Re: Option B: Play from scores, study from texts
MM.! great to see you again, been a while.
This a really good, if not essential topic, me thinks. Like yourself, I've spent a lot of time lurking over more than half a dozen great piano books.
The Levine book is a great resource. The Alfred's group piano lessons, sounds like it would be very helpful in comparison to the reference nature of the Levine book. Well, it's only reference if you can't navigate it...
mad_monk wrote:
Many new players are anxious to get out there and perform as soon as possible. SE offers materials to get them started using chord diagrams.
I hope to meet some other "option B" players here someday. It is a legitimate approach, whether SE supports it or not, and it will eventually bring new musical blood to the Stick scene.
Just so you all know what else is out there....
*The SG12 with mirrored fourths is ideal for this purpose.
--Mad Monk.
The issue you've described here really is, dare I say it, central and a positive challenge surrounding the Stick. On one hand, Emmet has left it up to the individual tastes of the performer to find there own way, which is probably the one thing that makes Stick players so different. Like a Zen pallet. Inevitably though, individuals by some degree or another, are drawn to applying the established pedagogy of piano and other instruments to the Stick.
Thing is there really is so much knowledge hidden in Emmett's free Hands book, that it's easy to overlook it. It does require the student to make a conscious effort to remember what the chords, professions and melodies are, for it to become assimilated into performance and or, with other people.
One way Stickists can own the diatonic mantle AND make it their own is to make up a series of exercises based on established knowledge; from there I can begin to feel like I'm owning the "tools".
Great subject, much to discuss.
Bruv Luv