Having Fun Learning to Play

I have a confession to make. I'm NOT a musician. But, I would like to make music. How many of you wish that you could sit down at a piano or keyboard and pound out your favorite hymn or tune? I'm one of those who didn't learn a musical instrument growing up. I've enjoyed watching my wife and children play the piano and violin. Their skill looks magical – and fun.

What if it's not too late?!

A few decades ago, just after we got married, my bride and I thought we would help each other learn something new. I was going to help her learn calculus and she was going to help me learn to play the piano. The result: I forgot my calculus and I didn't learn to play the piano. I was discouraged from piano by a couple of things. One was the mountain of learning I faced before I could really make music, another was the discipline of practice and the "last straw" was the next-door neighbor banging on the wall and telling to me to stop making so much noise.

As I said, that was decades ago. Recently, we were able to get a new piano for the family. It's entry into the home stirred a new interest on my part in learning to play. One day, I happened to come across a book that gave me new hope of learning to play the piano. That book is this one, "Play Piano in a Flash!" by Scott "The Piano Guy" Houston. The basic premise of the book is that the piano can be played in a least two very different styles. For example, I'm sure all of you have noticed the major difference between classical guitar and pop guitar styles. In a similar way, the piano can be played in classical piano or popular music styles. Learning to play classical piano is a long and arduous road. In contrast, this book puts forth the idea of learning the non-classical, popular style piano.

I've been learning about this approach for only a few weeks. Only basic knowledge of music notation is needed. This was good news to me since, at that time, I could not read music and about the only thing I knew about the piano keyboard was where to find middle-C.

The first step is to choose something to learn. This should be a tune or song that you would just love to learn to play. The chosen piece of music becomes part of the motivation because of the deep desire to learn it. In my case, I chose one of my favorite hymns, "Heavenly Sunlight". This music is where I started. Having the mysterious music notation before me I set out to decode it. Now, for this style of playing, the bass clef is ignored (the bottom line of notes in a hymnal) and the focus is on the notes that form the melody. As some of you probably know there are whole books of sheet music that show just the melody along with some chord notation. Those are called Fake Books. Here is an example of one. I'm also passing around the page that has "Heavenly Sunlight" on it.

So, using this music and the simple description of how to decode it shown on these two pages, I set out to translate the note on the page to pressing a key on the piano. Since I already knew the tune, I didn't have to worry too much about the details of the rhythm described by the different notes. This is all done one note at a time with the right hand. For example, here is the first line of the hymn...

Once I began to get a feel for where to find the notes with the my right hand, I went to the next step for me. In this case, the next step is the done with the other hand. This is the step of adding chords using the left hand. If you play a guitar, you know where to find the information about what chord to play. It is marked above the melody line on the sheet music. So, you might see "D" or "G" or "A7". Scott's book describes how to go from the root key of the chord to the other keys in the chord. It also provides diagrams of many common chords.

To start with, the chord is played at the beginning of the measure and is held until the next chord or is repeated at the beginning of the next measure. As one gets more proficient with the piano, there are many variations that can be learned. I'm not there yet. There are many, many possible chords. But, for this project, it is only necessary to learn the hand-full of chords noted on the music. Here are some of those chords...

So, it is very focused situation. Learning the melody with the right hand – playing one note at a time. Second, learning the chords to accompany the melody with the left hand – one chord at a time. And, learning to combine the two hands. The idea is to make the music sound the way you want it to sound. The music notation is a guide rather than a rule. You get to have fun learning the tune because it is one of your favorites and you are seeing constant progress in learning it.

I'm still getting off the ground in learning to play popular style piano or keyboard. But, my experience so far, has convinced me that it's not only possible but fun. So, if you would like to have fun playing some of your favorite tunes, it's not too late! Get some of Scott's materials, choose your favorite tune and start playing!

Play Piano in a Flash!" by Scott "The Piano Guy" Houston