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At a wedding reception recently I wandered into the adjoining bar and there was a bloke playing a piano. He was playing a lot of songs that I dearly would love to play. I watched closely at his hand movement and discovered that he was playing a melody with his right hand and his left hand was just rolling a bass pattern all evening. Funny thing about it was that every song had the same style and technique although he did sound fantastic. Is this a good method because you don't see that sort of thing in sheet music.

What he was doing is refered to as "cocktail piano", or chord-piano, or lead-sheet piano, or play-by-ear, or .....

Lots of names for a number of styles that are basically exactly what you said.

It is, IMHO, just as hard to learn as playing from sheetmusic, but you are right in that it can sound very good.

Quite a few players on the forum play one version or another of this style.

The music runs from very simple (block chords and 1 note melody) to the very advanced (jazz, boogie-woogie, etc). It is a skill to envy. To create music from nothing or lead-sheets and still sound good is still amazing to me.

There are many courses and books available to teach someone how to get started.

Is it a good method? Oh, yea. Is it a short-cut to playing the piano? Uh, no. It all takes work, time, and practice.

gmm1, I still think the discipline of sheet music is hard to beat. The problem I see with 'piano bar' style playing is that you play the song different each time you perform it.

Yes, that's the challenge as I see it - the ability to bring out a little different nuance each time, to adapt the piece to the venue or the audience or the times as they are a changin' Of course one does this with music that is being played as it is written down, too, varying the emphasis or the rubato or the dynamics or the tempo. There are also piano bar players who don't only do arpeggios but play different styles/rhythms in the left hand, too. Playing background music for wedding breakfasts (hello Seaside!) is a different thing than playing for the reception if people want to dance, and requires a different feel. But, to me, all of it is piano playing!

Cathy

Ah, the joy of playing it different each time ON PURPOSE....

I was playing a piece to my teacher a while back, and she said "I really liked that you played the repeat with a different feel the second time", and we talked about that. She basically said, why repeat if you're not going to vary it? Made sense to me. It seems to me part of the beauty of playing sheet music is the opportunity to interpret it, make it your own... But maybe this is a point of contention? I can fall back on the fact that I'm a rank beginner!

Anyway, I will heartily recommend a book that helps teach lead sheet playing called "How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons". I have skimmed it, but it's still a bit advanced for me (I don't have years of lessons, I have about 3 months!).

Keith

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Originally posted by Ragtime Clown:
I still think the discipline of sheet music is hard to beat. The problem I see with 'piano bar' style playing is that you play the song different each time you perform it.

Actually, that's where the practice comes in - keeping it similar. One of the disadvanages to "Faking" is a lot more of your personality and feelings come through than site reading. That can both good and bad depending on your mood that day. Practice, at least, can keep it neutral.

Hi,

On the subject of playing a little differently each time....

I've been typing some of the beginner exercises and simple pieces that I'm learning into a notation program (Finale Notepad) and generating midi files that I can play back through the keyboard to help learn the timing. They really do play them precisely the same every time.

The intriguing thing is how often these 'perfectly accurate' midi files also sound perfectly dull and perfectly soulless until you make some small adjustments in the timing. Some of what's missing in the midis is doubtless variation in loud and soft, and probably other 'touch' issues, but it can be really quite noticeable how mechanical things can sound if the notes are always exactly the length that's written and the tempo is absolutely even all the way through.

Of course this makes it massively tempting to a beginner like me to get slack about timing and put it all down to 'artistic expression. :rolleyes:

Cheers,

Chris

Classical has it's place...played note for note, beat for beat, etc. The music of the masters must be honored.

But there has to be so much more to playing the piano. Watching any jazz musician, the best cabaret performers, to the cocktail pianist being ignored in a hotel bar; it's an artform unto itself.

The syncopated variations on a theme, endless Liberace-esk embellishments on melody lines, new explorations, new expeditions, often into traipsing into unknown territory...with the tinkle of ice in the background.

For some, what's on the sheet is just the beginning. Taking it to the limit, Fake books offer the melody line and the chords, leaving the interpretation of the piece up to the instrumentalist, the ultimate in creativity.

A great artform, the potential to create new, never before performed music, every time one plays.

It's a good thing

I don't see that as a problem, actually it's the point of the whole thing.

It's also an advantage that you can play it completely differently depending on your mood and present state of mind.

I LOVE classical music and strive to play them as close to the music as I can. However, there is something liberating in being able to read the bare skeleton (melody line and chords)and just letting your creativity and mind just play. It too is an awesome feeling.

I dearly love them both at different times.

That strikes me as a simplified view of things that's repeated a lot. For many people, the personal interpretation involves is far more than "note for note, beat for beat". Consider these two completely different performances of the exact same piece - no one is throwing eggs at either, and yet I'm sure anyone can tell that they are not identical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MswHKA4dako
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qha5pJAXKsg

Improvisation and variation were also practically invented in classical music - Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, etc, dazzled audiences with their brilliant improvisation skills.

But with that aside , personally I've always found improvising to be easier than playing some of the great compositions, just for their own reasons. Learning theory and structure, whether it be classical or jazz, through playing sheet music, naturally enables one to start improvising - improvising is simply producing pleasant music and this is done by your own knowledge of what will be good music and what won't. I don't think there's any barrier - I always see people say they wish they could improvise. Well, if you already play from sheet music and know a bit of theory, you can start already.