Intermediate Player looking for clarification

[michaelsimons]

Hi All,

I have recently refound my love for piano and have invested in a Yamaha U3 Silent. I had lessons when I was 8-12 and I reached grade 3. Ever since then I have just played on my parents piano teaching myself. Now, the problem is, I quit my lessons mid-way through being on my way to sight-read quite successfully. Now that 10 years have passed since my last lesson, I have found myself playing by chords. I have a chord dictionary and have solely tought myself through that.

Now my question is, what is the CORRECT way to play piano. Take for example, Your Song by Elton John. The sheet music has one base line and two treble lines (I am presuming one is the vocals), and then the guitar grids and the chord written above. I play by the chords on top of the grid and part of the vocals to make the song sound as I hear it. Should I be playing one base one treble line? Or all three lines?

I am trying to avoid having lessons, I can read notes on a page but to work through a song (one treble (non-vocal one) and the bass, i.e. not using the chords), I need to write up the notes on the page and I am slow at moving from one to another. Yet if I use the top treble line and the chords I can play the song pretty well (albeit sounding quite "child-like" with the one finger treble playing).

I appreciate any advice people can pass my way, something to put me in the right direction to advancing my playing!

Great forum and I look forward to contributing as I learn more and more!

[gyzzzmo]

I cant really comment on your sheets because i dont know how extensive its written.
But if i have to play some famous stuff i usually just look at the chord symbols and the melody, and ignore the rest. You can improvise on the chords as you like, it often depends alot on experience how good the improvising is, but it potentially gives the best results. Playing things as it is on the sheets often gives a far worse result than what you can produce with some decent improvising on the chords
And never forget that the most important thing is the melody itself, play it as if you're singing it

Best,

Gyzzzmo