| You are neither too young nor too old to play piano | | | | your eyes. Music does the same for your ears. Your |
| and compose. If you think otherwise, get that fairy tale | | | | piano playing and compositions live and breathe. |
| out of your head. | | | | Guidelines for Playing Piano By Ear to Write Music |
| A few geniuses began at age 3 and burned out in | | | | Begin your sketches with a simple, basic idea: a sound |
| middle age. Gustave Mahler, a modern symphonic | | | | you like, a group of pitches, an interesting harmony, and |
| artist and Jazz Guitarist legend Wes Montgomery | | | | attractive rhythm pattern, an idea for lyrics, and so on. |
| didn't start serious composing until they were well in | | | | Next step: think out a number of possibilities for |
| their 30's. Verdi was still going strong at 87. Some of | | | | developing, expanding, exploiting, and contrasting your |
| the great pop, jazz, and rock music of our time has | | | | basic idea. |
| been written by musicians who consider the age of 25 | | | | For example: |
| as "over the hill." | | | | 1. A group of pitches can be played forward, |
| Conclusion: forget about age. | | | | backward, upsidedown, or with its order rearranged. |
| What about music theory? Does it have anything to | | | | 2. You can keep the overall shape of a pitch group |
| do with playing the piano and composing a piece of | | | | (the way it moves up and down), but change it by |
| music? | | | | opening up or tightening the distance (interval) from one |
| Sounds come first. Theory books and systems tag | | | | note to the next. |
| along behind, explaining in words what you've already | | | | 3. The same pitch group can be varied by changing its |
| experienced by ear. | | | | speed, meter, or rhythm... or by changing its "color" |
| Composing is a "hot" creative act. Studying theory is a | | | | through changes of instrumental register (high vs. low). |
| "cool" analytical act. | | | | 4. A rhythmic idea, no matter how simple, can be |
| Theory explains what is going on in a piece of music. It | | | | stretched, tightened up, fragmented, or transformed |
| shows us the machinery that makes the music tick. | | | | into a repeated figure |
| Training in theory helps sharpen our understanding, and | | | | 5. A rhythmic idea can be applied to differnet pitch |
| helps the player and composer organize his or her | | | | groups, or used to give movement to your favorite |
| musical materials. | | | | chord progression. |
| Absorb theory for what it has to offer. But watch out | | | | 6. A harmony can be intensified by adding "color" |
| for the trap of "rules." In the early stages of playing | | | | tones (7th, 9th, added 6th, suspended tones, etc.); or |
| piano and writing music, rules can be helpful disciplines | | | | softened by subtracting chord tones; or given a |
| to help focus our thinking. But given too much | | | | refreshed sound by the way you voice the harmony |
| importance, rules become handcuffs; break them if | | | | on the piano. |
| you know what you're doing. | | | | Try to keep a relaxed attitude toward you study of |
| Use your good ears to break through the endless | | | | piano, and an open mind about new ideas that almost |
| blanket of sound that surrounds our lives. | | | | always turn up while you're experiementing with your |
| Direct you hearing. Sharpen your perception. Isolate | | | | sketches. |
| sounds. Listen, and make yourself aware of your | | | | Above all, don't lock yourself into one way of thinking. |
| sound-world. | | | | After a certain point, a piece may have its own ideas |
| A painting, a statue, and a building have a certain kind | | | | about the way it should deveop; don't try to force it |
| of life. All of their parts exist at the same time. But | | | | into a cookie mold! |
| music is like a movie or a stage play: it unrolls slowly, bit | | | | Let it grow and breathe. |
| by bit. A movie begins, continues, and ends before | | | | |