Here are some excerpts from an email I got yesterday from a church pianist.
My husband and I attended XXXXXXX 2000-2004 and I graduated with a degree in Sacred Music, Piano Proficiency. I started playing the piano when I was 4 years old and took lessons through high school. I went through 5 or 6 teachers and did become discouraged at one point and almost quit all together. I was never really taught theory, never forced to memorize, and never taught to play by ear.
When I got to college I originally was a straight Music Major because I thought I could never learn to arrange my own hymns. However, I always preferred Sacred arrangements (ie Mark Hayes, Marilyn Hamm) over classical and decided to take the chance and change my major to Sacred after just one semester. I was placed with a different teacher and he totally formed me into a new musician. I never really learned to play by ear, but now I realize that was my own choice. I have always preferred having sheet music in front of me - it is my security and I am good at reading, especially sight-reading. I was chosen as one of the top accompanists at school for choir, vocal, & instrumental but am ashamed to admit that I cannot play Amazing Grace or Happy Birthday without music!
Before college I was the perfect example of what you are talking about in your lesson "Your Touch Matters". I always played loud and fast and was always "better" than others my age. When I got to college I had a rude awakening to say the least - and I am so thankful.
I have been thinking the past few months that I need to challenge myself again and just learn to play by ear and/or improvise better. I did do my own arrangements in college and they are decent; however, it was painstakingly difficult and I had to work and write it down measure by measure. I would like to do more arranging but as a wife and mother of 2 children under 2 years old I just don't have the time to arrange that slowly like I used to. I am head pianist at our church where my husband is the associate/youth pastor and I just want to be able to get away from the hymnbook sometimes! I know my theory and when I read your lessons I understand completely - I can name chords right away just looking at them. However, when I play, I only see notes - the theory goes away and that is my problem. I know I will never play by ear or improvise well until I read music from a different standpoint.
I also recently started teaching 12 young students and I do not want them to have the same experiences as I did and have ear-training completely skipped in their lessons.
The perspective of the person writing this letter is one I hear quite often from church pianists, so here is my advice for both that person as well as anyone else that feels the same way.
Most of us learned to play the piano in the traditional way which included a little theory and a heavy emphasis on classical music. Probably there was little emphasis put on either playing by ear or improvisation. That is a travesty and a sad reflection on the way music has been taught in Western civilization during the past century. Interestingly, before the 20th century, improvisation and ear training were critical components of musical instruction, so this difficiency is relatively new.
I have said before that in most educational circles, reading music is considered more valid than playing by ear. That is how a prestigious university can and does graduate music majors who cannot play "Happy Birthday" by ear. To me, that is ridiculous, but it happens all the time.
If you come from that kind of background, take heart because you are not necessarily going to be limited to being chained to printed music for the rest of your life. I am convinced that most musicians can learn to play by ear if they really want to and improvisation is also a skill that anyone can learn. Acquiring these skills simply requires time and hard work.
By the way, if you either teach music or have children that take the piano, break with tradition and emphasize ear training and improvisation. Some day, they will thank you for it. I am not saying that classical music is not important or should be ignored, but there should be a balance between playing printed music and playing by ear.
Learning to play by ear is not complicated. Spend some time picking out melodies every day and then start figuring out which chords go with the melody. I discuss this in some detail in the free lessons at GregHowlett.com.
I want to comment on one interesting statement in the letter. The author says "I know my theory and when I read your lessons I understand completely - I can name chords right away just looking at them. However, when I play, I only see notes - the theory goes away and that is my problem. I know I will never play by ear or improvise well until I read music from a different standpoint."
This problem is very common and I have been there myself. What the author is saying is that there is a disconnect between her theory knowledge and her music. Theory is of little value if it cannot be applied to music.
So, let me give all pianists that struggle with this some advice. Don't let the music you are reading become a crutch. Here is what I would do. As soon as you know what songs you are going to have to play in church, build yourself a lead sheet for them and practice and perform from the lead sheet.
A lead sheet contains only the melody line and the chords names. You can make your own lead sheet by writing out the melody notes and writing the name of the chords above them. Or, just jot the names of the chords in your book above the melody line and cover up all notes that are not melody notes.
Playing lead sheets is also the subject of a few lessons at GregHowlett.com. You can download a sample leadsheet and practice it.
What will this do for you? It will get you to start thinking about theory. You are no longer going to be able to just cheat and play the notes you see. Instead, if you are going to have to know your chords and know how to play them in ways so that they work with melody notes.
Unless some things have changed in education since I was in college, you possibly have never worked with a lead sheet. That is a shame. You will see lead sheets being used more and more in the future; they are becoming quite popular.
Don't expect overnight results, but using lead sheets will help you dramatically in your need to learn theory in a way that can be actually applied to the music you play.
