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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Achieving mastery of The Piano

By Andy Penbram


Here is some information for any beginner piano player who would like to move onto more advanced piano lessons and truly master the piano or keyboards. This will be a trip from amateurs level passing through intermediate and advanced levels until ultimately arriving at true master piano player level. On this trail there are sadly too many students who never make it past the first most principal beginners level.

The 1st levels of piano or keyboard playing can be grouped into 2 separate kinds, persons who learn to read music and people who learn to play by ear without music. The beginner piano player who learns to read music will at first learn how to find all of the notes on the keyboard and associate them with the written notes on the musical staff. Simple tunes can then be performed by reading the music. The player who learns to play by ear will also learn how to find the notes on the keyboard and might even learn several basic chords at this time too.

With each one of the notes learned the beginner can now go forward onto an intermediate phase. This will usually comprise learning how to play a couple more difficult pieces for the pianist who is learning to read music. This could comprise reading off 2 staves and playing with both hands at the same time. Essential chord progressions and rhythms using both hands at once is what awaits the student who is learning to play by ear.

At the more advanced levels of playing the music reader will have to learn some fairly hard pieces that may stretch their skills and physically fortify the fingers and the coordination. The coed who has chosen to play by ear will by now be playing melodies integrated into the chord progressions. It will be extraordinarily possible that at this level they're going to be able to play most tunes that they hear and to also discover the chords with little effort.

To advance on to master level the 2 different systems of learning are sometimes combined. Playing by ear and reading music both come naturally to the true master. Each one of the 2 strategies have their benefits and disadvantages. Many players who have learned how to read music will become technically particularly talented but might lack expression and emotion. The opposite can be thought for the scholar who learns to play only by ear, they might find it tough to be more technical and will lack the discipline that makes the student who has learned to read music. There should be no problem for the genuine master to be well placed to read music and play by ear in the same way.

There are numerous home study programs available for download for beginner and intermediate scholars that may help you move onto the more advanced levels of playing. The nice thing about these courses is they have sound and video files so that you can be taught as if you had a piano teacher right there in your home.

Most serious of all however is that nearly all of the best programs will teach you the simplest way to read music and how to play by ear at the same time. Being taught like this you will have the foundation to move ahead onto much higher levels and will have the benefits of the two methods of learning right from the start




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