First of all a little background, then my question. I'm a 25 yr old
who just started learning piano this year. I started from scratch:
this is a ledger line, this is middle C, etc. I had absolutely NO
experience with music whatsoever. I'm to the point now where I can
play fairly easy numbers in a handful of keys (C,F,G,Bb,D,A Major
Keys). For Christmas I even learned to play some arrangements of
popular Christmas Carols. I am completely self taught at this point
and have been working through the John Schaum and Alfred Adult
All-In-One Courses. Luckily I have a roomie who has played piano for
quite some time and he graciously "grades" my lessons and offers a few
hints on playing. I am also friends with other piano-playing people,
some who have had teachers with impressive credentials. I am currently
on the "B" book by Schaum and am about to start the 2nd Alfred Book. I
think this is pretty good considering 6 months ago I had to start out with the
"Primer" book which is basically what most 6 year olds begin with...
I've been doing a lot of reading on the 'net and it seems like there is
dichotomy in the adult piano pedagogy world between the "Learn to play
easy pop piano" ppl who push chord-based methods and jazz theory and
the classical ppl who push learning Hanon, Czerny, Tons of scale
exercises and an incrementally progressive repetoire of Classical
Pieces. Personally I like Classical music, I listen to it often and I
really like Chopin, Beethoveen, Brahms, Debussy, Bartok etc. I would
like to develop my technique to a point where I can play tunes by
gershwin, chopin, debussy and others with a high degree of accuracy. I
would also like to learn how to play jazz arrangements of showtunes or
standard piano solos. Additionally, I would like to learn some of the
intangible techniques that jazz(improvizational) pianists use to create
harmony, accompany other players and have a more "musical" ear when
playing. The standard classical method doesn't seem to stress these
skills. I realize piano is a lifelong commitment and I am willing to
invest the time to improve my sight-reading and technical ability but I
don't want to ignore things like ear-training and chord progressions
because those are the fundamentals behind how music "works". Has
anyone out there have any experience with a piano teacher who
emphasizes all of these aspects? Should I focus on classical methods
and excersizes for the next 5(or however many) years and then learn
jazz theory or try to learn them simultaneously? Also what's a good
practice routine for someone like me who doesn't want to get
pigeon-holed as purely a classical or purely a jazz/pop piano player?
Right now I play scales in all the keys as I learn pieces in those keys
and their respective relative minor and melodic minors. I usually play
the scale in one octave, then two octaves, then in contray motion. I
also do a few simple finger exercises from the lesson books I use, but
don't have a rigid technical exercise regimen. Also is there a good
reference to classical piano solos graded by difficulty? I realize
that there are "easy-arrangements" of popular classical tunes but I'd
like to start building a repetoiore of orginal classical pieces (not
arrangements) and start out with something besides the (oh so
popular)fur elise.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated...
Topic: Piano Learning Methods for Adult Beginners...