Some people are born musical. Some aspire to musicality. And some have musicality thrust upon them.
Being the middle child, I fall into the middle category. I was not born musical. And I never had musicality thrust upon me. Growing up, I had no musical education except the standard stuff we learned in music classes in the public school I went to. But when I was eleven, I decided to teach myself to play the guitar. And I have been aspiring to musicality ever since.
Several weeks ago, I decided to learn how to play piano songs. If you have been following these pages, you know that ever since then I have regaled you with my adventures in piano for beginners. I have been doing the free six-lesson course from Rocket Piano and blogging about it. I didn’t mean to be obnoxious. You know how some people brag about things that are not exactly brag-worthy? But I just kept getting a kick out of it. Hey, I could play Mary Had A Little Lamb! Hey, I could play Merrily We Roll Along!
Well, guess what? Hey, I can play Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound! Well, I’m not suggesting the neighbors think that it’s such a sweet sound.
But, man, I love knowing how to play piano songs. I learned Mary Had A Little Lamb in the first lesson. I went on to Merrily We Roll Along in the second lesson. Then I added Deck the Halls and wound up with Amazing Grace. Four songs in six lessons.
And notice what we didn’t learn how to play. We didn’t learn how to play scales. We didn’t learn how to play dull, boring exercises that could have been repeated by a metronome. We didn’t learn how to play one note with one finger over and over.
Now, I admit that I got bogged down with Lesson Three. We studied harmonic and melodic intervals and chords. It was . . . dry. But I attacked it just so that I could move along to Lesson Four, the lesson of Deck the Halls. (It reminds me of my good friend, Elaine, who as a child always ate the much-loathed lima beans first to get them off her plate so that she could enjoy the rest of her dinner. But I digress. . . )
And six lessons later, hey! I know how to play piano songs.
I also know how to read music now. When you sign up for the free six-lesson course with Rocket Piano, you get a free download called Jayde Musica. Jayde Musica is an interactive game designed to teach the video-game generation how to read music. I am not a member of the video-game generation, but I have to say that Jayde Musica is fun. And a great learning tool. Playing it helped me learn to read music fast.
This is how it works: When the game starts, you see notes on small portions of a musical staff that move from right to left across the screen. You need to identify the note and click on the right button on the screen before the moving staff completes the trip across the screen. Then you go on to the next note following right after it. You score points for correct responses and progress from beginner to more advanced levels as your scores improve. It’s just like a video game that way.
But this game is sneaky. You don’t waste time doing it. You learn to read music! You have to keep alert because you have to respond actively to the note as it passes in front of you.
You have to commit by pressing the button. None of this, “Let’s see, I guess it’s a G. Yeah, that’s right, I was going to say that it’s an A.” You have to know your stuff. And it continues to challenge you, because the patterns of notes will get more complicated and they will pass on the screen faster as you score higher.
Why, that free download alone is more than worth the price of the free six-lesson course! Hah!
So, having accomplished the free six-lesson course, I am now moving along to the full, paid course. And you needn’t worry. I’ll be blogging about it as I go on. Lucky you!
Do you want to learn how to play piano songs, too? If you do, you can start your own blog and brag about your progress. Just sign up with Rocket Piano. If you don’t want to commit, try out the free six-lesson course. But if you know you want to learn how to play piano songs, take the plunge and get the full course. This program is good.
