Three Legs of the Stool | The Simple Process of Learning to Play Piano

In my last article, I touched on the three elements of learning to play the piano. I like to refer to them as the three legs of the stool. Yes, I know that it's ironic that a piano and stool are synonymous. The purpose of today's article is to break down the task of learning to play piano to three easy to understand steps. So let's take a look at them.

The first leg of the stool is the intellectual. This is where we understand the concept of music as it relates to our logical understanding. For example, there's 12 different notes in music and they're named after first 7 letters of the alphabet.

Some notes have sharps, some have flats and some have none. A chord is defined as 3 or more notes played simultaneously etc. Traditionally speaking, this is defined as music theory or as I like explain to it: how music works or you could call it the mechanics of music.

One key aspect of learning to play piano that retards development and growth is a lack understanding what you need to know to progress. It's not complicated to understand musical concepts, but a lack of enthusiasm can develop if you don't remain engaged in learning.

The key to staying engaged in learning to play piano is to find those things that interest and even excite you. It could be a particular style of music, specific songs you wish to learn, interesting chord progressions or any aspect of piano playing.

The second leg of the stool is the aural. You could also refer to this as the auditory or hearing leg of the stool. We can hear the 7 different notes in a key of music as well as the difference between a Major and a minor chord. Having this aural knowledge tells us when we simply play a wrong note or chord at the most basic level, and even up to hearing how a chord progression moves through a song.

When we hear the phrase "play by ear", this is the specific concept of piano playing that it refers to. Of course, you can't have it by itself without the other two legs of the stool. Even though ear training is an area of learning to play the piano that is executed on purpose, you're ear is being trained as you progress through learning chords, progressions, songs etc.

Your ear is consistently grasping to understand what is going on inside the music. You can enhance your ear training experience by purposely listening to not only your piano playing, but others' piano playing as well. Listen with interest as you experience the sound of music. You'll be surprised how your ear will discern what it's hearing.

The third leg of the stool is the kinesthetic. "Kinesthetic" ability is specifically defined as relating to a person's awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs (proprioceptors) in the muscles and joints. Our hands are among the most developed of sensory organs because we use them everyday for just about everything that we do.

Kinesthetic, in this context is the physical ability to execute music on the piano. Even though you may be well versed in the intellectual and aural legs of the stool, your hands must cooperate with what brain is telling it to do.

This leg of the stool is developed through repetition. You can do this intentionally by slowing down and isolating any hand movement on the keyboard consistently. This will improve your accuracy on the keyboard and speed as well.