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Why Play the Piano?

• The piano has unique characteristics that make it satisfying to play, and an excellent tool for learning the rules of music.

• Playing music is as much a creative enterprise as composing music.

• Keyboard instruments are unique because they allow you to play all three elements of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm.

• Most of the great classical composers wrote music for the piano.

Music is the universal language. In addition, while music is something everyone understands, the piano is perhaps the best single instrument for playing and conveying this common language. With its unique, forthright tone, and the capacity to play melodies and accompaniments simultaneously, the piano is tremendously versatile and deeply satisfying.

• Why has the piano been, since its invention, the home instrument of choice for adults and children?

The sheer sound of the instrument. That is to say, the piano tone isn't too loud or too soft, too heavy or too light, too sharp or too blunted - or too much of anything that makes for tedious listening over a long period.

• What makes the sound of a piano so great?

Pianos have incredible dynamic range. The dynamic range of an instrument is the difference in volume between its softest and loudest tones. This wide dynamic range makes the piano capable of great music drama and excitement, as well as intimacy and peacefulness. Thanks to its tremendous dynamic range, the piano is an instrument of many moods.

Pianos have the biggest pitch range. An instrument's pitch range is defined by the lowest and highest notes it can play. With the piano, the range is defined by the instrument's eighty-eight keys, and eighty-eight notes is a mighty pitch range.

Piano music soothes the soul. It is partly due to the great music composed for the instrument. But just as important, it is the beautiful, fluid, dynamic, and lyrical tone of the piano that causes its listeners to melt.

Creativity

Playing music is good for your soul. Music has a unique ability to reach directly into some inner portion of our selves, bypassing our brains. That's why listening to music - really listening, can be a shortcut to our emotions. Perhaps music even shortcuts to our very souls. If just listening to music can be a transcendent experience, imagine how playing music may add another dimension. Two aspects of playing music make it uniquely valuable:

• Playing music, even somebody else's composition, is inherently creative, you are making the music happen even if you didn't compose the piece. That particular expression of the piece would never happen if it weren't for you. When you play a piece, you are contributing a portion of beauty to the world, even if you're the only person listening. Like baking a cookie recipe or following a needlework pattern, playing a music piece gets the creative impulses flowing.

• The physical part of playing an instrument has its own satisfactions and rewards. When you engage your fingers and arms in the process of making music, the emotional and physical aspects of musical art come together in an almost addictive synergy. This phenomenon is especially true when playing the piano, which is more of a whole-body experience than many other instruments. The tactile component of pressing the keys and working the pedals, combined with the emotional component of hearing music issue forth from your efforts, adds up to a very gratifying experience.

You may or may not dabble in making up your own pieces on the piano, or creating musical compositions using the recording features of digital keyboards. But creativity in music establishes itself long before actually composing a piece. From the first time you sit in front of your instrument and begin experimentally pressing keys, you are involved in exploring your inherent creativity.

The Uniqueness of All Keyboard Instruments

The piano, as well as other keyboard instruments, is uniquely versatile. First of all, keyboard instruments are the only instruments played with both hands. That is to say, with both hands producing notes. Most other instruments are held with both hands, but can only produce one note at a time.

Bowed string instruments are basically melody instruments.

Strummed string instruments are good for playing chords. They are both melody or harmony instruments.

Wind instruments are restricted to single notes, and are for melody only.

Percussion instruments are primarily rhythmic, not melodic or harmonic.

Unlike all these instrument classes, pianos and keyboards merge all three aspects of music - melody, harmony, and rhythm. While the complexity of playing many notes with all ten fingers makes the piano a challenging instrument, the payoff is being able to play the full range of music. A guitar can play chords, a trumpet can make a melody, and a drum set can keep the beat. But only a piano can put it all together in one instrument. When you think about it, pianos put an amazing amount of musical power into your hands.

The Great Teacher

It is important to point out that the piano (and other keyboard instruments) is an incredible tool for learning about music generally.

Music theory - the notes, scales, keys, and other technical detail of how music works - is rather on the abstract side. Music theory is book learning compared to the softer, more artistic side of actually playing an instrument. But the piano brings music theory right under you hands, because the keyboard layout makes learning about notes, scales, and keys a graphic and tactile experience. The arrangement of black and white keys makes it easier to perceive the design of music theory, and its logic.

Some say piano players have an advantage in understanding music theory, which players of single-note or percussion instruments lack. So as you're enjoying the pure pleasure of playing a great instrument, you can have the satisfaction of gaining a foundation in a new language - the language of music theory.

Because the piano is such a great instrument in so many ways, it makes sense that most of the great classical composers were (and are) attracted to it. This is perhaps the finest reason to play the piano - there is so much great music written for it. Much of the classical repertoire is rather difficult to play, requiring skills that take time to develop, but there is also beginning-level music composed by Bach, Beethoven and other masters.

Even if you're not after classical music, the piano is the repository for the greatest compositions in many music genres, from jazz to new age.

All in all, the piano is a uniquely grand and flexible instrument.

For scheduling or additional information call (561)452-4234 email: mjohann@thepianogarden.com

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