Play like a piano player

The other day I was helping one of my co-workers learn a song on piano and mainly what I helped them with wasn’t learning the notes or figuring out what fingers to use or how to play the rhythms. I helped them with learning the idioms of the piano.

Piano players often play things in a specific way because of how the instrument is designed. With this also comes the history of piano playing. Playing piano isn’t just about playing the instrument how you want to play it, though that is important. Playing the piano also includes knowing about how the instrument is typically played and how it has been played in the past. Learning the common idioms of the instrument and the common ways that piano players will play something.

An example of this is playing chords. Experienced piano players often play chords in their right hand in inversions. They voice lead the notes in their right hand. This means that the first chord may be in root position, but the notes are kept as close together as possible. The second chord may be in second inversion and the third chord may be in first inversion. In the left hand piano players will often play the bass line. If the bass line is mostly the root note, then they may also play the fifth or an octave in their left hand.

These aren’t rules that need to be followed all of the time, but they are what people commonly play and hear from the instrument of the piano.

These are ways of making music that are specific to the piano and how it is set up.

They don’t have to be followed, but when making music it can be useful to learn how things are commonly done to know whether or not you want to do things that way to.

You might find that some things sound better one way or the other, but in order to know this you need to learn the common ways of doing things.

ISJ