Welcome to www.pianochords.info

In the 1830s, Carl Czerny (a student of Beethoven) prescribed what he thought was the "correct" way of practicing piano - the idea that a child should learn by sheer endless repetition, in order to produce something that is machinelike in uniformity.  Repetition and practice were the keys to success in piano playing.

Not everybody agreed.  One of the opposition to this idea was Robert Schumann, whose hope for a career in virtuoso was ruined by a hand injury.  Schumann promoted the idea that learning the piano should be a general education in musicianship.  He believed that not all children should be trained to become virtuosos for the purpose of impressing adults.  This was the beginning of the new attitude, that learning to play the piano should be as much as learning to improvise, to compose, and to accompany as about learning to solo.  It should awaken the imagination.  Today's jazz piano playing characteristically represents the same attitude as that of Schumann's.  This is the philosophy behind the piano chords method.

Playing by chords is particularly appealing to adult piano learners because adults do not have the finger dexterity that young children have.  In addition, they do not have the time to practice.  Adult learners are motivated differently.  They want to play piano as of form of self-expression.  They do not need to learn piano by sheer mechanical repetition in the way of finger exercises.  Instead, they can learn selectively, learn what is important and start having fun. The saying goes "playing piano by chords is the backdoor to the world of piano playing."

What you will find in this site

There are free piano lessons contained in this website that can get you started very quickly.  For well-motivated and gifted enthusiasts, you could probably get quite far following the instructions in this site.   However, progress can only reach a certain stage, and if you want to progress further, you will find that you will need additional instructions or tips and tricks from fellow musicians. 


You will find all kinds of information relating to piano chords on this site.  We hope that we will provide not only information but also stories and experiences from fellow piano enthusiasts and therefore give inspiration and encouragement to one another.
 


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