Profound musical epiphany this weekend - has this happened to anyone else?

[Tintini]

I've had a weird but wonderful weekend with my piano. It’s amazing but it’s actually freaking me out a bit…and making me question my years of classical training. Has this happened to anyone else?

Here's my background: At school (about 25 years ago) I did grade 8 flute, grade 4 piano, grade 5 theory and GCSE music. I had lots of piano sheet music with easy arrangements of popular songs. If I practiced them a lot sometimes they ended up sounding ok. Not played much since school.

On Friday I stumbled across a book about piano playing in terms of harmony and chords - ie 'pop' piano style. All about chord progressions and improvisation. So many things suddenly clicked into place – things I had half-known about the 'circle of fifths' and diatonic chords and all that - but I realize now I had never really understood how that actually related to making music.

So, urged on by this book, I went over to the piano and had a go at playing a tune, ignoring the written arrangement. I just played the melody in the right hand and then instead of playing the left hand I just played chords printed above (like a guitar song book)...and then improvised around those chords with the left hand.

And gosh, it sounded...amazing!

I'd always assumed improvisation was hard and it just never occurred to me to do it. Don't get me wrong, I am no-where near expert, but what I mean is that it sounded SO much better than stumbling through an arrangement and it was much easier. It sounds like someone playing a piece, naturally, rather than practising and getting sections wrong all the time.

So it’s been wonderful but I’m feeling very very foolish that I’ve never tried this before - it simply never occurred to me. It seems so obvious now. But also – how could I have been taught so much music and failed to grasp these fundamental concepts of harmony, chord progressions and keys?

Has this happened to anyone else, or am I the only dumb one?

"I’m having trouble sleeping and working because I’m so preoccupied with this; I’m hearing music in my head all the time – full, thick, harmonious music; I’m very emotional; I am devouring music theory books; I am reading books about the physics of music; I am playing piano for hours; I’m talking to my husband about this all the time; I’m singing constantly; "

OP - This is exactly what happened to me several years ago, and the Baroque music obsession is still ongoing I am still playing the piano & harpsichord 2-3 hours per day, every day. I'm still singing Baroque operas, Cantatas, Motets, etc at the top of my voice in the car, in the kitchen, and even our local Conservatoire's vocal group. (Weirdly, during this time my voice has moved from alto to mezzo-soprano and recently to soprano )

And I'm devouring books about music, especially my favourite composers Bach, Handel, and Rameau. I have read their biographies (like this, this). I have read books about Baroque music such as this.

I was especially interested by the book Musicophilia written by neurologist Oliver Sacks and I really think you will be it, too.

This is such an interesting thread. You asked about instrument choices for dcs...well with one of mine I took to an open day at a music school that provides lessons there or in the school place. Chose a completely different instrument to that expected. Had lessons didnt click with teacher who said when dc practised was good at it. Anyway 4 more instruments later with a different teacher(but all of the same genre) dc is mad for the latest one and is constantly playing! Its brilliant to see such enthusiasm. The other instruments dc could play well but this is the one. The teacher is really encouraging but think it was finding the right instrument that helped. We have done a lot of ebaying of instruments to get here by the way its not that we have plenty of money to throw around by any means!

Yes singing in harmony is very special una. I love doing it but it has taken me quite a while to be able to, so I think you are right waterlego that your DD will be able to at some point (likely soon!). I have definitely 'learnt' it, rather than being a natural.

I had a wonderful experience recently at a singing workshop where the leader taught us simple harmonies around a folk tune. Then once we got it she encouraged us to just walk around still singing, all mixing together so the different harmonies came and went as you passed people doing different parts. It meant you heard the individuals singing their parts, rather than just hearing 'all the high part' as a group, iyswim. I think it gave something like that lovely experience you get of singing in a small group when there are just single voices singing each part, but it meant that even people who weren't strong on keeping the harmony could get that feeling (v wide range of abilities at this workshop) - because there were still others singing your part and helping you to keep to it.

Love Mamas and Papas and the Carpenters, of course! I also love gospel music. Oh Happy Day!!

So happy to hear you've had a similar experience Cote, and how amazing that it's stayed so strong! Did it happen suddenly or gradually for you? I'd love to hear more. How did your family and friends react? The first friend I told wondered if I was high on a drug and the second suggested only half-jokingly that I should think about professional help if it carried on. But I'm already feeling much calmer and just enjoying it now.

I've ordered Musicophilia - sounds perfect.

I wonder what it is about the 4th instrument that works for your DC Blame - does he know? I was thinking about the tactile / physical side of things too - perhaps that's an important part for some people? I really enjoy how the piano uses all your fingers and you can really throw your arms around if you want to. In contrast on the flute your fingers move a lot but your hands can't change position. But then you have to take deep breaths and blow, which must have an effect on the overall experience. Also you can walk around! Difficult with a piano...

With my own children, I feel a little bit guilty that we perhaps should have followed a slightly different route for instruments with my eldest. Her brother it was easy - he fell in love with the organ at about the age of 4, so showing him the piano and encouraging that until he was ready for organ lessons was obvious. He's done violin as well which has worked well as an adjunct to having keyboard as his intuitive musical outlet.

The eldest was started on violin and then pointed at recorder as well because there was a good group at her school. She told me she wanted to sing in a choir (age just 5) so we ran with that, which was the right thing to do. But probably we should have run along with the recorder into other wind instruments earlier, as when we finally let her start clarinet she is much more instinctive with it than violin. The latter is now starting to get dropped when I'd have loved her to get just a tiny bit more facility with it first in order to be really confident to always be able to pick it up again. It's only a small niggle in the whole picture really, as it is clear that if she ever pursues music as a career rather than amateur/adjunct to another career, it will be via singing. And (at 16) we've got to be patient and let her voice continue to develop!

Plenty of scope for different instruments and types of music making to work best at different stages. As a teenager I played plenty of violin in youth orchestra and other ensembles, but preferred piano because it was less effort to practise and more satisfying on my own. As an adult, I've played much more violin precisely because it is a "social" instrument, and now I've ended up teaching it despite my higher education being all science based ... Playing more regularly now and feeling quite different about it to when I was younger, much more confident "in my skin" as a violinist.

This is really interesting. Your reflections on finding the 'intuitive musical outlet' (love that phrase!) and / or complimentary ways to make music make me see how very valuable growing up in a very supportive musical family is. If I had given up flute, then I don't think I would have easily switched to another instrument or another style of music. Not that my parents were mean and wouldn't have let me if I'd asked, but rather because I would have assumed that I had tried 'music' and it wasn't for me. And since my parents were not very into music they wouldn't have thought to suggest another instrument / approach. (We never even listened to music at home - only radio 4!) I imagine we all know people who did a few grades and then stopped...and think they just can't do music (but wish they could)?

"Did it happen suddenly or gradually for you?"

Gradually, when I started playing the piano again when stuck at home with a joint injury. But I always knew in the back of my head that there was potential for music obsession - when taking piano lessons as a child, my fingers would twitch all the time like crazy, because I was always playing (in my head) the same two songs that obsessed me. And I knew I loved Bach obsessively but never got beyond the 3 CDs I owned because I didn't want to get stuck into it.

Then I was stuck at home with a joint injury and there stood the piano I bought & got through every page of the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach by myself over about 6 months, then went to the local Conservatoire for Piano and got into Harpsichord instead because it really is the instrument for Bach's music rather than piano. Thanks to my teacher I discovered Handel & Rameau's keyboard pieces so now I can day my obsession is Baroque music rather than just J S Bach.

"I'd love to hear more. How did your family and friends react?"

Kids were amused to see mum on the piano, then when I started spending two evenings per week at the Conservatoire they go to but I think they are proud of me overall.

DH was first joking to friends about how great it is when a wife has a hobby that keeps her indoors & not spending money for most of the day, then shut up about that when I bought a Hoffmann and then a Seiler piano

Then of course I got into the Baroque Choir at the Conservatoire, and started listening to & singing that music all the time at home, too. DH finally said "When I married a lifelong atheist from a Muslim country, I didn't sign up to listening to church music at home every day!" but he lets me be. What can he do? I tell him it's not a bad midlife crisis. I don't have a red sports car or a young lover. It's just music

He did put his foot down when I said I was going to take up the organ as a second instrument & practice in the church across the street though. He's right - I really don't have time to spare and DC would like to see me once in a while, too.

"The first friend I told wondered if I was high on a drug and the second suggested only half-jokingly that I should think about professional help if it carried on."

After reading similar stories to mine in the book Musicophilia, I now think it's likely that I may have had a minor stroke several years ago that was otherwise asymptomatic.

This is absolutely fascinating Cote. Thank you! I feel like I really need to read Musicophilia now to try to make more sense of all this. I'd heard about stroke having profound / unusual effects on language, but not about music. What an amazing experience.

I've just ordered the book by Bill Hilton, can't wait for it to arrive!

Exciting! Please let me know how you get on!

The other book I'm finding really useful for this type of playing is "How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons" by Norman Monath - which I think is a bit of a classic in this style (first published 1984). He shows all the chords on the piano keyboard so you can see the shapes and patterns clearly. Although I can read music, for chords I find it much easier to see / remember the patterns that my fingers are making on the keyboard.

I don't have it so can't recommend it or not, but my favourite title of a book of this ilk is "How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons". Sums it up for me

Tintini thank you SOOOOO much! The book is a real eye opener, its filling in so many good for me, I love it! Epiphany for me too, I literally can't stop smiling! Just need to make sure I stay focussed in my grade 5 exam instead of spending all my practise time playing with these beautiful chords!

Fluke - so pleased that you've found it useful too! For me, 2-weeks post-epiphany, I've been rather surprised to find myself going back to playing a fair bit of classical music. Now I can identify what the chords are it makes it much easier for me to play this music. Rather than just being a random collection of notes that I'm reading I can see it's a certain chord in a certain inversion or whatever. Also I'm really enjoying scales and broken chords now. At last I see the point of them. But more than that - now I understand more about the underlying relationships I'm finding them intrinsically satisfying. So hopefully all this will enhance rather than detract from your exam practice...?!

Also Cote - I'm half-way through Musicophilia and love it. Thank you so much for the recommendation. Great book.

Thank you so much for starting this thread - it is really eye opening. I played the piano as a child, restarted about ten years ago and worked my way up the grades to Grade 7. I CANNOT PLAY ANYTHING. To be fair, I could play the three Grade 7 pieces I learned for the exam for the duration of the exam but that was about it. I learnt by rote. I never felt the piano was my instrument and gave up a couple of years ago. I would really like to start again and your post has given me hope that I may be a pianist yet!

Kewqueue I'm new to all this (obviously!) but I think that if you've got to grade 7 then you'll have a lot of muscle memory so it should be a fairly easy transition if you want to play in this style. You've been playing all these chords for years!

That's why it was so astonishing for me - my hands feel like they already 'know' where to go to a certain extent, even though all I'd done before was read music.

Learning what the chords are actually called and how to theoretically make them is a relatively small step. I think the bigger step requiring lots of practice is getting the muscle memory - but you've already done lots of that. You did the hard work up-front...now time for fun!

Anyone else on p62 of "How to really play the piano" and driving their family crazy with thousands of repetitions of 12 bar blues?!

I'm sure they're enjoying it really fluke!
I've not done that much with the blues section yet. There seem to be so many things to explore now I 'get' it and I've been side-tracked from the (wonderful!) book by working out how to play songs by ear.

Yet again I'm astonished at how easy this is for simple songs, eg traditional folk songs. Now I know the 'rules' - ie that if it's a 2 chord song then it will be the tonic and the dominant chords, and if it's a 3 chord song it will be the tonic, dominant and subdominant, it's very easy to work out the chord progression completely by ear. Except of course it's not totally by ear - there are stupidly easy rules to follow: the first and last chords are always the tonic, the penultimate is always the dominant. Not that much left to guess at after that for these simple melodies! I love it.

I've switched to ukelele for a lot of this - that way I can stalk around the house "wandering minstrel-style" demanding that family members think of a song for me to play. (I think this is definitely as annoying as playing 12 bar blues 1000s of times!)

BUT - why did no-one teach me this? Do people teach this? Is this how ukelele is taught in schools? Surely you could easily teach anyone this, as long as they can sing a simple melody in tune (which must be most of the population)?