Piano Debut

A few months ago, I started taking piano lessons. At the time, I wanted to learn both classical and jazz piano. With my busy schedule, I found it difficult to find time to work on both styles. I chose to focus on classical piano for a few different reasons. First of all, even though I'm a jazz guitarist, I found myself drawn more the classical side of piano. Second, my first major goal is to be able to play hymns for church services and choral piano accompaniments if my accompanist is absent. Classical piano focuses more on reading, which is a skill I'll need for those hymns and choir accompaniments.

My eventual goal is to be a well rounded pianist who can play classical and jazz, is a good sight-reader, is qualified to teach privately, and is equally comfortable playing for church or cocktails. I will eventually turn my attention to jazz piano, but I plan on spending a year or so getting comfortable with classical piano first.

Considering I've only been playing five months, I'm happy with my progress. Among other things, I'm working on Bach Two-Part Inventions and Chopin waltzes. That's not to say that this music is ready for performance or that I can even play it up to tempo, but I'm tackling piano music that I didn't expect to be able to play this soon.

I had planned on playing piano in public after about a year of lessons, but that timetable has been moved up. I'm playing guitar in a musical with Act3 Productions called By Wheel and By Wing. The Keyboard 2 player won't be there Friday, and I'll be covering the keyboard part for a song in which the guitar doesn't play. This is a very simple keyboard part…mostly sustained chords. Still, I'm looking forward to making my debut on keyboard, even if the part isn't challenging. It's not time to break out the candelabra just yet, but this should be fun.

My First Piano Lesson

The title of this blog is a little misleading, because I took piano lessons from age 7-10. After that, I quit to concentrate on more important things, like baseball and bicycles. I just took my first piano lesson in 35 years. Although I'm plenty busy with guitar, a part time church job, and music engraving, it's important to me that I learn how to get around on the keyboard. I want to be read well enough to play church hymns and simple choral accompaniments, and I want to eventually be able to play piano or guitar on a jazz gig.

After my first lesson, I'm confident that I've found a piano teacher who can help me meet my goals. While there are certain general things I'll need to learn, he is already tailoring lessons to include classical and jazz styles.

We spent a good portion of the lesson working on posture and hand position, and I have a few basic position/relaxation exercises to perform before working on anything else.

Since one of my goals is to play hymns, I brought Unitarian hymnal and picked an easy hymn for starters. (For you curious UUs out there, I chose Spirit of Life.) For now, I'm not supposed to worry about speed or even rhythm. Instead, my teacher wants me to move slowly from chord to chord as an extension of the relaxation techniques. I'll gradually gain speed, but right now, it's more important to establish basic posture and hand position.

Finally, we worked on basic jazz voicings. I learned simple voicings for three jazz chords and played them in all keys. Just like guitar, as I work through these voicings, they'll gradually come naturally, and I'll be able to apply them to jazz songs. We'll start working through Autumn Leaves next week.

Aside from the joy of learning another instrument, I can already see how this will help my jazz guitar playing. I've always have a knack for music theory, and my knowledge has deepened as I've explored jazz guitar. The nice thing about the piano is that music theory is laid out right in front of your eyes. When I eventually move beyond basic jazz piano, I'll be able to apply any new knowledge to my guitar playing as well.

With piano lessons, my busy schedule just became busier. I already have a lot on my plate, but I can move things around and make a little more room.