Phrase Writers Group

Never underestimate the power of encouragement

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

Some years ago I was paying a happy visit to former neighbours Nicole and Richard. Their son Robert and I were boyhood best friends. They had always been kind and supportive during my sometimes turbulent younger years.

Nicole had a recalcitrant video player, refusing to do its job. I was reasonably competent with personal computers, but not particularly mechanically minded. Or any electrical gadget.

“You’re good with this sort of thing” Nicole told me. “You’ll sort this machine out”. So I set to it and blow me down, I did.

Fast forward about 15 years to 2020 and I am teaching myself the piano. Promised myself that if I practised every day for a month I could buy an actual piano. Well, a full-size digital piano. One you can plug headphones into when playing, and not needle neighbours with endless scales and tune-free noodling. Settled on the Yamaha p121 with 73 keys.

A piano has 88 keys. There are 52 white keys and 36 shorter black keys that sit on top of the white ones and set further back. The Yamaha p121 has 73 keys, losing 7 or 8 keys at each end of the keyboard. Most players would not miss these very low or high notes. And the smaller lighter keyboard would be perfect for my home. Apparently some classical composers a few hundred years ago used 73 key pianos.

I discussed this keyboard at my favourite music dealer. Mentioned classical composers using smaller piano keyboards. The piano expert nodded, but pointed out that Rachmaninov uses all 88 notes. “That’s OK”, I thought to myself. “Not likely to be playing classical music”.

And then Richard and Nicole came to mind. Had I suggested I couldn’t play classical music their response would be, “Why not?”

During August I practised almost every day, never missing more than one consecutive day. September I was diligently playing every day.

I have a MIDI music keyboard with 49 keys. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. What this gobbledygook means is you need to plug the keyboard into a computer before it can make any sounds. The computer acts as a power supply to the keyboard. And free music software such as Garageband provides the piano sounds. Any sounds really. Grand piano, electric piano, organ, synthesiser, harp, French horns. The list seems endless. I pretend I am playing a Steinway Grand Piano. Well, 49 keys of one!

During August I augmented my piano practice with learning music theory. My poor brain boggled when shown all the notes and squiggles on sheet music. And respect for musicians rocketed; they can take several pages of music and immediately know how the composer intended it to be played.

There were several “Aha” moments, when musical mysteries made sense. Such as inversions. A chord consists of 3 notes, close but not next to each other, and using white and black keys. There are 12 major chords, each starting on a different note. Pop songs use some of these major chords, and often other chord types such as minor or sevenths. All are just combinations of three notes.

But these chords can be quite far apart from each other, and your hands are jumping all over the place! Inversions make for a more harmonious sound, and your hands are not bouncing around the keyboard. For example the C Major chord contains three notes, C E and G played in that order. But you can play the notes in a different order such as E G C or G C E. And still be playing C Major. These are called inversions.

When I played a song I wrote in 1987, use of inversions brought the song to life. It’s a great feeling to play chords on the piano of songs I wrote long ago on a guitar. The challenge is learning all the inversions. There are two for each chord. 12 Major chords and another 12 Minor chords means 72 chords to learn including inversions. Phew. My brain’s gast has never been so flabber...gasted!

I still plan on buying a digital piano. When I can play a bit better. When I can play Beethoven’s “Fur Elise”. Also known as “Bagatelle in A minor”. Its sheet music is three and a half pages long. Learning to play it is just like writing a short story. One word at a time. Or one note at a time.

And all because my friends believe I can do it. Never underestimate how genuine belief in a person can inspire them.

ONLINE COURSES:
ThinkSpace Education: Learn Music Theory / How To Write Music
What sold me on Guy Michelmore (ThinkSpace Education): YouTube videos

Piano For All: Learn Piano or Keyboard
Piano For All review -- what sold me on this course

Nick Zala
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