No Way!

There is absolutely no way that I will be able to memorize all of the major, minor, and dominant chords with all of their inversions. No Way! I can't even get past two or three chords now! Perhaps learning outside the context of songs isn't a good idea...

But I am NOT giving up on piano!

I'll be returning  to Bill Susman's "Play Like Me" approach to play out of fakebooks. At this point, I'm planning to also use the Improvisation book down the line.

I TRIED. Really gave it a good effort. 

NOT

GIVING 

UP

Went back to the Susman material again tonight.

S L O W DOWN

In response to my post below, I think I just have to make my goals more realistic. I think I'm expecting too much if I want to memorize 9 chords a day. It gets very complicated as they add up; confusion gives way to frustration which can lead to quitting. 

I think I'll just need to slow down and work on mastery of small bits at a time rather than obtaining a mish mash of confusing chord fingerlings in my brain. Slow down, patience, and work on mastery. 

Day 4

Didn't really feel like practicing and maybe I shouldn't have. Tried learning more chords but it's getting overwhelming, I'm 1/3 of the way done and I still don't have these chords memorized in my muscle memory. Really frustrating. Tried playing songs and I couldn't even do that using shell voicings. Sounds really really poor. Maybe time to realize my limits and that piano is beyond them? Tempted to go back to a different method or maybe forget piano?

Day 3

Ok, so I got 27 chords more or less in my hands. Getting there. Not giving up. 

Continue to take better care of my health, too.

Day 2

A good day of hard work at the piano. I have about 18 chords known. Getting there, getting there, getting there.

Happy too because today I made the move of trying to be healthy, yet again. Diet, exercise, etc.

.

 

Day 1

Daunting but I'll do it! I have recognized the source of fear (piano chord inversions), and I will be the victor by having these things in my repertoire!

Here's the plan. Will try to memorize inversions for each ii - V7 - I progression at the rate of one progression, or nine chords per day. So we are talking here of about 36 days if intense and concentrated study!  But I'm up for it. It's going to take more than 36 days, perhaps, but that's ok. 

On Stage

Young Stu Sutcliffe, Paul, John, and George:

 

Paul / George

Young Paul McCartney and George Harrison

 

360

A musical learning experience day:

1) Tried to play songs using the chords I supposedly knew.

2) Failed miserably

3) Thought of going back to a previous piano method.

4) Took out my guitar and decided to quit piano and stick to guitar

5)  Changed my mind and decided to persevere with the piano. A full 360, you see.

But I can't just learn 36 chords and expect to be able to play songs easily. Nope. There is a LOT more grunt work to do. A LOT more sweat to sweat. What I have to do is to really take my time with this method book even if it means years. It's that simple, yet that difficult. 

It's not a matter of learning 36 chords. It's a situation where I need to learn the INVERSIONS of these chords as well. That's 108 chord positions I need to have in my fingers. It's also a matter of doing what the book tells me to do in terms of learning other things.

In the past, I have been totally dismayed in my efforts to learn inversions. But it's time to really move beyond my fear of them. And it's also time to really move beyond my fear of learning other piano related stuff. The idea of "I'll never be able to remember all of this," has to be replaced with the idea that "I have no idea if I can learn all of this material because I never really took the time needed to try; and I'm going to give it the time now."

Not

Giving

Up

Chord Weekend

That's it!!! In sick of these piano chords!!!! Will practice them today and tomorrow and then move on. (Of course, it would be valuable to keep reviewing them as I move on).

Lennon

 

Kords

Practiced with the Church group for Mass tomorrow. A lazy day, it was today, with some practice of those piano chords.

To Be a Restful Day

 

Piano

Piano wins again, in my battle of what to concentrate on learning: piano or guitar? 

Went back to my piano book tonight and remain working on page 60-61. It's coming along.

The Gig Night!

Gig tonight went really well. Was fun too.Got some thinking to do.... piano? guitar? 

 

 

Chordzzzzz

Keeping at it learning these piano chords. Yesterday I posted that I was thinking if giving myself a time limit working on these chords. Still thinking about that. Tried playing a little of a simple song, and it sounded ok. Just don't want to get too tied down in this academic work of memorizing chords; playing chords even in the simple song was a bit disconcerting but this is the context in which I'll have to get used to. Big gig with the band tomorrow night. 

PianoChords

Put in some quality time again learning chords at the piano. Thinking of giving myself a time limit as to how long I should go memorizing these chords until I branch out into other stuff. Maybe a week or two. 

Travelin' Man

I was on the road for a lot of today transporting family. Did manage to get a little (but productive) time practicing the piano. 

 

Chuck Berry

Was in communication today with an old friend from high school, and a great guitarist. He shared a great memory that I have forgotten: me in my old basement showing him Chuck Berry stuff (you play in with the toggle switch in the middle)! 

 

 

Sad Day

Had a long band practice today preparing for Wednesday's gig. Was again thinking of going back more seriously to guitar rather than continue to work on piano, but the piano won again. Continued to work on learning my piano chords.

Most of my lead guitar playing in the past and perhaps a lot of it now can be traced to Mr. Chuck Berry. I found that his style was accessible to me (if I watered it down!) and was so cool. Man, that guitar distortion on "Maybelline" is the best distortion I have ever heard.  Sad to hear that he died today. 

 

 

 

Chords cHords ChOrds ChoRds ChorDs ChordS

Really working hard on learning the piano chords! I think I have about nine to go. It's interesting playing them in the iim7 V7 IM progression; sounds quite beautiful experimenting with the sounds and playing those chords arpeggio style and even adding notes, like the 9th to Cm7.

NOT

GIVING

UP

NO

MATTER

WHAT.

Piano

 

The Chords / THE CHORDS

Continue to work on those piano chords! While it's sometimes helpful that they sometimes share the same shape, it sure can make things confusing, too! 

One piano method I used to use did not emphasize memorization of chords; for people using it, they seemed to eventually "get" playing songs on the fly from fakebooks eventually. It led to some pretty sounding stuff, but I, for one, was never really able to get it down that well. I'm hoping this chord memorization stuff that I'm using now leads me to play songs quicker. It may take longer at the beginning, but I'm thinking the payoffs might be better for me in the long term. Again, the other method may help others (and it sure helped me), but I'm not sure it's best for me, individually.

One thing I wonder about is the use of different voicings. For example, using the 6,9,b9, 11, etc., and how that will eventually go using the method book I'm using now. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Back

Back to the piano. Taking my time, finding that learning chords is indeed time consuming. Reviewed the minor 7 chords today and found that I did not know them as well as perhaps I thought. Daily practice is crucial.

Guitarists

Some favorites:

Jimmy Page

Scotty Moore

Les Paul

Chet Atkins

George Harrison

Keith Richards

Stevie Ray Vaughn

David Gilmour

Django Reinhardt

Peter Frampton

No Piano Today

Yep. No piano today. Just practiced with a couple of band members for an upcoming gig. The guitar just seems so natural for me, unlike the piano. 

A good a time as any for me to make a plug here for Jimmy Page. That guy is just in love with the guitar! And the sounds he gets on those albums are just so cool. Listen to the lead and riff sounds on "Trampled Underfoot!" And the song "Kashmir" is just mindblowing. I remember what got me into Led Zeppelin as a kid was "You Shook Me" on the first Zep album. The blues!  I know that Page and Zeppelin are not free from being controversial, but when it comes to Page's use of the studio in marrying his guitar with other sounds, I don't think he can be topped. The guitar!!

An Aside

The guitar has been calling for me! My Les Paul wants to be played. It wants me to plug in to my amp and just jam loudly!! Something very freeing about that! Jimi Hendrix!!! Isn't Jimmy Page the best? 

Also, been tempted to get out my fingerpicking acoustic blues guitar DVD by Stefan Grossman....

 

Snow Day at the Piano

Work was closed today due to snow. Spent most of the day at the piano. Continue to work very hard on burning those chords in my memory. Stopped practicing because everything was getting confusing. Need a break; will be back at it tomorrow.

Chords

Started out somewhat frustrated at the piano today but ended the practice feeling good. Feel like I'm really getting some chords under my fingers:

Cmaj7

Dmin7

G7

Gmin7

Fmin7

Ebmin7

Cmin7

Bbmin7

Bbmaj7

C7

Fmaj7

That's 11 chords out of 36. Not bad! Feeling like memorization is the key.

Patience at the Piano

Went back in my piano book to practice some theory about chord progressions. Then did the most important part: sat at the piano and played some progressions. 

INSIGHT ALERT: My learning and enjoyment seems to be inversely related to expecting too much too soon. When I just take my time, I'm able to discern certain patterns at the piano which help me learn. 

Again, playing the piano is no quickly learned and easily applied skill. (For me, anyway). Patient time spent at the piano and sticking to one method no matter what seem to be really helpful for me.

Piano, etc.

Had a fun practice with the band today. I got to sing the Beatles' "Honey Pie" while playing a banjo strung like a guitar. Another one I sung today was "Takin' Care of Business" by BTO. 

Almost thought I was going to have my Les Paul sold, but it looks like the prospective buyer isn't interested. 

Have enjoyed listening to John Fahey lately, and he surely is helping my interest in getting an acoustic guitar.

I continue plugging away on the piano. Practicing chord changes now. It's tough, but perhaps not an insurmountable task. Being in a nice calm frame of mind helps with practice.  Get tempted to combine methods or even go back to a previous method, but I think I'm finding that the best method is playing the piano rather than changing methods!

Chord Melody guitar style still remains in interest, but not enough so to pull my main energies away from piano learning. 

Looks like we'll be getting some snow later this week.

Back At It

Was discouraged yesterday, but found myself going back at the piano today. Will stay with the method book. Why leave now just because it's getting more challenging? I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF INSTEAD OF CHANGING WHEN TGE GOING GETS CHALLENGING, I STAY WITH IT? I can't be the only one who ever struggled with retaining chords (my biggest problem right now). It just needs the application of patience,  plus continued work, minus the loud mouthed internal critic and pessimist.

Chord Melody

 

Big Change of Direction

• The kind of piano I like is ballad style. I feel that the best way for me to play that is using The Sudnow Method or some variation thereof. I just get very frustrated playing chords the traditional way. At least that's where I stand today.

• That being said, I would still like to use the piano method book I've been using in order to learn how to improvise during the changes of those songs.

• In my frustration, I went over to learn more chord melody guitar material. Meh.

• What I have had the most musical fun with includes playing old rock & roll with the band, recording, maybe some acoustic guitar stuff, playing the piano Sudnow style. So maybe I do not have to worry that I am interested in mainly ballad piano playing. I play other types of music in other ways. 

Piano / Guitar / Piano

Watched some stuff online by a guitar player and it almost got me to really consider getting his guitar! 

But the piano wins out again today. Making progress that I would not have predicted regarding learning chords. Up to page 57 of the piano book (still need to work on some previous theory pages) with about 9 chords left to learn (out of a total of 36). 

I do know that that there is an enormous difference between knowing these chords and actually applying them quickly in the moment in song play. Planning on

Not

Giving

Up

Meat & Potatoes

• Up to page 47 in the piano book (theory).

• But here we go with the 'meat and potatoes.' Working hard on learning chords to eventually use in song play! Here we go trying to get those Major, Minor, and Dominant Chords in my hands. Today I worked on learning about 12 (out of 36) chords learned on page 56. 

So I'm up to some real important stuff here. The part that tempts me to quit because I start thinking I'm too old too get these chords in my muscle memory. 

Not

Giving

Up.

Me and my Youngest!

 

Me

 

44;56

Up at 4:30 AM to help my daughter with a school activity. Spent  a lot of time with various band members preparing for two gigs coming up later this month. Tried a few of a friend's higher end acoustic guitars, and I liked the sound and feel of the Martin HD 28 the best. Out of my price range, though.

Worked on piano today, also. Looks like I'm getting into some more practical stuff in the book now. I'm concurrently on page 44 (more theoretical) and page 56 (more practical).

Theory

Up to page 44 in the Caruso & Mollison book "Piano Improvisation: A Powerful Practical System." Really liking this book! I'm getting schooled on theory, and it's making sense. 

Worked up some guidelines for some guitar improvisation on some songs we may play during band practice tomorrow. 

Piano

Up to page 37 in the piano book; learning some theory. Tried more chord melody on guitar; got frustrated.

The Working

Surprise! Getting some extra unexpected money may lead to me getting a new acoustic guitar. There's something so great about Nick Drake's "Punk Moon" album.... Since about 1980 or so I have wanted to make an acoustic guitar album....never happened.

Worked again today on both the guitar and the piano, and again, the piano was more interesting. With regards to the piano, I had to take some back steps because I realized that I missed some material in the book that perhaps I would have wanted to practice. Got through that, did some new stuff, and now I'm on the last exercise before beginning chapter 3. 

With regards to the piano, I'm trying to learn some chord melody material, but it's just not grabbing me.

Learning more that putting in the WORK on the piano is the key. Practice / Practice / Practice. Not whining, but actually putting in the WORK of shutting off the internal critic and just putting in the WORK is the key.