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LESSON
1
Opening
Discussion
SAMPLE LESSON (complete
as it appears within PMMO)
In
order to be clear, I am assuming you know absolutely nothing about
how to play your instrument. If you have had music instruction in
the past, please set it aside for now. Humor me, and pretend that
you know nothing.
Some
information you will receive may drastically differ from the traditional
method of teaching, but follow the instructions. When you understand
the material in this course, and can apply it, you will find all
your previous musical training to be more valuable and useful.
Thinking
As The Musician You Want To Be
There
is no wrong method of expressing your creative self through music.
If you enjoy what you play, it will show as you play for others.
Allow
your feelings to affect the sounds you are playing. If you feel
angry, sad or joyous, try to make the music sound that same way.
Professional musicians find ways to invoke emotion into their playing
by letting their fingers speak through tones by producing sounds
of varying intensity. As you learn to play, don't just play tones;
make those tones speak by expressing some emotion. Your emotion
is the life or death of any song.
The
first step is to find the tones of the song, then try to make those
tones speak the emotion your heart feels. This is how professional
musicians do it. When you think like a musician, you will play like
a musician!
Mind and
Body - Trainer and Pet
These
lessons teach the thought process involved to play music. You have
a mind and you have a body. Although people generally
tend to think the mind and body are one unit, this
is not the case. As you study them closely, each seems to operate
as a complete and different individual. Your mind is the
'activities director' and your body is the one doing the
'activity.'
The
body wants to please the mind in every way. The body is most happy
when the mind and body no longer seem separated. Often, the body
will predict what the mind wants and act without waiting for the
directions. If it predicted correctly, you may personally feel that
you are extremely coordinated. If the body predicted incorrectly,
you may personally feel like an uncoordinated klutz. The remedy
to keep from feeling like a klutz in such situations, is to train
your body to WAIT for the instructions sent from your mind. This
is sometimes easier said than done, but it is just like training
a pet.
Have
you ever walked a dog? ...or were you 'walked' by the dog? The dog
is going to 'walk': The question is, are YOU directing the path...or
is it the dog?
When
it comes to playing music on a keyboard instrument, the first step
is to teach your 'mind' what movements the 'body' must do to accomplish
the activity. The next step is to take that understanding and train
your body to wait until it has instructions from your mind,
then do the activity your mind tells it to do!
Be
patient with your body as it tries to coordinate itself to work
with your mind. Be kind to yourself. Your mind and body will accomplish
great things together when both cooperate!
At
first, you must be able to observe your body's progress at understanding
what you want it to do. This process is identical with training
a pet to do tricks for you.
Suppose
you want Fido to fetch a stick. First, you get his attention. "Fido...Fido...FIDO!!!
Look here boy... (throw stick) Go get the stick boy. Fetch the stick."
 Fido
stands there and looks puzzled. He lacks any idea what it is you're
asking of him, so you lead him to the stick, put it in his mouth,
and say with a real warm feeling "Good boy, Fido!" Fido feels good
being loved, and with patience and repetition he eventually understands
that when you say "fetch," he'll get a lot of good feeling by going
and putting that stick in his mouth himself. Before long Fido is
putting all kinds of things in his mouth and bringing them to you
in exchange for the love and support he expects you to give him.
 If you give him love and support for bringing you the neighbor's
newspaper every evening, you may never need to buy another paper
as long as he lives. In fact, you may even have to schedule a local
paper drive just to get rid of all the papers Fido has "fetched"!
It
is consistent understanding and patience with Fido that determines
how much and how quickly he learns. When Fido and his trainer successfully
learn a new trick, both have more fun.
Now...look
at yourself, the music student with a mind and a body. Your mind
is the trainer; your body is like Fido! Imagine that you are a mind
sharing the same space as your body. Just because you know what
the body should do does not mean that the body knows, understands,
or even cares. Your mind must teach the body the movements you want
it to do.
For
a moment, think about yourself as an infant. You learned to crawl
before you learned to fall. After you learned to fall, you successfully
walked. After you walked, you learned to fall down again before
finally running joyously in circles around your mother. As you grew
older you may have found yourself running in circles around your
house, your city, state, country...world! This all began with a
single step. Who taught you to make that step? Someone may have
helped, but you did it! Who took your first step? You did! Was your
first step clumsy? Probably! Can you now walk as well as anyone
else? Probably!
When
you begin playing the piano you may feel very clumsy. Learning to
play a keyboard instrument is the process of teaching your fingers
and hands to "walk". In addition, learning to play by ear uses the
"hunt and peck" method of locating the correct melody tones, but
Piano Magic is going to teach you to predict which tones to use.
First
comes the work...then comes the JOY! It may take several weeks or
months of playing before you begin to feel confident and comfortable
with a number of songs. Be patient and relax enough to enjoy the
learning process.
If
you are not patient and understanding with your body (Fido) as it
tries to do what you ask, it will get tired and frustrated. Sometimes
it's as if all systems shut down with complete confusion and disgust.
Be patient. Be light. Relax. Have fun. If you want to play, the
first step is to be good to Fido.
"Music
washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
-
Averbach -
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