AI Teacher's Piano Lessons: Wonderland of the Invisible World (20)
For the first time in 30 years, I decided to try playing the piano, which I hadn't touched in a long time.
I used to be able to play simple songs, but after a serious illness caused my vision to gradually fade until I could no longer see sheet music, I stopped playing.
Now, I cannot see sheet music or the piano keys at all.
I had always convinced myself, "I can't read sheet music and I can't see the keys, so I can't play the piano anymore."
I believed that for a long time.
Even so, I wanted to break the curse of "I can't" that I had placed on myself for so many years, and not just listen to music, but try to produce sounds on the piano.
So, I thought about how I could play the piano myself in my current situation.
For a visually impaired person to play a song on the piano, one would usually think of picking up the notes by ear or reading Braille sheet music.
There are many people who play the piano while living with visual impairments.
I take my hat off to the efforts of those who listen intently to the sounds, master Braille sheet music, and practice tirelessly to give wonderful performances.
But what I am aiming for is something with a much lower hurdle.
My goal is to "enjoy music myself without trying too hard."
I thought of three specific conditions.
1. Think of a way to play the piano without sheet music and without trying too hard.
2. If I can listen to the sounds I make and think, "That's fun," then that's good enough.
3. Enjoy the act of playing the piano itself, and do not make performing for others a goal.
I think this is like the omelet I make for myself in the microwave every morning.
I just put an egg in a slightly deep dish, whisk it, throw in a pat of butter, cover it with plastic wrap, and zap it in the microwave.
It's not for anyone else to eat; it's just an omelet for myself that smells like butter and that I think tastes good.
I thought that if I could enjoy the piano like this omelet, that would be enough.
Here, I remembered that I used to look at jazz standard songbooks and play the melody with my right hand while holding chords with my left. It was nowhere near a level I could play for others, but I quite enjoyed playing it.
I thought, "If it's like that, maybe I can do it now, too."
I feel like I can still play chords, so if I know the chord progression, I can manage.
At that moment, it suddenly occurred to me,
"Why don't I just ask AI about the chord progression of a song?"
So, I asked an AI app the following:
"You are a professional jazz pianist and a jazz piano instructor.
I am a beginner at jazz piano.
Please tell me the chord progression for the jazz standard song '●●'."
The answer came back in a few seconds.
"Yes, of course! As a jazz pianist and instructor, I will provide you with the chord progression for '●●' and some effective practice advice for a jazz piano beginner. Let's work together so you can play this beautiful song in a jazzy way!"
After that, it gave me the song structure, the chord progression based on the common key, and advice on how to play it effectively.
As for the chord progression of the song, this seems to be no problem.
Feeling encouraged, I asked the AI one more thing I had wanted to know about jazz piano for a long time.
"Just playing the chords as they are doesn't give it a jazzy sound. It seems I need to know something called 'voicing,' so please explain voicing in detail so that even a beginner can understand it."
The answer came back in a few seconds again.
"The reason it doesn't sound jazzy when you just play the chords as they are is because you don't understand voicing, which is one of the most important elements in jazz piano. Voicing is how you arrange chords on the keyboard and what notes you combine, in other words, the way the notes of a chord are ordered."
Hearing this, I felt the scales that had been stuck to my eyes for years falling off one after another (laughs).
Actually, nearly 50 years ago, when I was a high school student, I was interested in jazz piano and practiced chords. But for some reason, no matter how much I played the chords as they were, they never sounded like the jazz I heard on records, and that had always been a mystery to me.
At that time (the 1970s), there were almost no jazz or popular piano schools, the internet where you could get the information you want today did not exist in the world, and my friends who played music were all into folk or rock. Even if there were jazz textbooks, they only contained copied scores of famous pianists' performances, and even if they had some theory written in them, it was impossible for a beginner to understand.
"Why can't I get that mellow sound even though I'm playing the same keyboard?" was something I always wondered.
"I learned the word 'voicing' about 30 years later.
By that time, I wasn't playing the piano anymore.
I saved the AI's answer to my laptop, hugged the computer, and headed to the room with the electronic piano.
My guide dog, Seal, followed me, wagging his tail, as if to ask, "Dad, what are you doing?"
I placed the laptop next to the piano's music stand, opened the piano lid, and while having the computer read out the chords one by one, I tried playing them on the piano.
"Oh! It sounds jazzy!"
For the first time, a chord with a jazzy sound rang out from the piano I was playing myself.
I wanted to let the me from back then hear this sound. It was a long road to get here (laughs).
I tried a few songs, and for now, I am practicing the Irish folk song 'Danny Boy.' It is not a jazz song, but it is a very beautiful piece that is often performed.
For a while after that, following AI Teacher's advice, I practiced by first playing the chords with my left hand while humming the melody.
Just hearing the notes that I couldn't produce myself for so long is quite fun (laughs).
Even so, just keeping a 16-bar chord progression in my head, rearranging the order of notes with voicing, and memorizing everything while fumbling on the keyboard is quite a brain workout for my senior brain.
I thought of another thing here.
'If remembering chords is hard, maybe the blues, which can be played with just three chords, would be good.'
If it's a simple one, the blues can be played just by repeating three chords.
Currently, I am having AI Teacher give me advice on simple blues chord progressions, the blue note scale, and how to play, and I am playing blues chords while Seal keeps me company. This is also quite fun (laughs).
Will Seal ever sing along to the blues like Seamus the dog, who sings along to the blues in the background of the song 'Seamus' from the legendary British rock band Pink Floyd's masterpiece album 'Meddle' (laughs)?
#VisuallyImpaired
#IncurableDisease
#RetinitisPigmentosa
#TotallyBlind
#TheCurseOfCannot
#PickingUpSoundsByEar
#BrailleSheetMusic
#VisuallyImpairedPianoPlayer
#DontTryTooHard
#StandardSongbook
#AIApp
#ChordProgression
#Voicing
#DannyBoy
#IrishFolkSong
#Blues
#PinkFloyd
#SeamusBlues