back in the days bach and mozart and those dudes would sit around and have shed sessions battles and jam sessions
those cats would whip out a fake book
(figured bass) and sit and improve with each other
sometimes they could just start burning up the keys by ear
really what they were doing was composing on the spot without paper
that is what we do in church when we pick out a song and figure out what chords go with the melody the person is singing that is composing
and we do it without thinking well some of us think some of us just feel
well what happened to that in the reading world
why did people stop improvising
somewhere along the line ear training stopped being taught and sight reading not even sight reading concert playing became the thing to teach
it wasnt about being able to just perform a piece it was now about getting every note just right every trill
for many of us it takes all the joy out of the music
but that doesent mean that reading cant still give you joy
it just means you have to get creative with it
that is the purpose of this post
I was sitting at my piano and I had to stop and Thank God for the growth he has allowed.
I was a bit ashamed that I waited all this time to thank him
because he was growing me all along,
I never heard the polish in my playing until very recently
some new things I have been doing included a lot more reading a lot more.
some of us hear reading and we cringe or we say we can read when in reality we just know how to identify some notes
real reading is when you can look at a piece of music it doesent have to be a complicated bach or Beethoven piece
it could be something simple
and you can make some real sense out of it.
by that I mean you can play a measure or two pretty close to how it is supposed to be
the question is how do you get there and what if you play by ear
well that is the purpose of this post to talk about how to get to a better place with your reading by incorporating your ear.
first off
I have written a few posts on some other sources of music
I will remind you that classical musicians got polished in large part by the type of music they play.
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the teacher selects pieces that will improve a musicians musician ship
some written music is more chordal like a lot of chopin
other music is more linear like some Bach
so the teacher will select music to improve and suit a students tastes.
as Gospel musicians we have a resource of great written sheet music located in a few places
if we choose to look
one not so obvious place is GIA publications
which houses a lot of individual songs songs that we would love to hear and play in our churches real gospels real contemporary stuff
real spirituals and real anthems and everything in between
of course without knowing who is who and what sounds like what it is hard to pick a good piece
i recommend you get the cds such as guide my feet
stop by lord and use me
they all have music that is also sold in sheet music form each song costs maybe 2.00
so you arent spending that much
by having the cd and the sheet music you can use your ear and your eye to dissect the music
another source is the african heritage hymn book and james abbington has three cds that feature music that comes out of this hymnal
some of the hymns are arranged for piano so you could really cut your teeth on some good piano music take a look at perfect praise and look at the way the progression happens on there is none like you none like you none like you
I bet none of you ever would have thought to play that part that way.
I will talk about the other sources but lets focus on this topic
our goal is to play better to play with confidence and with the holy spirit
we can do that by staying in prayer and by practicing the right things
lets say for example you are working on dwell in the house by Gail jones
a beautiful contemporary/anthem available at gia
If you just tried to read the music without hearing it you would miss many of the subtleties
which is why having the cd is important you can hear the flow
and then when you start to read it you can know how the song should be set tempo wise dynamics. everything.
think about it when you are with a teacher he or she will play the piece that you are about to read and you can imitate some of what you hear
it is no diffent with us who are learning to read on our own
use all the resources you can.
use your ear to hear the original recording the Gia cds are great because you hear a lot of piano not any other instruments except maybe some light organ
but whatever the feature instrument is that is what you will hear loud and clearly.
another point
you need to somewhat separate reading for learning from reading for performing
and further separate reading for improv knowledge and reading to develop sight reading
first separate reading for performing from reading for learning
take the gail jones piece Dwell in the house
when I first sat down at the piece I played every note like I saw it
but I couldnt play it in tempo not enough to try to perform the song
so I analyzed the chords and simplified it so I could perform the song
but my chords although close were not as nice and my syncopations were no where near as good as the written ones
So I have to take the time to learn the actual voicings and chords and timings so that I may play the song better
why?
because this is how the song can improve your technique
by playing a voicing that you would not usually play
try this
for example
AEAb/BDbAb
AbEbGb/BEbGb
GbDb/AEAbB
EDb/ADbGbA
AbBb/GbAbDbGbAb
I like this progression from the song The chords are a little hard to play at first
but after a little while maybe a week or two
they will be like second nature
this is how you read for learning
you are training your fingers not your mind to play different shapes
and play different scales and melodies things that arent familiar.
but maybe you just need to play the song at your next service and you dont have the time to read each note exactly
that is fine
simplify the chords analyze what kind of chord it is and play it
your way
the first chord in that example is just an Amajor 7 the second chord is an Ab minor 7
so play your version of the chord keeping the melody note on top
you now have a simplified version of those two chords
you can do this for the whole song you can even write chord symbols above the music I used to do this all the time and it bailed me out of many a situation
it is not cheating it is translating the music into a language you can understand now,
you still had to read it to do the translation
you just cant read that fast so you have to translate it to a medium you can perform
next how do you read for improv knowledge
well take that same group of chords
what if you took each chord and moved it around the cycle of fifths
or chromatically
or inserted one of the chords into a song you already play
this is how a piece of sheet music can develop your vocabulary.
what are some important things to note when reading a GIA piece of music
timing
the timing and syncopations are written in there so study them and attempt to learn them
you will be surprised at how good you will begin to sound when those syncopations begin to pop in your impromptu playing.
chords and voicings
some of the chords by some of the composerss are really tight especially the stuff that comes out of the hampton crowd
people like robert wooten
and joseph joubert roger holland
gail jones murphy
and even eddie robinson
I just gave you some authors to start to explore
their music is beautiful and you could learn a lot by attempting to play some of their music,
you can scan the music or 2 - 5 1 progressions
endings
interludes etc
mean while use your ear as you read
use it to detect what is going on in the music and how you could use it elsewhere
and where have you heard it before,
next separate the performance from just learning to sight read
here is the most tedious but also the most valuble practice
play slowly and get every note right
play a measure over and over always keeping your eye on the page
discipline is the foundation to knowledge
and here we must endeavor to exercise discipline by not looking at our hands
feeling the keys and let our fingers find the right notes
it takes practice and faith in God and in the process
I hope this blesses some of you as much as the revalation of this knowledge has blessed me,
