Do You Have to Be Able to Read Music to Play the Piano?

I'll go so far as to say that this is something that's sadly neglected in the conservatory training of so many concert pianists who can't improvise the simplest tunes by ear because they're never expected to.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, Robert Estrin here with a really important subject which is, do you have to be able to read music to play the piano? Now, many of you know that I have a deep background in classical music. Being a second generation concert pianist, my father, Morton Estrin, taught me and my sister from a very young age, beautifully trained classical education, how to read music, theory background, all the rest of it. So you would think my answer would be, no, you must read music to play the piano. But I'm gonna surprise many of you by telling you that no, you do not have to read music in order to play the piano. In fact, many styles of music from country, folk, jazz, rock, blues, new age, there are many styles of music that people are very accomplished, people who can't read music. Or maybe they just read a lead sheet, which I'll talk about in a moment. So what is this all about? For example, playing the blues or any type of music like that, to be able to do this, you'll never be able to play the blues convincingly reading note for note.

First of all, the rhythms are really hard to read with syncopated music and jazz, rock, blues, country, and other styles like that. Secondly, the way that music is created in the first place is an improvised form. It's coming up with your own arrangements, playing by ear. So yes, now what about classical music? Those of you who want to play classical music, now I would never have wanted to believe this, but I've encountered quite a number of people who have gone on the internet and watched those notes coming down on the keys like a video game. And I've heard people who've been able to become quite accomplished at playing sophisticated repertoire, learning it note for note, following somebody else on the keyboard. And you wonder, does that really work? Well, to an extent, to get through a piece, sure. Naturally, that technology doesn't offer all the nuance of the notation, how long notes last, the phrasing, how they're connected and detached, and a myriad of other things. But talented musicians who don't want to learn how to read, sometimes who have good ears, can watch the video, figure out where the hands go, and do a reasonable job at recreating those pieces of music.

Now, for anybody who wants to play at a really high level, for classical music, really the notation is really a must. Take it on a really high level. But for those of you just wanting to play music and not be able to be encumbered by the complexity of reading scores, particularly those of you who are interested in other styles of music, you can embrace it. I'll go so far as to say that this is something that's sadly neglected in the conservatory training of so many concert pianists who can't improvise the simplest tunes by ear because they're never expected to. And as soon as they graduate, they discover that most of the work, the gigs out there, are not playing Beethoven sonatas and Chopin etudes. It's really hard to find venues that are gonna pay you to play that kind of music. So even if you are a classically trained musician, you owe it to yourself to explore, improvise types of music. You're gonna be hearing more about that here at livingpianos.com, and I'm interested in your comments, how many of you are interested in improvising? How many of you are interested in being able to play music without necessarily reading it, or maybe just reading a lead sheet, which is what most musicians utilize, and most gigs expect you to be able to read, which is just the melody line and the chord symbols, and you come up with the arrangement. That's the way so much music is created in this world. We'll talk more about that. Express your interest so I know how much of these videos you wanna see here on livingpianos.com, your online piano resource. Thanks again, this is Robert Estrin. We'll see you next time.

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