Are you one of those, like me, who has always wished they could play the piano well? Every so often the desire overtakes me enough that I decide to try practicing again. Before Christmas I was looking at "Fake" worship music books as a gift for our daughter. If you're not familiar with these books, the melody is printed on the music staff for the right hand and then only notation for chords is added for the left. One of the reviews happened to mention that if you liked Fake books you might want to look at the website called Piano for Life. (I have posted the link under the Links page).
The man, Mark Almond, who developed this website and the DVD teaching series, Piano for Quitters, and Piano for Life says "About 98% of all piano students quit within the first two years of lessons. Months of workbooks, scales, drills, and most of all confusion, are the culprits that kill their enthusiasm before they ever learn to make music." That would be me!
He also states: "This series begins by developing a solid network of insights into the core structures at the heart of all music. By understanding the two simple building blocks for all of the basic chords, even the first few sessions will teach you to make enjoyable music."
I learned more about chords watching the promotional videos on the site than I had learned over all the years in my various pursuits of learning to play the piano and guitar. So I decided, "What can it hurt?" and ordered Piano for Quitters. Although I have only worked through the first 2 lessons, I am extremely enthusiastic about the concept and Mark's teaching method.
Now I'm working on getting Country Guy to figure out how to bring my piano from the basement to the living room so that I can more easily practice during lulls in my otherwise busy routine. :o)
Any ideas?
2 comments:
I've meaning to ask you if you had gotten this and wondered what you thought of it. Do you think it would work well to teach "beginners" with - people who have no note-reading experience?
Jess
I think it would be great for anyone! It seems to me a beginner with no prior experience in music would catch on and be encouraged that they could play something before they could even read music. I think it would be a jump start in helping them desire to know more. I also know many pianists who have learned to read music well and can play only sheet music, but know nothing about chords. I think they would be surprised to see how much help this could be to them, too.
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