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[L265]Let It Be Piano Lesson

by Peter Edvinsson, Pet

I have many times seen that pianists that can read sheet music and sightread very well feel uncomfortable when they are asked to accompany a singer without the aid of sheet music notation.

Personally I have been asked many times to play piano to singers who wants to sing in another key then the one in the sheet music available. This happens because I have developed my ability to play by ear and to change keys on the go.

Of course, someone could transpose the music to a lower key and write it down in order to play sheet music but it is much work involved and often you will not have time to write the music down.

If you are playing popular music it can actually be an advantage to play by ear to get into the right mood and play more musically.

But all this presupposes that you have the ability to play piano by ear and that you can play various styles of music.

I know of some piano players who can't play a note of sheet music. I guess they have earlier in their life been scared off by sheet music notation or maybe they have seen some pianists playing with accuracy but too mechanically for their taste. Maybe they just think that it is too much hard work involved!

I think that there are some misconceptions pertaining to playing by ear and playing sheet music. Some people think that sightreading pianists have to be bad at playing by ear and that improvising pianists need to be poor sight readers.

Well, the truth is that you will be good at what you practice. If you practice both sightreading and chord playing you will become better and better in these areas.

If you are a classical pianist with the ambition to be able to play by ear you can develop this ability as you practice your repertoire and learn new sheet music. Here are some suggestions:

1. Develop your ability to understand chord theory. This can be done as you practice a piece of sheet music. In classical piano pieces you will find passages with chords that you can investigate and learn a lot from. In the first bars of Fur Elise for example you will find the chords Am and E-major. As you play this piece you will find a lot of common chords intervowen in the music.

To spot chords and scales as you practice a piece of classical music will help you put more intellectual power into the enterprise and will also help you memorize the music better.

2. Learn licks from your piano pieces. When you find passages in the music you play that you like and want to incorporate in your repertoire of licks and phrases to use you can memorize them and play around with them trying to improvise, changing notes here and there and transposing them. Many classical piano pieces are filled with interesting chord progressions and melodic phrases.

3. Playing scales. If you include playing scales in your daily routine practice as a classical pianist you might benefit from also using the material in the scales in developing you sense for melodies, and licks. Play around with the notes, try to create interesting melodies and small licks and using chords as you play. This will help you practice both your finger dexterity and musical abilities.

There are many more things you can do to develope your ear and your sense for chords and improvisation. The important thing is to see possibilities in the classical piano sheet music you play.

1. Before setting goals

Sometimes the reason why we don't keep our piano playing goals is that we haven't been honest with ourselves when we set the goals. Before setting the your goals you have to decide why you want to play piano. Make an honest survey of your assets and wishes in the area of piano playing.

2. Setting goals

In order to set goals that you will actually work towards you have to be honest with yourself. Do I really want to accomplish these goals. Will I really feel good when I reach my goals?

3. Having a repertoire

One common reason for starting to play the piano is to be able to play the pieces of music you like. This means that as you learn to play piano, a goal might be to learn a number of piano pieces, let's say five melodies, by heart so you can play them in any setting.

These five pieces of piano music is to be learned so well that you don't have to worry if you are asked to play.

One reason for having a repertoire with piano pieces throughoutly rehearsed is that you can feel that you perform at the top of your ability.

4. Always perform

One great way to create motivation to practice on your piano is to always perform in front of other people in different ways. A way to creating momentum to practise your piano repertoire is to set up an informal concert with a couple of pieces in the setting of your own home.

Your family will be your public. There are many occasions for having someone performing music in the home and maybe you will stimulate others in your family or among your friends to play on their instruments in such a setting. Of course you have to plan ahead in order to suggest a performance and in order to prepare yourself.

5. But if you don't like to perform?

You can actually practice the art of performing on your piano without people present. One way is to use your imagination and pretend that you perform in front of others. If you want to help your imagination a bit you can put empty chairs in front of you representing the audience.

On such an occasion you have to exercise self discipline and play those pieces in your actual program from beginning to end. If you would make a mistake in front of a public, what would you do? Probably you would want to minimize the effect of this mistake and just play on. This is what you have to practice even in this setting.

This will create self confidence in your ability to handle mistakes and will also help you find weaknesses you can improve upon in your playing.

This is also an excellent time to record your performance for later evaluation. The act of recording is like having a critic in the public.

6. Listen to piano music

You have to look upwards in order to climb to a higher level in your piano playing and this will be accomplished by listening to piano players on an higher artistic level than yourself.

At last a piano playing qoute from an unknown author:

"One man gets nothing but discord out of a piano; another gets harmony. No one claims the piano is at fault. Life is about the same. The discord is there, and the harmony is there. Study to play it correctly, and it will give forth the beauty; play it falsely, and it will give forth the ugliness. Life is not at fault."

Article Source : All Or Nothing Music

Peter Edvinsson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Programming and Guide Guitar. Peter Edvinsson is a pianist, composer and music teacher. He invites you to download your at. Peter Edvinsson's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.