I realized then, and teach to students now: learning your scales, chords and music theory are extremely important to your development as a pianist. I wanted to learn songs that other people knew as well! I wanted to quit because I wasn’t learning songs! I would find myself in situations where people would learn that I could play piano and they would ask me: “Can you play something for me?” At which point I would play something like a bluesy improvisation or some song that I created and they would ask “Do you know anything I might know?” That’s when it hit me. I don’t remember the reason I gave him, but I remember why I wanted to quit. But, I wasn’t completely satisfied.Īt one point in my irregular lesson schedule with my dad, I told him I wanted to quit taking lessons. I would write my own songs and improvise at the piano constantly. I would sit at the piano and try to plunk out songs that I heard while trying desperately to find the “right sounding” chords to go with the melody. So every day my dad and I would study music theory together, quizzing each other on scales, chords and all things jazz. These were fantastic books…yet difficult to understand for both me…and my father. The popular books at the time were the Jazz Improvisation series by John Mehegan. See, in those days, there not many books or videos that presented jazz piano in a clear and easy to understand fashion. My dad used to carry with him note cards filled with all types of music theory, scales, modes and jazz piano ‘tips’. I remember my dad quizzing me in the car: “Name the notes of a C Major scale.” Or, he’d ask questions like “what is the third of a G minor 7 chord?” I found myself getting pretty good at these questions and I learned a lot about chords, scales and music theory. My first teacher was my dad, Ernie Myette Sr. I’ll talk about this more later on, for now, let me tell you about my first teacher. It wasn’t until I started band in 6th grade that I actually learned more about reading music. Instead of learning to read notes and rhythms, I learned chords and how to figure out songs mostly by ear.
When I was a kid, I didn’t learn piano in the “normal” fashion.
0 kommentar(er)
