| I'll never forget the time I took my first piano class. It | | | | make music with. Amazing! No note reading. Just |
| was at the Community College of Philadelphia 1984. It | | | | chords. And once I learned a few chords, I was able to |
| was a group class with 20 or so electronic keyboards | | | | create my own music. This open position chord |
| arranged around the room. We each received a class | | | | structure allowed me to improvise music quite easily. |
| text book titled "Class Piano." No shocker there. | | | | Another book influenced me as well. This one showed |
| I opened up the book and saw that I would be learning | | | | how to play chord progressions using 4, 8 and 16 bar |
| how to read music and play triads. I also saw that I | | | | phrases. With this chord charting technique, I could see |
| would be playing very simple classical pieces. Now, | | | | that I could create my own pieces. It taught me the |
| while I enjoyed this and learned how to play these | | | | principles of repetition and contrast - the cornerstones |
| easy pieces, it just didn't do it for me. It was because | | | | to musical composition. |
| as I soon as I put the book down, I was dumbfounded! | | | | A few chords arranged for 8-bars is repeated 2 or |
| I didn't know what to do on the piano without the book! | | | | more times giving you what is called an "A" section of |
| I soon realized that I didn't want to become a | | | | music. Another few bars of different chord changes |
| professional note reader. No. I wanted to be able to sit | | | | and the "B" section is produced. And all of this was |
| down at the piano, place my fingers on a chord that | | | | taught within a very slim volume. Maybe 46 pages or |
| called to me, and just play. I wanted to express myself | | | | so. |
| at the piano in the same way visual artists are able to | | | | After a few years of working with this material, I |
| take pen and paper and artfully color their inner worlds. | | | | synthesized both methods so beginning piano players |
| Why was this so difficult to do? | | | | can take a modern sounding chord and work with it |
| It was at this time that I started to look for new ways | | | | within a set framework. The result is a method where |
| to play. I came upon a book that taught a modern | | | | students are able to improvise their own music right |
| chord position which could be used right away to | | | | away! |