Play Without Sheet Music - Scott Houston

[sideways]

I can't hardly play a single note on the Piano without the sheet music in front of me.  Sometimes if see  a piano some where I'd like to sit down and just start playing. But the truth is I am totally dependent on reading the music.  Does anyone else have this problem? Sometimes I think maybe my memory is not good enough.  I saw this guy on TV , Scott Houston, the other day that was talking about "Lead Sheets" he made it sound easy. But really I don't know how reading C7 on a paper is any easier than seeing three notes properly placed.  I see some people play the piano, and it sounds real good, but I never recognise what they are playing, so maybe they are just playing around with chords, I don't know.  Anyway, what is a good way to learn to play without the sheet music in front of me.  I'm fairly sure some of the stuff I play I could never memorize, but is there  a good way to learn this?

[hfmadopter]

I'll just reply about cheat sheets. They have their place, for instance giggers use them a lot. They give you a simple melody line and indication of chords to use, it's up to the pianist, guitarist etc. to make something of it. I have a book of christmas carols I use a lot during the season, not a cheat sheet book but I use it as one. It has a singers or chorus line, a piano accompaniment line and bass cleff. Above the score is an indication of the chord changes in actual chord definition vs  roman numerals. Often I just take the Chorus line and use those chord indications to make a rolling or arpeggiated bass, play the chorus line , maybe fill in a little bit. I skip their arrangement cause really it's lousy anyway, has all muddy sounding bass arrangements, I open that right up. So easy to do and actually it would be easy to memorize too though I don't bother except for page turning sequences. I'll do two or three passes of the piece and move on. But you can really get into arranging these piece too, take bits of their arrangement and apply that an octave high or more compressed etc. It's fun and sounds nice.

As to memorizing , I used to memorize for my recitals but I mostly read now ( getting older, too many different meds etc. ). But to memorize , start with some simpler pieces and just do a bar at a time till you are done. knowing one bar at a time often gets you more bars later on in the piece as well, with minor passing changes. One thing, the better you know the chords making up phrases in a piece the easier it will be to memorize. And that brings us back to the cheat sheet in a round about way, cause that's what a cheat sheet is all about.

[gleeok]

I never thought I would be able to play without sheets in front of me, but I figured out it wasn't that hard! My suggestion is to start with simple, smaller pieces.

Practice it a few times (play the whole thing), listen to the sound carefully now that you don't need to worry about playing it right. Play it two, three times, do small changes here and there (dynamics or pedal, whatever) if you want, basically just have fun playing around.

Now try playing the first bar without the sheet, as slow as you need it to be, I'm sure you will naturally remember what you heard after that and you'll naturally find out the position, the movements, the feeling of the piece itself! it doesn't take too long to find yourself flying around with the notes, independent of the score!

After you've done it with smaller pieces (1 page long), it is just a matter of time t'ill you get to the bigger ones.

After I learned how to play from memory I figured out that playing with your eyes blocked/closed is an interesting experience! And it helps to improve your own kinesthesia and keyboard topography awareness, without saying that after you close your eyes..the whole thing is much more about sound and sense than white and black keys or the staff and notes, I recommend it.

[sideways]

THanks, hfmadopter.   I have a couple of books of very easy Christmas songs, that sounds like a good way to start!

[sideways]

Thanks,  gleeok.  I like your suggestions.  I think I will try it now.  It is strange sometimes I can play quite awhile without looking at the sheet, so sometimes I know I got more memorize that I realize.  I had the option to do recitals or not with my teacher, and I choose no. Maybe if I said yes it would have forced me to learn.