Piano Lessons are PIano Lessons, Right?

Piano lessons, arghhhhh! I know that's the feeling so many people have from their individual experiences probably from their youthful days of weekly lessons and ever so often, forced lessons. But in all seriousness, it occurred to me that there are really three broad catagories of piano lessons: Classical piano lessons, chord or improv piano lessons, and lastly, play-by-ear piano lessons. While some people including many parents may feel that "piano lessons are piano lessons", the reality is that's hardly the case and within those three broad catagories I mentioned, there can be a wide variety of difference in both content and quality.

If we address the issue of beginners or novice students then, what would be the best route to take should one be interested in taking lessons? I'm also assuming for simplicity's sake that the lessons are not necessarily private lessons, but let's open it up to all venues such as internet piano lessons whether online or by purchasing at-home courses and also we can include perhaps self-taught students in the traditional sense who buy theory books and store-bought instructional aids. The point I'm trying to get to though is this- The most well rounded and most thoroughly trained pianists are not only able to read music in a classical sense, but can execute that music in a skillful and musical way. Plus, these pianists have the ability, whether through training or natural talent, to learn songs by ear. Lastly, they are able to improvise any song at the keyboard based on piano chords. So people like Bruce Hornsby, Billy Joel, Elton John, all of these folks have all those skills and this certainly enables and facilitates their being at the "top of the game". Jerry Lee Lewis and I believe Fats Domino too, are strictly "play by ear" "raw talent" type players. Jazz players, just as a generality, tend to be highly versed in all disciplines though you still do see and certainly there have always been "raw talent", untrained brilliant jazz pianists. The $64,000 question for people starting out though is, "what route then should I take?".

Here's my take on that question. First off, play by ear, you see courses all over the net for it, is not the way to go if you are going to use it as your ONLY skill. You can not use the examples of brilliantly talented folks who never had a lesson in their life and well, you know that story. For the majority of folks including myself, if you were starting out, you either should go the classical route to start off or the way I teach, the chord piano, improv way. Play by ear can be simultaneously learned but by no means should it be the main way to learn songs. A great and tremendously valuable skill to have, yes, so start off right from the beginning with instruction on it but certainly do not rely on it as your main course of action. I've been playing for a very long time and I mostly certainly use my ear to help learn songs, it is just one of the tools I incorporate in my "toolbox of skills" to play piano songs. Put it this way, learning to ride a bike right from the start without hands on the handle bars would be certainly not the way to initiate your training. However, hands-free riding is very valuable and used by skilled riders and is eventually incorporated as one of the skills in their "box of tricks".

Now chord piano, piano by improvisation, is the best route to take if you're interested in playing pop, rock, blues and country. Gospel works well too with this approach but classical does as well for that style. Professional pop pianists almost always use this chordal approach which gives you the freedom to arrange your own songs, make them sound better than the published arrangement and also paves the way for songwriting as well. It is more fun than classical or play by ear. Let me tell you, playing by ear can be really difficult and tedious. We all have to learn that skill but geez, having to rely on that by itself from the beginning is not the way to go. Plus, even if someone has a great ear and a "trained ear" if you are asked to learn 60 songs in the next week, do you think you'd want to start learning them by ear? No, you'd use chord charts!

And finally classical, ideally, a pianist has classical training but one doesn't necessarily have to start with classical. On piano, I did the "backwards" training route which is by learning improv, chord piano first, and followed that training with the classical path. Also consider that you don't have to be on a concert pianist path with classical, but the mere fact of being able to read notes, having the ability to bring out the melody, having the ability to play scales and arpeggios (broken chords) smoothly, will only serve to make you into a better, more musical pianist. You also see really great, self-taught pop and jazz players who have great technique (classical skill) but they basically learned this on their own rather than formal classical lessons. Regardless of how they learned though initially, having that strong technique will always enhance your playing and people will always be aware of what a better player you are with that skill level behind your playing. Of course strictly classical career oriented players usually only study classical performance technique.

So I hope these piano tips will be helpful to those of you starting out or those who started out and feel they began on the wrong path.

For those of you looking to start out or improve your chord piano skills, please be sure to visit my site at http://www.instantpropiano.com/

Peace.