Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker


I have played in bands, mostly in church praise bands where the piano players could play anything you put in front of them in the form of sheet music. Didn't matter that they hadn't heard it before or how many sharps or flats where in the key signature. But ask them to jam in the key of G with a one four five progression, and they looked at you like you were speaking Mandarin Chinese.


That describes me exactly. I have been playing the piano for 67 years and cannot play a note without the music and cannot even memorize a piece that I have been playing for decades. It's all about whether you have an "ear" or not. Telling begineers that they will all be able to play without the music by huge practice will lead to massive dissapointment for those that don't have the ear. It's the same with art - telling someone they can learn to draw well if they display no natural talent just doesn't work. To illustrate the point I remember a lesson at high school when the music teacher was teaching about intervals by playing them on the piano and asking us to describe the interval. I was the only person in the class who played an instrument but was one of the worst at recognising the interval.

My affliction explains why I took to BIAB 20 years ago. It is the perfect music program for me and keeps me going musically even at age 77. I now have about 800 BIAB songs with the sheet music filed in binders. At one time I had trouble finding the music to arrange in BIAB but with internet availability I can find just about anything and love experiencing genres that piano players my age would never touch. I even have the original music from my first few years like Bill Haley and the Comets and keep working at finding good BIAB styles for Queen.

Tony