Poseur to Composer

This morning I read an excerpt from the journals of Christopher Columbus, and how he felt guided by God to find the Americas[*].

From my first youth onward, I was a seaman and have so continued until this day. The Lord was well disposed to my desire and He bestowed upon me courage and understanding; knowledge of seafaring. He gave me in abundance, and of geometry and astronomy likewise. Further, He gave me joy and cunning in drawing maps and thereon cities, mountains, rivers, islands, and harbors, each one in its place. I have seen and truly I have studied all books and cosmographies, histories and chronologies for which our Lord with provident hand unlocked my mind, sent me upon the seas and gave me fire for the deed. Those who heard of my enterprise called it foolish, mocked me and laughed, but who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired me.

I feel similarly guided at times, especially in the past few days (you can read the entries here and here) although my voyage to musical literacy has just begun.

Also, I subscribed to Chordify but didn't get far with the app. It couldn't make sense of the three songs I gave it to translate into chords: September by David Sylvian, So What by Miles Davis and Across The Universe by BeatleJazz. I love the idea but the algorithm needs refining. I won't be renewing next month.

[*] Of course, historians have recently charged him with colonization and genocide of natives, so he may have fallen from grace since his great discovery.

I got so preoccupied with looking up chords for various songs this morning I was late for work. One thing I searched for (in vain) was classical piano notation with the chord names above the treble staff. I didn't know if that was a common practice or not, but I'd seen it in the wild a few times.

I want to be fluent in both languages, traditional musical notation and "chordlang" (i.e. Cm7sus4, F#6add9 etc).

Turns out that music notated with the chord name above the staff is a common practice: it's called lead sheets or fake books.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about (from the Wikipedia page).

I found this out from a book I found at a thrift shop – today! Talk about timing! The book is Learn to Play Piano in Six Weeks or Less by Dan Delany and Bill Chotkowski and teaches how to use lead sheets right from the start of the course. The book has a jazz-bend too (the songs to practice are kind of jazzy). It couldn't be more perfect.

Also discovered Chordify today. It makes every other music app look old.

A week ago I spoke with a local piano teacher about getting help with playing the opening chords for So What. He agreed to send me either a video or simple diagrams on how to play it on my keyboard, and I would pay him. For our mutual convenience, we wouldn't meet in person. He said he was excited with this work arrangement and would get back to me soon.

After a week of no communication whatsoever, I text messaged him this morning for an update. Several hours later, here's the reply I got:

I'm sorry I haven't gotten to it, and I'm also sorry to say that the online video thing would be quite the learning curve for me. I know I sounded positive about it, but I now realize what it will take from me and that is not how I teach piano. If you would like regular piano lessons we can set that up, but I am unable to put together customized tutorials.

This is obviously disappointing for me, and I'm beginning to question myself. Is my request reasonable or completely outlandish? But I also marvel at how unresponsive and inflexible some traditional piano teachers are despite the challenges their profession faces in this age of free, instant information.

However, with the help of a timely blessing I made a breakthrough tonight...

Simon Glenister's Udemy course Piano beginners: Unlock the power of chords in just an hour went on sale today, so I grabbed it. What a godsend! I learned more about piano chords in that single hour than the previous three weeks of watching YouTube videos and reading ebooks.

I still need to practice these chord formulas regularly to solidify it in my mind and build muscle memory, but I think I've passed to the other side of understanding and will be able to decipher the chords for So What – without help.