Time? Who has time? Who has the time needed to learn to play the piano? Doesn't that take hours and hours a week and daily practice to get good enough to play songs on the piano?
Well, the best you can hope for is to get time on your own terms. You can learn about anything, including playing songs on the piano, if you can do it on your own time schedule and at your own speed.
When time is important to you and you want success at playing the piano in a relatively short amount of time, the pentatonic method is the way to go. This method, because of the ease in which it encourages early playing of songs with accompaniments is very gratifying to a person with limited amounts of time.
Unlike other traditional methods of learning the piano, the pentatonic method starts with the playing of songs instead of with note naming, rhythm drills, and scale playing. The novice pianist can be playing recognizable melodies with accompaniments much more quickly than the novice pianist who starts learning too play the piano in the traditional way.
Because the pentatonic method is based on only five notes that correspond to the black keys on the piano, technical facility is developed more quickly. Proponents of the method also encourage practice away from a keyboard suggesting that pentatonic melody patterns be played on your desk, tabletop or even the steering wheel when stuck in traffic. Everyone has time for that type of practice.
So if you are one of millions of people who have a dream to play the piano but do not think you have the time to learn, look no further than the pentatonic method. Become the master of a repertoire of wonderfully played pentatonic melodies with accompaniments without spending hundreds of hours and months or years of time. Start making your dream a reality and use the pentatonic way today to play songs on the piano.
In the pentatonic method, the adult beginner first learns technique by playing actual songs using only the black keys of the piano. Many hymns, folk songs, and even pop/rock songs are based on only five notes. Learning to play melodies using only five notes instead of twelve is a huge advantage. Instead of first learning a C Major scale as Joanna was attempting to do in the Newhart Show example, a beginner using the pentatonic method in one day would be playing the song known worldwide, Amazing Grace, and in the process would also be developing piano technique.
In the pentatonic method that allows a beginner to play songs on the piano today, the ear is also developed in the early stages of learning. The learner quickly understands how the notes work together to form a recognizable melody. Adding accompaniments, or harmony to the melody is possible nearly immediately, as again, the pentatonic scale makes everything played sound right. For an adult this is crucial. Adult beginners do not want to make mistakes and easily give up if they are not immediately successful.
This pentatonic or five-note method creates engaged learners who will continue their study and will be interested and eager to conquer the intricacies of note and rhythm reading. Why? Because they have had early success in playing songs quickly and in doing so have started developing the technical and musical skills of a player of the piano.
The other day I was watching a rerun of the Newhart Show. In the episode, Joanna, the wife of innkeeper Dick Louden, had purchased an old piano and was excited to learn to play. Most of the other characters in the show including the piano movers who said they wouldn’t charge for the move until they picked it up to move it elsewhere, were skeptical that Joanna would really learn to play. But, she was determined and thrilled with her new piano.
The plot continues with Dick playing the only song he can remember from his childhood lessons, Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, and Joanna eagerly anticipating her first lessons. Unfortunately, we next see Joanna struggling through a C Major scale and slumped over the piano looking at a method book with cutsie pictures. Her husband and friends start to ridicule her decision to learn to play the piano and her interest in practicing soon starts to wane.
This scenario happens far too often. All the adult wanted to do was to fulfill a dream and learn to play the piano today. Unfortunately, teachers often assign boring technical work along with learning the entire language of note reading and concept building. In this traditional method, playing a song, a recognizable melody, is something that eventually is accomplished, but often not quickly enough for the adult beginning pianist. So, the adult learner becomes bored and gives up on the dream.
Success quickly, or playing songs while building concepts and skills is necessary for adult beginning pianists to stay involved and help them accomplish their goal or long-held dream of playing the piano. But, just what is this method? Playing piano songs today can happen by using the pentatonic approach.
You want to play the piano. What's the best way for you? Well,
- If you like a great amount of structure, then you want to find a good piano teacher in your town and take lessons from him or her and have a very structured schedule and goals.
- If you want to just play and have fun but learn while you are playing there are some online courses that could work very well for you.
- For some people having to go slow at the beginning and learn all the basics and notes and rhythms and lines and spaces is prefect.
- For some people having to go slow and learn all the basics and notes and rhythms and lines and spaces will drive them to distraction.
- Some people like to learn to play by ear, that's okay too
- Some people want to learn chords and play with just the chords.
If any of these describe you it's fine. You just need to make sure that the way you are learning reflects HOW you want to learn. If it doesn't you won't be able to stand it. If it does, you will truly enjoy the process. How do you know? Well, the way you become a piano player isn't too different than anything else in your life. It's like a cabinet maker vs. a carpenter. Which one is better? Better for making cabinets or better for putting up the whole structure? Think about how you go about doing anything new and that is going to be the way to learn to play the piano. We like what Dr. J calls the Pentatonic Style. She developed it over years. It involves all of your senses - eyes, ears, mind, and touch. But if you want to take a traditional longer time approach it won't be for you. If you want to get playing right away. It's perfect.
Dr. Paul Robertson, visiting professor of music and psychiatry at Kingston University in Ontario, Canada, cites studies showing that patients exposed to fifteen minutes of soothing music require only 50% of the recommended doses of sedatives and anesthetic drugs for often painful operations. So, dd, imagine the good music can do for you when you sit and play 15 minutes of piano a day. Especially when you aren't sick. Could it help prevent some distresses?
Piano is such a great instrument because it involves all of your senses. It can really help focus your mind and emotions and take you to another level of satisfaction and stability.
In the past learning could be an unpleasant and difficult task only for the few. Now that we know that we all learn in different ways, we can make the way you learn something new, fun, and something to look forward to. At least that’s what we have discovered.
Some people like the older painful method, they just do. However, a whole lot more people are enjoying this new discovery that "The More You Play the Better Your Day"
Albert Einstein said: "There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
Becoming a piano player is nothing short of a miracle - the miracle of sound, touch, beauty and joy. It's something you won't want to miss.
The pentatonic method works best with an adult who is ready to play, is ready to discover how to create songs and is ready to develop technique to play those songs quickly. The pentatonic method uses only five notes – in fact these keys are visually very easy to find as they are the five black keys on a piano. Tactilely, the hands easily cover all five of the keys in a relaxed natural position. And, best of all when simply creating music by just letting the fingers “wander” over the keys, everything sounds right. There are no “clinkers” – just beautiful sounds – pleasing especially to that person who is attuned to their aural sense. This is the perfect method for the adult learner – for the learner who wants and needs to be successful quickly – who wants to make music now – and who wants to play songs on the piano today.
The utilization of the three senses when learning to play the piano using the pentatonic method makes it an appealing method. The visual learner quickly grasps the concepts, the aural learner quickly grasps the concepts, and the tactile learner also quickly grasps the concepts of creating music and of playing the piano successfully and with great satisfaction – the most important facets of learning a to play the piano as an adult.
The third method for learning to play the piano involves what is known as the pentatonic scale or the five-note scale. These five notes just happen to correspond to the five black keys on the piano keyboard. Many melodies use only these five keys. In effect, what this method of learning to play the piano has done is cut out the necessity of learning note reading and has increased the probability of learning a piece “by-ear.”
Why? Because pieces using only five notes are a lot easier to discover or learn than pieces using the possibility of any of the existing twelve notes of the chromatic scale. In addition, without the necessity of learning to “read” notes, the learner can start working immediately on developing coordination and technique. Thirdly, with only five notes involved, a learner can easily create accompaniment patterns to melodies, which allows a person to play real music, real songs, and real pieces in a very short time. The success rate for those starting with this method is very high because a learner can concentrate on learning how to move their fingers and use two hands at once at the piano instead of having to wade through the many layers of thought processes involved in note reading and/or by-ear playing.
The pentatonic method also meets the needs of all learners – tactile, aural, and visual. Those who learn tactilely are successful because by moving their fingers on the keys freely they quickly discover the sounds needed to create melodies. The aural learner is at home with this method because they are given the opportunity to recreate the sounds they hear without being frustrated by an overload of visual materials. The visual learner, though, also easily learns with this method because the black keys create an explicit visual reference point for each melody and accompaniment created.
Which method would I suggest for an adult wanting to learn to play the piano today? The pentatonic method.
Have you ever wondered how an adult might learn to play the piano? What the different methods to learn this fascinating instrument might be? There are three ways a person might approach learning to play the piano – the note reading method, the by-ear method, and the pentatonic method.
The first method would be to learn the language of music – to learn to “read” music. This method is as exhaustive and as complete as learning any spoken language. A person must first learn to read notes or the symbols, which relate to the keys of the piano. Then one must translate those symbols into the movement of the hand and then learn more symbols that indicate just how those sounds are to be made. This method can be daunting for a person just starting on the journey of discovering the joy of playing the piano and unfortunately has thwarted the progress of many would-be pianists.
Another way of learning is the “by-ear” method where one simply learns to hear a progression of notes and imitate those by moving your fingers in a certain order. Again, highly developed skills and sensitivities are necessary in order to hear and correctly imitate and recreate what one has just heard. A learner using this method has to develop “key sense” to be successful in their piano playing venture. For many learners, especially those who are visual in their learning method, this method can again be daunting and discouraging.
The third method is the pentatonic method. It is by far the most rewarding for all learners - visual, aural, and tactile - and produces successful pianists quickly.
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