Help! I’m a Music School Graduate, and I Can’t Play a Thing!
I bet I gotcha with the title.
Let me set the stage.
When I got out of music school, I could play a lot of great pieces: Beethoven Sonatas, Bach Preludes and Fugues, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, and my favorite Bartók Mikrokosmos VI. I thought I was halfway decent…I guess.
Then one day I joined this little Baptist church. There was a lady named Linda playing the piano, and I must admit she sounded really great. She was playing hymns. Full-on fancy arrangements, with stride left-hand, runs and fills, walk-ups, walk-downs, and even transpositions. I figured she was reading it off a sheet of music, but when I went up to congratulate her after the service, all I saw was a hymnal with four-part voicings. Which I thought was weird.
One day Linda got sick, and I was asked to play. I played what was in the hymnal. This was a huge disappointment to the congregation. I literally felt like an idiot. I could only play what was written on the page in front of me, and I wasn’t even that great of a sight reader.
Despite years of training and hours of practicing, I had no idea how to do what Linda (who had no music degree) could do. So I made up my mind to learn.
This was in the olden days before YouTube and the Internet. I came across an ad in the back of a magazine for the “Madonna Wood Church Pianists Course”. I purchased it, and I started learning how to play runs, fills, and left-hand patterns. Because of my strong music theory background, it was easy for me to figure out what chords went where just by looking at the hymns.
That was the beginning. Now, years later, I can play runs and fills; I can transpose on the fly when a cantor doesn’t like the key. I can improvise, read a lead sheet, and learn pieces by ear. It has made me a much more confident player, not to mention more employable.
What About My Students?
I teach my students these skills because I believe they are valuable.
But,
First, they have to learn to read music well. They also must learn scales and understand basic music theory.
Most importantly, every child in my studio plays the classics. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, the rest.
I know that classical music is where you build real pianistic skills, what some musicians call ‘chops’. I tell my students that the classics are classics for a reason.
I practice classical music every day, and after that I learn other things.
Lately I have been going through the videos on “Piano Lessons With Warren”; he teaches gospel-style piano. I love it!
Because of my classical training, the technique is no problem, and the theory he talks about, I understand it.
I know a lot of teachers focus only on classical music, or only on popular or jazz. That’s wonderful. There’s room for all of us. Individual students have their personal goals, and sometimes it’s important to hone in on a specific genre or skill.
Students will gravitate toward the teacher who is right for them. I focus on being the best teacher I can be. Which means I need to be the best musician I can be too.
So I gotta go practice 🙂
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