Health & Fitness
Learning to Play the Piano the Nontraditional Way
This post inspires you to learn to play the piano by reading chords and playing by ear without the burden of reading so many notes. You can learn chords and rhythm patterns.
Many adults think that they are just too old and it is too late for them to learn how to play piano. And take private lessons? No way. It's too expensive and the teacher will make them play songs from a method book that they don't know or like. Or maybe the teacher will be impatient with them for not having the time to practice. Well, I've got news for you. In the age of the internet. so much more is possible. Do you still need to find the time to practice? Of course, that hasn't changed. But methods and options have. Here are some of them.
First, I am here to tell you that learning the piano through reading notes, as an adult, is not necessarily the way to learn piano, unless you want to play classical music. If you want to play jazz, pop, folk, broadway, you can play by reading chord symbols. You see, songs are made up of a melody, lyrics (not all the time) and harmony (chords). If you know the melody, you can play that by ear. If you don't, you can easily learn how to read a simple melody on the treble clef, one note at a time. Then you learn all about the chords, major, minor, seventh chords and voila. You can play a song. Add a touch of rhythm (lots of rhythm patterns out there!) and you've got your song.
Through playing this way, you learn a lot about music- chord construction, scales, common chord progressions, melody reading, and right and left hand coordination. You can also learn the accompaniment method of playing which doesn't even involve playing the melody. You sing that! Or have a sing-a-long and your friends can sing the melody.
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This is a great way to learn how to play the songs you love quickly and without the burden of interpreting all of those little black dots. And if you've had lessons in the past and do know a thing or two about reading music, that can only help you.
And these days, with the internet, you can even take lessons via Skype! I teach people in Illinois and Rhode Island this way and it works beautifully! So dive in there and explore the world of piano.
