Piano Woes

Last week was not a good week for advancing my cause in piano playing. I know this is a building process, one brick at a time a city the size of Rome, but I would like to get some good momentum before coasting.

Two days with nothing, then one night with about 20 to 30 minutes stumbling about, three days off, then another night of 30 minutes or so of bumbling. No sense of progress.

As far as getting instruction, I found a book at our library that focuses on exactly what I am interested in. Maybe. How To Play From A Fake Book by Blake Neely (keyboard edition). So far it is the Dr. Suess of chords. Tunes include Yankee Doodle, Bear Over The Mountain, Yellow Rose Of Texas, Battle Hymn Of The Republic, etc.  But these are no gimme's. Come Back To Sorrento was no picnic. The focus is chords. Covered are majors, minors, inversions, 7ths, alterations such as diminished and augmented chords, 6ths, maj 7ths. The left hand is not given too much to do. Block chords mostly, an alternating bass sometimes, a walking bass line between chords. I will work all the way thru it, or as much as possible before I have to turn it back into the library. Altho it doesn't look like it gets checked out much, and I can probably get it any time needed.

I have found some videos by a fellow named Bill Hilton that appear to be good. I will watch a few before describing them.

But for now, the only way to learn to read music is to read a lot of it, often, on a consistent basis, and use various stuff. Keep moving and don't fall backwards.