Rock Piano Lessons

When Fats Domino, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis ignited rock music and rock piano in the 1950’s, who would have thought that 60 years later, pianists would still be emulating their explosive style and sound.  Kicking their benches, standing to play and raking their hands over the keyboard typify the frantic style of rock piano.

Believe it or not, those rock pianists started as classical musicians and decided that a more vibrant style was in order.  When learning to play rock piano, don’t throw away the book, but look past the script and feel free to express yourself.  Get on board for a wild ride and never hold back when it comes to expressing the rock music in your.

Rock piano is a close relative to blues piano.  Both are based on a 12-bar pattern that repeats.  Rock piano does not require continuous practice of the scales and notes.  If you want to be comfortable learning to play rock piano, you might want to try playing in the blues style.  For the ultimate playing experience, try playing both with sheet music and by ear.  Rock piano requires knowledge of certain chords.  Learn those chords and then get ready to have some fun.

Now that you are ready to do a little freewheeling, let’s add to the fun.  Traditional piano instructors insist that students are sure to practice playing the piano slowly.  This constant drilling can serve to inhibit the rock pianist.  When practicing to play rock piano, try being a bit more relaxed and work on tempo.  Rock piano requires great finger play.

Rock tempo is vibrant and necessitates more touch and feel than other types of play.  We do not recommend practicing as fast as possible, but it is not an entirely bad concept.  Get those fingers involved in the tempo and your practice sessions will never be boring.

If you need help developing the right tempo, get some cds background music that features other musicians.  Try to play along but even if you cannot, you can get a sense of the finger speed you need to play rock piano.  Today’s DVD and online software courses are terrific for learning to play rock piano.  You will have all the sounds you need and can learn at your own pace.  Give it a try.