By: Mark Prigoff
To hear some piano music from Mark Prigoff, click here.
Over the years, I have seen many piano instructional programs which encourage beginners (in all age groups) to play the piano, whether they have taken traditional piano lessons in the past, or not at all. The basic premise of most these 'instant' or 'quick piano programs' is centered around the existence of sheet music with chord symbols above the upper piano stave which the music publishing industry refers to as either PVC (Piano Vocal Chords) or PVG (Piano Vocal Guitar) music. Unlike "Piano Solo" sheet music, which features the "Grand Stave" without any chord symbol conventions, PVC music is designed for the "pop" or popular pianist and expresses the chords to be played with letters and numbers, usually a singular melody line in the upper stave (played with the right hand), and bass notes (and/or chords) in the lower stave (played with the left hand). In many cases, the lower stave is eliminated since the chord symbols indicate both the chord and the bass (or "root" of the chord). We refer to that sort of notation as "lead sheets," which are often used to copyright a song. In fact, you cannot copyright a chord progression (a series of chords), however a melody line accompanied by chords is essentially the core of a song copyright and is usually indicated with lyrics if the song is a vocal piece.
Chord Progressions are, in fact, similar in many different songs and may have been used many years ago in various classical works. You can safely say that much of popular music is based upon classical music or classical chord progressions. In many instances, a classical work has been reworked into a popular song by adding lyrics and creating a new title for that work. But that is not such a rare thing... many popular songs have been formulated in this fashion. A good example of this is a classical work, such as Bach's first Prelude in C, which later became "Ave Maria", thus an instrumental piece became a vocal work, although both are considered to be classical in nature. However, it was popular to take many other classical instrumental pieces and turn them into a popular song... "Full Moon and Empty Arms" which was a popular Frank Sinatra tune during "The Columbia Years" was originally Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2, and "Bubbles Bangles and Beads" which Peggy Lee popularized was an adaptation of Alexander Borodin's Polivetzian Dances. The list of these is virtually endless.
Which brings me to the first question about this... "Why take a classical work and turn it into a popular song?" Several reasons... First, as most conventional classical works were quite popular in nature, you wouldn't hear someone remembering all of the melodic parts of a symphonic orchestral performance and singing all of this as a song. Perhaps, however, you would remember a prominent melody which stuck in your head. And since a person can only sing one note at a time, the idea of creating lyrics for that melody paved the way for people to express this music as popular vocal tunes. It later became the objective of many film composers to come up with a "hit song" which people would remember, long after seeing the movie. It also made for some good additional revenue in record sales. Virtually the same principle was the goal of any Broadway musical. It wasn't surprising that a producer would stand in the lobby on opening night, listening for someone to come out humming the "show-stopper." If he heard that, then he knew he had a hit right away in advance of next day's theatre reviews.
Let me expand that a little... Take a popular movie theme such as John Williams' "Raiders March" from "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark." Ask anyone to hum that theme and they will instantly be able to do just that... "Dum te dum dum - dum te doo..." And what do you think spawned his ideas for many of his movie scores? Do I hear some Erich Korngold in "Star Wars," or some Howard Hanson in "E.T."? Of course I do! I'm sure his study, love and conducting of classical music was a heavy influence in creating much of his popular movie themes, just as Scott Joplin was influential to Billy Joel, and other classic genres were to many other popular composers and writers.
And so, "Do I need to study classical music in order to play popular music?" Not necessarily! But I would say with confidence that an understanding and appreciation of classical music significantly increases your understanding of popular music. In addition, let me say that the more music you listen to, the greater your "musical vocabulary" becomes. Think of all music as a universal language with many varied dialects. It is a language which in the course of its own evolution over time, with these varied dialects all mixed together, has formed the basis of what we consider to be "Pop Music" today. The mixture consists of varied cultural and ethnic sources, rhythms, styles, dances, songs, etc. For this reason, pop music is quite diverse and there is so much of it to choose from to increase your own musical "vocabulary" and personal preference.
"Is the construction of popular music different than classical music?" The musical theory behind both forms is based on the same tonal scales (for the most part), especially in the perspective of what is called "Western Music" (denoting the 12-tone chromatic scale). What will usually vary between these two "forms" are the particular chord voicings, progressions and general attitude of the work. You could say that a popular song has a popular "feel" to it, and somehow, a classical work feels inherently different (or more intense) to the average listener. Generically, a person can listen to just about any work of music and instinctively determine that it is either classical, popular, or even something else. Let it suffice to say that popular music contains classical structures, and some classical works lend themselves more to being transformed into popular pieces. Thus, if you study popular music, you are (at the same time) studying some classical structure, whether or not you are totally aware of it, or not, at an evolved status.
You can think of popular music in terms of its ancient origins in which a poem (or a verbal story) was set to music so that people would remember this story by singing it from generation to generation. A grand idea which obviously worked for many years to come and is why lyrics usually (but not always) rhyme from phrase to phrase.
Another prominent influence on popular music styles is the aspect of the dance and rhythm. Popular music genres were borne of the various dance styles of the day. A 3/4 piece was considered a waltz, 4/4, foxtrot, tango, march (also 2/4 in some cases), etc. Basically, all varieties of dance rhythms have generated popular music genres while other forms are simply not "danceable" (as in mixed-meter or odd-meter time signatures). But if you listen to some of the early Beatles songs, for example, you will notice a Latin rhythm, perhaps a Cha-Cha or Bossa Nova beat as the song's rhythmic basis. This "fusion" of rhythmic style pervades all forms of popular music including rock, jazz, R&B, funk, and many other genres. So, again, you don't have to be a dance expert or a drummer to play popular music, but an understanding of different rhythm styles, timing and meter will help you to really "feel" the musical style in which you play.
Having personally studied percussion has greatly help me to count in various rhythmic meter and create drum parts through MIDI composition and sequencing. Most electronic keyboards and digital pianos have a variety of sounds other than just keyboards, and include all of the instruments of the orchestra (strings, horns, woodwinds, brass and percussion). If you are creating a musical performance on such an instrument, your understanding of bass and percussion, as well as, many other instrumentation becomes quite helpful in orchestrating a full arrangement of a song. Any song! If you can count 'in-tempo' as a drummer would, then you will most likely play better as far as timing is concerned on the piano keyboard.
(Just a footnote on "counting": ... Pianists often count differently than drummers do! This is because each are taught to count differently, and also because of the nature of what they are playing. Usually, a pianist counts in terms of either quarter notes (1, 2, 3, 4...) or eigth notes (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +...). A drummer would mostly likely count in sixteenth notes (1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a...). Verbally, this would be counting each one of the 16th notes of a measure by assigning a syllable to each 16th note, and pronounced, "One e and a Two e and a...", etc. By doing this, you can literally count the off-beats, especially when it comes to jazz or swing pieces, such as "1 2 a 3 4 a..." (for example). So, the pianist who also has some drum or percussion training may also have an advantage over someone who has studied to count as a pianist with traditional piano lessons.
"Do you have to be able to read piano music in order to play piano music?" Absolutely not! I think that I am a good example of this question in that I could play just about anything I heard at a tender age without reading sheet music. But not everyone has that ability. In my case, when I listened to music, I could hear the chord structures, bass lines, and even without that (meaning, just having a melody line, such as someone singing or humming a tune) I could associate a chord structure that would befit that melody. I call it "musical context" in which a series of notes will usually indicate a chord structure to support it. Yes, it is the gift of natural ear-training which many pianists either have to begin with, or train to possess if they don't. Another way to describe this (visually) is to picture a melody as a ball bouncing in time from one pillar to another. Each "pillar" is really a chord which supports that melody, and as the melody note changes, so does the chord pillar which supports it. The important idea to consider is that "melody always dictates the chord." And in turn, each chord is based upon a bass note, so when you combine all three elements, melody, chord and bass, you essentially have the core structure at your command of any popular song. I would say that historically, the melody came first as "the poet" first sang a song. And then later on, the poet sang with a harp or other instrument capable of playing chords to support the song. It would be many years later that a piano keyboard would enter the song-making process.
"Is the piano an easy instrument to play?" Yes and no. (And I really don't mean to confuse you!) Yes, it is an easy instrument for just about anyone to produce a musical tone. It is, in fact, considered to be a percussion instrument in which your fingers can control the keys which in turn cause individual felt hammers to strike against the metal strings of the piano harp. So, you could say that just about anyone could press a key on the piano and produce the same musical tone. A child can do that (and instinctively does!), and so could a trained or even untrained chimpanzee! Usually, when a child hits the piano, we say, "Oh look!, Baby's banging on the piano!", and that's just about what it sounds like!
Specifically, the piano is easier to play than just about any other musical instrument in that the player does not embrace the instrument (holding it in their arms or hands), nor having to physically create the individual musical tones (such as with a string, brass, or woodwind, etc.) But the real question is, "Can anyone sound really good on the piano?" Yes, again, but this time I must add that you have to train or practice to sound musically pleasing to others. This is where many of these 'instant piano programs' may fall short for those who are anxious to play popular music with just very little work at it. As with all things in life, to be good at just about anything, you do need to work at it, and a little guidance in the right direction always helps to pave the way to that goal. You must have some patience. You must be able to listen objectively to what you are playing. You must learn about chord structures, dynamics, timing, the sustain pedal, voicing and various other attributes which formulate good piano style and eloquence. Where there is some leeway is in the area of fingering and style, but that, too, comes with practice over time. Anyone who says that dictated piano fingering is absolutely essential to playing the piano is ignoring the simple fact that everyone's fingers are different. What may work for one student may not for another. Piano fingering (you know, those little numbers above the notes which tell you what fingers to use) is merely suggestive. You simply have to gravitate towards what works better for your fingers, which often may vary from student to student.
At this point, you might gather that I am making a distinction between just playing the piano, or just playing notes, chords and bass lines and that of playing the piano in a way which faithfully represents the intended popular piece of music. The latter is the result of some guidance, discipline and practice. It is here where many who started to study the piano at a young age, gave it up for various reasons (a busy school curriculum, sports, a change in personal interests or goals) but now, being older and perhaps with some spare time (especially for retired adults), now wish to resume playing the piano, but are a little rusty in the discipline. Here's where the usual objections creep into one's mind... "I'm too old to study the piano again." "I studied with a classical piano teacher and never got to play any popular music." "I started with a method book but never got through the whole program." "I can't learn those difficult chords at this age."... etc., etc., etc. I have heard them all! To these objections, I have the following solutions:
1) You are never "too old" to learn anything!... While it is true that young children are quite open to learning "new things" because almost everything is "new" to them, it is also true that an adult can learn just about anything if they simply have the time, desire and dedication to learning it. I have often heard it said, "Boy how I would love to be able to play like that!" To which I would say, "How much "love" is that?" My point is that if you really want to do this, you can. You simply must make it a personal goal to achieve it. The only time when it is too late, is when you stop breathing!
2) For those who studied classically and never got to the pop material,... you can consider yourself ahead of the game in that you already learned how to read music, and perhaps gained some insight into basic piano theory. But at this juncture, you might have more time to dedicate to this and you should use the appropriate method which works towards the goal of playing the popular music of your choice. Keep in mind that not all "pop music" is particularly suited for the piano, or shall I say that some pop music is better suited for the piano than others. Even selecting just the right music to play can be a challenge for many without some guidance from a professional pianist or instructor. It is for this reason that I didn't tell my students to go out and purchase music on their own. What I did do is to find out what type of music interested them, or what they generally enjoyed listening to, and then I went and selected the right music for them. (That's a rather important issue, but there is usually something for everyone out there, if you know where to find it.) And if the sheet music wasn't available on the market, then I would create a chart for them, and in those cases, not just a "lead sheet" (melody line and chord symbol), but also the right chord voicings, technique and rhythmic style to make that song sound exceptional and just like the original song.
Since we are talking about sheet music for the pianist, there are some additional things to consider. Much of the PVC arrangements in popular music have been created for a publisher by an arranger other than the original composer, and it may not be the same as the original artist's transcription. The amount of "arranged" sheet music on the market definitely outweighs the amount of original "artist's transcriptions." There may also be a variety of arrangements which have been simplified for the beginner, modified for the intermediate player, or even embellished for the advanced student. Other forms may be categorized as "Piano Solo" (which does not have chord symbols, in general), or "Piano Duets" (or music for "four hands"), etc. And for beginners, there are "Big Note", "Easy Play", or other forms of simplified music sheets which could be enhanced by a piano teacher to sound more "full and complete." A good example of this is the title song of "Beauty and the Beast" from the Disney movie of the same name. The "Duet" piano version of the song is rather different and a tad more difficult in its chord progression than the "Easy Play" version. The Duet version also changes key (modulates), whereas, the "Easy Play" version does not. But since both versions of this song are excellent on the piano, I often chose the "Easy Play" version for both younger and older students and just embellished it with some nice chord voicings and style. Once again, this is a piece (in both versions) which is most suited for any pianist and any age!
As for "Artist's Transcriptions," certain keyboardists and other instrumentalists have published their own transcriptions of their original music. This generally means that what you see on the page is exactly what the composer wrote, recorded and performed live in concert. Some of these are a bit challenging (even for an intermediate to advanced keyboardist to play), and for this reason, these transcriptions were not as marketable in the sheet music retail business as much as edited material. But that really depends upon the material, itself. For example, you might like to listen to Chick Corea, Bob James, Joe Sample and other jazz pianists, but their artist transcription folios are rather challenging to read and play, even for intermediate to advanced players. Joe Sample made the effort to break-down some of his earlier works in two published volumes, but those books are now "out of print" for the reason I mentioned about music retailing, marketing and demand. And other artists who are popular and may have created their own artist's transcriptions, may have created them for guitar instead of the piano, if the guitar was their main instrument, (such as, George Benson, for example). Once again, not every popular song is notated for the pianist or keyboardist.
Another point I would like to make about some PVG music sheets concerns guitar chord symbols (guitar tablature) which might be included on some music. Many years ago, perhaps a common practice in European households, a dinner party would conclude with a piano or vocal recital in the "parlour." Families and their guests would retire to this room to hear a pianist accompany a vocalist with the songs of the day. Perhaps this domestic practice resembled the private concerts given to royalty by such court-appointed composers such as Mozart and others. This "ritual" continued in the "New World" (America), and expanded into a larger ensemble which usually consisted of a vocalist (or several), a pianist and the ukulele. So, if you look back at some earlier sheet music (during the 20's through 40's), you will notice that music publishers included chord symbols and tabs (finger positions) for the ukulele player, while the pianist read his piano score just beneath that with traditional transcription. Eventually, the guitar became more popular as an accompaniment instrument to the piano, and thus these chords were then indicated for the guitarist. And that's how PVG (Piano - Vocal - Guitar) music became so popular.
The important thing you should keep in mind about this music is that many of the guitar chords were indicated to be enharmonic to what would normally be indicated as a chord for the pianist. An example would be an E minor chord indicated for guitar in a PVG sheet as compared to a C maj 7/E (or C major 7th over E bass chord) for the pianist in a PVC (Piano - Vocal - Chord) sheet. Quite often, the keyboardist has to either alter or substitute these guitar chords for those intended for the piano, but it depends on whether or not the chords which are indicated in the music sheet are expressed for the guitarist or the pianist in the first place. The art of "chord substitutions" is quite often a necessity, especially when played on the piano and not the guitar. And, in many cases, some original standards were never updated or revised with their chord symbols for the pianist since the original copyright was initially established with the guitar or ukulele chords. Just another example where some expert guidance might be needed to revise an arrangement for the beginner piano student.
In a number of various published works, there are often mistakes in either notes or chords which were never corrected before publication. I have often looked a score and said, "That can't be right!" And then I would discover the typographic or publishing error and make the correction on the sheet by hand. Does this happen often? Yes. And you can often discover this sort of error when the chords or notes simply do not sound correct or logical within the chord progression of the song. This is where you might have to listen to the original work to hear what should be expressed in the written arrangement. Other instructors may say, "If something doesn't sound right, then just try something else!" Well, that's a fairly vague directive for any beginner and could take quite some time before they discover what that "something else" should be. For me, the craft of both teaching and playing music is really a "quest for the musical truth" of any song. Finding it comes with the experience of playing music and listening to music (and I mean listening to a lot of it). It is also common that something might sound correct, but a chord substitution or some other embellishment might work better than what is expressed in any particular arrangement, And that, too, comes with this experience.
3) And for those who claim that they cannot learn some more advanced chords than those they learned as a child,... I can only say that if you learn your chords with some proper formulation, they aren't so difficult, after all! And there are plenty of chord picture books out there to show you how to play them. What you also need is someone to show you where and when to use them, and how they function to make the piano piece sound better. This includes chord substitutions, compound chords, broken chords, arpeggios, and various keyboard techniques and dynamics. I also make the distinction between learning piano theory geared towards sight-reading ability, compared to the piano theory behind chord structure, chord progressions, voicings, substitutions, etc. As for playing popular piano, it is not devoid of any piano theory, neither is that theory completely new or revamped. It is just the appropriate application of musical theory as it is applied to playing popular piano in today's context of any musical style. Thus, I separate piano theory into two categories... 1) The Theory of Music Notation, and 2) The Theory of Playing Popular Piano. And while some may claim that there is "no science" behind this theory, I must refute that by saying (and most professional musicians will agree with me) that music is both an art form in terms of expression, but is also fortified with some fundamental math and the science of sound and harmonic waveforms. Again, anything which has such a longevity and sound foundation, can be taught, expressed, explored, and most importantly, learned by anyone who really cares to learn it!
It is for that reason that I am compelled to present my personal method so that others can enjoy the same satisfaction and reward which is offered through this marvelous instrument. I have taught this to many students over the years and they, too, enjoy playing the piano as much as I do. Now that technology offers us video instruction, computerization and global distribution through the Internet, while at the same time we have electronic instruments which truly sound better than ever before, it is my intention to create this program so that one can both see and hear how to play popular piano in a variety of styles. I have selected what I consider to be the best pieces for the piano from a varied group of musical genres within the popular vein. These include ballads, standards, jazz, rock, film scores, Latin, Broadway shows, folk, vocal and others. What has usually prevented others from doing the same is, of course, music licensing, but I am confident that "where there is a will, there is a way." Yes, certainly just about anyone CAN play the piano, but it is my objective to have everyone play the piano who wants to, play the kind of music that they desire, sound their absolute very best when playing, and enjoy both the process of learning and performing their accomplishments.
Their is also nothing wrong with traditional piano instruction, and every instructor might use a different teaching method according to what they like or think would be good for their students . But like any other form of "one-on-one" instruction, the material and growth of the student is quite dependent on what is taught, what music is selected, which method is used, and certainly how much time and dedication is devoted by the student for this sort of study. And while many other programs salute the value of traditional piano study as being suitable for those wishing to be concert pianists (a rather weak label to apply to "traditional" piano methods as certainly most children do not take piano lessons for this purpose at the onset), and make an issue that these students can only play easy pieces within the first few years of study, they then claim to promise to teach you to "play like a pro" and then start off with even easier pieces (such as, "Jingle Bells" or "My Country Tis Of Thee") because of the copyright/licensing issue. That's playing like a pro? I don't think so! Furthermore, most of these songs are even considered "classical" by nature, such as Christmas carols, patriotic songs, and so forth. Certainly anyone could learn to play these with a beginner's book (and many people do!). I personally enjoy playing all of these songs, but I don't see too many existing programs teaching advanced voicings for this traditional material! And that goes back to that separation of classical vs. popular music issue... once again, most of popular music has classical foundations! It's as simple as that! Therefore, why separate the two musical genres? Instead, why not embrace both of them, but with an emphasis on developing good popular style and voicings?
In conclusion, let me say that any program which encourages you to play the piano, especially if you have never tried to play this instrument before, is a valuable commodity in the educational process. What I sincerely object to is the abundance of misinformation which is presented to entice beginners to play. My feeling is that this is really not needed to convince anyone who is sincerely interested in learning to play for the first time. But at the same time, it is not enough to simply say, learn to play a melody with your right hand and chords in root position with your left... and you will "sound like a pro!" In most cases, you will certainly not sound like a pro, but it is a beginning. You have to be shown what to do in order to sound like a pro, and not just "play around" with it until you discover whatever that may be. It is here where I make the distinction between "playing," "experimenting" and "learning."
"How is your program or method different than others?"... My method does require some study and learning! But that doesn't mean you have to spend some many years to learn it, either. If you ever said to yourself, "I would love to learn to play the piano," then you are also saying that you are willing to learn something by doing some homework, too! Can that be fun?"... Of course it can! The fun comes in when you gain the satisfaction of being able to play a piano piece beautifully and sharing that enjoyment with others who listen to you. But even before that, it should also be fun to learn and explore the fundamental principles.
Thus, I have gone back to something very fundamental... I call it, "the ensemble experience." It is the essence of what has inspired many musicians to play their instrument with other musicians and vocalists in one form or another. If you consider the experience of a young guitarist or keyboardist who has learned to play his or her instrument with some proficiency, and then later, wanting to play in a group or band, you can see that there is a distinct difference in practicing in private to playing in a group scenario. It is what motivated many young musicians to form or join garage bands, or "play out" at some local venue. Similarly, many have learned to play along with other musicians by playing along with a recording. However, in some cases, that would not work quite as well if your instrument was already prominent in the recording.
What I have done is to select certain pieces from a rather large collection of Compact Disc recordings. These are some of the best pieces to play along with on a piano or digital keyboard. They also cover a diverse selection of popular music genres, such as, ballads, standards, jazz, Latin, Broadway show tunes, film scores, rock, folk, and others. In fact, several musical instrument manufacturers such as Yamaha, Roland, CASIO and others have encouraged this process by producing both acoustic and digital pianos which allow you to do just that with your keyboard system by including an audio CD drive. And if you have a digital piano but don't have a built-in audio CD drive, you can certainly plug in a CD player to the line in ports of your keyboard and hear what you play along with the CD recording. This brings the "ensemble" right into your own home whenever you wish to play or study. The addition of keyboard transposition even helps you to play in more difficult keys by transposing your keyboard to easier ones.
"How do I learn to play this material?"... I have written the essential music and piano theory you need to know in order to play any of these pieces. This book is concise and applies this theory to actual musical examples so you can practice them in a song, and not just "in theory." Each song selection is presented as a separate video lesson (currently in production) and will provide you with chord structure, voicing and performance techniques which will enhance your learning experience. You can practice along with these tutorials at your own speed and in the privacy of your own home. You can also record yourself playing along with each song and lesson.
If you have any questions, or are interested in contributing to the development, funding or licensing of this program, please contact me here.
Mark Prigoff
June 30, 2007
To hear some popular piano music from Mark Prigoff, click here.
