Recently, a student asked:
“How many songs should I be able to play before I can call myself a piano player?”
My answer:
That’s a dumb question.
Not dumb as in the person asking it is dumb.
Dumb as in you can’t actually measure this.
What matters is level of enjoyment.
Do you enjoy it when you play?
Then you are a piano player.
More:
I went on to tell them about the time I fooled a “real piano teacher” into thinking I had been playing for years.
Fresh off of learning the Layer Method way of Piano I was asked to fill in at this local bistro to play some dinner music. 3 HOURS!
During a break this lovely lady (carrying a ruler) came up and we had this conversation.
Ruler Lady: You play very well, I enjoyed it very much. How long have you been playing?
Me: Oh.. about 10 months.
Ruler Lady: What?…I thought you must have played for years to be this good.
Me: Well… no. Less than a year.
Ruler Lady: How did you learn?
Me: The Layer Method Of Piano.
Ruler Lady: What’s that?
Me: It’s too hard to explain to somebody so smart.
I went on to explain to her that I was really only playing about 6 chords the whole time.
Just mixed up in different ways, with little tricks to make it sound awesome.
Now here’s the moral of the story.
If I had met this lady on the street and we happen to be talking about piano…AND if I told her I only knew 6 chords and one key, well, she probably wouldn’t call me a piano player.
But since she heard me, and what the Layer Method way of teaching can produce, she was completely fooled.
That’s the point.
Don’t’ get caught up in levels, experience, etc.
Get caught up in enjoying the piano. When you do this, then you start to fool people into thinking you have been playing for years. The best part?
You start to fool yourself into thinking you ARE a piano player and learn to play piano by ear.
To learn how to fool ruler wielders into thinking you are a “real” piano player, sign up here:
