I’ve always been drawn to the piano.  After much insistence on my part, maybe when I was 7, my mother drove me to piano lessons for about four years.  I showed aptitude but neither my parents nor teacher took interest in my development.  There were no goals, no one to play for or with, just basic theory and assigned pieces that I enjoyed but were neglected once learned.  Requests to learn contemporary music were largely denied.  I didn’t practice much and was encouraged to drop my lessons, which I did.  Years later, hearing peers play as I had aspired, my suspicion that there were other ways to learn was confirmed.  Over the years I kept a piano when I could and taught myself songs.  I tried figuring out 7^th chords but got them wrong.  This was before the internet and easy access of information.  Occasionally I’d try a new teacher, but no one clicked.

Finally, when I could no longer ignore what felt like unfinished business with the piano, circumstances connected me with Mike Garson (David Bowie’s piano player and much more) who taught me for several years and got me up and running.  I later came across Open Studio Jazz and have been a member since.  Lots of interesting piano and other music takes place at their site. 

Professional musicians are multi-skilled, and their playing seems joyous and effortless.   A dedicated hobbyist or amateur also finds joy playing music, and without needing to know nearly as much.  Playing piano as I do now, achieving what I never thought I could, has been transcendent.  Daily piano adds to my well-being.  I usually start with a significant warm-up, but sometimes I go straight to whatever I feel like playing!

My hope is to pass on useful information regardless of your playing level.  Mostly, I’d like to help those who, like me, were given basic tools but not exposed to truly making music, to also get up and running.  I see myself as a student, far from an authority, but there are things I’ve learned that may work for you or serve as a tipping point for your piano adventures.  There’s much I haven’t addressed and don’t know.  At the end are links to helpful resources.

Where to Start   

State of Mind

When I think about piano I am easily overwhelmed.  So much music, so much to learn, so much patience required, and no instruction book geared just for me.  Even if there were such a book, it could only teach technique and offer suggestions.  No teacher can take you all the way either.  Music comes from within, so part of its learning has to be self-motivated.  Yet, even with the desire, within can be a difficult place to tap. 

I don’t aspire to play professionally, but I still have an internal critic.  And the critic I’ll perceive in a teacher, friend, those who aren’t friends.  It also doesn’t help that piano playing is harder than it looks when it already looks hard.  And when I do achieve, I rarely pause to appreciate how far I’ve come. 

To combat negative chatter, I focus on what’s in front of me – the sheet music or the keyboard.  The keys have a lot to say if you listen.  Let the music replace the chatter.

Identify a doable task that you want to complete.  Set aside time to work on it.  Remove yourself from all distractions, actual and imagined.  If negativity takes over, catch yourself and tend to the task at hand.  If forces completely dominate my thoughts, I’ll practice another time.  But when I let go of internal chatter, I enter a different world. 

With intention and focus, the seemingly impossible is achieved. 

It was May 2013 when I began lessons with Mike Garson.  The month before, with the encouragement of my then piano teacher, I offered to play piano and lead everyone in song at the office holiday party later that year.  During my first lesson with Mike I realized that had I stayed with my prior teacher I would have completely embarrassed myself at that party. I also realized I had a lot of work ahead since pride would not let me rescind my offer to play.  Two plus hours after a full workday and even more on weekends for the next seven months were dedicated to learning one Chanukah and four Christmas songs.  Mike arranged the songs as he might play them, sometimes changing his mind from lesson to lesson resulting in my having to learn a song from scratch several times before he was pleased with it. 

Preparing for that evening was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but pride was at stake. I was going to push through whatever Mike threw at me.  There was no time for doubt or frustration. 

All the hours and refining paid off big time.  My playing seemed effortless and was a huge success!  Everyone had a great time singing.  What was just under 20 minutes of music felt like a much longer concert.  It was a huge accomplishment and years later I continue to ride that high.     

Surrendering to the Process

Patience is essential to learning piano, and easy to lose.  We all have our stumbling blocks.  If something is hard for you to get, it’s hard for you to get.  If you need to walk away for a bit, so be it.  I’ll walk away for longer than a bit.  And, on my return, whatever I was struggling with is usually more manageable. 

The more focused effort I put in, the better I play.  Despite knowing there are no shortcuts, I once attended a course claiming to teach how to play piano in one day.  Funny how no one mentioned that what takes minutes to impart can take years to execute.  But then, I still don’t do enough repetition to get notes under my fingers and into muscle memory as securely as I’d like.  Hopefully writing these words will help change that.

With every new piece I’d panic and tell myself there was no way I’d ever learn it.  And then I’d somehow learn it and feel great.  Finally, now when I encounter something difficult, I simply wonder how long it will take to master.  If it takes months, so be it.  The rewards of achievement are sweet and there are many along the way. 

In the mid-1990s, a winner of the Los Angeles Marathon was called a hero shortly after crossing the finish line.  He didn’t see it that way.  The race only took him two and a half hours.  To him, the real heroes were those on the course who still had hours of running before the finish.  (It took me just under six hours!) 

Incidentally, playing all the ‘right’ notes isn’t necessary or enough to play a piece well.  Music affects us subjectively and there are more important elements than a written or expected note that determine whether what we’re hearing resonates.  A technically flawless performance can leave an audience wanting if the musician’s heart isn’t in it And, audience members will have listening experiences having nothing to do with your playing.  The more relaxed and confident you are the better you will play, mistakes notwithstanding.

Too often when I’m playing I’ll realize that I’m not relaxed, or that I’ve been holding my breath.  When we’re new to a task we tense muscles we don’t need.  Repetition leads to relaxation and the body’s gravitation to the most efficient way of executing that task.  Music isn’t a sport, but athletes and musicians have a lot in common.

Confidence

Confidence is a great feeling built on many hours of repetition and successes that none can take away.  It is a superpower that can even overcome nerves. 

Goals

When I’m working on a specific piano project, I’m rarely aware of time.  It flies by.  Whether it’s learning to play someone’s favorite song or writing one of my own, it’s incredibly satisfying to create and share.  The piano can be an outlet for whatever inspires you.  Some of my longer-term goals include writing the musical I’ve been thinking about and improvising piano solos while playing with others.

Having at least two show-off pieces is a good idea.  Especially if they’re memorized.

Warm-Up/Technique

The piano is a pain free instrument.  (I couldn’t endure the fingertip callus development process needed to learn guitar.)  Good posture and hand position can help keep it that way.  When I heard Fred Hersch talk at Open Studio about posture and feet and hand placement, I adjusted mine.  It’s made a big difference.  A reminder of some basics includes making sure you’re not sitting too near to or far from the keyboard, sitting at optimum height, keeping your wrists and fingers straight, curling your fingers for better accuracy, not slouching, and remembering to relax and breathe.  When your hands move higher or lower on the keyboard, lean your body with your hands so you don’t find yourself stretching your arms to reach notes.

Use the metronome at least 95% of the time.  Count with the beat aloud or in your head before you start playing.  Don’t wait for the metronome when you play.  Count for yourself.  You and the metronome should be in sync.  If counting numbers slows you down, use sounds in place of numbers that are easier to say quickly. 

During my warm-up, I focus on finger technique but also use the space to extract non-piano thoughts and relax.  Once upon a time I watched tv while playing scales.  I felt obliged to play scales but didn’t want to.  Those days are long gone.

I always use a metronome and never the pedal (even with arpeggios) to better hear note and time accuracy. Scales are good for finger mechanics and to keep key signatures in mind. Try playing with your eyes closed, visualizing the keyboard.  I draw on arpeggios for intros and outros to pieces.  I drill licks and other exercises for when I’m playing the blues or improvising so they’ll flow from my fingers naturally.  Knowing why I’m doing something encourages me to do it well. 

It takes a while to get scales and arpeggios under your fingers, with every note played in time and at the same volume.  Switch up the order in which you play scales and arpeggios to make sure you’re not playing by rote.  Move through the keys by fourths (F – Bb – Eb etc.) if you’ve been moving through by fifths (C – G – D etc.) and vice versa.  Move through the keys chromatically.  When you’re playing well in all keys and are getting bored, change the pattern.

In the eight-octave spread, play the first two octaves up the scale in unison, then have your right hand continue going up the keyboard for two more octaves while your left hand goes back down for two octaves, then bring your right hand back down two octaves while your left hand comes back up.  The last two octaves are played back down the keyboard in unison.

Focus on timing by playing hands in unison one octave up and down in quarter notes, then two octaves up and down in eighth notes, three octaves up and down in triplets, and four octaves up and down in sixteenths.  Count so you can switch patterns. seamlessly.

I practice arpeggios (broken chords) in tenths, in the 8-octave spread format, staccato as well as legato.  After working hard learning a piece, it’s very satisfying using an arpeggio as an introduction or ending flourish since little extra work is required.

Jazz arpeggios are fun and help strengthen my pinkies.   I’ve noticed that if I focus fully on one hand, the other often follows without needing extra attention. 

I do this octave exercise so I can play more relaxed octaves.   It’s also fun having octaves chase each other up and down the keyboard.  Make sure you relax during this exercise and hold each octave for its full duration.

Sixteenth notes in the blues scale sound cool against a bass line.  Or alone as a segue to something else.  Practice hands separately first. 

LH fingering going up:    3,2,1,4,3,2   going down:    1,2,3,2,1,2

RH fingering going up:   1,2,3,2,1,2    going down:    3,2,1,4,3,2                  

Create your own exercises/drills.

I just started Open Studio’s The Major Scale Course and am learning scale patterns and shapes to use in compositions and improvisations.  Really good stuff.

Repertoire

My Brilliant Idea

Not playing a piece for a while often means forgetting how to play it, regardless of how well you once knew and never thought you could ever forget it.  (Songs from that office holiday party are in that category.)  I’d turn to a new piece, spend most of my time learning it, and when I ‘d try playing an earlier piece, find that I couldn’t.  Sadly, I’ve bidden many a piece a regretful farewell.  

Recently I sorted my sheet music into three stacks.  The first is my repertoire, pieces I currently play well.  It’s organized alphabetically and every practice session includes bettering the next five pieces in rotation (ideally memorizing them).  There will be no more forgetting!

Pieces in the second stack are ones I once knew but have forgotten.  Fortunately, if I truly learned a piece well at the time, it doesn’t take too long to get it back.  A part of every practice session is spent reclaiming one of these pieces.  When I can play a piece well, I move it into my repertoire and pick up another to reclaim. 

Stack three fills milk crates and shelf space and comprises pieces I want to learn.  If a piece starts haunting me, it gets placed into the second stack and may even replace the current piece I’m working on.  The heart wants what it wants.

Once I started sorting my music this way, I could maintain and grow a repertoire without being overwhelmed.

Learning Pieces

After you’ve figured out the notes, rhythm, and fingering, use a metronome.  Learn the left hand alone and lock into the beat.  Use a metronome.  When learning the right hand alone, listen to the melody.  And use a metronome.  When you put your hands together, learn no more than one or two measures at a time.  Go very slowly, making sure you’ve got the notes and timing right.  Use a metronome and count aloud.  Increase the metronome by only one or two beats at a time.  Once you know the first two measures, work on the third and fourth.  Then play the first four measures together.  Only work on the fifth measure if you’ve got the first four down.  Continue to use the metronome and continue to self-count.  If you up the metronome before playing comfortably at a slower tempo, your playing will sound rushed and be prone to mistakes.  There’s a natural tendency to speed up while playing.  Practicing regularly with a metronome trains us to keep the beat steady without one. 

Subdivide when you count.  Instead of just counting the beats of the time signature, count the beats in between.  For example, in 4/4 time, instead of counting “1 – 2 – 3 – 4,” count “1 – and – 2 – and – 3 – and – 4 – and.”  It’s easy to lose track of the time in the spaces between the beats. Counting will keep your timing tight.  If you’re playing triplets or sixteenths, count in triplets or sixteenths. 

Counting aloud makes it easier for your hands to work together.  In extreme situations, when counting aloud isn’t enough, I wear earphones so the counting is inside me.  Earphones are also useful if you’re recording and don’t want to hear a metronome, but do want to know you’re keeping good time.  Everything I recorded for this writing was played to a metronome.

Write down the fingering that’s best for you so you don’t have to figure it out again if/when you need to relearn a piece.  Do this in pencil.  Good fingering is essential to letting the music flow.  Poor fingering will cripple your playing. 

Know what the piece is about.  If there are lyrics, what do they convey?  If there are no lyrics, how does the recording or whatever draws you to the song make you feel?  What moves you to play it?  Answering these questions affects touch, gives intention to a piece, and better connects you to the music and an audience. 

Practicing Pieces

When I practice repertoire, I’ll first play a piece through with the metronome and note any mistakes or places I’m insecure.  Then I focus on those trouble spots.

Mistakes happen for many reasons including, in no particular order:

• The phrase in which you’re making a mistake is very similar to an earlier phrase that you play well.  Your fingers want to play the earlier, more familiar phrase.
• The measures just before the mistake haven’t been learned thoroughly enough.
• Not having learned the passage well enough to begin with.
• Playing too quickly too soon.
• Not being able to keep up with reading the music and looking at the keyboard, in which case memorize that part of the music.
• Awkward fingering.
• Not knowing what or where the notes are.
• Not being fully focused. 

If I can’t completely fix a trouble spot, but have at least bettered it, I’ll mark the spot and go straight to it when the piece is next up in rotation.  Interestingly, drilling only one phrase can better the whole of a piece.  At least, that’s been my experience.

I check my intention.  Ideally, music flows from the mind/core/heart, through shoulders and arms, and into hands and fingers before contact is made with the piano.  If I feel the song inside me from the start, and if I’m counting before I start playing, I’m already in the song when I begin to play.  Otherwise, I’ll fumble until I sync up.  When I tap into the song’s flow, I hear it in my playing and feel it in my body.  Sometimes I think of the person who wrote the song.  Wanting to do right by the song and songwriter strengthens my intention and betters my playing.

Speaking of a song’s flow, once it starts it keeps going.  Whether or not you keep up is on you.

Mike has spent hundreds of hours drilling scales, exercises, whatever was needed.  Try repeating a phrase just 10 times and feel/hear the difference.  I don’t mean to dissuade with the threat of work, but when you’re working on something you enjoy it’s not really work, is it? 

Composing

Composing sounds intimidating because it gets associated with Beethoven, Mozart, and other music heroes, but it’s simply writing your own music.  Everyone’s made up a song in their head or heart, or housed a longing needing to be voiced, so here goes.

Melody is the tune played with single notes, usually in the right hand.  Harmony is the feel/color that supporting notes give the melody, usually played in the left hand and non-melody notes in the right hand.  The same melody affects us differently depending on how it’s harmonized.  Playing in a major key can make us feel happier.  A minor key, sad.

The left hand typically keeps the beat and both hands contribute to the rhythm. 

When composing, either the melody or harmony can come first.  Melody and harmony can also come together.  

If you already have a melody in mind, find the notes on the piano.  If you love every note of your melody, you’re ready to harmonize. 

If you feel your melody could be something more, play with it.  Use notes of different durations. Inject syncopation (defined later).  Making us wait for a note has us liking it more when we finally hear it.  Music is about tension and resolution. Take us on a trip with twists and turns and then bring us home.  Insert silences between the notes.  Give your melody places where it can breathe. 

If you’re inspired but have no melody, start with harmony.  Choose a key and chord progression that match what you feel.  Each note of a key’s scale has a chord identified with it, and each of those chords has many variations.  You don’t need to use many chords, but it’s good to know they’re out there.  Invert chords as needed to play notes that are near each instead of jumping from root to root.

Popular chord progressions Include:

I – IV – V – I

ii – V – I – vi – ii – V – I

I – IV – vi – V – I

I – vi – ii – V

Play your progression in your left hand in a rhythmic pattern.

The following accompaniment can be used for many ballads.  

Copy and adapt progressions and patterns from other songs.   Create your own.

Playing the Blues

Hearing or playing the blues provides a release for ails I did and didn’t know I had.  It brings joy.  I don’t know the differences between any of the 30 blues designations I’ve seen listed (including Chicago, Classic, Delta and Detroit), but when I’m in a bar and blues is being played, I’m likely to dance (even if it’s just in my seat). 

Overall, blues music is largely distinguished by the blues scale and syncopation.  Syncopation is when notes are accented not on the downbeats where our ear naturally listens for accents, but on the upbeats.  When counting “1 – and – 2 – and – 3 – and – 4 – and,” the numbers are the downbeats and the “and”s are the upbeats.    

This is a blues bass line without syncopation.

Blues is usually played in 4/4 time with a triplet feel to the beat.  Instead of counting “1 – and – 2 – and – 3 – and – 4 – and – ,” counting is 1-2-3 – 2-2-3 – 3-2-3 – 4-2-3.  Syncopation here would be accenting the upbeats of 2-3.  Listen for the syncopation in this bass line.

The same counting is behind this 12-bar blues bass line in C.  This form is known universally, enabling musicians speaking different languages to play together instantly.  It’s:

4 measures of the I chord,

2 measures of the IV chord,

2 measures of the I chord,

1 measure of the V chord,

1 measure of the IV chord,

2 measures of the I chord which include a turnaround to indicate the beginning of another chorus of the form or an ending. 

Variations to the form are discussed before starting to play.

Your bass line is your anchor.  Keep it grounded and steady and almost anything you play in your right hand will sound good.  Getting your left hand locked in takes a lot of repetition with a metronome.  Make sure you have a metronome beat that you don’t mind hearing! 

There are many great blues pieces to learn.  When you’re reading blues music, eighth notes connected by a top bar are played with a triplet/shuffle feel.  Even if you don’t see the following notation, it’s assumed.    

Improvising is an organic experience.  The playing of one note inspires the playing of the next. 

Start by setting the metronome to a slow-ish tempo and drilling a simple bass line until it’s under your fingers. 

When you’re ready, choose just one or two notes from the C blues scale (C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb) to play in your right hand.  But don’t play them until you feel moved to do so.  Experiment with syncopation and different rhythms.  Listen to the silences between the notes.  Play with just these two notes.

Then, add in other scale notes.

To build your improvisation vocabulary, drill licks until they become ingrained.  When they’re under your fingers, they’ll slip into your improvisations organically.  At least, that’s the idea. It’s fine to start with a phrase or lick you like, but then use it as a jumping off point for wherever the spirit leads.  It’s also fine to have a lick or two to fall back on if you need to reset yourself while you’re playing.  And an ending so you don’t play indefinitely.  Let your improvisation be guided by an idea, be it musical or a storyline or something undefinable.  

Above all, keep the left hand going even if you flub something in your right hand.  The priority is to keep the left hand steady.  If you miss a beat, get back on track.  The music won’t wait.

Hand independence is when your hands are playing such different things (e.g., rhythmically, or far apart on the keyboard) that they seem to be working separately.  When you’re sure you’ve got your left hand down and add your right hand, don’t be surprised if your left hand falls apart.  Coordinating both hands to play even the simplest syncopation is challenging.  When your patience is tried, know that the accomplishment will outweigh the frustration.   And that we forget exactly how hard or painful things actually were after they’re over! 

Since it can be incredibly difficult and frustrating when you start putting your hands together, do it very slowly.  If I can’t put my hands together to a metronome, I’ll start by putting them together while I count aloud very slowly, pausing when needed.  Sometimes it takes drilling part of a lick before I can play the entire lick properly.  If I can play a  bass line and a lick hands separately at 95 bpm, I’ll first try putting hands together at 60 bpm and then drop as low as 45 bpm if necessary.   I’ve included licks from Jonathon Wilson in Resources at the end.

The tighter your time, the better your blues will feel.  If I’m to play eighth notes in my left hand and triplets in my right, I’ll first count slowly enough so I can hear where the triplets fall between the eighth notes.  I’ll listen to make sure that the fourth sixteenth note comes before the next beat.  Patience is crucial.  But, once you get it, your world opens.

A different, kinder, friendly approach to the blues and improvisation is found in Edly Paints the Ivories Blue Book 1.  Improvising is laid out in a fun, easy way and there’s lots to do even before getting into more challenging aspects like syncopation.  Edly is one of the more entertaining teachers you’re likely to come across.  See Resources for a link.

Jazz has its roots in the blues.  The Open Studio Jazz Piano Jump-Start course teaches blues, syncopation, harmonizing, arranging, improvising and more, with a final project of a blues etude in which you’re improvising. 

I must tell of some of the fun I’ve had with this course.  In The Great American Form section, I had to hit pause while Adam Maness was in mid-sentence.  It took two days of drilling the required chord progression before I could increase my speed from 80 bpm to 120 bpm.  When I finally let Adam finish his sentence, I then had to hit pause again until I could play at 120 bpm with the rhythm he requested!  I panicked when he said we were going to transpose but, because I practiced those chord changes so much, transposing was relatively simple.  That was a huge win! 

I’ll also mention a mystery I find with the blues.  Sometimes it’s ok to play notes outside the blues scale, sometimes not.  And I don’t mean passing notes.  At least I don’t think I do.  I’ve been told to play what sounds good, but I know there’s more to it. 

Exploration

There’s a comfort in playing pieces I love, surrendering myself to the notes provided.  But I’ve always felt there’s more than that to owning the piano.  I know I’m still scratching the surface.  I used to fantasize about playing so well that I didn’t have to speak (interpret that as you will).  I get a thrill when I hear piano music used as a character as opposed to a backdrop. 

On my piano’s music desk/shelf there are several pages that I work on from time to time representing worlds of music unto themselves – an Autumn Leaves lead sheet that I got from Open Studio, a Beatles song lead sheet, and a pentatonic chord progression (there are only five notes in the scale!). 

As they say, if it were easy, everyone would do it.   So, while it’s fun to think of myself creating at the piano, there’s a post-it to remind me to actually spend time improvising. 

One approach to improvising is drilling a chord progression until it flows and then finding a melody over it.  My fingers find that melody with a mind of their own and it’s interesting and often pleasantly surprising listening to what comes out.    

Set a timer for ten minutes and commit to improvising in the format of your choice for the duration of that time.  It sounds easier than it is.  At first, I like what I play.  But ten minutes is a long time and I’ll get bored and want to stop.  I don’t though.  I’ll move to a different part of the keyboard, change the rhythmic pattern, anything to get me out of my rut.  I’ll take my right hand off the keys and not play anything with it until there’s something to say.  Meanwhile, my left hand keeps going.  Usually, it’s just before the timer goes off that I sound the best.  Funny how that works.  If you record yourself, you can recreate the phrases you like.   

To come up with chord progressions on the fly, and to keep the chords of each key in mind, I play a I – IV – vi – V -vii⁰ – iii – ii – I progression in the left hand against the scale in octaves in the right hand.  Fair warning, it took a long time before I could play this without mistakes and I’m still working on upping my speed.  If necessary, after I conquer this exercise, I’ll come up with a new progression to make sure I’m not playing by rote.  I’m thinking this is also an excellent exercise for playing from a fake book.

Interestingly, all my repetition of this chord progression has made me to notice how, for example, the V of one chord will be the root of another.  The more you improvise, the more helpful this sort of thing is to know.

Ear Training

Hearing professionals say “if you can’t hear it, you can’t play it” makes me feel like a failure.  I see their point, but my best ear training efforts have not taken me far.

Then I remind myself that I am not a professional musician.  No one has any expectations of me other than myself.  If my timing is off a bit, or my harmonies not as interesting, no one cares and few would know.  I hear well enough to please myself.  And, if I’d never heard the words “if you can’t hear it, you can’t play it,” I’d be fine about my less than great ear.  And one day I really may go back to ear training. 

Having said all that, a little bit of ear training every day does go a long way to making you a better musician.    

Summing Up

I’m grateful for the piano lessons I had when I was young.  Without them I wouldn’t be playing today.  I don’t spend time wondering what could have been, but I would have liked to avoid many of those office jobs.

It’s been eye-opening studying with Mike Garson and auditing master classes at Open Studio.  Even though most of what’s discussed is above my playing level, the big picture issues apply at every level.  And it’s always enthralling listening to the greats play.

If I don’t compare myself to other players, I fare well.  And by the way, isn’t it usually the chef or designer or singer who’s most comfortable with their individuality who wins the reality tv competition?!

Even though I truly want to play the best piano that I can, it can still be difficult to actually sit down and play.  It’s as if an invisible obstacle ties me to the couch.  Usually, the piano pulls me in.  I want it to.  I root for it.  And when I play those first few notes, I’m glad I got off the couch.  But if I don’t get off the couch, I simply recognize it’s just one of those times and let it go. 

Sometimes life gets in the way and other things get prioritized.  The longer I’m away from the piano the more fearful I get that I’ve lost the ability to play.  Negative internal chatter gets louder and what binds me to the couch grows stronger.  But I continue to go back to the piano and am glad I do.  Each time I return, my relationship with the piano grows deeper.

I play piano on my terms.  My relationship with it is personal and I only share with those I choose.  I’ve enjoyed playing at a senior residence.  I’ve taught, and learned from that as well.  And, above all, amidst all the chaos and confusion, I’m grateful for the piano always being there.  

Resources

Even if you don’t stick with ear training, at least give it a try.  There are free as well as paid downloads. www.earmaster.com

I turn to this book a lot and especially when I need a pick-me-up. https://edly.com/blues-book/

If you’re a beginner, this is a great place to check out. https://edly.com/pianobasics/

Whether or not you’re working with a teacher, there’s lots to learn here.  https://www.openstudiojazz.com/

From Jonathon Wilson groovewindow.com