Playing by ear on the piano is the same as playing the guitar. Both require you to play chords as a condition of mediocrity. Both can be learned with about the same amount of effort. Yet, the piano is not viewed or taught that way.
There’s no reason it shouldn’t be the #1 instrument, but the piano takes a back seat to the guitar which dominates music as the modern-day-sensation instrument of choice. It wasn’t always like that.
The Guitar Did Not Come to the Forefront
of Our Attention Until 1964.
In 1964 the Beatles took America by storm with an intensity that only a few artists per century ever reach. In the 1930s it was Sinatra. In 1956 it was Elvis. In 1964 it was the Beatles. These overpowering music forces were met with stiff resistence. The kids loved it and the parents wanted to ban it. It was the start of the boomer rebellion.
Let me synopsize the Beatle experience:
1. They were the first “stadium” band
2. They were cute, white and respectful young men
3. They were from mysterious England
4. Their wore their hair long (actually tame today)
5. Girls would not stop screaming.
6. They wrote, sang and played their own stuff
7. Their music was like nothing we had ever heard
We couldn’t get enough of them. In 1964, the Beatles had six #1 hits and rocked our culture to the core. They recreated the music business practically overnight. Before the Beatles came along, there were only a handful bands that wrote, sang and played their own music. Almost overnight, anyone with a guitar could become a star.
The Beatles Got Our Attention
The Beatles single-handedly caused an entire, industry-wide, music-scene explosion. From 1964 forward, guitar bands came out of the woodwork from England and the United States playing folk, rock and blues. Everywhere you looked, somebody was playing a guitar protesting the “man,” the war, civil rights and exercising civil disobedience.
The Girls Will Tear You Apart
In 1967, a group called The Byrds had a song called “So You Want To Be a Rock and Roll Star” that typified the current music scene.
Part of the lyric went:
“just get an electric guitar and
take some time and learn how to play.
Then in a week or two if you make the charts
the girls will tear you apart”
That made it sound easy. It wasn’t long before everyone was learning three chords and playing the guitar quickly. They didn’t have to become stars. A lot of guys were motivated by the idea that if you could play, you could get the girls.
The guitar was linked to simplicity, quick results and sex. That was the perfect recipe for motivation. That’s how the guitar became the modern-day-sensation instrument of our time.
The Time Machine – The Rise of the Piano
If we reeled back 300-plus years to the dawn of classical music we’d find that the piano was the modern-day-sensation instrument of that time. Back then, like the guitar today, the piano’s rise to popularity was driven by the current music scene that we call “classical” today.
However, in the classical era you really had to work hard to become a “Rock Star.” It wasn’t perceived as an overnight thing because to be a good follower required lots of practice. I’m sure the motivation to get the girl was probably still there. We haven’t changed much in that regard.
Back To The Future
Fresh back to the future we find ourselves confronting the fact that classical isn’t the driving force it once was. Popular music today is based on improvisational styles which cannot be taught using the classical approach.
It’s a dilemma, entrenched in a 300-year old tradition, that views deviations from the status quo with great resistance. The classical approach won’t teach you how to jam and there’s no indication that anything is going to change that fact.
Today our focus is on becoming modern-day rock stars and play like Elton John. We want to jam with friends and write our own songs. We want to play by ear.
The piano must be reinvented to become the NEW MODERN DAY SENSATION instrument based on today’s standard of popular music and teaching technologies. To do that, you must apply the same mind set you would to learn the guitar.
It’s as simple as that. Take a lesson from the guitar and drop all the baggage you think is associated with the piano. It’s a chord instrument and that’s where you should eat, sleep and breath if you want to get good.