So your saying that audiation is important? Do I pass the exam? LOL.

Didn't John Carpenter compose this himself?

Merci.

Thank you. I always felt like music teachers always were lying to me, and it took personal studying to learn solfege, counterpoint, phrasing, etc. teachers never helped me. I had to help myself.

❤❤❤

Everything you say here is right on target, but I think the solutions can’t be found in the weekly piano lesson format. If you look at other traditions that train audiation naturally, it’s based on years of experience singing in a group, and participating in informal ensembles where there are a variety of roles appropriate to musical level. This is how they did it in Italy in the 1700s, it’s how they do it Carnatic music, it’s how it works in churches generating killer musicians. This is really what’s really been lost in a huge way over the last 100 years - the loss of participatory common spaces for music making.

I hear nothing. I feel my vocal cords tightening where I think they should be if I was singing it, and I try to sort of imagine where the note would be on a vertical scale. But I hear nothing.

I do wish my classical teachers had taught improvisation in a classical context. Only years later after improvising playing jazz and bluegrass did I start trying to do the same with classical music/styles. Thanks for the lesson!

I would like to buy an Audiation instrument and went on Amazon. Do you have a code to support your channel?

I started at age 8. Im now 65 and I still play every day but I had 2 great teachers. Alot of the problem is adults and children have too many "other" things going on. I loved sports and horses but I knew I had to decide what i wanted to put the most effort into and i chose piano. I was good at everything but i knew that to be excellent I'd have to choose or else I couldnt be excellent in one thing. I could be okay in everything or excellent in piano.

I hear you Robert! About 10-15 yrs into my 26yrs of teaching, after finishing my masters in jazz, I started to realize that method books weren’t working (and it occurred to me that as a kid I already played by ear before learning to read). So I started exploring teaching students by ear and for the last 10yrs or so have been seeing much better success starting all my new students by ear. And for the majority of students, reading is barely covered if at all, but they learn to feel a connection with music and can express themselves playing the music they like or even composing and improvising. I teach them to use their “musical imagination” first and how to develop that by listening and a whole variety of creative strategies to learn how to shift their musical perspectives. It’s so rewarding to see that growth happen and continue learning myself in the process. Thanks for your valuable contribution!

Colonizer b.s.?

KZbin is vast and many content creators hire "viewers" to upvote videos to get traction. I am rueful that your wonderful couse has so few viewers. I hope eventually music hopefuls discover them.

The Music Essentials Course is eye opening. Everyone should watch the videos. I’ve watched it three times and each time I’ve gleaned another nugget of great information. I’ve just purchased the My Music Genesis course, I’m definitely not a singer but I’m hoping it will encourage me to sing what I hear in my head and progress my piano journey. 😊

Thank You!

Beautifully articulated. The almost universal reliance on books and sight reading from day one for an auditory based skill is so bizarre - it's like learning a language without ever speaking it.

With all due respect-because I love your videos, and I agree that learning music via tab is similar to trying to learn to speak a language by studying grammar. However, as much as you referenced “learning tonal patterns and rhythm patterns”, you never demonstrate what those two phrases mean and sound like on the piano behind you. means in this video. As a beginner, I can say those phrases without any concept of what you mean. I don’t mean to suggest you need to turn them into a lesson here, but just one example of each would be helpful. Thank you for an otherwise informative video.

I loved the style of this video. It shows how genuine you are. I’ve only recently found your channel and it’s great. I’ve watched many of your videos and worked through the free sample course. I’m probably going to purchase your Genesis Course.

Amazing!🎄❄

What type of jazz is the under? I'm looking for similar sounds

A superb video. ❤

I’ve watched the videos from your free course and some of your KZbin videos. I’m very tempted to enroll in the paid course but what is stopping me is all the other courses I’ve completed that haven’t improved a thing. I’m an adult returner in retirement who has an hours lesson every two weeks but progress is very slow. I was told at the age of 6 by a teacher that I sang flat, in front of the whole class and have barely sung a note since. Now that I’m in my late 60s if I try to sing a note nothing comes out, I feel singing is not an option for me. When I listen to music I feel emotion and if I’m home alone I might move with it. Would this be enough without the singing, I can hear music in my head.

Would you mind explaining what is a resting tone. Google didn't show up a single definition. Is it just a tonic of a scale you're in the moment? Btw Ive read in comments you're wondering why you get so little views - when I tried to find your channel by typing its name in youtube search all I got was Genesis band videos. Your channels name is great but no one will find it unless they type audiation besides it. Maybe try deleting the genesis part and adding audiation in your channels name.

People don't want the truth they want fantasy

You're preaching the same shit I've been saying for a decade. I'm glad to hear more people actively criticizing musical academia's absolute failure in teaching pianists how to teach. Many don't even teach them how to truly perform. Yes, they can spend 3 months learning one really hard piece by memory, but many have such underdeveloped reading skills that they can't get handed a stack of simple accompaniments with one week to prep and know how to make that happen because they've not only never learned to sightread well, but they haven't learned how to actually practice efficiently. Parkinson's Law in effect. But yes, schools suck at teaching pianists how to teach. So what happens is that most piano teachers not only are lacking the time and money for continuing education, but most are not like you. They simply don't give a shit. They teach how they were taught and in my opinion piano pedagogy in particular is just generations of the blind leading the blind. We push students so much toward performance and recitals, and in some places, exams. It's all basically rote. We're not teaching music as a language. We are giving them "poems" in a foreign language and teaching them how to recite the words, but they don't know the meanings of the words. They never develop basic conversational literacy. Theory in college is taught very much on paper, but not in a practical sense using the instrument (which is partially because not everyone plays a harmony instrument and can as readily actively use it in an applied sense). But pianists should be actively USING the basic concept they are learning and playing them in different keys. It's weird to me that especially classical pianists will focus on scales and arpeggios in every key, but that's where it ends. A more common approach in jazz is to play different ideas in all keys. I frequently advocate taking any pattern you're struggling with (or just think is cool), reverse engineering what is happening, and then turning it into an exercise in every key. You're killing 3 birds with one stone. You're getting some technical practice in all keys, you're having to do the mental associations of stuff like "what is the I-IV-V in Db major" and through that repetition while actively thinking about it (not mindlessly) your ear starts to learn what that ideas sounds like...which makes that piece of vocabulary available for improvisation. John Feierabend really changed my pedagogical opinion on music literacy to lean so much more toward a "sound before sight" approach. In picking up other instruments I've really noticed how much, even with all the music and audiation knowledge, you really need some amount of facility before you can really engage with literacy (actually reading). I think audiation is a harder concept for pianists generally. I start piano very late (which has also deeply shaped my pedagogy opinions) after my music degree in trumpet. Audiation is absolutely core to winds, strings, and voice. You have to really think about what you want something to sound like or you can barely be basically competent. You're dealing with not only timbre, but you're dealing with pitch control. But on piano you can arguably just mash the key. And pianists tend to listen to piano music, but aren't listening to other instrumental music... so even if they knew they were trying to audiate a flute, or oboe, or violin, or brass section to try to create that effect on piano.... their mind's ear doesn't even have a model to audiate from. They can't improvise often because they never sing or try to recreate ideas just from their ears or brain. And often classical lessons will beat it out of them. That they need to play EXACTLY what's on the page with no variation. Often classically trained players trying to learn to improvise later are fucking terrified to make a mistake when improvising. They want to improvise "correctly" and therefore aren't willing to explore. Even worse are the piano teachers who actively knee-cap students who express interests in improv, or blues, or pop styles. Often when the teachers is unfamiliar rather than saying, "I don't know, but maybe we can learn together... I know how to seek out resources" they instead shit on those styles as being unimportant, or even damaging. I think especially with adult beginners a better approach would be a very lead sheet based approach with simple chords. And advantage guitar hobbyists have is just learning 3-6 open chords and being able to strum along to 1000s of songs instantly, but the way piano is taught creates such huge barrier before you can get there. Granted, comping IS harder on piano than guitar inherently, but you absolutely can teach someone to play a few block chords of a I-IV-V progression in one key to start... and play dozens of melodies over it... and even improvise over it. And over time you can polish out better and more interesting left hand patterns using those same theory fundamentals.... teach them to read treble so they can truly just use lead sheets... and progress to bass clef to give them access to more resources and build their reading skills over time. This lets people get to the fun faster. It really opens up the music world very early. It's so sad to me to constantly see people who had 10 or even 15 years of piano lessons just give up because they have no real music literacy. They have just "recited poems" their whole life without learning how to actually say anything in the language of music. Their reading sucks too much to learn a new piece before they get bored of it (and as adults they have less time). Their ear is criminally underdeveloped. They just don't have a path forward and that lack of free time as an adult makes them just feel like the they can't invest in those skills now. And overall there's just a bigger push toward instant gratification. People are impatient and they get FOMO watching very slickly edited videos making unrealistic claims. Also, the algorithm directs people to the "Get good in 5 MINUTES!" videos more than videos from people with opinions like you or me who just straight up say, "It's going to take a lot of time and work." Progress is gradual. You get such better results for putting in slow consistent work and investing in fundamental skills, but everyone just wants to skip to playing super cool stuff.

I wanted to play the guitar and I was handed a book. No. I grabbed a guitar and played it till I could make it speak coherently. I noticed that my body would stress and ache while I played. So playing became a lesson in relaxing a building tension.

It’s sad to see parents get kids into tons of activities hoping something sticks, only for nothing to stick. And I agree I don’t understand how people spend thousands and can hardly read quarter notes in one hand. Music unfortunately is a privilege and a highly inaccessible discipline in today’s economy.

Going back several decades now, it seems to me that the problems you describe have been further undermined by the slow, constant demise of "music education" in so many public school districts nationwide. From my anecdotal observations, even in school districts that were not affluent, music education (band, orchestra, chorus, etc..) a few decades ago was a staple in the class offerings. The result may be a generation where basic music education (via public schools) is now not for the "masses", just the "elite kids". While this sad development is largely budgetary, voters still have the chance to pass local school bonds where the proceeds would go exclusively to music education, if they so chose. Thus, the voters have some of the responsibility here.

I started playing piano at around 8 years old, took lessons from various teachers through the years and played until high school. I then took a break once I was in college until now, so from age 18 to 32. I'm now getting back into piano and went right back to the basics of theory and learning my major, minor scales, inversions and such... After all these years away and coming back I found myself beginning to not enjoy playing for the same reason as when I was a kid...Too much structure, too many rules. Too much "work". I remember taking lessons and it was always about advancing to the next book (which is never-ending) I think theory is a WONDERFUL and AMAZING thing to learn and I've always been envious of the guys on KZbin who knows about modes, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian etc...advanced 7th chords, minor 9's, etc. But I don't think I'll ever get there at this point, simply because of lack of interest..Also I feel like our brains are not all the same, I never liked math and science so the formulaic way that music is structured has always clashed against my brain. The most joy and fun I've had is just sitting down at the piano and fumbling around, improvising to my favorite songs without actually "knowing" what I'm doing. Usually leads to me just following the melody in the right hand and the left hand just making chords that sounds good to what's going on, simply that's it. More so of a playing by hear/jazz improvisation type style. That combined with some quick visual tutorials on how to play a specific song seem to be what I'm most interested in. Like I said I think piano lessons & theory are amazing, if the right teaching is created for the right student (rare).. I'd love to know theory like all the people here on KZbin, but it just isn't for me. At the end of the day piano is again a creative medium, there should be no rules. Creativity has no bounds and shouldn't be limited, put into a box, or defined by a given set of rules. I think if we can start to realize that, maybe the solution can be to start teaching people piano in a way that they see the world, instead of trying to put how the world sees piano on them.

this feels like hidden treasure

I feel very taken to task, but also inspired. I am not a book-only teacher. I do a 40-40-20 approach between books-music they like- and theory/improv/games/etc. But a fairly sizable group of my students aren’t musically well-rounded, or learning at a satisfying pace. And that’s a big problem for me. Thanks for your video. I’m a teacher who cares very much about this issue. I will take your words about movement and singing to heart in my continued efforts in learning to teach.

Finally somebody's here to tell the truth instead of making flashy KZbin videos with Quick Cuts and two second explanations. Drum rudiments and are they entail with the hand and wrist and fingers are intricate as well to do and a book does not convey exactly what you're supposed to do or when to come in for drum fills and overall feel for different genres. You need an actual human being in the room teaching you that knows the instrument backwards and forwards and knows how to teach with a Hands-On approach. As you said it must be the correct Hands-On approach. I took guitar lessons from one guy he was an excellent player but he did tell me if I learned only from him I would end up playing like him. Brutal honesty is a rare thing these days especially if it cuts into somebody's monetary occupation

Will need to create a "few" cheat sheets/cool guides for this one.

In the music conservatories, music is only taught to students born with musical talents, you don't really need to teach audiation. Nowadays parents expect their children to be taught to play an instrument proficiently regardless of natural talent as long as they find the right teacher. This is an illusion, I don't believe anyone can learn music even tone deaf people.

Capitalism problem? No. It’s a values problem. Also a public education problem.

I used to teach till 9 or 10pm and taught stuff that they had interest in

Thanks for the radical concepts. My approach is to check out the notation of a music/song I like. Pick up the lyrics (if there), tune and rhythm and then listen to a good number of other musicians performing it. After that, I would like to play the way I want to share it. The non Imitation Game it is.

Robert, I'm so glad that you got to the all-encompassing, revolutionary thesis by the end of the video. I've been thinking about this problem at different stages for the last decade or so, and I agree wholeheartedly that the gravest harm is not simply that children are soured on piano or violin or basketball or mathematics or whatever other structured afterschool program(s) they've been thrust into by their parents, but that this souring is a symptom of teaching people to accept a heavy amount of affliction from a very young age. Especially in the upper-middle classes where the financial access to music lessons and tutoring programs exist, children (and, as I'm sure you know, VERY young children) are stripped of the *very idea* of free time, and are thus passively taught to devalue liberty itself; told that they should be grateful for their spot at the piano factory by parents who have never had their hearts moved by Mozart, simply passing on the mangled (but unfortunately true) idea that being able to play Mozart will get you admitted to a prestigious university for medicine, law, or engineering. Our culture is plagued by the notion that flashy performance, especially when immediate, is indicative of true knowledge, artistry, competency, and fluency. I would also say that this cultural structure associates flashy performance with joy, but I think it implicitly rejects joy altogether. "Success" within the hegemonic structure is valued, and the pursuit of happiness is deemed a distraction. Seeking hard-won fluency in the basic arts (for music: audiation, theory fundamentals, phrasing, etc.) is denigrated when it puts you anywhere outside the fastest track to vicarious bragging rights (playing a famously challenging concerto). The same holds in math: the student who takes the time to understand the reasoning behind the fundamentals is long "behind" the student who merely accepts them and moves forward, seeing all of the content but none of the beauty. The psychological literature on free play is abundantly clear in its benefits and the dire consequences of depriving children of it, yet the social pressures and messaging push almost all parents in exactly the wrong direction. The problem deepens when you consider the far-flung, car-dependent suburbs that houses most of the upper-middle class. Children develop seeing their world as discrete, purpose-built locations with strict sets of rules that they teleport between on their parents' whims. It's a dull, soulless existence, and it's a testament to the human spirit that anyone breaks free from it at all. We desperately need teachers at all levels to condemn this entire structure and to fight for the love of learning.

What did you mean by the title " Hanon trap " ? Are hanon exercises useless or dangerous ? I ask this because I am playing piano for 3 years , i`ve got into daily hanon practice and after I've got injured ( starting of tendonitis) and I have never had any injuries before with piano. Now I had to take a break from piano , i am 1 month in and now i'm thinking to get back at it . That`s why i`m looking for fundamental technique to check on myself , since i quit my teacher

I totally agree with you. In my case, I had decades of lesson from very accomplished PERFORMERS. I'm now taking lessons from a teacher trained to teach, and the difference is breathtaking. For audiation, I studied with a teacher of Hindustani music. His (and I think all teachers of that tradition) method is pure audiation. He would play on the harmonium and sing, having me copy the passage by singing it back to him. Notation was used only to give me homework, but wasn't part of the lesson. Now when I do solfege, I use Indian "sargam". (Sa, Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa) rather than "Do, Re, etc"

Hello, I like your approach, I think your onto something! Music schools not only ommit audiation but also stuff peoples brain with too much unpragmatic theory so that most people quit before they reach the final. That's quite a tragedy. I have on question tho: I'm wondering if singing can be substitued with whistling for the sake of immersing into audiation? I play classical guitar + improvise in rumba style or pop/soul rhythms and when Im in the flow I use to whistle the melody since my voice is awful and whistling comes more natural to me. Can I get the same benefits with whistling or singing is essential for proper foundation?

TRIBAL CHIEF ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

People say "buy my course and you'll learn 50 songs." No, you won't! Learning music doesn’t work that way.

Absolute adult beginner on the piano here. Thank you for these great lessons.

I've watched a number of your videos and just completed the sample lesson on your website. I believe your approach is good. I had fun with the "Yellow Taxi" tonal patterns. But I'd like to offer some constructive feedback. I felt frustrated when you talked and talked about the theory. It was about six minutes into the lesson before you gave me something actionable. Could you just show and not tell so much? It's kind of the same with your KZbin channel. There is a lot of telling, talking about your approach and only sparse examples and sparse exercises. I use various other KZbin channels to show me what notes to play to any particular song. But I never learn the whole piece and get frustrated. I now realize I just don't have the musical vocabulary, never mind the technique, to make the music I want to make. But the KZbin channels that show what notes to play gave me an actionable thing to do even if it only gave me the illusion I was learning to make music. Hope this makes sense. All the best.

all movie scores are from Beethoven

Thanks for this video, I find them very useful!

So are you saying i need to know piano theory in order to sight read fast?

Thanks.

Beautiful man I love discovering things like this. Fck Off. I'm Scottish so it sounds even better if you want it as your outgoing message 😅