The Greatest Cassius Clay Sings Stand By Me

Do You Want To Be Great?

I aspire to be as great as I can be without killing myself.  I have advanced play-by-ear abilities and sight-reading skills.  I don’t play professionally nor do I want to.  What I love the most is to explore the journeys of my extensive sheet-music collection.  That’s what I love.  The journeys.

I love reading other peoples’ music, learning their styles and reading the lyrics of gifted pros (pun).  How to interpret what the composer is trying to convey so clearly.  Show me sheet music and I’m off.  Thousands of pieces played at times.  There’s nothing that rivals the thrill that reading music gives me. 

 . . . and playing by ear, you can’t ever get away from that.  It’s always a reality.  You play everything by ear, even the stuff you read.

Reality says there comes a point in peoples’ lives when they are preoccupied with work and lovers and things other than the piano.  The question is whether you can withstand a 6-month lull in playing and still come back to it like you never left.  That’s command.  How do you get that good? 

The first thing is to understand that 

Command really isn’t that good.  

As a level, it’s high but really, compared to others that know their chords and play with style, it’s only the beginning. 

A person in command doesn’t necessarily possess great fingering skills.  However, they do possess strong chording skills and that puts them in a power position.  They have command of the piano just like someone who plays a guitar.  The concept for the two instruments is identical.  Learn the chords and the sooner the better.

Do you want to be great?  Great enough, for sure.  Never-forget-it great.

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Joseph Pingel is a pianist, teacher and musicologist.  Click here to get the free companion book to this blog.  See his other sites at www.KeyedUpPiano.com and www.PlayByEarCentral.com. 

© 2011 Keyed Up Inc

Listen to Gilligan's Island Stairway To Heaven

To play piano by ear is to play with creativity.  Click on this rare song to listen while you're reading this.  It's better than Zepplin, lasts half as long as the original and uses the art of imitation and creative license.  The overall affect is for the listener to say "Hey, they ripped the theme from Gilligan's Island.  I thought I heard that before . . . " but it's not the truth.  Far from it.  It's the nature of music to be misleading and this song really takes you on a fun ride.

But let's be realistic on this song.  The cadence to the Gilligan lyric is easily altered to conform to the cadence of Stairway.  The Gilligan theme style is a sea shanty that somehow conforms to the ethereal, slow-burn chord progression of Stairway.

Outside of a common chord progression,

the songs are nothing alike. 

The nature of music says you can take any song's lyric, rhythm and chord progression, modify it slightly and spit out a completely different version of the same song.  Such is the case for Gilligan.  Think of other songs that this applies.  The Byrds singing Dylan songs.  Joni Mitchell's Woodstock vs. Crosby Stills and Nash version of the same song.  There are many many more instances where the differences from the originals are like night and day.

Led Zeppelin sued Little Roger and the Goosebumps over this song to cease and desist.  It's funny to note however, that Robert Plant called this his favorite cover of their famous song.  

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Joseph Pingel is a pianist, teacher and musicologist.  Click here to get the free companion book to this blog.  See his other sites at www.KeyedUpPiano.com and www.PlayByEarCentral.com. 

© 2011 Keyed Up Inc

A Strong Right Hand To Command The Keyboard

To play by ear with authority you need a strong right hand.

“Strong” in a way that is not only proficient, but wise." 
 

 

We're “Right” Most of The Time  

There’s a science here somewhere, but my opinion is that most people are right handed, right legged and pegged generally right-minded. 

Learn Chords On Your Dominant Hand

Your dominant hand is easier to train and learns to play chords as a reflex.  I suggest you learn chords on your strong-suit hand; that's where you're going to find the most long-term comfort. 
 
There are positives of being either handed.  Music is written for  "righties" but "lefties" are often ambidextrous and can boost their playing with superlative bass-hand skills. 

Giving You The Down Low

Play a basic octave span (or single note in the bass) and work on your right hand exclusively in the beginning.  Don’t try to learn all the chords at one time.  Just concentrate on the chords of the song you are playing.

Then play more songs that use those same chords and really drive those movements and positions into the indelible part of your memory.

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Joseph Pingel is a pianist, teacher and musicologist.  Click here to get the free companion book to this blog.  See his other sites at www.KeyedUpPiano.com and www.PlayByEarCentral.com. 

© 2011 Keyed Up Inc

The Master Speaks

I am the master.  You may be a master too. 

Whatever you already know is your plateau.  It may reach to the heavens in knowledge and dimension but your plateau is just one of many.  There are mesas and mountains of brilliant musical minds.  Every musician has one, high or low in proportion to their passion.

I've got different experiences than you.  My plateau is from a different vantage than you perceive.  I like my music and you like yours.  You can probably play rings around me, you see.  But can you jam . . . and if not, “Why?”

You haven’t learned to command the instrument.  

Command is a state of ease in playing the 24 basic major and minor chords and their inversions.  That’s a specific goal that can be reached quickly if you put your mind to it.  Learn those chords and you get it.  That’s the fast track and it’s a fact.

All you beginners, same thing.

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Joseph Pingel is a pianist, teacher and musicologist.  Click here to get the free companion book to this blog.  See his other sites at www.KeyedUpPiano.com and www.PlayByEarCentral.com. 

© 2011 Keyed Up Inc