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Pretty good, and gets to the heart of the matter.

The Keitel line reminds me of one that I read from I don't know where. "I'd like to learn how to play the piano. What day should I come?"

Nice wording.

That also applies to parents of young students, not just adult beginners. People with preconceived notions about piano (especially the WRONG notions) can be difficult to convince.

Just a wild thought.

The ultimate goal is to learn playing piano. Learning to read music is a particular intermediate step to get to the ultimate goal.

This intermediate step has been necessary, notions on paper has been pretty much the only way to document/communicate how the music should be played. It is not without drawbacks, a person has to mentally translate the spatial information to letter notes then to the locations on the keyboard, plus the timing and velocity information. The process is not easy, some can eventually make it a second nature, some will never learn, many are in between and struggle to reach the "nature" stage.

We live at a very interesting time, technologies open doors for many things no even thinkable just 10-20 years ago.

Like in mechanical engineering, being able to visualize 3D image from a 2D draft was an absolute must discipline, but today's computer 3D projection has made it much easier.

I am imagining a piano goggle, tells you which keys to press, for how long and how hard in some fashion. It can be icons overlapping the actual piano keys, or virtual keys, with a blink of eyes, you can change it to letters or traditional music sheet, whichever works for you (Of course, the next step is a piano glove, but let's don't go there for now)

"Imagine there is no country sheet music.... and no page turning too..."

I think it is a great idea, and the answer to my practicing problems! Please sign me up for a pair of the Horowitz Goggles, and also Murray Perahia Goggles with the photo-grey lenses.

As soon as available, please send along a pair of the Oscar Peterson Gloves. I'll be paying with virtual money, naturally!

Ed

Of course, I take bitcoins

"...They'll then make comments like "well Elton John or Pavoratti didn't know how to read, etc. etc"..."

Really? Wrong, and wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John

"[Elton] John started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out "The Skater's Waltz" by ear... at the age of 7 he took up formal piano lessons. He showed musical aptitude at school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing like Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. According to one of his instructors, John promptly played back, like a "gramophone record", a four-page piece by Handel that he heard for the first time.[19]

"For the next five years he attended Saturday classes at the Academy in central London, and has stated that he enjoyed playing Chopin and Bach and singing in the choir during Saturday classes, but that he was not otherwise a diligent classical student.[19] "I kind of resented going to the Academy", he says. "I was one of those children who could just about get away without practising and still pass, scrape through the grades."[19] He even claims that he would sometimes skip classes and just ride around on the Tube.[19] However, several instructors have testified that he was a "model student", and during the last few years he was taking lessons from a private tutor in addition to his classes at the Academy..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciano_Pavarotti

"...After abandoning the dream of becoming a football goalkeeper, Pavarotti spent 7 years in vocal training. [His] earliest musical influences were his father's recordings, featuring the popular tenors of the day - Beniamino Gigli, Giovanni Martinelli, Tito Schipa and Enrico Caruso... "In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror"...

"...he graduated from the Scuola Magistrale and faced the dilemma of a career choice... his mother convinced him to train as a teacher. He subsequently taught in an elementary school for two years but finally allowed his interest in music to win out...

"Pavarotti began the serious study of music in 1954 at the age of 19 with Arrigo Pola, a respected teacher and professional tenor in Modena who offered to teach him without remuneration. Not until he began these studies was Pavarotti aware that he had perfect pitch... When his teacher Arrigo Pola moved to Japan, Pavarotti became a student of Ettore Campogalliani, who... was also teaching Pavarotti's childhood friend, Mirella Freni, whose mother worked with Luciano's mother in the cigar factory...

I think the point of that made-up quote is to show the ignorance of the general public when it comes to music and musicians. The professionals make it seem so easy, people often forget that for every minute on stage, hours and hours and hours and hours of work and practice went behind it.

Jeff,

Prior to now, I had no idea that Pavarotti and Mirella Freni were childhood friends. Thank you (uh, and Mr. Wiki, of course!)

Ed

Thanks for all your suggestions and input. The student in question cancelled last minute yesterday, and doing that on the second scheduled lesson is a bad sign so I may be off the hook.. Should I end up teaching him I'll make sure to report back and update you on how everything works out.

Those students most often want to "play" around with pop music, and not learn.

Ask them their goal in taking lessons.

You could show them some basic chords and how to read treble clef, and send them away with a fake book.

The "great" ones this century that "didn't know how to read" most likely did not take to the stage on day one and perform for thousands. They "got their first six string and played 'til their fingers bled." Meaning, they maybe did not read the music, but they trained their ears and fingers by practicing and taking time.

Teach them how to play by ear then. not everyone wants or needs to read music. Especially adults that have a limited time to learn.

Even though i can read music, I prefer to learn all my songs by ear. For about 90% of pop songs I can do it. Sometimes if there's some weird chord or melody changes I will look at sheet music only as a guide.

Jazz is a more complicated beast. For what you call "modal" or impressionist jazz you will need sheets for chord changes. Standards usually are simple enough to figure out by ear.

Here's a few jazz/pop medleys I recorded and played by ear. No need for sheet music and no sweat. Just don't ask me to transcribe it.

https://www.box.com/s/70f4a45e6920f93badaa

https://www.box.com/s/702d09a787932361a75f