock measures how long things last in the
music, both the notes and the patterns the notes make.
The clock idea explains why counting must be steady. To measure something, a clock must keep good time,
which is to say that it must run steadily. If a clock ticks at different rates, sometimes slow and sometimes fast,
its useless for measuring the length of events. Thus, any system of counting which changes in the middle of
events is actually useless. This means your counting must never change when the notes change.
Now Ive done it gone and criticized old Mr. Smutz the high school band teacher with his, 1 2 and 3 4, 1
and 2 and 3 4 method of counting. And besides, his method worked and the counts are NOT even.
Well, not actually. His method of counting DIDNT work. It only appeared to. What actually got the job done
was his directing out loud. In an earlier essay, I have said that listening by ear is the single best way to learn
timing. As Mr. Smutz spoke the rhythm of the notes using his counts, he was teaching BY EAR and this is how
the band learned the correct timing. His counts were actually irrelevant. He could have said, Scooby, dooby,
do or recited the Gettysburg address anything, so long as it gave a correct sense of the length of the notes!
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Pianists have no band director to teach timing by ear. And even if your piano teacher plays all your pieces for
you so that you do learn by ear, what will you do once you are done with lessons and have no teacher?
Unfortunately, unless you learn to count yourself and learn to do it correctly, you will constantly be in trouble
with timing and rhythm.
Do You Hate to Count? Read This !
Do you hate to count your music? Welcome to the club. I have met very few musicians, student or profession-
al, who do. I personally tolerate it at best.
However, I DO make use of it when needed. I use it because it is the exact tool which is sometimes needed to
make the music come out right.
The most common mistake you can make regarding counting is to not use it because it is clumsy and a pain.
When it is needed, counting can mean the difference between spending a little time and getting the timing cor-
rect and spending a very large amount of time and getting the timing wrong.
Frankly, not recognizing when counting is needed and then using it to fix your troubles is just plain foolish. If
this describes your relationship with counting, then bring this up with your teacher and get it handled. You will
save yourself hours of useless and frustrating practice which produces only bad timing and poor sounding
music. A proper study of counting will give you the ability to know when counting is needed, how to make it
work quickly, and how to need it as little as possible.
How to Deal With Dotted Notes
Of all the different types of musical notes: whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, etc., no type causes more misun-
derstanding than the various sorts of dotted notes. With this essay, I hope to clarify this type of musical symbol.
First, its important to realize that our system of notes is based on dividing by two. Whole notes are divided in
two to become half notes, half notes are divided into quarter notes (which really should be called fourth
notes,) quarter notes are divided in two to become eighth notes, etc.
Second, you probably know that most music sets the value of the quarter note at one beat in length. This means
that the half notes equal two beats, the whole notes four beats, the eighth notes one half of a beat, etc.
Great except how do we show a sound that lasts for THREE beats? Theres no symbol for a three beat note.
And what about a note that lasts 1 and ? beats?
The dot solves this problem. And remember that I mean a dot that FOLLOWS the note symbol, NOT a dot
under or over the note symbol, which means staccato. (Yes, I agree, this is pretty stupid and confusing, but
we have to deal with it.)
That dot increases the length of the note it follows by 50%. So, if the note is a half note worth two beats, then
a half note followed by a dot is worth those two beats PLUS an additional 50% of two beats, namely one more
beat. That means a dotted half note is worth two beats plus an additional one beat for a total of three beats.
You could also think of the dot as being worth whatever the next smallest note is worth. For the half note, worth
two beats, the next smallest note is the quarter note worth one beat. Again, two plus one makes three beats total.
So far, so good? If not, better see me personally because here we go with dotted quarter notes.
Actually, its simple. A quarter note is worth 1 beat. 50% of that is ? beat. So a dotted quarter note is worth 1
and ? beats total. Makes sense. A dotted note is longer than an un-dotted note by 50%.
Counting is another story, one best told by example. However, if you understand this essay, then the counting
will be easy.
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CHAPTER FOUR
How to Practice Joyfully and Successfully
Practicing is the most neglected skill in piano training! Go to your music store and ask for a book which explains
exactly how to practice the piano. You will find whole libraries of what to practice and only hints and passing
mentions of how. Yet the bulk of music lessons is devoted to learning the skill of rapid and efficient practicing.
Practicing itself is a skill and thus must be practiced and practiced correctly! The essays in this chapter will
help you perfect your practice of practicing!
Essays in this chapter:
THE Fundamental of Successful Practice
Assume the Position at the Piano!
Hands, Fingers, Fingernails: Their Pros and Cons
How Much Time Should You Practice?
How to Practice: Six Principles
Your Friend, the Mistake
Lets Do That Again, Shall We? (How to Create Good Habits)
Still Making Mistakes? Read This!
Programming Your Auto-Pilot and Flying Blind
The Rewards of Flying Blind
Concentration, How to Use It
Numbers You Must Know
Practice vs. Performance: BIG Difference
Worship of Technique
Day by Day Decay
THE Fundamental of Successful Practice
Successful practice requires two and only two things:
1. Enough practice, and
2. Correct practice.
If you dont go to the piano, you wont learn. If you do go to the piano but then do the wrong things...well,
youll learn all right the wrong things, that is!!! And since learning the wrong things leads to no progress and
thus a feeling of defeat you find yourself with even less desire to go to the piano. So these two are really one,
and we can actually say that the ONLY thing necessary to successful practice is:
1. Enough correct practice.
Now thats simple enough, isnt it?
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Correct practice occurs when you are practicing with no mistakes. Why? Because the mind/body system learns
whatever we allow it to do. When we allow it to make errors it learns those errors. After all, your hands dont
know anything about music. They just learn to do what they are told to do whether correct or incorrect from a
musical point of view.
When beginning a piece, your hands and fingers know nothing about the mechanics of playing that music. They
begin their learning from their very first instructions, whether those instructions are right or wrong mechani-
cally and musically. Thus, you must strive from your first efforts to
PRACTICE PLAYING PERFECTLY!
You must do everything possible to train your mind and body to follow your intentions in every detail. And you
must repeat these things enough to groove them in.
IN OTHER WORDS, DONT LET MISTAKES HAPPEN AT ALL.
AND IF THEY DO, CORRECT THEM IMMEDIATELY
BY MANY REPETITIONS OF THE CORRECT ACTIONS.
Assume the Position at the Piano!
Most piano manuals begin by showing you the proper way to arrange your body at the instrument, but Ive
never seen one fully explain why that particular arrangement is proper. There are, of course, good reasons
for all these angles and positions and here those reasons are, in question and answer format.
Why should we curve the fingers? Thats an easy one! Look at your hand. Notice how short the thumb is,
how it sits way back on the hand. If you want it to play a key, you have to get your wrist higher than the keys
and curve the fingers. This puts the thumb over the keyboard. And the thumb is not just another finger, oh no!
Only the thumb can easily pass under the other fingers and allow you to walk either up or down the keyboard
smoothly. Of course, the other fingers also easily pass over the thumb as you move down the keys toward lower
notes. Also, try to reach from one C to another without using the thumb what a stretch! We NEED the
thumb, and it would be better if we had two (listen up, genetic engineers!) so keep those fingers curved and
that wrist up.
How high should the bench be, and how far from the piano? High enough for the arms to be parallel with
the floor when the wrists are above the keys and the fingers curved as discussed above. All this provides max-
imum access to the keys. You should sit on the forward part of the bench and lean in a bit. You should feel that,
if you fainted, you would fall in towards the piano, not away from it. When you feel this way, you are correctly
positioned to give you a sense of poise, of control, and you will not be using muscles just to remain upright on
the bench. Most people sit too close to the piano. Try pushing your bench back and sitting more forward. The
crease in your arms at the elbow should be even with the front of your body. This way, you can reach in front
of yourself easily.
Where do my elbows go? Slightly away from the body, not held tightly against the sides. This is the same rea-
soning behind sitting up straight and leaning in, not slouching at the piano. Both these things help the back of
the hands stay level over the keys, not tipped to the outside. When the hand is level, the fingers strike the keys
straight up and down. Since the keys only go up and down, the strength of the fingers is not wasted. The fin-
ger angle is also quite important when you play the black keys since slanted fingers tend to slide right off. A
level hand also allows the fingers to reach sideways as far as physically possible. Imagine placing a pencil on
the back of your hand and trying to keep that pencil from tilting to the outside. Hey, dont just imagine this
actually do it and youll help yourself develop a better piano technique!
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Hands, Fingers, Fingernails: Their Pros and Cons
Each human hand is a bit different and has certain pluses and minuses regarding the piano.
Length of fingers is usually thought of as being critical, but very long fingers often present as many troubles as
overly short fingers. Too long and the tendency is to over-reach. Too short means common spans are difficult
and sometimes impossible.
The amount of webbing between the fingers in just as important, less webbing resulting in more independence
of action for the fingers, always a good thing. The width of the hand and the width of the fingers themselves
will have an influence, as does the relative length of the fingers.
You will need a piano teacher to fully evaluate your pluses and minuses. The one thing I can guarantee you is
that there is no perfect hand and that you definitely will have strengths and weaknesses. Its pretty much like life.
Unfortunately, only children can really improve their hands and better adapt them to playing the piano. Once
we become adults, we are left with the task of training what we have and making the best of it.
There is one thing, however, that we all can change, and that is the length of our fingernails. They must be fair-
ly short to play the piano well. We have all seen ladies (and, occasionally, men!) with long fingernails. We have
even seen bank tellers and store clerks run computer keyboards and cash registers with long, long nails. Sorry
ladies, but you cant play the piano well with nails like that. Notice that I said well. You CAN play poorly if
you want to!
However, playing piano well, with expression, requires that skin touch the keys. The person who skates along
the keys with their nails will never have the touch to perform well. In addition, the length of the nail forces
the finger into an angle which weakens the amount of force which the finger can deliver. Thus, BOTH your
strength and control are hindered by long nails.
Sorry, folks. Its basically a choice of priorities. Is it nails or piano? You cant have it both ways. You must cut
each nail back until you hear no clicking when your hands are in proper playing position. This amount will be
different for different hands and even different fingers. I suspect you will have no regrets once you discover how
much better you will play!
How Much Time Should You Practice?
A MUSIC STUDENT MUST PRACTICE ENOUGH TO SUCCEED!
Please notice that I did not say, A music student must practice an hour a day. Nor did I say, A music student
must practice seven days each week. Neither of these things is true, and even the attempt to put an actual time
on practice is a mistake. The correct way to think about practice is to put your attention on success, not the
clock. The student must practice enough to succeed. The goal is to play the music well, not to pass time, and if
this goal can be achieved in less time than expected, then that is wonderful. However, common sense tells us
that the amount of practice time will not be zero! Actually, there are two psychological factors which establish
the length and timing of practice. These factors operate in both children and adults and understanding them is
simple and leads to successful practice.
Factor #1: Ability to concentrate: Practice is occurring when the student is concentrating. As soon as your
focus is lost, practice is over! This tells us that younger students will not be practicing an hour a day, at least at
first. Ask any parent why! They may, and should, work up to that, but it will take awhile. Twenty minutes works
better at the start. Also, both children and adults may find that dividing up their daily practice into two or even
three shorter sessions helps improve concentration and may fit better into busy schedules. This can help stu-
dents prone to frustration. If you get upset, leave the piano and come back later. Some students may find they
concentrate better at certain times of the day and this, of course, would be the best times to practice.
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Factor #2: Morale: The students morale, their sense of accomplishment, depends on achieving a certain level
of success within a certain time period. This level will not be reached with insufficient practice. In other words,
you must practice enough to make yourself happy with your progress. If your morale is too low and you have a
feeling that you are not getting anywhere, chances are that you will quit lessons. Perhaps you will even think that
you are not musical, and that would be a shame if the problem was simply that you are not practicing enough.
The two things that determine your level of success are:
1. That mix of physical, mental, and emotional skills we call talent, and
2. Plain old work.
Simply put, the more talent, the less work needed (except that the truly talented often work like dogs anyway
because they get such good results from that work!), and the less talent, the more work needed (except that,
unless there is lots and lots of correct practice, not much happens and the person does less and less work any-
way and fails miserably.)
Almost 20 years of teaching average folks tells me that 20-30 minutes of correct practice, 4-5 days per week, is
the minimum needed to produce results most students find satisfactory.
Once a student has some idea of his daily needs, the next question is usually, How long will it take me to learn
to play? Of course, given that life is life and the only constant is change, there is no possible answer to this
question. And what, exactly, does the student mean by play? We can, however, make these points:
Point #1: Spend at least three months before deciding that piano is not for you. It will take this long to learn
to practice somewhat well and to see any real results. Six months would be better. Piano is a wonderful instru-
ment but not an easy one. A one month trial is ridiculous.
Point #2: Adults learn much, much faster than children, but also have much bigger goals and higher expecta-
tions. The gap between an adults head and an adults hands is quite wide. In other words, the quality of piano
performance you can mentally envision is significantly higher than what your hands can immediately accom-
plish. Children are quite happy with Mary Had a Little Lamb and this is what they can actually play. Adults
want more, and they will get it, so long as they realize that this gap exists and are not dismayed by it. The time
necessary to bridge the gap is generally two to three years of instruction. Children will be able to achieve more
immediate gratification, but the time most will need to spend to get good will be several years.
Point #3: Length of time in instruction depends on your goals. Playing professionally is a much longer road
than playing for your own enjoyment. The things that will be studied are different, as well as the degree of pol-
ish needed. For example, Christmas Carols can be learned in a few months, but a Beethoven Sonata will take
years to master.
Point #4: The speed with which you learn a new piece increases as you learn to practice more efficiently. This
is often offset by the fact the pieces attempted get much harder. You will always need to practice. Everyone
does. Make sure, however, that you continue to improve the efficiency of your practice. Good teachers spend
huge amounts of time in lesson discussing and demonstrating proper and efficient practice techniques.
How to Practice: Six Principles
Making music requires three steps:
1. Understanding the instructions. This means reading the music.
2. Following the instructions. This means training the body to produce the notes.
3. Turning the instructions into music. This means playing the notes with expression.
Reading music and playing with expression have their own chapters in this book. The subject of this essay is
producing the notes, Step 2 above. This requires doing certain things to the instrument over and over, and mak-
33
ing certain motions until these motions become efficient. The more efficient the motions are, the better the
music sounds. The majority of practice consists of repeating these motions, so this is a very important essay
indeed! Luckily, human beings can place any such motions on an automatic pilot which will perform the
motions for them while the conscious mind thinks of other matters. In this case, the other matters are what
the notes make, namely MUSIC! Again, the fine points of music are not the subject of this essay. This essay is
about motions and how to best learn them. You had better study it carefully because:
You MUST master the mechanical motions, the mechanics, to arrive at the music.
I can tell you that there is no other route to making music. This is the price that we must pay. Any claim by
teachers or books such as, Learn to play your favorite songs in a weekend! is simply a lie. If it were that
easy, just about everybody would play piano. We MUST practice. No one, not Beethoven or Mozart, gets the
music for free. There is no denying that these two and others like them were geniuses and learned at incredi-
ble rates. However, any study of their lives reveals the names of their teachers, what they studied and when,
and the fact that they gave their whole lives to music. They paid the price, as must we all.
Thus, we must curb our impatience to possess the music. By deciding to play an instrument, we have decided
to manipulate a machine that makes musical notes and thus we have decided to perform mechanics. If the work
aspect of these mechanics is hateful, if you simply want to have the music, then you are not a producer, but a
consumer. Buy a CD player, press PLAY and there you are! Producers of music actually enjoy the work that
leads up to possessing the music. They find joy in the journey as well as in the destination.
On the other hand, there is no value in busywork, mindless repetition of useless motions. Although we need
to practice, we do NOT need to practice inefficiently, and we need not waste time on practicing actions that lead
nowhere. We should try to get as much music as possible for the time we spend. The idea to keep in mind is:
Get the maximum musical result for the minimum mechanical effort.
Most people do not practice efficiently. They think their troubles come from just not putting in enough time.
Our whole society seems to believe this! Everybody seems to know that Little Johnny must practice an hour a
day, every day. Certainly there is a minimum time under which you can expect very little in terms of results. I
believe this to be about 20-30 minutes, 4-5 times each week. I also believe that, before you try to put in 6 days
each week or 45 minutes a practice, you should examine your practice procedure with an eye towards improv-
ing your approach.
Practice smarter instead of longer and harder.
To help you practice smarter, here are six Principles of Practice, along with a brief discussion of each. Rest
assured that these Principles will come up again and again in your lessons! It is your job to understand each
Principle, try it out, perfect your use of it, and develop judgment in its application. Each gain you make with
these Principles will increase the enjoyment and success of your practicing.
1. Break the music into small, easy pieces. It is far better to learn a small section of music well than to learn
the whole piece poorly. For example, take the first phrase and practice it according to the Principles
given below. Learn that much well. Youll have a sense of satisfaction. Learning the entire piece badly
will only leave you frustrated. Once the first phrase is done, do the next and so on. Do not worry that
the whole piece may not get done before the lesson date. Remember, the lesson is NOT a final exam,
only a progress check.
2. Practice hands separately, then together. Begin any challenging piece of music by working with each hand
separately. When each hand has become fairly competent at playing its part, try playing slowly with hands
together. SLOWLY! There are errors that will only appear once you try to play two-handed. Just as slow prac-
tice helps us overcome difficulties in each hand, it will fix these two-handed problems as well. This point,
hands separately then together, and the next regarding slow practice are sure cures for what ails you.
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3. Practice slowly at first to gain accuracy, and then speed up a little at a time. This is another point of obvi-
ous common sense which most students dont heed. Since we can hear the music in our minds at full
speed, our impatience leads us to repeat a section of music over and over and over at this speed with lit-
tle improvement. Simply slow it down, whether playing hands separately or both together, learn to play
well at that speed, and then increase the speed GRADUALLY while you maintain complete accuracy.
Curb your impatience and make the hands slow down so that the mistakes disappear.
4. Practice trouble spots separately. If practice is programming the body, then we can see that starting the
piece over every time we make an error is worthless. Actually, it is worse than worthless, since it wastes
the time needed to fix the actual trouble spot. The motions the body makes at the start of the piece are
only somewhat related to the motions several measures later. Of course, all the notes connect and relate,
and this tricks us into thinking that the motions relate in the same manner. Practice only the motions
which are faulty, then integrate those motions back into the piece.
5. Diagnose and treat each error. Every error has a nature, and to fix that error you must ask yourself questions:
What went wrong? What didnt go right? What finger failed to play? What finger played when it shouldnt
have? What did my wrist do? What finger was in the wrong position? Should the fingering itself be changed?
Once you have accurately answered these questions, the treatment of these troubles is usually quite obvious.
Apply the indicated treatment and the error should disappear. Fail to take the time to do this analysis and you
will meet that error over and over as you waste time and become more and more frustrated.
6. Do not watch your hands. Humans are eye-minded, meaning that our chief sense is our eyesight. When
we are concerned with getting something correct we watch it carefully. Unfortunately, this is not a good
way to play piano. The key perceptions for piano are the sense of hearing and the sense of where and what
our arms, wrists, and fingers are doing, which is called proprioception. Programming the bodys auto-
matic pilot depends on playing by feel and using your hearing to check your work. If this sounds like a
violation of common sense, then I invite you to make an experiment. Play your pieces without watching
the keys for three weeks and see what happens!
These Six Principles must be mastered if you want to have comfort and ease at the piano. I must admit that
some of my most frustrating moments as a piano teacher have come from trying to get students to apply these
Principles. I can recall asking a student or two, Why are you bothering to take lessons if you will not follow
my instructions? Please. Save both of us needless frustration by understanding the Six Principles and learning
to apply them in your practice. Your enjoyment and success at the piano will skyrocket and lessons will be a joy
for both student and teacher!
Your Friend, The Mistake
Yes, boys and girls, mistakes are our friends!
How I wish that grammar school teachers had given us this truth! Instead, their message, via red check marks
and bad grades, was that mistakes were things to be avoided at all costs. Mistakes were the evidence of our fail-
ures, both intellectual and personal. Right answer good, smile, wrong answer bad, frown.
Sigh.
Mistakes actually ARE our friends because we can learn so much from them. Of course, this excludes mistakes
such as walking in front of speeding trucks!
In other essays, Ive encouraged you to practice playing perfectly so that mistakes simply dont occur. Thats
very good advice, and in a perfect world you could do that. You must always try. But in the real world, you
WILL make mistakes, no doubt about it. Thus, we need to know how to deal with those pesky critters. Thats
what this essay will explain.
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A mistake occurs when something doesnt work out as intended. If we intend that something happen and it
doesnt, or we intend that something NOT occur and it does anyway, thats a mistake. In both cases, the mis-
take has an exact description and a solution, and if we are smart, we will examine the mistake carefully and
identify both these things.
The description of a mistake is a detailed statement of exactly what did or didnt work out as intended. Which
finger failed to perform as needed? Which finger played a note it shouldnt have? Exactly which wrong note
was it? If the timing was off, in what way was it off? The notes sound bad, is hardly an accurate enough obser-
vation to allow us to correct that mistake. Yet, that is often the only thought the student has before starting the
piece over, hoping the mistake will magically disappear during the next pass through.
To see just how silly this not analyzing mistakes is, consider some other fields:
The Mechanic: Lady, your car doesnt run cause its broken.
The Doctor: Sir, you are feeling badly because you are sick.
You would scream at these two, I already know that! You have to tell me EXACTLY what is wrong! However,
these examples are no more silly than the piano student playing a section of music over and over without ever
describing the exact nature of whats broken. (Also included in student silliness is the action of hitting a
wrong note, pausing to hit the correct note, then continuing through the piece as if some permanent improve-
ment had occurred.)
Once you describe the exact nature of a mistake, its solution is often quite obvious.
Mistakes Exact Description: Student hits the wrong key, an F, with the thumb. Investigating further reveals that
the student is reading the note E as the note F and thus giving the wrong command to the thumb. Mistakes
solution: Have the student review the E and F flashcards more carefully and then practice slowly that small sec-
tion of music many times, hitting the E rather than the F, till the student plays it right every time.
Mistakes Exact Description: Student hits the wrong key, an F, with the thumb. Investigating further reveals
that the students hand tends to move sideways without the student knowing it. Mistakes Solution: Have the
student do drills to gain more control of their hand so it doesnt wander.
A very large portion of lesson time is devoted to me, the teacher, helping you, the student, to describe each mis-
takes exact nature and then determine and implement a proper solution. Unfortunately, Im not present to run
this process during the rest of the week. You are on your own, and many students simply are not good at run-
ning the process on themselves.
Instead, their silly fear of mistakes and their disappointment in themselves for making them leads to horribly
inefficient practicing, most often simply playing the section of music over and over and over and over and over
and over and...
Please. Do yourself a favor. Improve your practice by examining each mistake carefully in the way I have
explained. By calmly solving one mistake at a time, you will move smoothly through each piece of music, train-
ing the hands and fingers, eyes and mind. You will find yourself performing far beyond your expectations. Dont
let the habits of years of educational nonsense prevent you from enjoying music. Control your emotions. Apply
your intelligence as Ive directed. Look carefully at each mistake, describe its exact nature, and try to determine
a successful solution. Solve the mistake and proceed ahead. By cleaning up one mistake at a time, you will soon
reach the end of the piece and be playing very well indeed. Plus, really solving the mistakes means that similar
mistakes in future pieces will never occur at all!
You will cease to fear making mistakes. They will become a valued learning tool in short, your friends!
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Lets Do That Again, Shall We? (How to Create Good Habits)
Repetition is what makes learning possible any learning: physical, mental, moral, whatever!
Yet, in todays world where we can create so much instant gratification, we often lose track of the fact that
humans must become creatures of habit in order to master things.
Here is a very partial list of habits needed for good piano playing and successful lessons:
Mental habits:
1. Knowing the names of the keys.
2. Knowing the correspondence between locations on the staves and the keys on the piano.
3. Knowing the meaning of musical symbols.
4. Knowing musical terms.
Physical habits:
1. Correct position at the piano.
2. Correct use of the fingers, wrists, elbows.
3. Moving the eyes ahead of the fingers as you read the music.
4. Using the sustain pedal.
There are many, many more items which must be thoroughly trained into the mind and body by
REPETITION!!!!
Basic musical ideas are constantly reviewed. Basic skills are constantly practiced. Terms are used over and over.
Difficult sections of music are practiced, correctly with their correct fingering, many times through.
Once is NOT enough.
Note that this means that practice in which you hit a wrong note, correct it and move on is worse than use-
less. That wrong note will appear again and again until you stop and drill playing the right note over and over
and over until it is totally learned!
This also means that you must keep up with your music. A piece you learned six months ago is rusty at this
moment unless you have been playing it during those six months. You can polish it up quickly but it will still
need some polish.
REPETITION!!!
You might see practice as repeating, slowly at first, then faster and faster, exactly what you eventually want to
do rapidly.
Computers memorize when we hit the ENTER button. Humans memorize through repetition. Dont be so
down on yourself when you have to repeat things. You are not a computer.
Fingering, the exact choice of which fingers are going to hit which keys, is what the body memorizes as practice con-
tinues. If there has not been an exact choice, if you hit that key with one finger one time and a different finger the
next, then the body memorizes nothing at all. Youve let chance determine whether you play the note correctly, since
physical memorization requires repetition and you havent done any. That is why fingering is NOT optional.
Finally, Im sure you see by now that taking lessons for a month or two is not likely to achieve any great suc-
cess. What about Mozart, you say? Well, I suggest reading a biography of Mozart to see how much practice
time he put in! The greats spend their lives practicing the act of
REPETITION!!!
It just may help explain WHY they were GREAT!
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Still Making Mistakes? Read This!
(Authors Note: This somewhat ill-tempered essay was an attempt to help a number of students succeed despite
their best efforts to fail. Im including it because it applies to soooooo many student pianists!)
Do you make mistakes when you practice?
If so, then you are practicing too much or too fast or both! Plus, when you go on making mistakes as you prac-
tice, you are actually practicing and perfecting those mistakes! The mistakes get better because they are being
practiced. Whatever the body does over and over gets learned by the body. The body is not very musical!
What to do?
1. Choose a small section of the material.
2. Work out exactly what you want to have the body do this means knowing which notes to play, what fin-
gers to play them with (the fingering), and how long they last (the timing.)
3. Teach the body to perform these actions by slowly (how many times do I have to tell some of you?) mak-
ing it perform the correct actions.
4. As the body learns to do the correct thing, you can make it do the correct thing faster and faster until the
section is being played correctly at the tempo you have chosen.
Practice makes perfect they say. True, but ONLY IF you Practice Playing Perfectly right from the start.
Frankly, Ive listened to some of you practicing and its no wonder you are learning slowly. You seldom fol-
low the above, simple directions. You insist on trying to practice the piece at the speed it will eventually go. You
do not eliminate mistakes, you just repeat them over and over.
Im not trying to be nasty here, Im trying to explain how to improve the speed of learning and your enjoyment
of practice, the very things you pay me to help you do.
IF YOU ARE MAKING MISTAKES YOU ARE PLAYING TOO FAST, TOO MUCH, OR BOTH.
And if you do make mistakes, treat them the way Ive outlined above so they disappear rapidly.
Programming Your Auto-Pilot and Flying Blind
The Auto-Pilot: a name for that mechanism of the human mind-body system which controls physical motions with-
out conscious effort. Examples: walking, talking, driving, eating, skill at sports, crafts, touch-typing, etc. Any action
of the body which doesnt require full mental concentration is being controlled, to some degree, by the Auto-Pilot.
Its strange that there isnt a word for this thing, since we use it during every waking hour. You are using it now,
as your eyes follow this line of words as you read. Babies cant do that. Its a trained-in skill, one so well trained-
in that you dont even think about it. At this moment, your conscious mind is focused on the meaning of my
words, not on the control of the eyes necessary to follow the printed symbols. However, if you are a new music
student looking at two staves of notes for the first time, you will have to consciously move your eyes from one
line to the other. New students often find that they lose their place because the eyes dont follow these lines
properly. Their Auto-Pilots havent yet been programmed to handle the task.
The Auto-Pilot is, actually, the only thing that lets us walk and chew gum at the same time! This old joke shows
that our consciousness can be overloaded by giving it too many things to concentrate on, resulting in at least one
of the tasks not being performed. What saves us is the Auto-Pilot, which takes over and makes some of the work
automatic, thus freeing the conscious mind to control the rest. Eventually, repetition fully programs the Auto-Pilot
and it does everything, allowing us to walk, chew gum, talk to our friend, plus think about whats for dinner!
You can see that piano playing, requiring as it does a large number of different tasks, all performed simultane-
ously, can only be accomplished by full and sophisticated use of the Auto-Pilot. Your next question should be,
So how do I program this wonderful thing?
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The key to programming is repetition, not repetition of the whole piece of music, but repetition of the exact
motion or motions to be done at that exact point in the music.
The key to successful repetition is to do the repetition Flying Blind, that is, without watching the hands with
your eyes. Unfortunately, watching the hands is one seriously hard habit to break.
Humans, by their very nature, solve their problems with their eyes. When we worry about the outcome of some
action, we watch it carefully. A dog would sniff the thing. Humans look at it. However, this isnt always the best
approach. A toddler watching their feet as they learn to walk will run into furniture and parents work to get
their eyes on where they are headed. A older child learning to hit a baseball must be told to keep your eye on
the ball. Both these skills are learned by feel, not by sight. No typist who watches the keys ever gets very fast.
Accountants stare at columns of figures as their hands flash over their calculators. No good driver watches the
gear shift, accelerator, brake, etc. as they make a left turn across heavy traffic!
And no pianist ever plays well who watches his hands. You absolutely must believe me on this. Take it on faith
until experience shows you that I am simply stating a basic truth. You will never, ever get good until you take
your eyes off your hands. You must exercise strict discipline over your own eyeballs and command them to
remain on the written notes. But, you ask, How can I make sure that my fingers find the right notes?
Concentration, of course, but concentration on how the hand FEELS, not on how the hand LOOKS. Instead
of watching the hand, ask yourself questions like, What does it feel like to stretch the thumb out exactly two
keys to the right? How does it feel to reach the index finger up to a black key? How will you know if you played
the right note? Thats what your ears are for. Believe me, youll know!
When your conscious attention is put on the perceptions and sensations of the body, how the parts of the body
feel, where they are located in space, rather than how those body parts look, you are programming your Auto-
Pilot. This is how you tell it what you want it to learn. And it does learn, and usually faster than you expected.
Your control of your muscles improves. Bit by bit, the Auto-Pilot takes over each action and thus frees your con-
scious mind to move on to other things, secure in the knowledge that a particular action is being taken care of.
Also, your awareness of what is happening down there at the end of your arms increases dramatically. Take this
test. Look at your feet. Big deal, right? Now pay attention to how your feet feel, the tightness of shoes and socks,
any aches and pains. Which sense gave you the most information about the state of your feet?
Awareness and control via the Auto-Pilot that is the only way that any pianist ever plays well!
How much repetition is needed to program the Auto-Pilot? The number of repeats depends on the difficulty of
the action to be learned and your physiological potential for learning. Thus, I cant answer this question for you.
I can tell you that my experience, and that of most students, is that these repetitions work best when they are
done frequently with some time in between. It is better to practice a little each day than hours and hours at a
time. It is usually better to practice two short sessions each day than one long one. The Auto-Pilot seems to learn
better that way.
The Rewards of Flying Blind
Is it truly possible to never watch your hands as you play? Ask Ray Charles. Ask Stevie Wonder. They never had
an option and they seemed to do all right! But what about the rest of us, who are not famous professional blind
pianists, just ordinary piano students? How far should we take this flying blind concept?
Perhaps typing can serve as our best example. As I write this essay, I am sitting at my computer, my eyes fixed on
the monitor, my brain combining words, and my fingers somehow finding the letters that make up those words.
The words appear on the screen by some sort of magic process and I watch them as they appear, keeping a bit of
my attention on their spelling, spacing, and punctuation, checking for errors. Mostly, however, I am choosing my
words, trying to make myself as clear as possible. I am trying to express myself and make my ideas understood.
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Now imagine this process as performed by a beginning typist one who needed to watch each and every key-
stroke, who needed to locate visually each letter of each word in each sentence. Personally, I dont have to imag-
ine the painful and utterly SLOW progress of that writer. Every time I come to 1234567890 have to stop and
look. Yep, I admit it; I never learned exactly where those stupid numbers were up at the top of the typewriter
keyboard. Luckily, they only occur once or twice in an essay!
I probably should take the time to learn them. I would then type faster and with more confidence. Really good
typists DO know and they DO type better than I do. However, Im satisfied with my typing speed so I go on
looking each time I need to type a symbol. Ive drawn a line which suits my desires, and in this way typing con-
tinues to be an excellent comparison to piano playing.
You see, there are basically two types of motions performed at the piano, those done solely with the fingers and
those requiring that the entire hand be picked up and moved to a new location. Of the two, it is fairly easy to
learn finger only motions without watching them. After all, the fingers are tied down to their position in the
hand and can only go just so far astray.
The hand, however, once picked up from the piano keyboard, can make any ridiculous mistake you can imag-
ine! And the farther you move it sideways, the greater the chance of plopping it down in the wrong location.
These hand motions are much like the seldom used symbols on the typewriter you can glance down at your hand
when you make them. As a professional pianist, I do so, especially when my hand is moving 15-20-30 keys to the side.
So. Exactly what ARE my recommendations for my students?
First, never watch your hand as you make finger motions. These include:
1. Simply pressing a finger down to play the note directly underneath,
2. Reaching sideways with a finger to play another key (called a reach or an extension), and
3. Crossing the thumb under a finger or a finger over the thumb (crossovers and crossunders).
When your fingers do the walking your eyes should NOT be watching.
Second, when your hand must be picked up and moved sideways to a new location, you CAN glance down at
the keyboard and back up to the music. But... you will now have to learn to glance down and back up to look
directly at the exact point of the music where you need to be looking. Thats a separate skill altogether. Unlike
typing, music has a beat and you better not miss it. Thus, it would still be better if you didnt look. I suggest that
you go ahead and learn to replace the hand without looking if the distance sideways is only a few keys. Most
people can learn to move their hands sideways up to an full octave without much trouble.
The rewards of not watching? Let me spell those out clearly:
There is probably nothing you could do which would give you greater speed, better expression, and more con-
fidence than to learn to play the piano without watching your hands.
In summary, glance at the really hard hand motions, those with significant sideways displacement. Dont watch
anything else. Do this for six months and you will be a completely new pianist, a player with skills which will
reward you for the many years of your life.
Concentration, How to Use It
If there is one word I hear from every student, its concentration. It is often offered as the reason for mis-
takes in playing: I wasnt concentrating. I hear students mutter it to themselves, Concentrate, Joan. It IS
important, and since it is, we had better understand exactly what it is and how to best use it.
The first and most important thing to know about concentration is that you do it in order to NOT do it. Sounds
like a paradox, but just think of the act of walking. Have you ever seen parents teaching a young child to walk?
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The child starts out by concentrating madly upon each step. One leg is moved forward, planted, then their atten-
tion shifts to the other leg, moves it, etc. Such concentration! The parents then get the child to take their atten-
tion off their legs and feet. Look at mama, Timmy, look at mama. Come to daddy, Susie, And, little by lit-
tle, the child ceases to concentrate on the act of walking and the automatic functions of the mind/body take up
the chore. Eventually, the child walks perfectly well with no concentration at all!
Some of us even learn to chew gum at the same time!
Heres the sequence of events: total concentration followed by diminishing need to concentrate until the action
requires only the command to Start! The action continues with tiny corrections only, little bits of attention
for such things as curbs and obstacles in ones path. Full concentration can be implemented at will, such as
crossing a stream via stepping stones.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of daily activities have been programmed into the bodys automatic machinery.
Its really the only way to get truly competent at anything. If you have to be totally conscious of performing the
action, its because that action has yet to be fully mastered.
Thus, the student muttering concentrate as they begin to play for the teacher is actually admitting that they do
not believe they have learned the piece of music! A piece well learned requires less, not more, concentration!
So what DO we think about as we play a piece of music we have mastered? We think about the fine points, the
tempo, the volume, the expression, the phrasing, the broad activities. It is not the details we concentrate on
when we perform, but how those details fit together, what they make. Playing from the heart becomes the
focus of our attention.
Of course, pieces are not mastered evenly, so at any one moment there will be sections of that music which are
on Auto-Pilot, sections requiring a bit more conscious control, and perhaps sections where one must use full
concentration. The music is learned when all parts, easy and hard, have become quite automatic, programmed
into the Auto-Pilot. How do you know when this has happened? First and foremost, you are aware it WILL hap-
pen and on the lookout for it. You retreat mentally and let the hands take over. When they play without your
conscious guidance, the job is done. Then, once youre convinced that the automatic machinery of the
body/mind is capable of handling the task (the Auto-Pilot,) your attention naturally goes to the next thing to do.
By the way, if you have learned your piece well and can play it on automatic then it doesnt make much sense to
try to revert to full, conscious control once you are playing for the teacher, does it? Yet many students try this and are
upset when it fails. Try walking and paying attention to each and every step. See what happens and how fast you go!
We should also discuss the relationship between attention (concentrating on something) and intention (want-
ing something.)
Intention controls attention, which is to say that you will concentrate on the things you WANT to concentrate
on. This simple truth allows us to answer a host of piano training questions.
1. How long should I practice? As long as you want to, and as long as you can concentrate.
2. When should I practice? When you want to, and when you concentrate best.
3. Where should my instrument be located? Where you can concentrate best.
4. What music should I practice? Music you enjoy enough to concentrate on.
5. Should I take lessons at all? Only if your desire to play is strong enough for you to put in the time concentrating.
6. Why is it easier to learn pieces one hand at a time? Because you can concentrate better on one task at a
time, and because, as the need for full concentration decreases, you will have enough attention to do two
things at once.
7. Why do we start slowly and then speed up? Hey, you should be able to answer this one for yourself by now!
I hope the above clarifies the use and value of concentration.
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Numbers You Must Know
During my years of teaching I have tried to stay away from actual numbers of things, preferring to let my stu-
dents exercise judgment concerning how much, how often, and how many times, etc. However, there are a few
numbers of such value that I want you to remember and use them. This does not mean that you can stop think-
ing for yourself and just use the numbers. Use them as a guide to direct you towards success.
1. Length of a practice session.
30 minutes 4-5 times a week will give progress which will be satisfying.
Less than this will not accomplish much. More is better, so long as you are able to concentrate for the length
of the session. However, I recommend separate sessions of shorter length rather than anything over 30 min-
utes, if thats possible for you. For example, two 20 minute sessions are usually more productive than one 45
minute session.
2. Years of lessons.
3-5 years
Adults learn about 10 times faster than children, but have much higher standards. These figures reflect the time
necessary to produce an competent amateur, not a professional. Luckily, very few students want to do more
than play for their own enjoyment and these are good estimates for that.
3. Correcting mistakes: The 5-to-1 Rule.
The Rule: When practicing, play each mistake correctly 5 times before moving ahead. You must realize
that it may actually take 10 times or more. But 5 is a good start. Youll know when youve done it enough
it will be VERY easy to do correctly again and again.
4. Putting the hands together: The 50% Rule.
After learning each hand separately at the full performance tempo, begin practicing hands together at
50% of that tempo. There are problems which will only occur when the hands are being played together.
Thus, it makes sense to SLOW DOWN again when beginning two-handed play. Once fully competent,
increase your tempo a little and see if you remain just as competent. If so, increase a little more and so
on, until, tempo increase by tempo increase, you are now at full performance tempo.
Practice vs. Performance: BIG Difference
There is just one difference between practice and performance, but that difference is essential in getting the
most from your piano lessons.
Practice is the action of learning the music and correcting all mistakes.
Performance is the action of playing the music without pausing to correct mistakes.
Practice is done to make performance possible.
Performance demonstrates the quality of practice. Good performance shows well done and complete practice.
Poor performance shows badly done or incomplete practice.
Playing for the teacher is performing, not practicing. Practice is done during the week and checked by means
of a performance during the lesson.
You will probably say at this point that playing for teacher makes you nervous and this changes everything.
Actually, it changes nothing. Practice must be good enough to teach the student to play so well that the addi-
tional nervousness is not able to destroy the performance. The standard I set is that you must be able to play
for me almost as well as you play for yourself. You must learn the skills inherent in your music well enough to
succeed despite your nervousness. Skills not learned this well will not be strong enough to build on. They wont
be a firm foundation for your further learning.
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Another point to be made is that you do not back up in a performance to fix your mistakes. There is no start-
ing over. You take the piece, you play as much as you think you have ready for performance. You go straight
through, keeping the steadiest of beats. It doesnt matter if its two measures. Two measures performed well is
better than eight measures performed badly.
You then discuss with your teacher what to do about the remaining music that cannot yet be performed. You
ask questions on practicing problems, examine fingering difficulties, etc.
But when the teacher says, play for me. it means perform the music NOT practice the music.
How do we learn to perform, then? The answer is simple: practice performing. Once a day, decide to sit down
at the piano and play straight through some music (simple music is better at first!) ignoring all mistakes and some-
how keeping the beat going. No pauses. No instant replays of messed up measures. Play from start to end with
no breaks. Its hard! The urge to correct is intense. But have you ever heard a professional musician perform,
make a mistake, turn to the audience and say, Wait! and then replay an early section of music? Nope.
Professionals performers (and I know, since I am one) get so good at moving right on through their errors that
people never even hear them. Most folks believe that pros dont make mistakes! Yeah, right! How real is THAT?
You, too, can learn to perform, simply by practicing the act of performing. It all starts with your decision.
Practice or performance, what will you do when you sit down at the piano? From that decision comes the
actions of the next few minutes, chiefly whether that time finds you working diligently on correcting mistakes
(which is practicing) or ignoring the mistakes completely and keeping that beat going despite everything (which
is performing.)
There is, of course, a sort of compromise in which you make a mistake, stop, play the right note and move on.
You do this when you are neither practicing nor performing but rather playing for fun. However, dont fool
yourself into thinking that such playing will improve the music in the long run. It sure isnt practice. That mis-
take WILL happen again. And it sure isnt performance. Stopping and correcting mistakes sounds simply terri-
ble to anyone else listening. Go ahead and do this for kicks but do NOT count this as practice or performance.
IT IS NEITHER!
Moral of this story: decide your purpose in sitting down at the piano and follow the action which will accom-
plish that purpose:
Practice: stop at each mistake and work hard via repetition at permanently killing that goof.
Performance: never stop at any mistakes, go start to finish keeping the beat.
Fun: pause and correct mistakes by playing the right note and moving on if that makes you happy!
Worship of Technique
We are all impressed by watching someone do something truly amazing: motorcycle daredevils jump the Grand
Canyon (almost!), jugglers keep 12 running chain saws in the air at once, politicians make contradictory prom-
ises and expect people to believe them. Amazing! We ooohhh and aaahhh!
In the piano world, this theater is seen as a worship of technique for techniques sake. The pianist whose
hands move so fast that they become a blur, the pianist who plays 100 notes in 5 seconds, the pianist who is all
over the piano, again we ooohhh and aaahhh.
But ask yourself the next time you are drooling in awe at such theatrics, Would I buy the recording?
Often the music produced by such flash and fire really isnt very good at all. Great visuals, rotten audio. Peanut
pushing is a term I use to describe this obsession with technically difficult piano work. You can spend years
learning to push a peanut across a freeway with your nose. You can be the worlds greatest peanut pusher, a
Guinness Book record holder. But... is it worth doing in the first place? Obsession with difficult technical points
in piano is peanut pushing for real!
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Most ordinary piano students have neither the time nor the interest to become technical geniuses. This most def-
initely DOES NOT mean they cannot produce good music, music that satisfies, music that enriches their lives.
Careful, now... this is NOT to say that you dont have to learn technique at all. Lets not be silly. You will have
to master basic techniques as does any piano student. However, never let any professional musician sell you on
his or her lengthy list of What every pianist must know. Interestingly enough, their list always includes the
things that they know and leaves off the things that they dont know!
You need your own list of necessary technique, tailored to your desires. That is what your lessons are for. But
you must keep in mind that technique is a means, not the ends.
Day by Day Decay: Why We Must Keep Practicing Our Music.
One of the unpleasant truths of being a pianist is that our memorization of music is not permanent. This truth
is discovered by most students after a few months of lessons, during which the student has memorized several
pieces. One day the student decides to play some music unpracticed for a few weeks and is surprised and then
dismayed to find that the same hands which had played that music flawlessly short weeks ago now seem to find
a mistake to make in every measure! Of course, the relearning of the music comes quite quickly and the hands
do seem to quickly remember. But the shock and disappointment remain, and the student invariably brings it
up to me at the next lesson.
Its too bad that our human memory is so fallible. Perhaps we have grown so used to computer memory mem-
orization stored permanently at the touch of a button that we forget how our own must be kept refreshed in
order to be dependable.
Our music must be learned and then continually relearned if we want to perform it to the best of our ability.
The speed of memory decay varies from person to person, from task to task, even from day to day. It is this
decay that forces all professional musicians to constantly practice the pieces that make up their repertoire. A
professional who did not do this would not be a professional for very long.
Music students sometime get so engrossed in their new material that they neglect to review the music theyve
already learned. Its important to do this review very regularly. Not only is it the only way to keep a repertoire
of music you can play for self, family, and friends, but reviewing serves as a constant reminder of your success.
Playing an older piece really, really well builds confidence and the will to move forward in your lessons.
The moral of this story? Dont let the day by day decay get you down. Youre only human! Continually review
and renew the music you have so carefully learned. Play these pieces for your own enjoyment and the enjoy-
ment of others. Make sure that review is a part of your life at the piano.
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CHAPTER FIVE
How to Express Yourself When Playing
Our love for the piano began with a performance. We heard someone, a family member, a friend, or a profes-
sional musician perform and it touched something inside. We began to envision ourselves making those notes
and creating that magic. When this vision grew strong enough we sought out a teacher and began our journey
toward being a performer.
It doesnt matter whether we will perform for the President or solely for our own enjoyment. All our efforts cul-
minate in a performance with ourselves as the star performer. Here are some essays to help make that perform-
ance as fulfilling as possible.
Essays in this Chapter
Music vs. Mechanics
Memorizing Music: Natural and Necessary
Making Music to Make Others Happy
Playing Expressively: The Fundamentals of Feeling
Playing Expressively: Tempo and Volume
How Loud Should I Play?
Phrasing a Melody
Keeping the Audience Interested
Repertoire
Music vs. Mechanics
Music: Our word for organized sounds which we find interesting, pleasing, artistic, etc. Music is not the sound
itself, which is a purely physical thing, but what the sound becomes within us, based on our reaction to the
sounds character. Music is internal, mental, and even spiritual.
Mechanics: The action of manipulating the physical world, using the body to control the machine called the
piano. Mechanics is external, physical.
These definitions allow us to understand a very difficult problem in piano instruction: many students want to
experience the music but are more or less unwilling to deal with the mechanics.
Its not hard to understand why. Simply put, our heads work far faster than our hands. We can conceive of the
music much more easily than our hands can achieve playing it. The mind is very powerful. As an example,
Beethoven composed some of his greatest works stone deaf. He heard the whole orchestra in his mind! Indeed,
almost anyone can hear a tune in their heads, even though they play no instrument at all. However, in order to
actually play an instrument we must enter the world of mechanics. The piano is most definitely a machine. So
45
is the body! We must learn to manipulate these two machines properly. There is no escaping this necessity. Its
the price we must pay for creating physical sound rather than just hearing it in our minds ear.
Thus, all pianists must work on fingering, do finger exercises, and examine each mistake the hand makes and find
a way to solve it. Every piece of music is learned by mastering a complex series of hand, wrist, and arm motions
which will cause the piano machine to produce the tones you desire. The more complex the music, the more com-
plex these motions become. Practice, once the student can read music, is almost completely mechanics.
This means that in order to enjoy being a piano student you must find joy in practicing and not just in perform-
ing the completed piece of music. You must find joy in the journey as well as in the destination. In this way, its
like hiking. Its also like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. If you dont enjoy the work of putting the music togeth-
er, then you are a consumer, not a producer. Buy a CD and press PLAY!
This can be hard for adults who use music to relieve stress. Many find all these mechanics to be more
stress. Such an attitude must change, for no one succeeds without practice. You do not rise above it, out-
grow it, or get good enough not to need it. All great pianists had teachers and sweated bullets to attain
their skill. Neither you, nor anyone you ever will meet, gets it for free. Some find it easier, some harder,
but all must practice, and that means concentration on making the body machine manipulate the piano
machine properly.
YOU MUST PASS THROUGH THE MECHANICS TO REACH THE MUSIC!!!
Once the mechanics are mastered, you enter the realm of music. In this realm, your attention is not needed for
the hands to play each and every note. Thus, you become free to consider the music those notes make. Volume,
phrasing, and expression become your concerns, as the hands successfully execute their training, their mechanics.
Students almost always resist this truth. So of this resistance comes from the future they see: piece after piece
laboriously learned, endless hours spent in practicing hand motions, etc. This is NOT the future they envisioned
when they dreamed of playing the piano.
Students take heart! You definitely will NOT be grinding away on mechanics forever. Things will improve, and
you will learn new pieces faster and faster, expending less and less effort on the damn mechanics!
Why? Simple. Just as all the words in English are composed of only 26 letters combined by certain rules, so all
music is composed of a limited number of notes combined in patterns we have found enjoyable over the cen-
turies. Any single instrument, including the piano is played by performing these patterns. That means there are
actions which are typical piano actions, mechanics specific to the piano. These piano-specific mechanics
appear over and over and over in piano music, and heres the good part! once you master an action in one
piece it is already pre-learned when you find it in another piece. You will need to spend almost no time at all
on that action, having learned it earlier in your career as a pianist.
I sometimes refer to these piano-specific mechanics as tricks. Each pianist, then, has a bag of tricks which
contains all those piano mechanics they have so far mastered. As lessons continue, the piano teacher is sup-
posed to provide music which teaches all the important tricks. Thus, a students bag of tricks fills up. Get your
bag of tricks full enough and any supposedly new piece actually isnt new at all, it just a rearrangement of the
same old tricks, tricks youve already mastered!
When this happens, you just sit down and play, no practice needed! THIS is the future you envisioned. It seems
like magic to anyone looking on, but really it is just the evidence of your successful practice earlier in time, prac-
tice in the mechanics. You are going to LOVE this ability.
Any skill works this way. At the start, all actions, all mechanics, all tricks, are brand new and you are clumsy
at most everything. Slowly, the body goes through the motions, mastering them and performing them with ease.
Next, combinations of these mechanics can be performed, followed by more elaborate combinations. At this
stage, the student no longer looks like a student and really they arent. They make it look easy.
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The moral here, of course, is to quit resisting the mechanics. Enjoy mastering each little piece of the music and
each small success. This will bring you the fastest learning and the maximum enjoyment from your piano study.
There really are a finite number of piano tricks. Learn them well and shorten the length of your practice.
Memorizing Music: Natural and Necessary
Consider the process of learning a totally new piece of music, one youve never even heard. The first time you
read through the music you absorb much new knowledge about the melody, the harmony, and the rhythm, both
details and generalities. You reach the end with much more information than when you started, but of course
you still have gaps. You read it and play it again. You gain more knowledge. This process goes on, each read
producing more understanding. You are learning the piece, one reading at a time.
In reality, you are memorizing the piece, both mentally as you store the understanding of what to do and how it sounds,
and physically as your body gains mastery of the motions needed. This memorizing is the most natural process possi-
ble. Its how we master any skill. We can truthfully say that memorization is our goal and the faster the better!
Once the instructions are fully memorized, that is, we have the sound of the music in our heads and the actions
of the music in our hands, the purpose of the written symbols is fulfilled. Continuing to read and reread that
sheet music is worse than useless, since the reading steals valuable attention we need for other tasks. To the
degree that the pianist is still thinking about WHAT to play, he is not thinking about HOW to play. Expression
goes hand and hand with memorization. I doubt any music is truly played expressively without it first being
memorized. Thus, it makes sense that we learn all we can about memorizing.
There are three types of memory. Each plays a part in helping the pianist perform expressively.
A. Muscle Memory This is the memory that allows all physical tasks to become automatic. See Chapter
Fours essay, Flying Blind and the Auto-pilot.
B. Mental Memory The memory of how the music sounds, the mental tape recording of the piece. This
is how we know that the body has performed the correct actions. We compare what were hearing with
our mental record of the piece. If they match, we decide our performance was successful.
C. Analytical Memory. This is your understanding and memory of the patterns and relationships that
make the notes into music. Artfully organized sound patterns is as good a definition of music as any I
know. The patterns are formed of things that repeat and things that change. Examining these patterns
allows us to learn and commit to memory whole groups of notes at once. The patterns also give us some
sense of what the overall construction sounds like. It is very fast and worthwhile memorization and must
never be neglected.
These three types of memory interact in many complex ways and a large part of your musical training is becom-
ing familiar with these mental tools and learning to make the most of them.
By the way, did you ever go to the symphony on a night featuring a guest pianist? Were you surprised that the
pianist played without any music? Why do the members of the orchestra use music and not the pianist even
though that pianist reads two staves rather than one, and plays an enormously greater number of notes? Curious!
Making Music to Make Others Happy
I started playing keyboards in 1968. Ive performed publicly since 1970. I begin teaching piano in 1979.
Teaching became my full time occupation in 1987. Since then, Ive trained other music teachers and helped
them get set up in practice. Ive lived music and made a living at it. Ive been successful in my field. I tell you
all this not to brag but to convince you that what I am about to say is an accurate reflection of the living, breath-
ing world of music. My intention is to give you, a music student, an understanding what is important and what
can be safely ignored. Its a guide to time well spent and time wasted.
47
These are the priorities in making music which people enjoy and value.
Priority One: Choose the correct music.
Choosing the correct music means choosing both the correct style of music AND the correct pieces of music.
Hired to play at a wedding, you would want to perform light classical and romantic ballads. A job at a supper
club would feature standards and maybe some jazz. For a BBQ you might do country and honkytonk. There
are exceptions, of course.
This all seems very obvious, but musicians often completely miss the boat on this point. I recall a friend, a
superb classical and jazz pianist, playing Chopin at a wild party. The looks that guy got were priceless! Chopin
was what he liked, what he preferred but completely inappropriate and unwanted. Shall we say he wasnt a
hit and be kind? Then he got married and hired a modern jazz trio to perform at his reception. Big mistake,
since you couldnt tell what tune they are playing when they improvised and it was pretty hard to dance. That
reception cleared out quickly. No, my friend, although a much better pianist technically than myself, was a much
worse musician since his choices in music were incorrect and displeasing to his audiences.
When Im hired to perform, one of my first questions concerns what kind of music is desired. If at all possible,
I get names of favorite tunes or favorite artists. Audiences are not surprised by this and in fact expect it, for the
simple reason that people like what they like and want to hear the musician perform it. Over the years, Ive
keep track of what tunes are requested and made sure they are part of my repertoire. These songs are listed on
my website (long lists) and the popularity of my set lists usually gets me the gig.
For you as an amateur who wants to play for people, ask yourself what tunes you should learn that many peo-
ple already know and love. Heres a short list I will guarantee:
Fur Elise by Beethoven (If a person knows no other classical, they WILL know this!)
The Entertainer by Scott Joplin (Theme song from the movie The Sting)
As Time Goes By (Famous piano piece from Casa Blanca, the, Play it again, Sam piece)
Memory by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Showtune from his musical Cats)
plus any piece of boogie-woogie piano.
Play these pieces and they will think you are a genius and they will be right, since you were smart enough to
choose the correct music for your home concert.
Priority Two: Keep a steady beat.
This is the priority most often ignored. Amateur performers usually think that hitting every note correctly is
more of a priority. Professionals know that some missed notes are inevitable in a performance of any length
and know that keeping the beat is more important by far. The amateur cringes and pauses when they miss a
note, thereby calling everyones attention to the mistake. The pro ignores the wrong note and glides right over
it, thus keeping the beat and burying the very short mistake in correct notes. Often the untrained ears of the
audience never even notice that bad note.
It is odd that the steadiness of the underlying beat should occupy so little of our thoughts. After all, a steadily
beating drum by itself would be considered music and throughout the world, the common denominator of
music is the fact that it moves with a steady underlying pulse. We could say that the foundation of music is
rhythm, NOT melody and harmony.
Perhaps our priorities are skewed by the fact we THINK about the notes but FEEL the beat. Perhaps its the
fact that we read first and foremost the identity of the notes and only then their rhythm aspects (see the
Chapter on Reading Music for more info.) Whatever, the fact remains that music played with a steady beat is
much more satisfying than music that speeds and slows at random, pauses at the hard parts, then jerks for-
wards in the easy passages.
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Priority Three: Play a clear and recognizable melody.
The melody is that string of notes, commonly called the tune, which we consider to BE that particular piece of
music. Its what appears in your mind when the title of the piece is mentioned. Thus, for a listener to even know
what you are playing, they have to hear and recognize the melody of the piece. In a way, this priority is related to
Choosing the correct music because your choices will not be obvious if the audience cannot hear those choices.
It is very important that I remind you that a steady beat is an inherent part of the nature of a melody. Melodic
phrases have a rhythm and if you mess up that rhythm the melody will simply not sound the way your audience
expects it to sound. Notes will be in wrong places, last wrong amounts of time, etc. Enough of this wrongness
and people will not even know what tune you are playing.
Melodies must be delivered on a silver platter to the ears of the audience to be effective. They cannot be hard
to hear or difficult to recognize. Too soft playing which strains the ears of the audience will not win you any
success. Or is the band too loud, so loud you cant hear the words of the vocalist? Hey, no melody, no song, no
glory. The same is true for the pianist who cant balance the loudness of the low left hand notes with the clari-
ty of the higher right hand notes. If their left drowns out their right, that pianist is not so hot.
Ill also mention that this need on the part of the average listener for a clear and recognizable melody makes
classical and jazz less understandable and accessible. Their melodies make these hard musics and insure these
music smaller audiences. Not a criticism, just an observation, and a little thinking on your part regarding this
will go a long way towards your understanding of the value of melody in performance.
Priority Four: Play an interesting and colorful accompaniment.
Accompaniment is all the notes other than the melody. They all could be eliminated and we would still have the
music. However, it would be much less interesting music.
Accompaniment emphasizes the rhythm and adds color and emotion via the harmony. Often the pianists left
hand does most of the rhythm emphasis while the right hand adds chord notes under the melody to provide
harmony and color. There are exceptions, of course.
However it is done, the thing to realize here is that accompaniment is exactly what its name implies, the stuff
that goes along with (accompanies) the melody. You must never, ever sacrifice the melody for a complex and
technically difficult accompaniment.
During the 50s, a style of piano playing sometimes termed the modern lush sound was made popular in sup-
per clubs and piano bars. Highly influenced by jazz, it featured complex and subtle harmonic relationships and
very large chord structures. It became THE way to play standard songs. The downside was that the complexi-
ties of the harmony made necessary a very high level of technical skill, one frankly missing in most amateur
pianists and even in some professionals. They would attempt these difficult harmonies anyway, flub them up,
and sacrifice the rhythm and the melody in the process.
My motto is this: if you cant keep the beat and play the melody clearly, then simplify your harmony till you can.
The resulting improvements in your overall sound will more than make up for any loss in subtlety in your music.
Besides, do you really believe that your untrained audience even hears all those nuances that you, a trained
musician, know and love?
There you have it, a realistic assessment of priorities from the observations of a lifetime devoted to music. I
truly believe that you will get the most from your practice if you concentrate your efforts in the order given
above. Placing your attention on items above will help you create music which your friends and family will rec-
ognize and appreciate.
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Playing Expressively: The Fundamentals of Feeling
Have you ever been to a piano recital? You sit quietly and listen to the students run through their pieces, many
obviously nervous, some not, some with perfect renditions, most with a number of errors. Every now and then
one student stands out. Their music is perhaps not technically perfect, but it is obvious to the whole audience
that this particular player loves playing. Their music breathes and speaks and has a life that the other perform-
ances lack. It is truly special.
Afterwards, we say that this student played from the heart, that they played expressively. We discuss how the
student has a natural talent for the piano and that they should go far. We know we have heard a level of play-
ing above mere notes and technique. We sense that this is an example of the real use of music.
How do some pianists play this way? Is it something they are born with and that others lack? Perhaps, but as
a teacher, I would like to suggest that there are three additional factors at work, factors which we can control.
The first, and most obvious, is to actually love the music you are performing. It is impossible to play expressively when
you have nothing to express! It helps not at all that the teacher loves the piece and considers it great piano music.
Expressive playing comes from within and an emptiness within produces empty music and a sterile rendition.
The second, also obvious, is that the pianist must get the notes, their rhythm and their melody, played correct-
ly in the first place. The mechanics of the music must be completely known: known to the mind, known to the
fingers, known to the emotions, known to the inner ear. I am convinced that no expressive playing can exist
until the music is memorized to a very great extent.
This memorization can be the result of years of playing similar music with similar technical demands. This
explains the seemingly instant ability to play expressively by the experienced pianist. Much new music is
not really new to such a pianist because it consists of actions, motions, patterns, and combinations of notes that
they have mastered over years of playing. The new music is actually already memorized, and thus the expe-
rienced pianist can immediately begin to play expressively. Such ability is almost the definition of what it means
to be an experienced pianist. It is certainly what most students dream of achieving!
The third, and least readily understood of the points, is to grant yourself the freedom to express. It is this point
upon which both teachers and students make the most serious of mistakes. They conceive that there is one
proper and correct way to perform a particular piece. However, an examination of the real world of music per-
formance shows quickly that famous pianists perform the same music with many differences. They call it inter-
preting the music. Some critics will agree and some disagree with any particular interpretation, but the basic
fact that the music SHOULD BE interpreted is conceded by all. Piano teachers must make this clear to their
students and not only allow but insist that the students learn to interpret.
To summarize, then, how to play expressively:
1. Choose music you feel a personal attraction to,
2. Master the mechanics of the music until it is memorized, and finally,
3. Grant yourself the freedom to interpret the music.
Get these actions down and it will be YOU that people hail as the next piano star!
Playing Expressively: Tempo and Volume
Playing with feeling is the goal of most musicians. As stated previously, this goal is only possible after the
mechanics have been mastered.
Once that mastery has been attained, there are several aspects of music which produce feeling, the two most
important being the tempo and the volume. How fast and how loud you play are the most important consider-
ations when personalizing your performance.
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Printed music contains many instructions regarding speed and volume (known in music terms as tempo and
dynamics.) Many music teachers encourage, even demand, that their students follow these instructions. Often
this encouragement goes so far as to insist that the student study the life of the musics composer, attempting to
determine how the composer would have played the piece and what tempo and dynamics he would have used.
This is wrong-headed. It is counter-productive. Let me explain why and propose a quite different procedure
regarding choices in tempo and volume.
In the first place, you as a music student do not owe anything at all to a person dead for centuries. You are NOT
in debt to Bach, Beethoven, etc. They did not know you would live and they did not write their music for you
as an individual. It matters not at all that they may have written with the idea of creating art for the centuries
or for the betterment of Mankind. YOU are NOT Mankind. You are an individual and thus NOT in the debt
of great music and musicians or some such concept. I reject totally the idea that every musician is obligated
to perform as some dead composer might have desired. You may CHOOSE to try to recreate a composers
intentions. I do that to quite an extent. However, that is my CHOICE, not my obligation.
Your obligation is to yourself and your personal happiness and fulfillment.
Professional musicians make such choices all the time. Examine several printed copies of the same classical
piece. You will find differences, sometimes extreme differences, in their tempo and dynamic markings. Listen
to recordings of classical pieces. You will marvel at the differences in interpretation.
Additionally, music from Bachs era, the Baroque, often omitted the tempo and dynamic markings altogether.
This was partially due to the limited ability of the keyboards of their era to play at different volumes. However,
these composers still would not have indicated exact directions in their music. A great deal was left up to the
performer. It was simply expected that the performer would demonstrate his creativity and talent by choosing
an appropriate tempo and volume. Thus, many of the indications for these expressive points in modern books
are the additions of modern editors, NOT the desires of the Baroque composers.
You, as a music student, can justifiably ask, Why do these editors have a superior idea of how I should per-
form this piece, especially since these experts cant even agree with each other? Sure they have advanced
degrees in music, but does that make their opinions and choices into facts?
As time went on, composers became more and more exact in their instructions regarding how they wanted their
music performed. With the invention of the metronome in the 19th century, they could even specify the num-
ber of beats per minute for each piece. The chance to make a personal judgment was removed from the per-
former. The tradition moved more and more toward authority rule and rigidity and away from performer choice
and expression.
Of course, this trend came to be expressed in music education. Students often bring me their lessons books
from years ago. Penciled in are many circles around the tempos and dynamic signs. There arent too many
changed tempos or dynamics. Certainly children often have to be instructed that tempo and volume are impor-
tant, not just I played the right key, hooray! But helping them make their own choices, it would seem to me,
is a better way of developing musicians. Thus, I would expect to see some of these choices penciled into the
music but I seldom do.
So, how DO you choose a tempo and a volume? I feel that the keyword is allow. You master the mechanics
and then ALLOW yourself to gravitate towards a certain tempo and certain volumes. It has always seemed to
me that music creates a sort of feedback loop internally. I play it and I listen and am moved by what I just
played. I am always aware of my reactions to my playing and, as I practice the music, I soon notice myself being
attracted towards a certain tempo and volume. I allow myself to be so attracted, and as the music works with-
in me, I find I have decided where I like my tempo, how loud I want to play, and where I want to increase or
decrease these things. Its natural to want to make the music louder or softer and to sometimes speed up and
slow down artistically, of course!
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You will quickly see that my present state of mind and level of energy will have much to do with how I express
the music each time I perform it. Thus, no two performances are exactly alike, and this is as it should be.
How can you become sensitive to your reactions and thus learn to make your own choices? Try this: have a
friend find some short and easy pieces of both classical and popular music which are totally unknown to you.
Have your friend use typewriter correction fluid to remove all tempo and volume indications. Thus, you begin
with no preconceived notions of how to play this music expressively. Now learn the pieces. Be alert for your
reactions to the notes and their patterns. What is this music saying to you? Play loudly when it seems you
should. Play rapidly if the music seems to sound better that way. Slow it down, speed it up, make it soft, make
it holler, all as the spirit moves you. Master each piece, penciling in your choices for tempo and dynamics.
Learn to perform it with feeling. Now examine the original music and compare. What conclusion do you draw?
It has always seemed to me that great music tends to somehow communicate much of what will bring out its
best qualities without any need for specific instruction. Of course, no two people are alike and thus no two peo-
ple will relate to any single piece in quite the same way.
Is this essay off base? Are these ideas radical and an insult to the great composers? On the contrary, I have
read that Brahms said of his Intermezzi, Do you think I am such a fool as to play them the same way every
day? And I am reminded of a wonderful chart I have in my possession detailing the different tempos used by
world class pianists in their recordings of the Bach Inventions. Differences of 40%, even 50% occur in their
choice of tempos. Yet each recording is by a recognized master of the keyboard.
In summary, as individuals we have every right to make our own choices in expression. We must first grant our-
selves that right, learn to be sensitive to our interaction with the music, and then allow our responses and choic-
es to be expressed in our performance. And since these are OUR choices, we will find new enjoyment in our
own performance, thus fulfilling our personal music goals.
How Loud Should I Play?
Definition: Dynamics: The use of volume in music.
Isnt it nice that we use a $10 word when a $2 word would do! But even though students tend to forget that
dynamics simply refers to what we do with the volume, we must not forget the volume itself. Its easy to do,
for most of our concentration is devoted to playing the right key with the right finger while keeping the correct
timing. These are indeed the basics and come first. However, a pianist must then consider the volume of what
she is playing.
The full name of our instrument is the pianoforte, an Italian word which means soft-loud. The name tells
us why the piano was such a marvelous invention. Previous instruments, the harpsichord, clavichord, and oth-
ers, offered little or no control of volume. The piano had the wonderful ability to change the volume of each
individual note, opening the door to amazing subtlety. Thus, we must consider volume to make the most of
the piano.
The first thing to know is that the printed music wont tell you exactly how loud to play! Instead, youre given
general directions and then must listen to the nature of the piece and play at the volume which seems to best
compliment this nature.
Ah, but WHO conceives of this nature and decides what constitutes best? The teacher? The student? A noted
authority? And what if these folks disagree? You can bet that they will, for music is not a specific communica-
tion. Music can produce different reactions in individuals, based on a host of uniquely personal factors. For
example, I can guarantee you that someone like me, raised on rock and roll, will enjoy loud music much loud-
er than a person who grew up before guitars were amplified. One of the beauties of music is that you fill-in-
the-blanks with your own life experiences and, in doing so, make the music your own.
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I spend much time with my students encouraging, even demanding, that they own the music. This means that
they must consider that they have the right and even the duty of making some choices in their performance and
pleasing themselves with those choices. Once they do, a marvelous thing occurs: their music takes on assertive-
ness, a quality of communication that makes it far more enjoyable than merely playing the notes. It is because
they are now speaking from the heart, not simply following directions.
But how, exactly, do you own the music? Realize that you have a large degree of freedom in dealing with vol-
ume. Start by looking at the symbols provided. Now learn the piece. From your very first attempt, you will gain
some sense of how volume and changes in volume could be used to further its mood. Here is where your indi-
vidual reaction will provide a unique answer. Blend the instructions on the page with your own ideas to bring
the piece to life. Your rendition will have quality and character. This is what performance is all about!
Possibly, earlier teachers criticized you for doing such interpretation and you are now hesitant to approach
music this way. You should know that during the Baroque era, the age of Bach and the invention of the piano,
music was often written as a kind of skeleton and the performer was expected to flesh it out, based on their
talent, feeling for music, and choice. C.P.E. Bach, in his book, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard
Instruments, discusses this thoroughly. Freedom in personal interpretation was not only encouraged, it was
insisted upon. It was only later, when experts and authorities took over and labeled their tastes and opin-
ions as facts, that students were no longer expected to play from the heart. During this later period, com-
posers often took to explaining every little detail and insisting that there be no deviation. Personally, I respect
the earlier composers/teachers, not the later academics and totalitarians of music. I encourage you to go on
and work with your music, regardless of who wrote it. Make it your own and you will be following a proud tra-
dition and enjoying piano much, much more!
Lets also be very clear that your technique must be good enough to manipulate volume. Here is where our fin-
ger exercises show their value. The control and strength you gain allows you to put your feeling and choices
into the piano. Drills to improve hand, wrist, and arm position and to practice the proper use of your playing
machine are not busy work. They are the training necessary to control that other playing machine, the piano.
Do not neglect these exercises. Only with adequate finger strength and excellent control can your feeling for
the music pass into the piano and appear in the music itself, especially the volume.
To summarize, take the information the music provides, grant yourself the freedom to play from the heart, and
have your technique adequate to make the piano respond to your desires. Enjoy!
Phrasing a Melody
Definition: A musical phrase is a group of two or more melody notes which fit together to make a musical state-
ment. In music with lyrics (songs), these phrases are the same as the phrases, clauses, and sentences found in the
lyrics. However, instrumentals have phrases as well.
Playing a melody should be much more than simply performing notes. Melodies are organized into phrases for
the sake of musical meaning. From the listeners point of view, nothing is more boring than listening to an end-
less river of notes with no discernible start, middle, or end. All notes become equally important and very soon
none are important at all. Fail to provide the ear with some sense of how the notes are organized, and human
nature, which demands such organization, will quickly reject that series of notes. The listener must hear the
melody in phrases to enjoy the music.
How do we accomplish this?
The composer starts the process. Many phrases will come out properly if we simply follow the directions. For
example, a composer can provide an end to a group of notes by any method which breaks the flow of new
notes. The most obvious way is to insert a rest, a silence, between notes of one phrase and the next. Another
way is to write several short notes and then end with a long one. Harmonically, the last note of a phrase should
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be very restful, giving the listener the feeling that all has been said, at least temporarily. There are other, more
complicated ways composers create phrases.
The performer must know where the phrases begin and end. Much, though not all, music shows these begin-
nings and endings with a curved line called a slur. Slurs are the punctuation of the melody. They also mean
that the notes within its boundaries are to be played legato, that is, one note becoming another smoothly in
a connected fashion. Legato notes are run together in a way which duplicates the way we speak. Thus, the slur
gives the phrasing in two ways: first, by showing where the notes of a phrase start and end, and second, by
instructing the performer that the notes within the phrase be connected smoothly.
If slurs tell us to connect the notes within the phrase, they also imply that we will NOT connect the notes
between different phrases. That means that the listener should hear the last note of a phrase as an ending and
the first note of the new phrase as a beginning. To do this, the pianist disconnects these last and first notes by
slightly shortening the last note of one phrase and slightly accenting the first note of the following phrase.
Please, please notice that I said slightly. Nothing sounds more forced and unmusical as too much shortening
and too much accent. It has to be just enough to be noticeable and to inform the ear that one phrase has ended
and another has begun. Often, considering that the very notes chosen by the composer can create the phras-
ing, we performers have to do little or nothing.
Your guide is the ear. Think of each melody as a song, whether it has actual lyrics or not. Make the piano sing
this song. If there are words, keep them in your mind as you play. Your thoughts bring about subtle changes in
muscle action, often sub-conscious, which yet contribute to the phrasing of the melody. Beethoven is said to
have told his students to go listen to great singers. I couldnt agree more!
Keeping the Audience Interested
Want to make your music more interesting?
Create contrast!
Only change will keep the attention of the listener.. Go on too long with something, anything, and the music
becomes background noise.
Contrast, change, is created by use of The Pairs, characteristics opposed to each other:
Loud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Soft
Fast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Slow
These two create the greatest contrast. Other Pairs are:
harmony . . . . . . . . . . discord
simple. . . . . . . . . . . . . complex
sparse. . . . . . . . . . . . . thick
bright . . . . . . . . . . . . . mellow
long notes . . . . . . . . . short notes
long phrases . . . . . . . short phrases
basic harmony. . . . . . complex harmony
tonal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . atonal
verse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . chorus
repetitive . . . . . . . . . . changing
major . . . . . . . . . . . . . minor
straight . . . . . . . . . . . swing
legato. . . . . . . . . . . . . staccato
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There are almost certainly more.
You can easily see that these pairs are not either one or the other but a series of gradations, more or less of each.
On the other hand, if you introduce too much change youll confuse your listeners. Huh? Where did that come
from? Is that the same piece of music? The secret is to evolve naturally. As the music progresses some things
repeat and some things change, all in ways that make sense to the ear. The right amount of repetition and
change creates interesting music.
By the way, this idea should tell you a ton about why the piano is the worlds premier musical instrument. It
makes loud and soft notes with EVERY SINGLE KEY. Amazing. And very, very interesting to folks.
Repertoire
Its gonna happen! Your friends will say, So, lets hear you play now that youve taking lessons. And youll go
blank! All those songs you studied so hard to learn will be somewhere on the other side of Venus!
What to do?
Create a repertoire, a list of pieces you would be proud to play. Write them down. Make sure they are pieces
you personally love. Once you have your list, play these pieces for your own enjoyment and the enjoyment of
others. Go over them OFTEN! Then, because you play them all the time, they will continue to improve, become
fully memorized, and show off your talents to one and all!
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CHAPTER SIX
How to Succeed at Other Piano Skills
There are a number of special skills which you may wish to explore along your journey with the piano. All are
valuable. In fact, many teachers feel that the skills discussed below are a necessary part of a well-rounded stu-
dents musical education. Im not sure Id use the word necessary, but I know for a fact that these skills can
improve any pianist and for some are critical to their enjoyment of the piano experience. Read the chapter and
decide for yourself perhaps you will find even more to love in music than you already have!
Essays in this chapter:
Lets Go Shopping! How to Choose and Buy the Right Piano Music
What Good is Sight Reading and How is it Done?
Improvisation How-tos
What is Music Theory?
You Can Write Music
Lets Go Shopping! How to Choose and Buy the Right Piano Music
The sheet music store can be a dangerous place for the piano student. Thats because its easy to spend way too
much money on sheet music! Theres sooooo much music we want to play that we tend to buy lots of it. Too
often, however, we get home and find that we cant play the music weve purchased because its above our level.
Sometimes we can play it properly but it still doesnt sound very good because weve purchased a poor arrange-
ment. There are other traps as well. The purpose of this essay is to make you a knowledgeable consumer of
printed music who gets maximum enjoyment for minimal expense.
The first thing you should know is that not all recorded music can be purchased as sheet music. Its possible
that the song you love from a favorite CD doesnt even exist in published form. Companies only publish what
they feel they can sell. Older pieces which have become standards and new music at the top of the charts are
safe bets. You can also likely buy collections containing all the songs on best-selling CDs. However, music from
relatively unknown artists or local stars probably is not currently available and may never be. Only a knowledge-
able music store clerk (more on these animals later!) can tell you for sure.
If your music does exist, you should try to find it as part of a collection of songs. Individual sheets currently
(2006) cost $4.00 for a single piece of music. The exact same music often appears in a collection with 10, 20,
even 50 other songs for $15 - $25. You do the math. These collections are usually theme oriented, such as Love
Songs of the 90s or Great Movie Themes and will contain plenty of other pieces you will enjoy playing.
Another aspect of successful buying is getting good arrangements of your music. People tend to think that all
versions of a particular tune are the same. This is far from the truth. A universally known piece like Stardust
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can literally appear in a couple hundred versions, some excellent and some terrible. It all depends on a guy
called an arranger. This is the musician who takes the music written for a band or orchestra and converts it into
piano music. It is definitely a special skill, one most musicians never learn. You didnt actually think that rock
stars or pop singers sat down and wrote out the music to their hits, did you?
There are two types of arrangers. I call them name-brand arrangers and ghostwriters. The name-brand
arranger is a musician who makes his living by arranging music. His name appears on the cover of all the col-
lections he has arranged. He releases new collections regularly, always under his signature. The ghostwriter is
exactly what the name implies, a musician who never gets any credit or blame for his work. Sheet music with
no named arranger is arranged by ghostwriters. These folks work for the publishing houses cranking out
arrangements on salary.
I probably dont have to tell you that name-brand arrangements are seriously better than arrangements by ghost-
writers! When your reputation and future income is on the line because your name is on the cover, you do a
better job. A ghostwriter is neither complimented nor blamed for the quality of his work so the all-too-human
tendency is to only do as much as needed to get that paycheck.
Lets name some names, shall we? Good arrangers deserve your sheet music dollar: Dan Coates, Richard
Bradley, Dan Fox, John Brimhall, Denes Agay, Phillip Keveren these are all excellent arrangers you should
buy. There are others.
You will find that arrangements, even by the name-brand arrangers, are graded into three levels:
Easy (sometimes called Big Note),
Intermediate, and
Advanced
I hope you will not be too surprised when I tell you that each arranger seems to have a different idea of what
these three levels mean. You should examine the music quite carefully, no matter what level it says it is. As a
piano student, you should be able to determine whether you can play the music easily (easy piano), with some
effort (intermediate), or you will have to quit your job and work on it full time (advanced!)
Although, Ive made a joke out of the idea of picking out music that is much more difficult than your current
instructional pieces, choosing such music can often serve some VERY valuable purposes. Primarily, these
pieces become goals to inspire students to maintain or even increase their training efforts. Secondly, a student
will occasionally want to play something difficult so badly that they drop the rest of their assignment to work
on it. These situations are very beneficial, a good thing. The student sweats bullets, for months sometimes, but
in the process makes astounding leaps in ability. I would be the last one to tell someone that they absolutely
cant succeed at a particular piece. The chance may be slim, but that chance always exists. Plus, even if the per-
son finds that the effort is just too much, their look down the road at where they are going helps give direction
to their current efforts.
Another thing to keep in mind regarding printed music is that it can be wrong. Anything printed, whether a
Mozart Sonata, your local newspaper, or the latest Tom Clancy novel must be written and proofread, and even
so typographical errors do occur. Additionally, each publishing house has certain practices regarding the edit-
ing and formatting of their music, practices which are sometimes just plain stupid. I wont go into here how one
publishing house destroyed Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue (a disaster only recently discovered and rectified,)
or how another publisher saved paper by printing music so small it was almost impossible to read, or how a
third changed the works of Bach, Beethoven etc. without bothering to tell the buyer they had altered it, or...
Well, you get the idea. You can, and should, examine your purchase carefully, reading any introduction to see
whether you like the publishers concepts. However, there really is no way you can prevent buying music with
typographical errors or editing alterations. Only someone who already knows the music would find them. Your
music teacher might be able to pass judgment. Save your receipt!
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Music stores have a master catalog which is published every few months and is supposed to contain details
of everything that is currently available. You can look up a particular song and discover if it is available as a sin-
gle sheet or which collections include it. You can also look up different composers and artists and find lists of
all their published music. This is not to say that the store has any of this music in-stock. However, publishers
and order numbers are included so your choice can be ordered, if the store offers that service.
Which brings us to the topic of service, quality of. As you would expect, this varies widely. The music store I
shop at is manned by folks who have worked there for years, know music, and know their inventory. I could
also direct you to a store where the clerks stand behind the counter mostly too unconcerned and/or uninformed
to provide anything recognizable as help. The service oriented store has poor parking and is some distance
from my studio and the other store is just across the street but guess where I shop!
Music stores which are service oriented can help you find your music (if it exists), find the best value, or order
your music and deliver it in a reasonable time. My store calls me when my orders come in and doesnt even ask
for a deposit. They are always friendly. These are smart moves on their part. Theyve made huge sums of money
on my students and I over the course of the 32 years Ive been shopping there! You should find such a store
and develop a relationship with it.
Finally, you may want a piece of music which is long out of print. There are folks who make a living buying and
selling old sheet music. Theres no problem finding them on the Internet. Chances are that one of these folks
either has your music or can tell you where to get it. Another source is local used bookstores. Many carry used
sheet music. Both these sources have reasonable prices.
There you have it a guide for the intelligent music consumer. Happy shopping and happy playing!
What Good is Sight Reading and How is it Done?
Sight reading is the skill of playing a previously unstudied piece of music at sight, which is to say, without
practice. There are two levels of this skill: sight reading music a person has heard, such as a familiar song and
sight reading music completely unfamiliar to the pianist (obviously MUCH more difficult!)
Most students find sight reading quite a task. Actually, anyone that can read music at all can sight read to some
degree, but the ability to sight read is never, in any pianist, as developed as their full ability to play. It is some
percentage of their total skill. The beginning student who can read and play Mary Had a Little Lamb can sight
read some little song which consists of only 4 quarter notes. The concert pianist can sight read and play music
most of us could never play at all! It seems like a miracle, but it still is only a percentage of that pianists total
ability. The effort to increase this percentage is seldom easy, usually requiring a fair amount of work over a num-
ber of months. We should examine whether this effort is in line with our musical goals before attempting it.
What Value is Sight Reading?
Sight reading conveys a number of very useful abilities. Perhaps the most enjoyable is the chance to audition
brand new pieces. A good sight reader can go on an adventure with unfamiliar music, playing new pieces well
enough to appreciate them, and perhaps decide to work them up to a further polish. Or the sight reader can
perform these new pieces well enough to enjoy the auditioning for its own sake, perhaps never playing this par-
ticular music again.
Improving sight reading improves regular reading dramatically. The speed of processing the musical symbols
increases by leaps and bounds, and the information comes off the page and is executed by the body far faster
than before.
A final benefit is limited to those with special needs. Accompanists and working musicians are often called on
to sight read unfamiliar music during rehearsals and at gigs. Lack of a good ability here can mean lost jobs
and lost income, not to mention embarrassment.
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All the above benefits usually require a diligent effort to achieve. A section of regular practice time must be
devoted to sight reading, certainly at least ten to fifteen minutes per day. This will go on for a number of
months. The more you practice this skill, the better it will get. Eventually, you will be able to sight read at a sig-
nificant percentage of your total ability. However, only you can decide if the time invested is worth the return.
How to Practice Sight Reading
In order to sight read we must consider sight reading to be performance without previous practice. The chief
difference between practice and performance is in the treatment of mistakes. Practice is an action where each
mistake is examined and eradicated. Performance is an action in which mistakes are ignored, glossed over.
Thus, when we sight read, WE DO NOT STOP TO CORRECT OUR ERRORS. We never back up and correct
missed notes. We keep moving ahead, keep the music flowing. We move straight through the piece and then on
to the next piece. This is so new and so different that many students simply cannot do it at first. The urge to
stop and fix is just too strong. However, to learn to sight read, that urge must, absolutely must, be removed.
The procedure involved in practicing sight reading is:
1. With your teachers help, select a volume of familiar pieces. These will be at a level much simpler than the
music you practice for lessons. Of course, what will be familiar will be the melodies, while the left hand
accompaniments will be totally new. You will, however, have your knowledge of the melodies to confirm
that you are playing the right hand part correctly. The accompaniment, although brand new, will mostly
harmonize the melody, so you will have some idea when you make a mistake with the left hand.
2. Put the first piece in front of you and keep your hands in your lap. Let your eyes examine the piece care-
fully. Note the Key Signature and the Time Signature. Look for patterns in the notes. Notice where the
hands must move or the fingering becomes a bit more difficult. In short, look the thing over for about 60
seconds before you touch a key. In that length of time you should be able to get enough info to make a
sight reading possible. If you cannot, then the music chosen is too difficult.
3. Now that you have an idea of what will happen, decide on a tempo which you believe you can keep for
the duration of the piece. Remember that you will not be correcting any mistakes, never backing up to fix
a wrong note. Choose a tempo slow enough to get through the hard parts as well as the easy ones. SET
THIS TEMPO INTO YOUR METRONOME. At the start of sight reading practice you absolutely must
use a metronome. Later your skill will increase to be able to internalize the steady pulse of the
metronome, but not at first.
4. Place your hands into position and begin. Once you have begun, you must discipline yourself to continue
moving forward. NEVER, EVER REPEAT ANYTHING, NO MATTER HOW AWFUL THE MISTAKES
SOUND. If there are too many mistakes, the tempo is too fast. Stop and reduce the tempo by some
LARGE amount and try again. If there are still too many mistakes, then the piece is too hard for you and
you need simpler pieces.
5. I must repeat: DO NOT PRACTICE SIGHT READING THE WAY YOU PRACTICE YOUR REGULAR
PIECES. The moment you do, all the benefits to be gained from sight reading are completely denied you
and your time is a complete waste, at least so far as sight reading is concerned. Sight reading is a matter
of developing reflexes and reaction time and it requires the method outlined here to improve.
6. Once you have played the piece, it is through for that session of sight-reading. Go on to the next piece and
repeat all the steps until you are done with sight reading practice for that session. (If you discover some
interesting music during this process, then shift gears and learn it by applying typical practice routine,
namely stopping to correct mistakes, etc.)
7. Some students have found that they can sight-read through a book and then repeat the process on that same
book and get further gain. Others use different books. You can try both methods and see which you enjoy more.
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8. After a time of sight reading familiar music, you are ready to move up to the real challenge, namely sight
reading totally new music. The procedure is the same. However, this time you have only your sense of
what sounds musically correct to guide you. Both melody and accompaniment will be completely unfamil-
iar. Please note that, although this skill allows you to audition unknown pieces, it is quite difficult and not
at all necessary for the amateur pianist. If you feel no urge to go this far with sight reading, dont worry.
You will still have a happy musical life!
As you sight read, you will find yourself in a different sort of mental state, one in which you react to the sym-
bols rather than think about them. Youll make use of automatic mind/body mechanisms (explained in detail
in Chapter 4,) rather than conscious consideration. You will know this state when you experience it. Youll like
it, and find it new and different. It is the ability to assume this state plus the improvement in speed of reaction
to the symbols that improves your regular practice and playing.
You can continue to practice sight reading in the fashion just about forever, always setting goals for improve-
ment. I am not sure whether there is any end to the amount of improvement possible. You can quit when you
have achieved the level you desire. Would you like a challenge as a musician, one which will pay off big in future
ability, but will require serious sweat in the short term? Yes? Then sight reading is for you! Get to it!
Improvisation How-tos
Improvisation is the art of creating music on the spur of the moment, usually with no intent to ever play exactly
the same notes again. It is creativity in the raw. (Once you decide to save your creation for future enjoyment,
you have entered the world of composition.) Many otherwise good pianists cannot improvise, since its quite a
different skill than performing music others have composed using the composers exact written directions.
Improvising requires a different state of mind, a more playful, experimental way of approaching music. The
improviser must be comfortable with the process of trial and error, especially error, since there will quite a num-
ber of these during the period of trial! However, there are basics to the art which can limit errors and provide
guidance to the experiments you make. This essay gives those basics. Its up to you to creatively apply them.
Definitions
1. Music: Organized sound with an artistic purpose.
2. Parts of Music: Melody, Rhythm, and Harmony, and Form.
3. Melody: A string of single notes with different pitches and lengths. This is what we hear mentally when
we think of a particular song. Also called the tune, it is what we would hum, whistle, or sing.
4. Rhythm: Any pattern which repeats as time passes is said to have a rhythm. These patterns can be drum
beats, repeating notes, whole groups of notes, many other things, but to be rhythmic some item must
repeat in a predictable fashion.
5. Harmony: Notes sounded along with melody which create mood, depth, and, in general, make the over-
all creation more interesting than melody alone.
6. Form: The blueprint of the music, its overall plan. For example, in a song there are verses and choruses.
7. Chord: Any group of three or more notes used as Harmony.
How the Parts Make the Whole
From the definitions, we can see that to create music is to create patterns in sound. The most basic pattern is
a pattern of rhythm. Drumming on anything in a pattern will be conceived as music by most humans. The prob-
lem is boredom! Drumming alone just doesnt contain enough change and things to keep your attention. Most
people will need some sounds in the form of a melody to stay interested.
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A melody doesnt have to be complicated to be memorable. Is there anyone who doesnt know Mary Had a
Little Lamb? Yet that piece only contains four stupid notes. Amazing Grace has eight. Happy Birthday to
You also eight notes!
However, even a famous melody played in rhythm will still not please most modern ears. Over the last several
centuries, we have become accustomed to hearing our melodies embellished with other notes, notes which have
interesting interactions with the melody notes. These interactions we call harmony, and we can change the
whole character of a piece of music with a change in its harmony. Interestingly, the harmony by itself is not
enough to produce a complete piece of music. We listen to it and, without a melody, have no way of identify-
ing the music.
The final need is some structure, a form, for our music. We most often gain our sense of form using melody.
Continuing our song form discussion, the verse has a particular melody and the chorus has a different one.
These different melodies thus form different sections of a piece and provide us with contrast and interest.
Repeating some section over and over is a guarantee of boredom, no matter how good that sections melody,
rhythm, and harmony are.
The successful formula, then, for music simple or complex is to create at least two different and interesting
melodies, each flavored with one or more harmony notes, and all played with good rhythm. This is what pro-
duces a great symphony, a favorite popular song, AND good improvisation!
Role of the Hands
For a pianist, the easiest approach to improvising is to assign the Right Hand (RH) to play a melody and the
Left Hand (LH) to play harmony and rhythm.
Beginning to Improvise a Melody
Melodies are made of notes which change in pitch and length. To make a melody, play some notes on the piano
with some pattern of pitch and length. For example, with your RH, play two Es of equal length followed by one
G which is as long as both of them. Play the three notes again. Wow! Its Brahms Lullaby! Play 3 Es of equal
length followed by the C just below played as long as the 3 Es. Then play 3 Ds and a B with the same timing.
Wow! Beethovens Fifth!
Not too hard, is it? Any recognizable pattern would make a melody. Of course, if the pattern is too repetitious
it may get boring, so there must be some change, some contrast. You can do that by changing either the length
of the notes, the pitch of the notes, or both.
For example, play 5 Cs, four the same length and the last as long as the other four combined. A melody which
did this over and over would be boring. Now change the pitch, but not the length of the 5 notes to D, E, F, G,
D (the long note). Now change the pitches to G, F, E, F, G (long note.) Now make play G, F, E, D, C (long.)
Now play these four groups of five notes one right after the other:
C C C C C
D E F G D
G F E F G
G F E D C
Youve written a simple song with all groups having the same timing but different pitches. (The groups you used
are called phrases in music. We will use this term from here on.)
As another example, play the phrase E, F, G, E, C. Make the notes the same length. Now try making them dif-
ferent lengths. See how many changes in note length you can think of, and how these changes alter the overall
sound of this phrase. You can get a lot of contrast with the same notes merely by changing note length. One
good, general rule is to make the last note of your phrase longer than the others. This gives a sense of comple-
tion to that phrase, and is similar to the pause we place at the end of sentences as we speak.
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Open a simple music book. Notice how the melodies change in length or pitch or both. The curved lines you
see connecting melody notes are called slurs. The slurs provide punctuation for the melody, dividing the notes
into phrases. Notice how many phrases end in long notes.
Notes that Go Together: The Major Scale
Now that we know some basics of melody, lets learn which notes to use. The most important group of notes
is familiar to anyone who has ever seen the movie The Sound of Music. In that famous musical, the Trapp
Family children learn about singing with the song Do Re Mi. This song introduces the Major Scale: Do Re
Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do, by far the most common grouping of notes in our musical system. An overwhelming
majority of music composed during the last few centuries uses the Major Scale for its characteristic sound. This
means that the sound of music stored in your own memory banks is based primarily on this scale. Thus, the
melodies you create will also make use of the Major Scale what went IN is what will come OUT!
As an aside, the word scale derives from the Italian word scala which means ladder. Thus, a scale is a
ladder of notes with ascending pitches, and the Major Scale is the main ladder we climb!
A Major Scale can be played by starting on any note of the piano. Since there are twelve different notes,
there are twelve Major Scales. However, the easiest begins on the note C and climbs using every white key
till you reach the next C. Youll hear the familiar Do-Re-Mi relationship. Try starting on G and using only
white keys. All will be well until you reach the F. Somehow, it sounds wrong and will only sound right
when you substitute F# for F. Can you figure out why? Now, start with F. The notes G and A are okay, but
B sounds wrong. You will need to play the Bb, and then on to C D E and F. Actually, only when you start on
C can you use all white keys to play a Major Scale. All other Major Scales require one or more black keys.
Have you figured out why yet?
Yep, its the spacing between the notes, the distance in pitch between the rungs of the ladder, which create the
characteristic sound. This is true no matter which key our Major Scale starts with. The changes in pitch as we
move up the ladder give us the series of sounds we call a Major Scale. Thus, there is no good reason to any
scale others than the C Major Scale in beginning our work in improvisation. Confine yourself for now to the
white keys starting with C.
Harmony and Chords
Even a single note played together with melody is harmony. Youll quickly find that some note pairs sound bet-
ter than others: LH note C along with RH note G is great, while LH C with RH B ugh! The most common
and useful approach, however, is to play chords in the left hand. A chord is any group of three or more notes
used together for the purpose of harmonizing. Some possible groups of three notes are just lousy, such as D,
E, and F. Such chords have no names as nobody wants to use them. The more harmonious chords, like C, E,
and G are everywhere and have been named for centuries.
See how many pleasant chords you can make using only white keys. Experiment until you see a pattern. Note
the successful combinations on a sheet of paper. All these groupings have names, of course, but lets keep it
simple for now.
Making a Melody with a Harmony
Time to create a simple bit of improvisation! With your RH play white keys. Try to group them in meaningful
phrases, each ending with a long note. With your LH, play some of the chords you wrote down as sounding
acceptable. Since both melody and harmony use the same white keys, most of the combinations will be more
or less workable. Continue experimenting in this fashion until you have settled on a melody and a harmony.
Write them down via letters. Of course, you are no longer improvising youre now a composer! Once the
music is preserved so it can be repeated, the action is composition, not improvisation. But one certainly does
lead to the other, doesnt it!
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Adding Some Rhythm
Your song probably lacks rhythm, a really good beat! The secret is that the chords can be played in such a way as
to create a strong, sturdy rhythm which will both underlie the melody and drive it forward. There are a huge num-
ber of ways to do this, some simple and some quite difficult. Two simple approaches can be tried immediately.
First, try striking the LH chords again and again, evenly. This is somewhat like a guitarist strumming his guitar.
It sounds okay, but not too professional.
Now, take the same chords and play their notes one at a time, lowest note to highest, as you play your melody.
You will probably want to play the LH notes evenly, perhaps letting the top note last a bit longer than the other
two. This is a harder LH action, but usually more satisfactory.
Of course there are a huge number of other patterns and approaches, all more difficult, unfortunately.
Melody to Harmony Harmony to Melody
The chicken or the egg? Which comes first? Do we whistle a little melody and then find some chords to go
along? Do we find a series of chords which pleases us and then try to derive some melody notes? How do song-
writers write their songs, anyway?
It probably wont surprise you to hear that composers, swing both ways. Sometimes they begin with a catchy
melody. Sometimes a series of chords takes their interest. Sometimes its a little of both. Since a good compos-
er knows the relationships of music (called music theory,) she can start at either end as the inspiration dic-
tates. She can even move back and forth in approach within the same piece, or even the same phrase.
You see, good composers are like good mechanics, doctors, and engineers. They know their tools and how
those tools interact. They make case-by-case judgments on how to proceed, and those judgments have been fine-
tuned by years of experience, both successful and not. There is a thing called inspiration. There is also a thing
called perspiration! Add to that comprehension. Good composers, songwriters, and improvisers are a
product of knowledge, hard won experience, and that package of skills we call musical talent.
Sounds great, doesnt it. It all begins with creating a simple melody, a simple harmony, a simple rhythm, just
the way I have outlined in this essay! YOU can do it, and when you do, you will find that every aspect of your
musicianship will improve.
What is Music Theory?
It may seem strange that an explanation of Music Theory must begin by stating what the subject is not, but there
seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding regarding this part of music education, and incorrect ideas always
make real comprehension difficult if not impossible. This essay is intended to correct these misunderstandings
thus making successful study possible.
First, by Music Theory we do not mean theory as in the phrase, The Theory of Relativity. Music Theory
is not a single idea, but rather a body of concepts.
Second, Music Theory is not an explanation of the meaning of the symbols of written music. That is properly
termed notation, the written language of music. Strangely, many theory books contain nothing other than
music symbols and the rules of notation.
Third, Music Theory is not some half-baked, unproven assumption about music which needs experimentation
to prove whether its a fact or wishful thinking.
We actually have to look in a regular English dictionary to start to define the word theory as we use it in the
phrase Music Theory. The Readers Digest Dictionary says it well:
Theory: abstract knowledge of an art, rather than the practice of it.
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Thus, Music Theory would be the study of music itself, rather than learning to play an instrument! However,
let me take this a step farther and offer this as a more comprehensive, realistic and workable definition of
Music Theory:
Music Theory: an examination of the parts of music, how they are put together, and why.
We can see immediately that such an examination of music would apply to all instruments, including the voice,
and be more basic than the symbols used to represent the music on paper. The study of this subject would allow
one to do more than merely follow orders. You could appreciate music, perceive it more fully, and likely write
some yourself!
In addition, this definition would fill a very large hole in many traditional Music Theory approaches, namely,
the lack of or down-playing of any discussion of the human element. Music is a supremely human subject. There
is no logical reason for music or any art form, yet the arts fill so many human needs that all societies and civi-
lizations have invented them. How can we hope to understand the subject of music without understanding the
humans creating and enjoying it, both the artists creating it and the audiences appreciating it?
Indeed, the patterns of music we hear every day of our lives have been established by vote in an endless popularity
contest. These patterns represent the musical relationships people, for one reason or another, have found worth pre-
serving and building upon. Who knows what things in music have been invented but found wanting? They are gone.
It is also not enough to just analyze societies for their musical practices. We must bring it down to the level of
the individual. Why does one person gravitate to one type of music and not another? What factors of human
psychology are influenced by what factors in music? A successful composer, actually any successful performer,
learns some of the answers over time, and knows that these answers are the keys to his success. Technique
alone will not do it. You have to understand (and like!) people.
Thus, Music Theory is really the study of music, organized artistic sound, and its relationship to the people who
make it and listen to it and cherish it.
You Can Write Music
You can write music! Yes, you can! Three-year-olds can write music they just dont write things that please
anyone but other three-year-olds. And the music you can currently write is probably not complex and sophisti-
cated enough that it pleases you, either. Yet you CAN write to some degree.
You see, the essence of writing music is putting notes into patterns. Striking Middle C over and over qualifies.
You, and anyone reading this book, can do that and thus can write music. Creating patterns is what differenti-
ates writing music from the results obtained by your cat walking across the keys. Can you see that your three-
year-old is making music because hes making patterns? Three-year-old type patterns to be sure, but still pat-
terns. Not too complex and to adults they sound like banging on the piano. Still, to his mind, a pattern, name-
ly, I hit these keys and they make, interesting sounds for me, so I hit em again and they make even more
sounds, yippee!
Obviously, YOU need more complex patterns to keep your interest, but the idea remains the same. Writing music
means creating sounds that form interesting patterns, patterns that produce emotional reactions which we enjoy.
Thats the true bottom line in music. Thats the reason Mozart composed. Beethoven. Bach. Guns n Roses. Dr.
Dre. Pavoratti. Beatles. Miles Davis. John Cage. Johnny Cash. Ella Fitzgerald. Mel Torme. Have I over looked
anyone and any type of music? Sorry. Doesnt matter, however, since the reason all musicians, songwriters, and
composers do what they do is that they find interesting patterns in sound, patterns which stimulate reactions
within themselves that they enjoy, and they then want to repeat those patterns for themselves and others.
The evolution runs like this: first they create the music and enjoy it themselves. Later, they want to share their
creation with others. Still later other things, other purposes, such as fame, fortune, telling a story, making peo-
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ple dance, or helping people feel better come into the picture. Still later come lawyers and accountants and gov-
ernment copyright legislation and biographers and audiences and people who like one kind of music but loud-
ly proclaim that any music they dont like (music which produces unpleasant and unwanted reactions within
them) is not even music. This makes for quite a stew!
All this has obscured the basic truth, that writing music just means putting the notes in some kind of order.
Recognize that, and you see that you can currently write music as well as read it.
This is a wonderful thing, isnt it? You will find that any effort you make to improve the patterns in your own com-
positions will help you understand and perform the compositions of others. It really is a two-way street. We recog-
nize this in language, so why not in music. Imagine thinking that you can read language but not write it. Crazy,
huh to think that you can read a Stephen Kind novel but not write a letter, that you can study a geography text
but not compose a book report? Imagine thinking that only special people with mysterious God-given talents
could actually write language. And that a larger number, but still not the majority of people could read language.
Folks, Im here to tell you that you may have believed the spin which music has acquired over the centuries.
I doubt there has ever been a truly non-musical person born. Sure, the Mozarts are few and far between. But
anyone with a heartbeat can get a grip on rhythm, the foundation of music. And anyone with ears can recog-
nize some sort of pattern in sound and consider it to be music.
Once you recognize the basic reality here, that you can currently write music on some simple level, you can
decide whether you want to improve your abilities in this area. Its really not that difficult. Let me give you just
a couple basic principles. Play around with these ideas for a week, a month, a year, whatever, and see if you
dont find this writing music thing to be loads of fun and helpful in your other musical endeavors.
1. A melody, that part of music which sticks in our heads and which we hum tonelessly to ourselves, is made
up a string of single notes, one after the other. In order to keep ourselves interested in this line of notes
we play different notes and make them different lengths. Sometimes we repeat the same notes but change
their length. Sometimes we keep the same length but play different notes. Sometimes we do both. The pat-
terns are made of note identity and note length. Mess around with this and write some melodies.
Youve listened to melodies all your life so you are already familiar with them. You will find yourself cre-
ating patterns which vaguely remind you of some song or another. Sometimes the patterns will be identi-
cal to a familiar song and you will be amazed at how truly simple most well-known melodies are.
2. Harmony refers to the notes played simultaneously with a melody. We do this to add interest to our music.
For thousands of years, all that happened musically was melody and rhythm. The idea of sounding two or
more different notes simultaneously is relatively recent and could be the most important invention in music
since it was first invented. To our modern ears, a melody without a harmony is as boring as the drawings
in an unmarked coloring book. Harmony is the box of crayons that we use to make things interesting.
The very name for these other notes, harmony, tells us that we most often use the same notes as appear in
the melody. This similarity guarantees harmonious combinations. Humans like order and prefer that things
work together. Thus, we value harmony over discord and this is reflected in our music.
You will quickly find that some combinations are more harmonious with others. Go to the piano right now and
try these experiments:
A. Play a C with the left hand while playing a C with the right hand. Your right hand C is a melody note
and your left hand C is its harmony. This pair of notes is completely harmonious. Sounds pretty.
However, I doubt we could make a whole song out of Cs, no matter how pretty and harmonious they
sound together!
B. Play E in the left hand again with a C melody note. Notice that you still have harmony but not the same
total similarity as with C and C together.
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C. Play G in the left, C in the right. Again harmony, but of a different sort.
D. Try a D, F, A, or B in the left while playing C in the right.
E. Play C in the left while playing A, B, C, D, E, F, and G with the right.
Your ears now tell you that there exists a spectrum of what might be called degrees of harmony, with C&C
at one end and C&B at the other. We normally refer to the two ends of the spectrum as harmony and dis-
cord but they really are all just degrees of harmony and composers choose the degree they desire at each
point in their composition.
Now if most people prefer harmony over discord, why would we ever use discord? Well, one final experiment
should answer this. Play and hold a C in the left hand. As this note sounds, use your right hand to play C, B, A,
G, F, E, D, and finally C. Notice your reactions to each combination, both the discords and the harmonies. Do
this until you can answer your own question!
3. Rhythm is nothing more than the predictability of patterns repeating as time goes by. The simplest form
is the beat which we feel as music plays. Once you have made some choices of melody and harmony,
you will probably enjoy them more if you find a way to make things repeat in a regular and thus pre-
dictable pattern. Make the choices, then find a way to arrange them to produce some sort of regularity.
Well, thats enough to get you started. I hope Ive put a stake through the heart of the lie that only Mozart gets
to compose. The key is to experiment and not get too serious about all this. Make some patterns. Notice what
pleases you. Notice what doesnt. Dont run out and get a book on the subject. Try writing music on and off for
six months first. It is vastly more instructive and will give you the background to evaluate the info in books, to
use it or reject as you see fit.
Oh yes... one other thing will happen, a very powerful thing. You will start viewing other peoples music
through the eyes of a composer. You see, composers do not think like non-composers. They consider themselves
active participants in music, not just playing machines whose job is to follow directions. This consideration
changes everything. For example, a composer gets much more out of performing other peoples music. She
understands it more, and finds more meaning and more value in what that other person has written. I wish I
could convince all music students to compose. The results are amazing.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
How to Rapidly Learn New Music
What is the best and quickest way to learn a new piece of music?
This is probably the most common question asked by the amateur pianist. In fact, the bulk of music lessons are
usually devoted to teaching the student the answer to this question and how to put that answer into practice.
Once a student has learned the method and mastered the skills involved, the student usually loses interest in
lessons. Thats because they have achieved what they came for, namely the ability to learn new music (at their
chosen level of competence) easily and enjoyably.
Will this chapter allow you to avoid two, three, even four years of lessons? Not very likely, Im afraid. Although
the answer is straight-forward enough to be summarized in a single chapter (and explained in detail through-
out the rest of this book), the trials and tribulations of learning to fully apply it are many. Go ahead and try it.
Im sure youll get somewhere and have some success. Just remember that the journey is shorter, surer, and
much more enjoyable with a competent guide.
I must make very, very clear that the rather lengthy process outlined below applies to new music which you cur-
rently find difficult. Obviously the situation will change as you improve your playing. Music that gave you prob-
lems six months ago now seems a breeze. A tune which challenges you today will be minor labor six months
from now. Thats all as it should be. Eventually you will reach a level of knowledge and skill where the bulk of
music you are interested in playing will present no frustrations, no questions, just a reasonable amount of effi-
cient practice which brings it up to your expectations.
At any point during your initial training, and for the years of fun which follow, you will find that new music can
be roughly classified as follows:
1. Fluency Music: This is music you can learn easily and quickly, and can play well with little effort. All stu-
dents hope they will become pianists who find ALL their music to be at this level.
2. Instructional Music: This is music which presents new challenges and requires concentrated effort to mas-
ter. Such music advances your skills and knowledge. This is the music your teacher presents week after
week, always seeking to promote new abilities via more difficult music.
3. Dream Music: This is music very much beyond your current ability. However, as I have said elsewhere, I
have seen students make progress and even master such pieces. In doing so, they advance their
Instructional level considerably, as well as gaining enormous self-confidence.
How do these three levels relate to the steps in learning new music? Simple! The easier the music, the shorter
the steps. In fact, really easy music is music in which some or most of the steps can be eliminated altogether.
You might say that elimination of the separate steps is the very definition of easy!
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Which steps can you eliminate? What steps can be shortened? And by how much? Such questions are a mat-
ter of judgment. Your ability to make such judgments is one of the key abilities to be developed in lessons. Like
any skill, accurate judging requires practice. As you apply the steps below, each time judging when a step is suf-
ficiently completed to move on, you will become more accurate in your judgments, spending neither too much
nor too little time on each step.
Incidentally, any time you can eliminate ALL the steps and simple play a new piece of music well with NO prac-
tice, it is called sight-reading. Find out more about this skill and how you can improve it (plus your overall
abilities!) in Chapter Six.
And now, without further discussion...
The Steps in Learning a New Piece of Music!!!!
Preliminary Step. A dirty little secret of most students is that they just sit down and play the new music
their teacher has assigned. They dont do ANY of the steps I list below! Come on, dont try to kid me! Im a
student, too (we never stop learning) and this is what I do! These first runs through, which I call slop-
throughs, are pretty grim, with mucho wrong notes, fingering, and timing. They are, however, necessary and
I would never tell you not to do them, nor would you follow that order. For one thing, we need some idea of
what the music will sound like. More importantly, our desire to play and hear our new piece just too strong to
put off. We want what we want when we want it, and we want it NOW! Trying to restrain ourselves destroys
our enjoyment, the very reason we wanted to play piano in the first place.
Consider this your OK to do those slop-throughs. BUT... do NOT get the idea that you can actually master
the piece this way, not to the standard you desire. That wont happen, not with music at your Instructional
Level. But by all means, go ahead and the need to slop-through out of your system and then get down to the
business at hand, mastering the piece and learning new basic skills in the process.
1. Choose a section of the music to work on, based on available time and your own need to feel successful.
Dont take too big a bite! When breaking up the music into sections, dont use measures or lines as your
guide. Instead, choose a whole section, such as verse or chorus. Or learn certain phrases. Remember that
each phrase (often shown by the slurs, the curved lines over the notes) is a like a miniature piece of music.
They have a beginning, middle, and an end. Thus, when you have mastered a phrase, you will feel a sense
of completion, as well as have a proper idea of what the music sounds like.
2. Look over the music before you start. Examine the time signature, the key signature (most students miss this
completely and mess up their sharps or flats.) Look for patterns in the notes. They have to be there, since
music is nothing more than artistic patterns of sound. Finding these patterns does several things for you:
A. It simplifies note identification since you notice repetition,
B. It provides an good sense of how the music will sound, and
C. It makes you more confident that you can play this music.
3. Begin the task of developing a fingering for the section of the music you have chosen. See the essays in
Chapter Three regarding fingering if you feel urge to skip this step. You can begin with the Right Hand
(RH) or the Left Hand (LH), although the majority of students will choose melody which is usually RH.
As you examine the RH fingering, you will, of necessity, be examining the music in detail, the identity of
the notes, their timing, and their patterns. Pencil in your fingering choices and changes. Do not think that
this is a step only students take. The harder the music, the more crucial the fingering becomes.
Professional musicians create working scores which contain tons of fingering notations. A professional
pianist would never omit this step which makes learning more efficient.
4. Once you have fingered the section desired, you must now teach the RH to follow the instructions. This
is the mechanical part of the learning, and probably the one on which you will spend the most time. Here
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is the source of most student frustration, since the mind can conceive rapidly what the hand can achieve
much, much more slowly. The approaches detailed in Chapter Four should be applied in full.
In teaching your hand to do its tricks, the main idea is to start as slowly as necessary to perform those tricks
with accuracy. The maxim is Practice Playing Perfectly. As the hand learns, it naturally can perform the same
tricks more rapidly. This process continues till the hand is playing at full performance tempo without error.
The student could even take the tempo higher in order to further groove in the hands maneuvers.
5. The next step is identical in most ways to Steps 3 and 4, only using the Left Hand (LH). What is different
is the degree to which you must ensure accuracy of notes and timing and fingering. It is almost certainly
clear to you already that the Left Hand is handicapped. The vast majority of piano students read the bass
staff less well than the treble. The LH itself feels like a club at the end of your arm in that you cant real-
ly perceive it all that well. Nor does is obey your commands as cleanly as the RH. Finally, the LH notes pro-
duced are usually NOT melody and thus can be hard to mentally fit together into music. This makes it easy
to misread them, both as to their identity and their timing. Count if necessary. Check your references if you
arent sure you are playing the correct notes. Whatever you do, maintain your accuracy and teach the Left
Hand EXACTLY what you want it to do once the hands are put together. And, since your enjoyment of this
step is likely to be less than working on the RH, realize that the LH piece of the puzzle is just as important
for a satisfactory result as the RH melody. After all, do you really want to be a right hand only pianist?
6. At some point you will need to make a judgment call and decide to try the hands together. How will you
know when the time is right? Essentially by trying it. If your hands together attempt is a total disaster,
it was obviously too soon! If it goes fairly well, however, and if each new run through the music produces
improvement, then you have judged correctly. Of course, you start this step playing SLOWLY. This is
where The 50% Rule comes in (see essay Numbers You Must Know in Chapter Four).
Remember there are problems that only manifest when the hands are placed together. Chief of these is
the attempt by the LH to follow the RHs lead. Thats the way our nervous systems are wired, with a dom-
inant hand and a subordinate hand. Thus, we must do some system rewiring so the LH becomes inde-
pendent of the RH and able to continue its actions without being influenced by the rhythm and changes
occurring on the opposite side of the body. Luckily, this is possible with sufficient and correct practice.
(Note that even lefties have this problem, since most of them are only somewhat left-handed, due, I
believe, to the preponderance of right-handed machinery in our society.)
7. As you improve the work of the hands together, you will naturally transition to the final step: mastering
the mechanics well enough to play with expression and meaning. This process will not proceed at the same
rate throughout the piece, since different sections will present different degrees of mechanical challenge.
As any one portion becomes fluid and easy, it is mentally assimilated, processed through what might be
called The Artistic Sense, and begins to take on assertiveness and meaning. The notes become greater
than the sum of the parts. Phrasing, dynamics, touch, accents, all begin to become real both mentally and
mechanically. With adults, this is a natural progression. With children, this must often be instructed, since
a childs musical background is not very sophisticated. They have few mental models of quality music.
They often consider that their whole job is to hit the right keys, much less get the timing right! The teacher
must then introduce them (by ear mostly) to the concepts of expression. See the essays on performing
expressively in Chapter Five for much more discussion of these issues.
7. By this time, the piece will be mostly memorized. You may or may not realize this. Try removing the print-
ed music and playing by memory to see how far the process has proceeded. Most students are surprised
and pleased at the amount of memorization that has occurred, even without a conscious decision to do
so. Should you fully memorize the piece? This would depend on your affection for it. The more you love
it, the better you want to perform it, the more you should memorize it. The choice is yours.
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8. I should mention that no piece is ever really completed. Years after beginning a piece you can still find
new meaning and achieve better execution through practice. One quality of great music is its depth, which
allows this continued return for further effort. Thus, the decision is yours regarding when you will consid-
er the new piece learned.
Well, those are the steps. It is up to you to learn to apply them. That takes practice. As you continue to use these
steps, you will acquire better judgment regarding when to move from one step to the other. This judgment is
just as important as the steps, perhaps more so, and is fine-tuned over the course of months, even years. I must
tell you that any time invested in perfecting the process will be returned to you ten-fold in the enjoyment you
will find in learning new music easily and successfully.
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