Ear to Chords Worship Piano for Beginners

I learned to play simply because I loved to play music in church. I started out playing bass guitar at the age of 16. A few years after that, I was introduced to the piano by my brother, who was self-taught. I never took any formal piano lessons; I was introduced to the basics of chord shape and scales, and was left to figure the rest out on my own (we had no access to youtube, music books or any learning resources). I already knew about progressions from playing the bass by ear. All I needed to learn was how to play using keyboard chords what I already played with the notes of a bass guitar. Due to frustration with the learning process, I gave up on the keyboard and settled for bass as my true and only instrument.

Years afterwards, I joined a small church in Newark, New Jersey where I was the bass guitarist. I played along with the very much admired keyboardist of the church, who was also the choir director.

Due to a misunderstanding the keyboardist had with the church leadership, he left suddenly, leaving the church with only two instrumentalists: the bassist and drummer. For several weeks, I struggled to carry the worship solely on a bass guitar, while the keyboard remained there in front of the church, empty, week after week, no one even attempting touch it. What I knew about keyboard was just too little to help me play it. However, I knew something about keyboard, and consequently, the public expectation for someone to rise up to the challenge of learning to play the keyboard, of course, fell on me. Besides, accompanying music with bass and drums alone was getting old very fast.

I took up the challenge, locked myself in a room for an hour everyday, and in about 6 weeks, I was not only a surprise to the people around, but to my own self as well. The progress was astronomical. I took no lessons, used no books or online videos. All I did was devote an hour a day to doing chord drills. Although, my prior knowledge of how to play bass by ear was a major contributing factor in my rapid progress, I can look back at the method of practice I implemented during those six weeks and conclude that it must have been divinely inspired. In hind sight, I have come to realize that it was the best possible approach that I could have used.

I share this story to show why learning by ear and chords, although not often regarded with respect in traditional musical circles, is a lifesaver for many musicians. The quickest, easiest and most effective way to overcome the challenge before me (start playing keyboard in an African church ASAP) was to learn to accompany songs by ear, using basic chords.

I have since refined and enriched the training formula I used during my six-week ordeal to enable others achieve even more amazing results than I had achieved. I have done this because I have since met with people who are faced with a similar challenge to that I described. They have the instrument, the musical talent and the passion to learn, but no short and easy approach to acquire the particular skill they need for their particular circumstance. Piano schools do not teach that. That is why I decided to prepare an easy and quick piano learning course that will equip individuals with the basic keyboardist skills they need to play in local bands, in church, at informal musical sessions, as a private hobby, or for song-writing purposes. The best approach for these needs is the play-by-ear and chords method.

Visit the page "Course Content" for a description of exactly what I will be teaching.