Thoughts from PianoFool student John:
“I think you sold your program a little short in today’s email. Far from it not being recommended for people under 12, I believe it should be required for anyone learning piano, no matter their age. Here are my thoughts on the matter.
I spent six years taking piano lessons as a child. I didn’t practice as much as I should have because, frankly, it was tedious and the songs were boring. All I had to show for those six years is that I was an average sight reader who could learn how to play a song only if I spent LOTS of time with the sheet music, and I usually got bored before I could invest that much time in a song. I went into a piano bar as an adult and was fascinated watching the players play great songs with no sheet music. I watched their hands and didn’t understand what they were doing, but I thought, “If I had learned how to do that, I never would have quit.” And then I wondered how much happier I would be if I had spent those six years of my childhood learning how to play like they did.
I think piano teaching needs to go through the same revolution that foreign language teaching did. When I took it, it was all about learning grammar. And after six years of learning French this way, I can’t speak French at all. Now the popular way to teach language is immersion training, where you just immerse yourself in the language and actually learn to speak it before you worry about grammar or reading. People who learn this way can actually speak the language they study.
It seems that teachers realize this with respect to guitar, but not piano. Guitar players typically learn chords and accompaniment first and then they are free to go on and learn classical guitar if that’s really what they want to do.
I believe that all kids should be taught chords and simple accompaniment first. They should be playing actual songs that sound great right away. Once they have this skill under their belt, then they can move on to sight reading if that’s what they want to do. This way, everyone would walk away from piano lessons with a useful skill no matter how long they played. I can also tell you that learning the chords improves sight reading tremendously. My sight reading ability took an enormous leap after I learned the Piano Fool method. Once you learn chords and patterns, you finally understand what you’re seeing on the page and can start to anticipate things. It’s just like a foreign language. Immerse yourself in it, learn the language of music, and then focus on the details later.
If kids started with your method first and then were taught sight reading later, we would have a lot fewer quitters and a lot more good piano players.-John”
It’s Thursday.
The weathers turning (at least in Iowa).
And before you know it winter will be here.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.
If you haven’t been practicing get to it.
If you are waiting for the right time to buy the Layer Method of Piano then it’s now.
You will be playing with both hands, before the big festivities start this fall.
Only if you go here and sign up for the Layer Method of Piano.
It’s your time:
