Piano Freedom for Frustrated Pianists: Play by note, chord or ear

"Piano Freedom is a great teaching aid for adults or children, and makes it fun, as music should be." - George Winston, pianist and composer

Are you a frustrated pianist? Do you long for piano freedom? Do you exhibit any of the following common symptoms?

• It feels like too much work to learn to play a new song.
• Your brain overloads when trying to read multiple notes on treble and bass clefs.
• You long to play by ear, play by chord or improvise.

Sometimes you might feel ready to quit, but your desire to play keeps tugging at your heart.

The question isn't whether you can learn, but how you'll learn. Piano Freedom will help you find the ways to play that suit your learning style

Linda Spangler, M.Mus., has been teaching and loving the piano for over 40 years. Throughout her career, she's been fascinated by the many different ways that people learn. There is no "right way" for everyone to learn piano. There is only the right way for YOU to learn piano.

Like any language, music has an alphabet of notes; a vocabulary of scales, chords, and progressions; and grammar rules of harmony. And, with Piano Freedom, you can learn the music you love in the ways that work best for you.

A delight for both adults and precocious kids, Piano Freedom's easy-to-follow layout and lessons help each pianist progress at his or her own pace. Using aural, kinesthetic, visual, and/or analytic approaches, students can learn to improvise; play by ear, chord, or note; and/or play with people.

In Piano Freedom, you'll experience a taste of freedom right away by playing on the Black Key Pentatonic Playground. When you move down to the white keys, you'll find out what to do in case of a clash and explore musical examples - folk, hymns, classical, blues and more. In Part II, you'll meet geebeedee Cricket (G major = g b d ) and the rest of the Cast of Chords, and you'll start playing from lead sheets. A Toolbox at the end of the book offers you the right tools for solving your lingering musical problems.

Piano Freedom is more than a book or teaching guide. It is a lifetime of piano joy and learning. And that same joy of playing piano can be yours too.

Valerie H.: 5 stars

Linda Spangler has found the difference between practice and play. After 14 years of disappointing musical education, I spent two privileged years learning from Linda. Ten years later I still cherish the experience.

Piano Freedom takes an approach that is far beyond the norm of the mainstream 'piece, practice, play' methodology. Rather than escorting the student through a series of exercises that leaves one void of musical satisfaction, this engaging book teaches the student how to understand the music.

Each lesson, like a spring board, seamlessly and painlessly launches the learner into whole fields of play. When you master a lesson, the accomplishment will be immediately tangible and musically apparent. Like any great book, it is an achievement that will grow with you throughout your musical journey. You will find yourself referring to Piano Freedom again and again, and marvel as you realize what it really is to 'play' music.

R.D. Mayhugh: 5 stars