Sheet music is a wonderful tool in helping us learn our favorite songs. But it is important to use it to learn the song so that the you do not rely on it to play. When you “learn” a song, you should be able to play it wherever you are even when

you don’t have the sheet music at hand. When beginning a song, look at the sheet music and start with the first few bars. This is the hard part-most of us are glued to looking at the sheets at least 80% of the time and not looking at our hands. The misconception is that good piano players can play without looking at their hands. But this does not apply when practicing. For example, I’ll take a short section…perhaps 4 bars, and start practicing both hands together at a very slow pace. I will look at the sheet music and only picture where my fingers need to be on the keys, rather than trying to memorize exactly where I am in the sheets and what it looks like. I know that this may sound confusing, but I like to call sheet music the “middle man.” My youtube videos have become amazingly popular worldwide, but why? It’s a simple fact-people learn exactly what keys to play by watching…the keys on the piano! To learn a song, sheet music tells us what keys to play, but we need to then watch our hands and fingers play the keys. This leads us to easily memorize playing the correct keys by both watching and feeling it in muscle memory. When we need the sheets to play a song, we have already learned what keys to press, but we rely on the notation to constantly remind us. After quickly looking at a section apart of the sheet music, then we would have to quickly look down and make sure we are playing in the right place. This causes twice the amount of memory and frustration needed to learn every song.

The correct method is after learning a section by constantly watching your hands play it, you will not need to go back. Then you can begin the next section to see what keys to play and practice. Every now and then try and play the 1st part which you have learned and add it with what you are currently learning. The current section (is what you are looking at on the sheets). Of course, when learning you may need to look back at the first part of the sheets to make sure you are playing correctly. Just remember that the main goal is that once you have learned by the sheets, you should be able to play it anywhere without needing them. It will take practice, but it is possible. You will be amazed at how much the brain can remember. After many songs are learned, you will be able to instantly play one that you have previously learned. It is quite rewarding, and a lot of fun!