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.
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