Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0332: Quickly learn to play piano chords

Episode Date: June 16, 2015

Rosa is working on learning to play piano chords. What is the quickest and most effective way to learn how to play chords for songs, such as “gospel” songs? What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 332. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Rosa asked a question in an email about music. Rosa is working on learning to play the piano and is searching for the quickest and most effective way to learn how to play chords for songs, such as gospel songs. So Rosa, I would suggest three steps just to get started with this project. So what I would do is I would start by getting

comfortable playing just one chord on the keyboard. And what I actually recommend is B major. Don't use just white keys. Choose a chord that involves black keys and white keys, and that one chord you can leverage to learn the entire keyboard because you can always find that chord, and you can base all of your learning on that one chord. I think that B major actually gives really good results as far as learning the keyboard goes. That's not what most people teach, but it's what I would teach because it teaches you more than most other chords. So learn that one chord, play it all over the keyboard until you really feel like you know that chord and could improvise it without mistakes all day long. As in without hitting wrong notes or anything like that, you could just improvise on that one chord. The second step is to move a

little further from there. So learn the four most important chords for the type of music that you're going to play. So most likely you're going to want to choose things like C major, G major, and a couple of others. Just do a quick survey of the music that you're playing or ask your instructor, whatever it takes. Find the four most important chords that you're gonna have to know for the music that you're playing, or ask your instructor, whatever it takes. Find the four most important chords that you're going to have to know for the music that you're going to play. Basically, the four chords that'll comprise probably 80% of all the music that you play in gospel songs. And practice improvising with each of those chords the same way that you did

with the original chord, but this time switching between them comfortably and always knowing which one you're playing. So you're expanding from the first thing you did, but this time you're adding the element of switching between chords and always knowing where you are. The third and final step is to expand to chord charts and also to other chords, but only as quickly as you're comfortable with them in the same way that you were comfortable with that original chord. And really, I mean, the way that these steps progress is that if you just start with that one chord from the very beginning, that's the biggest step. I like starting with the simplest but the biggest step, like we do in our Spanish course,

starting with just one dialogue that teaches you about 50% of the language if you learn it really well. It's much easier than trying to learn everything at once. You're just focusing on something very simple. But from there, you can expand from that, leverage what you've learned, and easily learn the rest of it. Now, of course, Rosa, you really should get someone to work with you one-on-one to make sure that you're doing this right. Even if that's just a friend who can play the piano a little, you just want to make sure that you're learning the chords right, because if you're reading it in an instruction book, you never really know if you're doing it right. And that's

the value of having other people working with you, somebody just a little more experienced than you, just, you know, to have that accountability and to have that assurance that you're doing what you should be doing. Now, Rosa and anyone else listening, if you want to keep this show free and keep me answering your questions every day, please take just five minutes and leave us an honest review of the show.

These reviews have a multiplying effect of whom iTunes allows to see the show. And so this is what keeps us going and keeps us producing this show for you. I read every single one, so I'd really appreciate a review in iTunes. Meanwhile, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. This is Timothy from Master of Memory, and I'll talk to you again soon.