Playing the piano is a multi-sensory experience. It involves three of the senses – tactile, visual and aural. To really create music, a pianist must engage each of those senses to be successful. And, to learn to play the piano, it is equally as important to engage all the senses from the first day of study. Learning to play the piano using the pentatonic scale is a method of study that appeals especially to adult learners. Why? Because it is immediately gratifying and because success comes easily through a multi-sensory learning style approach.
Adults just coming to the piano for the first time, have preconceived notions of what they should be able to play. They have the sounds of great music in their ears, they know good piano playing, and because they are adults, they are convinced they can and will easily learn to play the piano. Unfortunately, traditional methods for learning the piano can quickly turn an excited beginner into a frustrated upset adult who will probably never touch the piano again.
The adult beginner can more easily grasp concepts and hear melodies than young people, however, the technical aspects of playing the piano can often lead to aggravation. The adult understands what is to be done with the fingers and how note reading works, but often the coordination of the visual to the tactile and eventually to the aural senses is hampered. An adult just wants to make music now on the piano – they want to play songs today – not in two or three years. They feel they should be better faster than their children – they feel they should play now and the concepts will fall into place which will then allow them to play even greater pieces.
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