The Complete Pianist –

How to approach learning the piano - to play by ear, to play from sheet music, to memorise?

Here are examples of two pianists who have learnt in very different ways.  Student 1 developed the habit of learning from recordings and playing in a key he’s comfortable with, but would then be ticked off by his teacher for not playing accurately from the sheet music provided.  Student 2 had only ever learnt from the printed page, and was a competent reader, but had never memorised or played by ear and found being asked to memorise a simple passage of Mozart and finding it really painful.

These two pianists come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of piano learning – Student 1 is relying principally on his aural memory and Student 2 on the more cerebral process of decoding notation.  Each has established really strong habits in terms of cognitive processes, neither of which are “wrong”, but there is a case to be made for strengthening their understanding and enjoyment of learning and playing by broadening the range of their skills.  For the ear player (Student 1) this would mean improving his reading skills and being willing to check his learning against the written text; this would also build independence when tackling new repertoire.  The reader (Student 2’s) musical experience would be enhanced by learning to trust his inner ear and memory so that he isn’t always dependent on having sheet music but could have some pieces at his fingertips and ready to play. 

For both students these ways of developing pose serious challenges because their habits are deeply ingrained, so progress needs to be made in a sequence of small but measurable and enjoyable steps.  By biting their respective bullets, both of these students could open up whole new pianistic worlds for themselves.