Have You Seen the Piano Lesson Article Yet?

Dear Musician Friends,

If you are interested in taking your piano playing to the next level, I think I may have struck the right chord for you. Just last week, I was contacted by my friends over at HearandPlay.com who specialize in teaching people how to play piano by ear.

Jermaine Griggs, the President of HearandPlay, just let me know that his site had recently been updated with a few new piano resources…

When I finally checked it out (because I was very busy last week), I noticed one particular article that discusses the differences between musicians who play piano from sheet music and others who play by ear — some of the advantages and disadvantages of both.

http://indie-musicnetwork.com/hearandplay300new

The article focuses more on the advantages of playing by ear — obviously because that’s their specialty. Here are just a few of the many examples of what they said (you’ll have to check out the article for yourself to get the full story):

Advantages of Playing Piano By Ear

1) “Being able to instantly recognize chords that are played in songs even without being at a piano.”

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How does this help you?
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“You are able to learn songs faster and easier because you understand why chords are played at certain points in songs.”

http://indie-musicnetwork.com/hearandplay300new

2) “Not required to memorize chord progressions (pattern of chords played one after the other) because understanding them will automatically incline you to know what chord to play next.”

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How does this help you?
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“Allows you to improvise and add your own “flavor” to the song. This is especially advantageous when playing in a church as you can never predict how long a song will be sung or what key the
singer might resolve to. In a band, this might be helpful if the leader simply instructs everyone to surprisingly repeat a part of the song or change the key in which the song is currently being played in.”

http://indie-musicnetwork.com/hearandplay300new

3) “Will allow you to use the same methods to play virtually any song you want (most songs; don’t quote me if you’re referring to Mozart as this might take more practice than most other songs).”

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How does this help you?
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“Saves you the money and time of having to go out and buy the sheet music to a song that you’ve already learned how to play by using the ability of your ear to recognize melodies, chords, and
progressions. However, buying the sheet music isn’t a bad idea if you want to learn specific parts to songs that have high levels of complexity.”

http://indie-musicnetwork.com/hearandplay300new

You know… I could really go on and on about this article, but due to the lack of space, I’m going to have to send you over there so you can check it out for yourself:

Go to: http://indie-musicnetwork.com/hearandplay300new

(…and if you’re really serious about taking your piano playing to the next level, you might want to consider taking them up on their 300-pg course, “The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear”).

Meanwhile, let me know if you have any questions and I’ll answer or pass them to the right folks at HearandPlay.com.

Again, go to:

http://indie-musicnetwork.com/hearandplay300new

To your music success,

Traci Crowley
P.S. – There’s also a little section in the article that talks
about major and minor scales, chords, and progressions. Check
out that section too.