Hi guys, Bob and anyone else whos hasn't fallen asleep reading yet another pianomagic thread!!

I think Bob has just about covered most of it .

I just have to add there is something really rather magical and re-assuring about knowing where you are and where a songs going when you are playing it.

The only way I can think of to describe it...is it is like when you learn to drive a manual/stick shift car (I know this analogy may be lost on those of y'all over there ) at first it is difficult to work out when to clutch and change gears and check your mirror and keep your eye on the road etc etc.

But years later you can just drive without hardly any mental effort at all, its all just so natural...well that is really kinda like what my playing is getting to now..at times it is almost automatic, I play with almost carefree abandon most of the time...sometimes I even drift away when playing to another world.

Admittedly I still have lots to learn to be totally satisfied with the way I play...but, I'll get there.

Bob hasn't quite gotten there yet ( but he's doing better than I was after the same amount of time) as he has only been there less than a year, I've been there 2 and a half years and the good stuff for Bob is on the horizon.

hope that helps?


Lee

I've only been doing PM for about a month. I thought I'd toss in an opinion from a newbie perspective.

1) You can play with a relatively full sound very quickly which makes learning and practicing more fun, and hence I'm more likely to play/practice more

2) I don't see how you develop right hand technique, especially with respect to altering melodies (runs, fills, etc). The right hand techniques I've seen described (beyond my current level) seem to be more about adding color tones giving the right hand melody a fuller richer sound. Definitely a good thing, but not everything I'd hope for. I think there are plenty of other places to pick up that kind of thing however. I suspect this could also be due to my early stage of learning in PM. I don't have the longer term knowledge that those like Seaside,Bob, and Balladeer have.

3) Early on, for the most part, you don't get to play songs you like (unless you happen to be a 6 year old). This is more than offset by #1 though. This falls into the realm of advice that the PM regulars repeat like a mantra - "Don't go to fast, pay attention to the early lessons, even though it seems simple in the beginning don't skip anything".

4) What you really head towards is creating your own arrangements of songs. I think that's a very cool aspect to this "play by ear" stuff.

5) It looks like once you master the basics the teacher (Mike) is very willing to go in whatever direction you'd like to go - a great thing. The course is by NO MEANS just the written material. That personal interaction with Mike I think really sets this off from most other courses.

Overall I'm very pleased with the course, very pleased with the people on the PM private forums (a great group to correspond with), and even more pleased with the teacher (Mike Anderson).

Even though I just started, I intend on playing for quite a while. I can't imagine PM is the only source of learning I'll ever seek, but it sure is a good place to start for anyone not interested in classical playing.