Tritone Music School, Where Students Learn Piano From Improvisers' Aspect
In order to improvise, a musician needs to learn and memorize songs. The melody, harmony and rhythm of all songs are the foundation upon which a musician would improvise in a way that makes sense. This is not only liberating, but allows someone to play in any situation, whether soloing, or fitting seamlessly into any musical setting. Improvisation is something that all great musicians learn to do, from Bach to Beyoncé. One learns to play (sing) naturally, organically, without the hindrance of looking at notes on a page.
Every year I go to an event by the Northwest Suburban Music Teachers Association, called Teachers Musicale. I always look forward to performing for my fellow piano teachers from the area. Afterwards we usually go to lunch together at a nearby restaurant. I occasionally play some jazzy music after the concert while teachers socialize and catch up with each other.
Many teachers often tell me they wish they could play piano like me. I am not a great performer like concert pianists or college professors. However, one thing I am good at is playing many songs by ear and improvising. If I can sing the melody, I can play it. I feel harmony progressions like singing and can play those too. I can provide party music for hours and hours without sheet music. This skill also helps tremendously when I play classical pieces such as Bach, Chopin, or Bartok.
Reading and performing from a written page is only one little aspect of learning music. Traditional lessons usually focus on this and the physical techniques and accuracy indicated by composers. I know they are an important part of learning music, but I believe there are more important subjects which should be taught. The problem with traditional teaching is that the typical student can only play one or two pieces they are practicing currently, but cannot play any pieces learned in the past from memory.
Ever since I started to teach piano to many children and adults, I have focused on teaching how to capture music like I do. People want to start lessons because they want to have music in their house, enhance their lives, and just have fun. No one, at least with a neighborhood piano teacher like me, is expecting their children, or themselves, to become a concert pianist. If you are invited to a party and your host has a piano, what would you like to do? Would you like to be able to entertain the guests
with many songs one after another from memory? Or, decline all because you were not planning to do so and did not bring sheet music. To me, spending lesson time to polish up details with accuracy from sheet music can come second, or a lot later.
When I started to teach 2 decades ago, I struggled with balancing what I really wanted to teach, and the expectations from students and parents. I thought I should somehow still follow traditional way of teaching. I questioned myself a lot if this was a right way to provide lessons, because it was very different from others. I always talked about this with my husband, who is a professional
performer/composer. He was usually home Saturday mornings and had to listen to my lessons, as our kitchen locates right next to where the piano is. He knew exactly what I was teaching and, luckily,
always encouraged me as he believed I was doing a right thing.
What I struggled the most was I did not see good results as much as I wanted. I realized this was a very slow process, with trials and failures. What I thought would work did not work most of the time. Less than 10% of my ideas were effective and survived later. It took 10 years to start to see results, and finally I was ready to share my method with other teachers in 2014, when I opened Tritone Music School in Arlington Heights.
Now that other teachers have joined me, I realized there were other kinks to work out. The method only worked if I was the teacher. Yes of course, nothing is easy. It works with me, but it does not necessary to apply to other teachers. I had to start over with more trials, this time as a team. I collaborated with my hired teachers often, studied assignment plans and individual student progress, and finally came up with a more organized systematic method book, now called the "Tritone Piano Method."
After 5 years in business, we now have numerous successes with our students using our method book that we developed together as a team. Our students are adding more and more songs on their repertoire list. Students who have relatively good practice habits - like 20 minutes 3 times a week at least - have more than 40 songs in the third year. Some volunteer to provide 45-60 minutes of background music at retirement homes in this area for dinner time. They perform all pieces from memory!
Contact Info:
Tritone Music School
Chieko Garling
838 S Arthur Ave Arlington Heights IL 60005
224-659-6082
tritonemusicschool@gmail.com