Openings for Piano Students Information

HI..

If you are reading this you are interested in Music, or maybe just stumbled on this page by accident. Anyway here is the long story. At the age of 18, After 7 years of school band and 3 years of piano, 1 year of accordion, and 3 years of a garage band I thought I was verse enough to take music to the next level. What I found out was that not one instructor ever taught me how to play, only to just read music. Sure it was do all the scales, learn the sharp flats for different keys and read the music score. But what was lacking was the how to create, and add your own personal touch. Like a great painter who sees in his mind instead of painting by numbers, musicians add their personal touch to every song they perform, not just read the music. In 1992 I again started piano, taking lessons for 3 years and teaching for 2 of them, this time trying to learn how to play. It’s hard to find an instructor that understands this approach. Granted most of us, yes me included, will never be great and make music history. But what matters is that we all enjoy music and have fun doing it. Lessons can be fun, sure you have to pay the price of finger exercises, and reparative replay of a passage till you get it the way you like it. And we all have to start at the beginning learning how to read the music score, learn the notes and study the music theory. And for those of use who want to PLAY music there is the ear training, including intervals, cords and voice, yes if you can't sing it you can't play it by ear. But the playing part can be fun. Just a simple song like Chop Sticks can personalize to create a nice piece, all from just "you" and a few learned cord progressions. I retired in 2003 from DTE Energy, and still enjoy all aspect of music, working with a few students I hope would be beneficial to all of us.

Lead Sheet Playing. 

What is a lead sheet; it is a music score that has only the treble clef (right hand) single note melody and the cord listed by letter. This means that you do not have to read base clef (left hand) notes only the cord notation. This makes learning to play much quicker and easier. We start out with a song that you want to learn and go from there, bypassing much of the non-fun stuff. I don't recommend this method for any one who wants to become a classical player but it is a way to play the songs that you want to play with less routine work. Is it necessary to learn all the cords when you only need a few, no, that’s the difference in the study programs. Most people can be playing songs in a week or so.

Roger.