Relearning Piano

Credit

I haven't been up on my relearning lately. I just have been so distracted with normal housework and lamaze classes and other functions and happenings that I haven't even sat down at my Baldwin and attempted a new song recently.

But I thought I'd explain to you what I mean by "relearning Piano." If you've read my profile you've spotted it and probably wondered what it denotes.

Stacey and I both took from a woman who we love dearly! She was a good teacher! Don't let this post fool you! I took for 8 years. Stace I think almost that or maybe right at that too? Can't recall. Anyway, it wasn't until I stopped taking lessons and ignored the piano for a few years did I realize that I had no idea how to read music!

After 8 years....I still, can't read music. Now I have some splainin' to do right?

When I took piano it went like this. We came in, we played our songs from the week and then we may do some theory work and then we heard our teacher play the new song or songs of the week and then we practiced it back to her for the remainder of the class so we could get the jist of it before we went home alone to practice it for the week. She made markings and counting notations and everything on the songs for us. She marked trouble spots and she replayed parts as needed for us.

It was all good and well! But I never realized that I was learning it differently than I should have been. We began every song with the counting thing. She would point out the measure you know? I can't even think of what it's called right now...but the little symbol to tell you how many beats per measure to count. I knew all along I was supposed to be counting in my head...but I wasn't. I happen to be the kind of person who just by hearing the song played, remembers (basically) what it is supposed to sound like. I guess you would call that playing by ear? No idea what the name for this is and if anyone else plays this way...but...that's how I play.

To this day in fact I cannot learn a song until I have heard it played by someone else. Here's how I used to get through it. My teacher would play the song, and I would begin to play it back. Naturally I'd make errors, but I could cover them up really fast. It's hard to explain...but...if I would hit a wrong note, I could hear which direction I should go for the correct note. Know what I mean? I would kindof fumble around the first few times of playing a song in practice until I had basically memorized the right movements. It really became a memory. I learn songs by the way they sound and then I just play them repeatedly until I have memorized the movements. Sure I looked at the music on the page too. I pretty much used that as my guide. I would know exactly what measure I was in and what note and everything...(possibly why I fooled everyone for a while) I just wasn't truly playing from the notes. I was playing because I knew the tune in my head.

Over the course of the week I would play that song so many times that I would finally get it with minimal errors....many times none. It would sound just perfect. And I'd get my sticker and we'd move on to the next song. My memory served me well for a long time. I could turn back to previous books and play old songs fairly easily. Especially since the earlier books were indeed easier melodies. But it still wasn't about the music. I still wasn't reading the notes. I know I wasn't. Like I said, they were there as a guide...and I would use notes in reference to recall the way I was supposed to play it. I might even have lost a whole measure sometimes and have to go back and quickly figure out those notes and relearn that part again.

That worked well for a long time. Mmm, about 7 1/2 years! It was fun. I liked piano. Recitals were not the most difficult thing for me because...SURPRISE...I already memorized all the songs I had learned! Not much of a different task, just nerve racking to do it in front of people. Basically what started to happen was that the songs became to long and too unique to be able to memorize. And because I couldn't really count, I couldn't quite get the melody of some of the songs I was being introduced to. They became too hard. They weren't just repetative kiddie songs anymore. I remember my teacher getting me a book of some fun disney songs and I had huge trouble with them. So much so that we put that book aside. It could have been that I already had those songs in my head and trying to play them sounded so different that it threw me off, or it could have just been the fact that these songs were harder and longer. You would have to be able to read the notes to get it.

One day, I came to the end of some books and my teacher pulled out the new level. She opened it and began to play the first song. It was a classical song. Swan something or other. I never made it past that song.

That book was different. The lines were smaller, the notes appeared smaller and the music was very fast and very...well...not something you could just memorize. I quit shortly after this. I just couldn't keep up any more!

I have no idea if my teacher knew what was happening or not. She may have thought I was just losing interest. I'm sure she knew I never counted...that was probably obvious. But I don't know if she knew that I wasn't really reading the music at all. I tell people that story most often when they see I have a piano and ask me to play. Most people can't believe what I'm saying. That I went 8 years without truthfully reading notes. My Mom didn't believe me. She thought I was just making it up. She can sit down and play anything...with a little polish....because she can read music. I don't know how to do that.

When I sit down to learn a new song, I have to have someone else play it first. Typically I do this when Laura or Erin or Sandy comes by for something. I ask them if they'll play a song for me. All it takes it that one time of hearing it. And then I begin to try it out myself. It's frustrating and hard at first. I try hard not to do the memory thing but it's nearly impossible for me because that's just naturally what I want to do. I start out horribly, making error after error. How would I know I was making errors you say? Because I can hear them. I can hear that they are wrong because I heard the way it was supposed to sound before. That's the why I have someone play it first. I usually figure out the first measure or two of notes by my little rhymes and get that sunk in, then go from there. As I hear notes sounding wrong, I have to manually count out where I am and figure out what note was wrong...then look around for a problem...like a sharp or flat problem or possibly the wrong note altogether. You can imagine that this doesn't work well with big time songs. I'll never be able to play classical music for example with this type of method. It's just too much going on in the song. Hymns are easier. Pretty repetitive and short. Children's books, as in the old lesson books I used...that I can do. I can pretty much get one of those songs within 10 to 15 minutes. Many times it's because I remember the actual song and I have a little bit of a memory coming through on it! Sometimes, it's easy enough that I recognize the basic notes pretty well and don't have to go through and figure them out. That lets me just begin to play and eventually I just play it faster and faster until I hear the melody and then we're good to go.

Try as I might I cannot get myself to read the music though. "As the Deer," for example, is a favorite hymn of mine to play. And even though I know the song...when I play it...I have no idea where I am. I could probably tell you the measure. But the note...you'll have to give me a moment and I'll figure it out for you! Surprising? Not so much to me. Guess who else has this problem?

Stacey. Stace may be a little better than me. I don't want to pin her with this problem when I haven't really talked to her about it but I'm pretty sure she also cannot sit down with a song and play it. She'd have to figure out the notes as well. Even an easy song would take a few. I'm pretty sure I've heard her say she has the same problem.

Pretty crazy huh? So my relearning...is still not the right way to learn. But at least I can play a few songs right? So that's the story. Now you know!