From lesson 1 you should be learning to read the treble clef notes and practicing your 3 note chords.  This will enable you to play what are called ” lead sheets”.  Lead Sheets are a written melody in the Treble clef, one note, and a chord symbol above those melody notes. 

If you are only reading notes, you are taking the long road to learning piano.  There is plenty of time to learn to read the Bass clef.  What a beginner needs to do is get a ” big ” sound in a short period of time. Learning all 60 of your 3-note chords enables the student to be playing 4 notes simultaneously in a matter of days!  ( 4 notes consisting of 3 in the left hand chord and 1 in the right hand melody line). 

As many of my adult students recall their piano lessons as kids, they frequently comment on how boring and arduous lessons were. Playing songs is exhilarating!  But most students don’t have the patience to wait 2 years to play their favorite songs.

There is no reason why a student can’t be playing songs like Yesterday, Misty, As Time Goes By , Moon River etc.. after a month or 2 of lessons.  Well actually there is one reason why they can’t and that is if they are taught to only read the notes. 

95% of all piano teachers teach only the written note.  And 95% of all piano students can’t play a song after 6 months of lessons. Now that is a travesty. 

Beginning students beware.  Don’t be caught in the vicious circle of weekly boring rote lessons! Take from a jazz teacher and learn life-long concepts that will enable you to play quickly and with an understanding of how music works!  You owe it to yourself!

That’s right!  I teach jazz/pop piano to students from around the world over traditional phone lines. ( I also use skype and my skype name is ” pianowebman” ).  If you have always wanted to learn to play the piano, or have taken ” traditional lessons” and want to learn a different way, then this is your once in a lifetime opportunity.  There is no obligation, in fact you can even ” gift ” this free piano lesson to someone you know .

All you need to own is a computer, a phone ( preferably a cordless landline phone with a headset, $10 at Walmart ) and a piano or electonic piano. I must warn you that you will need to speak english in order to get the full benefit of this free piano lesson.  I haven’t quite mastered Mandarin, and I’m still working on Spanish and French.

 This is not a ” gimmick”.. I currently teach more than 30 “distance learning” piano students.  In fact this week will be the 5th anniversary of the founding of my Distance Learning Jazz Piano Institute.

Beginning in April 2002, I’ve had the privilege of teaching students from Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland , Spain , Canada and the United States of America. 

It’s easy!  Just pick up your phone, insert your headset, and study with a master jazz pianist/teacher without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home.

 Please note, this offer is limited to the first 100 callers and the caller must mention  the words…….     free piano lesson…..in the subject area of the email or in a voicemail in the event that I’m teaching and cannot pick up the phone.  In the event that you can’t leave a message at 800-32-PIANO I may be reached on my cell phone at 847-401-1721. If I don’t answer please leave as many details, i.e. phone and email address and best time to reach you, as possible.. thank you

Sincerely

Mark Miller  Founder & President Distance Learning Piano Institute

So why is it that so many former piano students ( typically adults who studied in their childhood ) can’t play the piano.  I believe it is because they were not taught concepts.

Take for instance Major Scales.  I often wondered why the G major scale had an ” F# ” in it.  Well, if you know the concept of how major scales are constructed , then you know that you must ” sharp the F key” in order to maintain the ” whole - whole - half -  whole -  whole whole - half- step ” pattern by which all  major scales are constructed. As a ” Traditional piano student” from age 6 to 16, I was never taught this concept. It was always ” just play your scales”.  As a jazz piano student at age 20 I  began to understand the ” why’s ” behind the language of music.

Why is a major chord called major ?  Why is the minor chord called minor ?  Why is the augmented chord called augmented?  There are reasons why chords are named certain ways.  The major chord is called major because all the notes are generated from the major scale. So if we want to build a C major chord, we start on the C Key and play every other note of the C major Scale.  The C major scale is all white notes so the C major chord is C, E, G.  Similarly, if you know the Db major scale and you want to find a Db major chord, start on Db and play every other note of the Db major scale. By the way the ” concept” for building chords is :  Chords are built tertially, in other words every other letter of the starting notes respective scale.  So if you are building a Dmaj7 chord, you start on D and go every other note of the D major scale thus generating the notes  D, F#, A and C#.  As you can see the major scale is a very important set of notes to know. In fact the major scale is the basis for naming intervals, building chords, improvising, playing melodies and last ( and I believe least importantly) to build finger dexterity. 

What are the notes of an Augmented chord?  Well the word augmented means to ” increase ” . So to build an augmented chord you ” increase” the distance from the root of the chord to the fifth of the chord by raising the 5th up a half step.  In the case of C Augmented ( written C+ ) the notes are C, E, and G#.  So we have ” augmented or increased the distance from the C to the G by half step.

What are the notes of a diminished chord. Well, this is the opposite of an Augmented chord.  Instead of ” raising or increasing ” the distance from the Root to the 5th… we will be ” decreasing or diminishing “the distance from the root to the 5th.  So in  a diminished chord we lower the 5th of the chord by half step . (By the way the diminished chord is based on the minor triad ) .  A C diminished chord, written Cdim or Co consists of C, Eb, and Gb.

My basic point is that there is a logical reason why chords are named the way they are named.  And once you understand the concept you can build any chord.

So, even if you learned one concept a week, you should expect to be playing all your 3-note chords in a month. So why does it take years to play 3 or 4 notes simultaneously in traditional lessons.  Because most teachers don’t teach concepts.

There is a great book titled  ” How To Play The Piano Despite Years of lessons”..and in it the author questions why there are so many pianos in America and why so few people know how to play them!  I think the answer is because ” Traditional ” piano lessons teach by rote, not by concepts or ideas.

I guarantee that with my unique concept-based piano lessons, you will be playing songs in days not years and you will acquire  the concepts needed to enjoy a lifetime of creative , emphasis on the word CREATIVE , music making! 

Ray Foulkes has been studying with me for over 5 years now!  He resides in Romsey England near Southhampton.  Ray has mastered his Open Position Chords and is able to transpose several tunes into any of the 12 different keys!  Ray is learning ” block style” voicings now as well as how to arrange songs with more complex chords , i.e. Dominant 11+’s, 13ths and Quartel voicings.  Ray was interviewed on BBC Radio Wales in November 2005 and you can hear him performing by clicking on the link at www.pianoweb.com

Ruth Rothstein is my youngest student at age 84 !!  Ruth always wanted to learn to play piano and speak spanish… Well I don’t know about her language skills but I do know she can play a mean leadsheet! Ruth began distance lessons in August 2005 and now has a repertoire of over 25 songs.  Maybe more importantly, she can sightread a song/leadsheet in minutes, and get a relatively ” big sound”‘ now that she has mastered her triads!

Jim McVicar is one of 2 students from Santa Rosa , California.  Jim had studied off and on for years before I began teaching him in January 2006.  It is such a pleasure to hear him playing songs like  ” That’s All ” and ” Misty” and ” The Nearness Of You”  on his beautiful Yamaha Grand Piano!.  He plays many of the songs with ” advanced closed position” voicings.. voicings that only a very few professional jazz pianists know or use. Some areas of concentration that Jim is learning now are: open position voicings ala Alan Swain, so called ” scalar fills”, quartel chords, and some ” beginning improvisation” techniques.

Carol Rosofsky is one of 3 distance students who live in Chicago.  You know they say ‘ the teacher learns more than the student”.. well this could not be more true.  Carol has helped me to ” think out side the box”.. as a teacher.  I often need to/ want to change my paradigm when teaching Carol.  She is more of a “ hands on  learner ” and I’m more of a  conceptual learner. This past week’s lesson was one of her best.  I felt so proud when she asked to ” play her 11+ chords around the circle again!”.  As Carol remarked ” I think I’m getting this”..

Betty Walkiewicz is my dear student from Portland.  Like many adults, Betty took a year or 2 of piano as a child but always wanted to get back to it as an adult. After seeing an article in Costco magazine she called me in January 2006 and she began taking lessons from me.  Betty has already mastered her closed position 4-note chords and recently even impressed herself with her ability to play Moon River nearly perfectly the first time through. As I reminded her, this is the power of knowing all your chords!  She often comments that she  ” just loves to get a new lead sheet ” from me via email.  It’s like getting a gift in the mail.

Noel Romey is a graduate student at the University of Arkansas.  He is visually impaired but that has not stopped him from studying one of his passions… jazz piano!  Noel is transposing tunes into multiple keys and really enjoying the creative side of jazz piano.  Areas he excels in are:  Reharmonization of  ” Standards”, improvisation and music theory.  Noel is an inspiration to me as a teacher!

 June Cantwell called me 6 weeks after an article in the Riverside County , California  Enterprise newspaper.  I was surprised to be getting a call so far in the future from when the article first ran. But June later told me that she cut out the article and waited to call me because she knew she would be vacationing and didn’t want to start til she knew she could have consistent lessons.  Never having played before, June is now playing 6 -note chords in open position after less than 2 years of lessons. As I reminded her in the last month, she is playing out of a book that I studied in after 10 years of piano lessons! Does she play these professional sounding chords perfectly every time.. no.. but she knows the theory and I’m certain these chords will be second nature in the upcoming months. Go June!!

Look for more interesting comments on piano students in the next days and weeks. And thank you to all my students over the years for all there questions.  There quest for knowledge has made me want to improve my skills as a teacher and professional jazz pianist!

I like to teach chords to my students from day one, regardless of the age of the student. When a student learns his or her 60 triads, by the way this usually takes less than 2 lessons, then we add a melody line in the treble clef , or right hand. So now the student is playing 4 notes simultaneously, 3 notes in the left hand and 1 in the right, in the very first few lessons.  The student is playing a very rich, full sound for only haven taken lessons for a few weeks! And with minimum reading of notes. Imagine how long it would be until a a student was striking 4 notes together in a ” traditional ” piano lesson, more than likely at least 1 year. We don’t have a year! If the student is not playing a recognizable popular tune in the first month, it is unlikely they will be motivated to continue.

 Teaching students how to construct and play chords is very ” concept-based”.  This is not rote learning.  Rote learning is fleeting. Concepts stay with us for our entire life.  For example, once you understand that an ” Augmented ” chord means to raise the 5th of the chord up a half step, then you are able to form that chord at any time. Similarly, when you understand that a minor chord is the same as a major chord  except you lower the 3rd or middle note by half step, you then can ” find ” or form that chord at anytime.

Most professional pianists, particulary jazz pianists know all there chords and can play from what is called a ” leadsheet” .  A leadsheet is simply a single melody note written on the treble clef and chord symbols written above the melody. A major chord is indicated by a capital letter. So a C major chord is written ” C ” ,  a D major chord is written ” D” etc.. The symbol for a minor chord is usually a small ” m ” but can also be notated as a dash  i.e.  Cm, or C-

Augmented chord is notated as a ” +” symbol.  There are only 2 more types of triads.  The sus 4 chord and the diminished chord. 

 Learning your chords are the key to playing the piano life-long!  How many times have you heard a parent say ” I took piano as a kid , but can’t play a note today”.  This is as common as it is tragic.  Imagine saying ” I studied arithmetic for 5 years , but I can’t add today!”.

The reason piano students can’t play after years of ” traditional” lessons is because they were only taught  how to read the individual notes on the staff. Understanding how to read and play notes on a staff of music is analagous to knowing the alphabet.  I know the spanish alphabet and can pronounce any word in spanish.  But does this mean I understand spanish.  I don’t think so.  Music is a language also. The alphabet of music is the notes on the page.  Yes , you can play the notes on the page but that is learning at the ” alphabetical” level. 

The higher level of learning a language is at the ” word ” level.  Words are specific combinations of letters.  Words have meaning. In the language of music, Chords are our words.  Chords are specific combinations of notes.  And just like sentences have a certain syntax or order to their words, so too music has a certain order or syntax when analyzing their chord stucture.

So, in teaching piano to students, it is vital that we teach them at the ” word ‘ level and not just at the ” alphabet” level. 

I always ask my students: ” How many chords do you think you need to know to play the piano? “.. the answer is less than 200!  So even if you learned 2 chords a day, you could be playing piano in less than 3 months. But not if you study in a ” traditional ” way.. because you will not be taught at the ” word”  or ” chord” level, therefore you won’t see the patterns and structure of music .