Teaching Myself Piano

I apologize for being away so long. I haven't done much, if any, stitching. We've had some sickness for a few weeks, and I've been in a bit of a funk.

Funk and sickness or no, I have to practice the piano, to avoid embarrassment at church.

You may be thinking that I already know how to play the piano. After all, I had lessons starting when I was eight, and I've been playing at church for almost 2 1/2 years. But no, I really don't know how to play the piano. I know how to read music and find the notes.

I had suspected this for quite some time, but it was made clear when I saw a teen at a church talent show playing. Watching her play, and knowing that just a few months ago she couldn't play well at all, I realized that I know nothing. Although she was not perfect, she had the piece memorized, and played with panache. I was impressed and decided to get serious about learning.

But because of lack of teachers, money and time, I'm not really in a position to get lessons. I hope to go to the community college in SLC eventually, but there again, I don't have the money or time (meaning my schedule conflicts with the available classes), and I don't even know if the teachers are any good. Still, it would be good to have someone objective evaluate my playing, technique and posture and give feedback.

So I went to the internet. After not too much searching, I found the following two sources, which I recommend:
http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/
http://www.pianofundamentals.com/

My Goodreads friends can see which books I'm reading as I add them to my list.

I get most of the music that I will mention from the first site. And while reading the book from the second site, I learned that overuse of the pedal is a sign of a "rank amateur." I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I had suspected this, at least in myself. My pedaling was a source of constant disappointment to me. Everyone I've ever seen play at church uses the pedal, but they all sounded better than I do. When I first started playing at church, I didn't use the pedal at all. This was because my piano at the time was just crap: it was out of tune, it had flat keys, thunky keys, keys that played the note next to the one pressed--and the pedals didn't work. It didn't take me too long to realize that I did need to start pedaling, so I would practice with the nonfunctional pedals but would not know how the song would sound till I was actually playing it at church. I would just lift the pedal every measure, which is how I thought they were to be played. But my music sounded really muddy and unpleasant to me. Even when it wasn't muddy, it sounded like Phil Spector's "wall of sound." That is certainly a good sound when used properly, but not in this context. I went to the other pianists at church and learned that I was supposed to pedal at accidentals (that's when you see a sharp or flat sign) and "key changes." Hmmm. I didn't know what key changes were. Still, this bit of information improved my playing somewhat so I was happy. I have since learned that I'm also supposed to pedal at harmonic or chord changes (that *really* improved the sound) and I'm learning how to recognize key changes. I suspect these are related, if not the same thing.

OK, back to the beginning, which is where I went. I learned that scales are important, so I learned all the major scales and am in the process of learning the minor scales. The harmonic minor scales, that is, right now. There are also melodic and natural minor scales. Believe it or not, scales had never been part of my musical training. I started with C major, hands separately, then together, and built up speed. But wait! I then learned that I need to memorize the scales so that I could work on perfect finger technique, including fingering (which finger plays which key), striking the key, volume and tone control. Maybe other stuff, but that's all I know so far. It's actually easy to memorize the scales, but I have to work harder at the fingering. Also, playing with my hands together at this point doesn't allow me to clearly hear the tone, so it's hands separate for now.

Then I downloaded some pieces: Hot Cross Buns; Mary Had a Little Lamb; Rain, Rain, Go Away; Jingle Bells; Aura Lee (aka Love Me Tender); and A Tisket A Tasket. Very easy stuff, I know. But the point was that I could *memorize* these, as that was another important aspect. The music should be memorized so that I can work, again, on technique and perfecting the sound. You have to memorize in your head so that your brain directs the fingers and so you don't "blank out." While working on technique, I also transpose these into the 12 major keys (I think there are technically more, but some are "enharmonic," which means they have the same notes, although notated differently, as each other) and the minor keys that I have learned.

So that's where I am. I plan next to learn chord names so that I can understand better chord changes and even harmonize the above songs or re-harmonize as I improve.

Recently I accompanied son #1 (who is learning the sax) for a band evaluation. Although I never fully memorized the piece, I did break down the music measure by measure, seeing which measures were identical and determining the fingering. I practiced hands separately, no pedal, hands together, no pedal, hands separately, with pedal, and hands together with pedal. I started really slowly then sped up, eventually playing twice as fast as we played for the performance. I was unsure whether I should use the pedal, given what I had learned, and decided to, but then decided not to at the last minute, when I saw that the other accompanists (high school piano students) weren't. Inferiority complex strikes again! But it worked out for the best, I think, and I played without a mistake! Very unusual for me.

I'm also using the memorization on my organ practice. I'm able to because I concentrate on only a couple of songs at a time. It really helps to memorize so that I can concentrate on other aspects.

Unfortunately, though, I really haven't used these techniques on my hymns. That's because, for now at least, I have to concentrate on quantity. I have to be able to pound out any hymn. But I have started to work on them, slowly. I have memorized "Come, Follow Me"--I can play it with my eyes shut! On the piano anyway--I have to look at the bass line when playing the organ because I don't have the pedals memorized. (Organ pedals are a whole other subject, nothing like the piano pedals, and I'm a total beginner at those. Imagine playing keys with your feet.)

I've also transposed the melody of "Come Follow Me" into all 12 major keys. I will do the minor when I've learned all the minor scales. Next, I'm working on doing the same for "Teach Me to
Walk." These are the songs I plan to "re-harmonize" when I start on learning the chords.

Oh, and that crappy piano? It's gone. I felt bad, because it was a gift, but I do not recommend playing on something like that. Not even if you just want to learn. You just can't get better, because you can't hear any good sounds. I now have an electric piano. I don't know if I recommend it. It has worked well for me. It's always in tune, it can sound like other instruments, so, frex, I can practice organ keying on it, it's lightweight and therefore easy to move. I have been happy with it. And yet... there's something missing. It doesn't have the full musical feeling. I have determined that what I really want is a Steinway concert grand. Unfortunately, even if I could afford one, there's not a room in my house where it would fit, even if I removed the furniture. Well, maybe the basement. Yes, that's the place for a Steinway--not. It would be a pain to even get it down there. And I'm pretty sure the room would deaden the sound.

Anyway, you can see why my life can appear very boring to others, yet it's fascinating to me. I love all these technical things, the details of learning, always trying to improve. I know I will never be anything approaching a concert pianist, but I do hope that someday I can make beautiful sounds come out of a piano.