PlayPianoFluently
Feel it. Play it. Tell it.
Experience fluency in the language of music, from within
I help adults find a deep connection with music through focused attention on a simple, clear structure so that playing becomes a deeply enjoyable act of natural communication
PlayPianoFluently develops the most useful musical skills
Fluency is the ability to think or converse effortlessly in the language of music. A fluent musician can process the elements of music in real time, generating skills like playing by ear, improvisation and true sight reading – the ability to imagine unfamiliar music by looking at its notation.
Conventional piano teaching treats music as a performance skill. Concepts of technique and music theory are used to inform the process of "reciting" music. It tends to become all about learning set pieces, exercises, scales, doing grades. But for so many people, this experience does not feel natural.
Fluent musicianship offers an antidote for many people who learned using the conventional method as children and felt "put off", as it never felt really musical, because there was a gap between what they played and what they wanted to express, even in the simplest pieces.
With fluent skills, you no longer feel as if you are merely following instructions or deciphering code; instead, you fully understand, express, intend and mean every sound you make. This means that the music you play sounds great straight away, without the need for theoretical working out, technical thinking or reliance on muscle memory after repeated drilling.
PlayPianoFluently treats music as a language. You begin with simple rhythmic and tonal structures that you can fully understand and use them to tell musical stories. These simple musical gestures can make sense and sound great when connected to a deep meaningful place within. You sense
- how each gesture or shape functions as a recognisable rhythmic object flowing within the groove structure
- how they form complete musical shapes as they move through recognisable tonal blocks within the structure of the keyboard map
- how these shapes feel innately meaningful and expressive
A simple structure
Although the work begins simply, it follows a clear path, and uses a simple, solid model for you to focus on moment by moment. This model is an anchor, something reliable that we remain tethered to, then allowing us to be free. Grounded in the model, we can experience musical meanings deeply in the body and soul.
It brings together three elements:
- a clear sense of how rhythmic patterns form within the structure of pulse moment by moment
- a clear way of understanding how the keyboard layout reveals tonal relationships—harmonic and melody
- and the musical shapes, like words, that emerge when these two meet
It can be pictured like this:
You don’t need to understand this model in detail at first. You just need to use it, try it out—it really is common sense, as it is just the underlying mathematics or architecture of music. With use, you effortlessly build real skills. In practice, playing simple patterns and improvisations with a clear sense of the rhythm cells within the underlying structure of the pulse, and tonal blocks within the keyboard map that reveals all their relationships, you build your rhythmic tonal awareness step by step.
Rhythm cells (recognisable rhythmic sounds) flow together within the nested structure of the groove. Tonal blocks (recognisable tonal sounds) all work together within the keyboard map. Rhythm and tonality combine, as each rhythm cell weaves through a tonal block to make musical shapes (like musical words).
By working in a patient, disciplined yet playful, experimental way, these elements can all come together naturally.
How it begins to feel
As this way of working develops, several important things start to happen:
- The keyboard feels more organised and easier to navigate
- You recognise whole musical shapes instead of isolated notes
- Instead of memorisation, you experience how rhythm and tone unfold together to make sense
- Improvising becomes natural and less intimidating, as do playing by ear, reading and writing music
- Playing feels expressively connected and more natural and effortless
- Most importantly, you understand what you are playing as you play it moment by moment
A simple approach yet also challenging
To become fluent using this simple model requires clear, sustained moment-by-moment focus on the model whilst simultaneously letting go of long-established, habitual ways of trying to make music, which treat music as something outside ourselves that we must get right. Seeking preconceived musical results only blocks our connection with its inner meaning or feeling. Expressing meaning is the foundation of fluency.
This means that there is a critical challenge to take on: we must place meaning or feeling above status. In other words, it is only by letting go of a deeply conditioned need to make progress or achieve impressive results that we can start to discover real fluency. Meaning does not depend on complex skill. The sounds we make must always be meaningful from the outset. Meaningful sounds are ones that we "say" from within. They have natural sense and feeling.
Once we let go of producing musical results, the training follows a practical, step-by-step approach. This is based on:
- simple musical patterns, studies and lots of playful improvisation
- clear moment-by-moment focus on rhythmic and tonal structure
- embodied sense awareness—we use our sense of space, rhythm and tonality more than audiation or visualisation
- gradual building of skills and confidence through direct experience
There is no pressure to “perform” anything. We replace reciting music with "speaking" it—finding an unforced, conversational, playful attitude like learning a new verbal language. Discovering real fluency in the language of music comes from allowing the simplest things to be full of rich, complex feeling, and to play using the basic principles and elements with an almost childlike innocence and delight. Without trying to manage the outcomes, we can allow deep expression to be the foundation or the core from which the skills emerge – not the other way round.
The aim is to make music meaningful rather than critically "good". If you let go of trying to design something impressive and just say something real, that you understand clearly and actually mean, fluency arrives.
One important shift can change everything
Very often, the difference is not doing more but doing less, only more directly, with more intention and focus. By keeping the material simple, with clear, moment-by-moment focus, we free up and stop being overly careful, controlling the outcome. Leading with the awareness of groove, noticing each musical shape clearly as you "say" it, rather than trying to manipulate the end result, is the key challenge in each moment.
The focus is on "saying" what you mean now, as we say each word when speaking, rather than designing or performing longer, planned stretches of music. This can cause people to feel exposed. Yet this uncomfortable feeling is often the sign that something deep is beginning to happen, that you are opening up to the challenge of expressing inward feelings spontaneously using the language of music. The difficulty people often encounter is usually because of this experience of psychological "danger" rather than cognitive challenge, but it is nonetheless very real. Accepting it... challenging it gently... this is a very interesting and exciting part of the journey if you are willing to take a look.
Challenging the old authority of music as an executed performance feels mischievous and playful. This state is important for finding focus and freedom—for entering a state of flow. Approaching practice as pure play, or as a game, is how we find this state.
For many people, it can be hard to give up performing familiar music in favour of simple self-expression. In our culture music is generally perceived as something that exists outside us, rather than as a language. Learning music in a way that asks students to let go of impressive results in favour of expressive honesty can require a real paradigm shift. But if this way of working – using a simple model to explore musical language – resonates with you, then you can take it further in these ways:
- Buy materials if you want to work on your own
- Or get in touch if you want to work with me 121, or if you have questions not answered here or in the free videos