Channel: The Gary Fong Channel

Category: Education

Tags: single parenthoodgary fongearly piano lessons

Description: Had an interesting conversation with a pianist who claimed that I did not play the piano because I couldn't sight read. She was very all about herself as a concert pianist. So I asked her to play two measures of her hardest piece, some crazy piece by Prokofiev. I took out a scratch pad of paper and had her play the two measures about eight times while I took notes. Then I asked her to move over, and played what she had just played. She was shocked. She saw my scribbles, Bb, Eb/Bb (2), Am7 something like that, and could not understand what those letters meant. So I asked her to play a CMaj7 chord. She had no idea what that meant. She said she could do it if it was written. In the end, I had her understanding that to be a great sight reader, you are merely a musical typist; you see a black dot, you push a button. I vowed that if I ever taught my kids how to play music, I would teach them the rules of harmony and western chord theory. So, here we are with my nine year old daughter, playing a very jazzy, "Ordinary People" by John Legend. We literally are fifteen minutes into this lesson as I rolled the tape. She is a magnet, whether it's drums or violin, she wants to know everything I know. And she's getting it fast!