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Debussy footprints in the snow -- it's the wrong link.

Ugh, transposing. It's definitely useful in choir accompaniment, and I'm not skilled at it. Can I transpose? Oh yes, sure, in theory. In fact today, the choir director who only took a piano proficiency class in university scooted me over on the piano bench and played the warmup since I couldn't do it on the fly. Embarrassing, much? Why this sort of thing is not incorporated in CM exams, I wonder, as I think it should be. It's ridiculous to me that I took years of lessons yet in situations like these I'm a blind person at the piano. Really think piano education should be more well-rounded in this area.

So transposing. I find it practically impossible to do if I'm looking at a score, maybe analogous to folks like AZN reaching for wrong keys on a transposed keyboard. Stopping my brain from overcorrecting back to what is on the score is extremely difficult.

Without the score.. it's easier, but ask me to do anything more than arpeggios and scales or things shaped vaguely like arpeggios and scales, and I'll start trembling and hitting wrong notes. Without a visible key signature to cue me, I feel like I'm driving with very fuzzy lanes and it doesn't end well.

I videotaped my choir director as I intend to learn the warmup, transposed, but I'm afraid my brain will take the easiest route, and will only memorize the entire warmup as an individual entity... I suppose the best way to learn to transpose would be to practice. Twould be like forcing myself to write with my left hand -- painful and looks like a kindergartner's work lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_O1QKQCsGs

Let's see if this fixes the problem. You must have been the first person to even check.

I checked, and still thought it sounded high, which just shows that I was biased cause of your comment and actually can't hear it lol.

The problem is that very few piano teachers actually can do this. One of my transfer students who moved from out of state had to do simple transpositions on her home state's piano test.


You are mixing two scenarios. I reach for wrong keys if the keyboard is transposed. That's because I have perfect pitch. But I can do transpositions on the fly when I play very simple music. Choral accompanists should be able to do simple transpositions on the fly. When I was teaching choir, one of my accompanists was trained to do difficult transpositions on the fly, and even he messed up sometimes.

If you don't have a strong pitch link, you're doing the wrong thing. Play the video, then while it is playing strike a strong A chord on the piano and listen to the two together. You should hear that the piano is clearly lower, or the recording is clearly higher.

No I was mixing for the analogy of the brain. Because you have perfect pitch you can't ignore what you're hearing, whereas I don't, so I am easily ignorant of what I'm hearing. Same with trying to transpose while I am looking at a score. I can't ignore what I'm seeing.

Ok yes my piano sounds horribly flat if I play it against the video.

It is not unusual for someone to want to learn only piano chords. I am a musician, and I know quite a few musicians who play piano accompaniments using only chords as arpeggio variations and rhythm accompaniments. And they play excellently, with their own, unique styles. Many cannot even read music notation -- only chord names. Over time, they learn on their own how to play connecting runs, either fragments of the melody line, or just bridges or improv sequences.

Classical piano, albeit "the high road", is not for everyone. It is only for those who are interested or willing in going in that direction.

I have also known children who were high level competitive pianists, who quit after discovering that their friends did not relate to that kind of music, or that their other activities did not allow enough time for long practice times. Had they had more flexible teachers, who could follow the students' interests, goals and time constraints, those children would still be playing (possibly switching to a portable keyboard to play in a popular band).

And the teacher would still be getting revenue, and the fulfillment of having nurtured a musician.

We all have strong beliefs that were fed to us as we grew up. Those beliefs often impede our ability to support different requirements than cannot be met by the methods and disciplines that we grew up with. Breaking teaching paradigms is part of our personal growth, in much the same ways that, historically, "breaking the rules" caused music to evolve through different periods.

Enough said. Music needs to be fun, not austere. That means different things to different students, and different approaches for different students.

Welcome David D.

Truly curious- when a musician plays just chords, then some other musician or singer has to play/sing the melody, right? Because otherwise, how does it work?

Thanks for the welcome, Tyrone.

Very often, the musician is a vocalist, who sings and accompanies himself or herself on keyboard, much as a guitarist would.

At other times, the musician is part of a band, who adds keyboard to the sound of the band. The musician might even have been a guitarist, but guitarists abound, and the band might have needed a keyboardist instead of yet another guitar.

Eventually, the musician may figure out a melody, weaving it into the chord/arpeggio progression, again, much as a guitarist might.

Some people are not even performers, per se, but just enjoy playing around with the sounds of chord progressions, and improvising for their own enjoyment.

Very few people have a static style. Their playing expands and evolves over time, as they listen to covers and other musicians, and experiment on their own.

A key factor in "being a musician" is loving playing music, which is why a teacher who can follow the interests of the student can be beneficial.

[Part 2]

I should also mention that the student who wants go learn chords can also be encouraged to learn to read a melody line in the treble cleff. From there, the student may be open to exercises, or at least sight-reading practice.

Why? Because they get to use "fake books". These are books that contain the melody line and the chord names. Fake books are available for many genres, including classical music fakebooks such as The Great Composers Fakebook, compiled and arranged by James H. Bryan.

The student can get a feel for a piece from a combination of teacher's instruction and listening to Youtube performances.

Some students might segue into working with the teacher on chord inversions and arpeggio variations (analogous to guitar picking variations), improv approaches and assignments, rhythm styles and variations, and nuances of timing, dynamics, articulations, pedals, etc.

Many teachers are not interested or skilled in this style of teaching, so it becomes important for a student to be paired with the right teacher.

Regards,
David D.

David, that's really all the is, the love of playing. Without it people quit. It might be a couple years, or next month, or next week, but they won't continue without that love. Professional musicians develop a positive addiction to music, also true of all students who are successful and who continue playing for a lifetime.

You can demonstrate this for yourself. Take something that you know how to play, and do just the left hand part. What happens? Usually the highest notes of the chords will form a sort of dumb uninteresting melody line. It may or may not in places here and there sort of hint at the actual melody line that's missing.

I’m with you on this (as per my post on P1). There can be so much to learn, in so many different ways, that anyone truly interested within their own budget or time allowance can benefit from a good, willing teacher.

Hello David, since I'm the OP, I believe my prior posts indicated that I was very clear about the fact that I didn't teach just chords, but was willing to work with him, since he was so insistent on signing up with me. I told him I could teach him how to read lead sheets, how to read the melody line, chord inversions, how to play different types of open chords in the left hand,

I am not just a teacher of classical music - despite that being my original plan when I started teaching. I teach more pop/modern music than classical. My student retention rate is 5-8 years in a music store, which, IMO, is very difficult.

This gentleman never had the time to practice (despite being told at the meet and greet that practice would be needed to make any progress). Every lesson was like groundhog day.

He quit after a month. I did my best under the circumstances.

Or you can just play 'broken chords' and get this effect:

I wish!

I agree with both of you.

Meanwhile, I have highlighted three words "who are successful". I know that you have talked in the forum, as have some other teachers here, about the importance of giving students the tools. If they get the essential skills, they will be able to play for a lifetime, and also do with the music what they'd like to do. That gives enjoyment. That last part of your statement is fairly important.

It's a tricky line. A teacher follows a student's interests; the student doesn't know what skills he needs to do what he wants to do, or what he has to do in order to get there. If the teacher doesn't guide, and follows what the student wants literally, success is unlikely and dreams are shattered or at least curtailed. If the student doesn't work with what the teacher suggests, likewise. (Otoh, a teacher imposing things just because "tradition" went that way in his/her past is also not hitting the mark.) If you are in fact highly motivated, and end up not being guided so that you go in circles, that can be more crushing than if you are neutral or indifferent, as a student.

Going back to the OP - She had a student who apparently was not willing to do the things the he was guided to do, to get there. Perhaps learning chords was not the student's "interests", but they were the path toward his interests. That's the tricky part.

I'll try it soon. I am working on Clementi again (or at least after the 24th, I will be), but I am not sure it will be the same with such music. I'll have to find something else, but the closest to pop that I've learned on the piano is some folk music.

Hi keystring, the student only wanted to learn correct fingering of chords, yet came with a variety of books on "how to play" chords, etc. He assured me he understood scales and chords. My question to him was, if he only wanted to learn how to play chords with correct fingering, he didn't need a teacher. I then demonstrated all the different varieties of how to play chords, and suggested he learn a scant melody line. He was all for it, yet never "practiced", missed one our of 4 lessons, then dropped.