hi I'm Scott Houston I'm gonna show you and teach 3 hacks to get you
playing piano in a lot of non classical styles a lot faster than what most
people do when they go through traditional piano methods.
I'm gonna tell you about 3 hacks and things I
think are really important to know if you're wanting to play non classical
piano and by that I mean, jazz pop, blues, rock and roll gospel— really
anything that's not a classical piece of music. all these other
styles. there's really a few things that you do very different and not a lot of
people are aware of them. the good news is once I tell you about them, it's gonna get
you on a path of playing a lot faster!
all right Hack number one—don't think that learning to read music is
always step number one
what I mean by that is a lot of people have a wrong impression that
if they don't learn to read well
I can't learn to be good piano player
well that is the case in classical piano and it's a cool thing actually but
to learn the repertoire and to play more advanced pieces you need
to become a better reader. they are locked together. you can't play better
until you read better
well you know in non classical styles that's just not the case because we
use a different kind of notation that I'm going to tell you about here in
a second but the point is you can be a bad reader
but still be a good player. I mean how do blind players play well?
How did Stevie Wonder learn how to play and I'm not trying to be crass but
it's a truism ok so although it's a cool thing to be able to read and
in fact we will want to learn how to read a little bit just don't think that
you can't get started or that you can't become a pretty proficient player until
you become a great reader that's just not realistic and our styles ok. hack
number # two is I encourage you right off the bat to learn a few chords. the
way it works in most western music and most pop music is if you learn five or
six chords, you'll know the chords to probably
hundreds of thousands
and I'm not making that up. you will know the chords to hundreds of thousands of
tunes if you learn 4 or 5 chords. right you learn three chords you are probably close to
that because there's only three chords in the blues and that's what so much of
our pop music is based on so
the hack number two would be until you know all these other things
you can do, just learn a few chords and play around with them a little bit
and then you're really gonna get your ears opened up to this whole concept of
wow you mean that's how it's all done. number three:
use a type of sheet music called a lead sheet to read from as opposed to traditional notation.
a lead sheet is a different kind of notation that
professionals use for example when you're in a recording session, they throw a
tune in front of you
they don't give you a fully notated piece of sheet music very often they
usually just give you something called a lead sheet and all lead sheet has on it
is the melody, the part some would sing or the notes that you would
recognize of a tune and chord changes and that's the key
they just give you the chords, similar to what guitar players play such as a
C, G7, Abm, whatever, but it won't be all notated so that's what a
lead sheet is just a melody line with the chords up on top of it and reading
from a lead sheet is really the key to swinging open the door into learning
to play very quickly. so that's it. Those are my three Hacks. 1. don't believe that
you have to become a great note reader before you can become a good player.
2. learn a few chords just get a few chords underhand right off the bat
get a few chords learned because it's the absolute basics of what you need to
start playing in a style and then 3. to start learning tunes learn them from
something called a lead sheet not traditional notation. I hope that helps
you and shoving off the cliff if you're just
getting started as a new player thanks I'm Scott Houston.