Happy Sunday, lovely members! 🎉 Tell me how this week went? Not the polished version but the journey.. What did you play, what felt good, what is still not working. P.S. Some of my favourite conversations in this community started with someone saying they were stuck and suggested what might work better. There is usually another way in, and it is usually smaller than you think. 🙃

Two takes of the same bars. Same notes, same hands, different fingering. On the first 2 chords, watch the fingers rather than the keys. 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿. Which one would you choose, and why? No wrong answers here. Fingering is genuinely personal. Hand size, finger strength, how far your 5th finger reaches, whether you have been playing for 6 weeks or 6 years. All of it changes what feels natural. Two people can play the same phrase beautifully with completely different fingering. Have a look and tell me what you notice in the comments. 👇🏼 I will come back in a couple of days with what I would have done and why. 👀

Do chords sound and feel like a foreign language? A chord chart on a PDF can show you where the dots go, but it can't play the sound for you, and it can't wait while you find the keys with your own fingers. So... I built a chord kit for the song "Let There Be Peace On Earth". Every chord in the song, all sixteen of them, taught in the order the song needs them, on a piano you can actually tap and hear. It's in The Studio classroom now: https://www.skool.com/musicate-academy/classroom/37e2ac2b?md=22c1e568b2c04214926e04e1842f7fe0 Quick tour. Four tabs. The Chords is where you start. Seven friendly chords, all white keys, no black keys at all. Tap one, the keyboard lights up with the exact keys and fingers. "Song Moves" is the heart of it. The real phrases of the song, in order. Press play and watch the chords travel. Start with the slider on "Gentle" if you want the chords to play slowly. And move to slider closer to "Flow" when you want the tempo to go faster. (I personally shift it according to how I would sing it. So it's sitting 3/4 closer to "Flow") Level Up holds the colour chords, the fancy ones like C+ and Fm6. And the Quiz names a chord and asks you to build it from memory. (Sorry can't help it but it's good for you~ 🤭) Now... When you first play the chords in order, it will work. However, your hand jumps around because the kit teaches every chord in its home position, on purpose. You need to know who a chord is before you dress it up. The instant fix is your left hand. While your right hand plays the chords, your left hand plays just one low note per bar, the letter name of the chord. C chord, low C. Am, low A. That's it. First bar, you'll hear it become music. P.S. The kit works with sound anywhere, no piano needed. Bus, lunch break, waiting room. The screen is for anywhere. The piano is for home. Both count as practice. Let peace begin with C. 🙌

One of my students closed his eyes while he was playing, and told me he had more fun in that one run through than in weeks of trying to get everything correct. He did not suddenly get good. He just stopped watching himself. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁 Four steps you can run on any song, from your first week at the piano. 1. Take a piece of it, not the whole song 2. Feel the beats you do not play, and keep the pulse outside your hands 3. Close your eyes on something you already know 4. Ask whether it felt alive, not whether it was clean I also play a bit of Peace Piece by Bill Evans in there. Not as a piece for you to learn yet, but because of what it does while you listen to it. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘆 Step 3 is the one people find hardest, and not because it is difficult. It is because playing with your eyes closed means you cannot mark yourself as you go. That feels unstable for about a week. Then it feels like playing. If you try it this week, come back and tell me what happened. Even if it fell apart. Especially if it fell apart. 😊 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 The falling keys video for Peace Piece is in the Practice Room now if you want to see exactly what that left hand is doing. 🎹 https://www.skool.com/musicate-academy/classroom/f8e8689a?md=2b3da09da5b0408890d5370fab35e570

A few of you have asked some version of "which video do I start with?" so let me make it clear. Going forward, every song in this community comes in three stages. Same song. Three rungs. 🪜 𝗥𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝟭 — 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵. You play the melody. I play the accompaniment. The video's objective is to help you stay on course with the timing and you will be able to hear where you are the whole way through. 🪜 𝗥𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝟮 — 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻. Same song, my melody taken out. This is where you hear yourself. 🪜 𝗥𝗨𝗡𝗚 𝟯 — 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀. The full version. This is where the song is going. Start at whichever rung feels right. Most people start at the first one. Nobody is behind. Aura Lee has all three in the Practice Room now, including the both hands version that went up on YouTube this morning. 👀 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗲𝘆𝘀. You don't have to track the blocks falling if that gives you a headache. Just watch the keys light up. Same video, two ways to use it. 🎼 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰, my score has both hands written out. Skip straight to it if you like. You don't need the falling keys at all. 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨. 💪🏻 The second one is what The Studio is for. ✨ I've updated the Start Here post with all of this, so it's always there when you need it.