The more I play and learn Im finding more and more that finger independence can get you immediate results in doing other things in your playing. Things that I have found to help me is to actually use all your fingers.
When playing many of us use certain fingers to play certain chords. I have forced myself to use my ring fingers on certain chords. Dont get me wrong I was using my ring fingers before but now I play chords that I know will stretch my fingers out of the norm. ie playing 9chords(C9) Also working on all your inversions is another thing especially when you play major7 chords. When I play these chords chromatically, in whole steps, and arpeggiated it strengthens my fingers. I have also picked up bass so that is giving me more of a workout with the LH. I notice that I am able to do other chords that I have had trouble with the stronger each individual finger becomes.
I know some people try to just learn something nice just in one key and every chance they get to use it they do. LOL We have quite a few musicians at my church some of which are beginners. I offered to teach them but they dont seem to want to learn the basics. If you dont have a good hold on the basics you will pay for it later on. The majority of my practice time when I do practice LOL is working on basic concepts like playing in octaves, major, minor chords....
Ive kinda made a note to start practicing more like I should and getting out to hear other musicians. I also going to try to make it my thing to practice in all keys. I practice in all keys but some things I dont practice in all keys. If you practice just Bass/RH then you should practice this method in all keys. If you practice something LH/RH where you are playing LH chords then you should practice that in all keys. I promise you if you make it a habit early to do these things you will be surprised at how far you get within a years time. If you learn a contemporary song try to learn it in all keys. You will see that you have more options in other keys as you play.
I took some piano lessons before never actually became good at it. I can barely read music now. LOL When I was learning gospel music it was hard to find someone to teach you so I had to pretty much learn on my own with the help of the Lord. I now see where I could have done things differently coming up practicing. Now I have to clean up some inconsistancies I have in my playing ability. Hopefully Lords willing if things go according to plan I hope to be a totally different musician by the end of this year.
Im also expanding my style of gospel music. I want to be able to come up with new things in church. I have been practicing very diligently the last week or so. I can see a difference in my playing at church even now. I feel more confident in playing. I have been working alot at home on breaking out of one area of the keyboard. Soon Im going to expand this to the entire piano scale. You hear alot of moving in the old school gospel blues style of playing. If you want an idea of this is try playing a walking shout bass in octaves in the LH and at the same time playng the blues scale in octaves in the RH more so soloing in octaves in the RH.
I pray we all can get to that next level by our dedication to God and our instrument.
mysteryman
