Don't Let the Tail Wag the Dog
by Scott “The Piano Guy” Houston
In my years of teaching piano, the following fallacy has been prevalent among what I affectionately call “wannabe” piano players: Reading notes well is a requirement to becoming a good piano player.
If you want to make a living as a concert pianist, that is true. Assuming your interest lies in playing just about any other style—pop, jazz, blues, country, or gospel—for recreation, then it is not.
You can be good reader and a good player, and you can be a terrible reader and a good player. Interestingly, you can also a great reader and a terrible piano player. Those are the people who say, when you ask them to play, “Sorry, I didn’t bring my music.”
The tail started wagging the dog when notation became more important than what it recorded—the music. Music is what you listen to, not what you read. Traditional music notation was developed before technology existed to record anything aurally. It was a good way to hand music down, and it does an especially good job recording what we call “classical” music. However, notation doesn’t record popular music very well. An analogy is of a translator forced to improvise because words simply don’t exist in the other language. Similarly, traditional music notation doesn’t contain the “words” to accurately describe the swing of Oscar Peterson or the funky syncopation of Dr. John. Notation is an aid in telling you what notes to play. It just can’t tell you how to play them.
Guitarists solved this problem with “tablature” notation that uses graphic symbols instead of notes. Similarly, professional pianists have “lead sheet notation,” a useful system for popular music not taught by traditional piano teachers. I have found lead sheets a great way to get recreational pianists quickly to a point where they can have fun.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of student pianists never get to have fun playing, but they are often failed notation readers, not failed piano players. The piano isn’t the problem… it’s the sheet music! So don’t let the tail wag the dog and think that notation is more than it is: a not-very-exact way to record non-classical music.
—Visit Scott Houston’s Web site at www.scottthepianoguy.com.
