Why chord is the best and fastest way to play the piano

30 days! 30 Days were exactly the number of day my dad learned to play the piano. I think that’s pretty impressive for a 72 year old man.

Now tell me honestly, when you think about learning to play the piano, do you imagine it to be a complicated and difficult thing to do?

Do you think of lengthy lessons that you need to go through and that it would take you years for you to be able to play the piano?

Well, you’re definitely not alone if you think that way.

Many people have this idea that learning how to play the piano is a serious and sophisticated subject where one needs to go through a series of proper theories and practice tons of scales and arpeggios to be able to master the skill.

They think that playing the piano requires good hands co-ordination or even talent.

This is nothing but a myth.

Sadly, this belief has stopped many people from even getting started to learn how to play the piano.

Most of the people I talk to just simply want to play and sing the songs they love on the piano after a long day of work or playing songs for their friends and family or simply to express themselves when words couldn’t.

In this article, I will bust the myths and the conceptions that you may have about learning to play the piano and break down the wall that has been blocking you from even getting started.

But first….

Why traditional piano lesson did not help me play any songs?

Now, I have a Grade 8 Merit certificate from Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). This is a certification given to someone who has completed a series of tests in different aspects music such as the scale, classical piano pieces, sight reading and aural by the board.

Well, obviously I did pretty well for it. I got a Merit cert and I was pretty proud of it.

However, one day, I realized that I couldn’t play the piano without having a piano sheet in front of me. Piano sheets are basically piano scrolls with notes and other musical stuffs written by composers for a particular song.

I was asked by a guy who I had a huge crush on in high school to play the piano for the praise and worship of his club. He gave me a book with just chords and lyrics in it.

I looked at it blankly and realized I couldn’t play chords and I have failed miserably…. and yeah.. there went my chance to impress that guy. 😛

But that was my turning point…

Here I was with a Grade 8 Merit certificate and I couldn’t play anything that was thrown at me.

I realized that for years I have been playing other people’s songs. I played songs from the baroque, classical, romantic and 20^th century periods.

I was very accustomed to play the piano with piano sheets in front of me and I did that for years until that day when it hit me, I couldn’t play anything if not for the piano sheets.

Traditional music lesson in my opinion fails to help me be my very own artist. It didn’t help me to use what I’ve learned to create my own music.

It is a formal music education and exams which are used to gauge how well you do in your techniques and ability to read music.

I am not all against traditional piano lesson though. If you plan to be a classical pianist or play in an orchestra then I do think it’s a good idea to go through a formal piano lesson. It helps you to play and perform other people’s music perfectly.

If that’s not what you are looking for, then continue reading..

1. Chord is simple

Do you know that chords are used way back in the baroque and classical periods?

Chord is one of the fundamental of music that makes up a song. It doesn’t matter it’s a classical song or a modern pop songs.

Chord is just simply a bunch of notes put together and played simultaneously or separately to sound good or harmony.

It is made of simple formula and which makes it so easy for you to learn how to play the piano.

If you want to learn more about piano the piano with chords, check out this post.

If my old man could do it, my 6 years old son could do it and you can absolutely do it too.

2. You don’t need to read notes

Reading notes from a piano scroll without a doubt is quite an impressive thing to do. You are able to look at crazy bunch of stuffs and do that with your fingers. I think that’s pretty mind blowing.

However, if you’re simply just a boy or a girl who is standing in front of a piano, asking how to play the piano just because you feel like singing or expressing yourself… you my friend, don’t need to do all that.

Doing all that is very time consuming and take you a very long time to play your kind of songs.

Unlike the traditional way of learning the piano where you put hours of practices into reading notes from a scroll, you just need to know what are the notes that make up a chord using alphabets that you and I already know… like ABC.

For example, the most basic chord is C major. All you need to know is what makes up that chord which is C, E and G and play that on the piano. And there you go! That’s your first chord.

When you know a couple more such as G major, A minor, and F major and then put them together with some patterns and rhythms… BAMMMM! That’s your first song!

3. Only learn things that matter

The best thing about playing the piano with chords is that, you only need to learn things that would help you turn that chords into something beautiful and bring them to life.

Unlike the traditional piano lesson, you learn everything that you need to know to finally play songs written by someone else. Sad bad true.

When you use chords to play the piano, there are of course some important things you need to know. There are some understandings of music, rules and some techniques involve…but trust me, they are nothing as complicated or complex like what the traditional lesson would give you.

All you need to know is the fundamental of music that makes music, music and then applying the fundamentals into playing the songs you want. If you want to know in depth about the fundamental of music, join my free course here.

So because you only learn things that actually matter, it makes you learn to play the piano fast and effective!

Oooo… if you’re ready to play the piano, why not start on the right foundation. Join my free course on the 4 Essential Fundamentals of Music to Start Playing the Piano below. It’s totally free. 🙂

4. You can create your own

Nothing can beat creating your very own experience in music. You can turn a happy song to a sad song and vice versa, you can play the pop songs you love to your very own version and of course you can write and compose your very own song.

That’s the beauty of playing the piano with chords. You are free to create music because you know the simple rules and techniques involved.

Playing the piano should never be a difficult or complicate thing. It should be fun and joyful.

The beauty of playing the piano with chords is exactly that. You are free to create music that you love because you only need to have the simple understanding of music, some rules and techniques and you are good to go, my friend.

5. You can express yourself freely

Imagine this….you sitting on the piano…playing the songs you love after a long day… expressing your bad or good day through the music you’ve created… nourishing your soul with music to feel better or over the moon because words or other things in the world just couldn’t.  

How does that sound?

Music is the gift of life… it heals the soul…  it helps you express your emotions deep inside.

You just need to learn and know simple things that it takes to do all of that on the piano.

So there you have it my friend. I hope you give chords a go today and start playing tons of songs that you actually enjoy and love. Join my free 4-day course here to get started.

Keep playing and have fun!