WHY DID I CREATE DECPLAY?
I believe that music is one of the most powerful ways to help change a person's emotional state, improve confidence and create deep connections and I wanted to make piano easily accessible to everyone, irrespective of age or ability.
HOW DOES DECPLAY DO THAT?
There is a fundamental difference between traditional piano tuition and the DecPlay approach.
DecPlay's alternative method is based on patterns inherent in western music and has been honed by me, over the years, as I broke down my abiliity to play by ear into a simple, easy to understand format.
DecPlay has been featured on national TV and Radio (including the BBC), proving that people can learn to play recognisable music, live on air, within minutes.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT SHARING MY METHOD
I've found it incredibly fulfilling to help thousands of people achieve their dreams of playing piano - even more so when students have tried, and failed, to learn piano in the past, or have lived with the belief they aren't 'musical'.
MY JOURNEY TO THIS DISCOVERY...
MY MUM'S INFLUENCE
At the age of 6 I was sent to piano lessons. It was the usual story. The first teacher was an eccentric lady who had a lot of cats. The next teacher was an eccentric lady who had a lot of dogs...! As lovely as these teachers were, I didn’t enjoy classical music at that tender age and so I hardly practised. This meant my progress was slow.
I had five siblings who had also started to learn piano, but who all gave up within a year. My Mum wanted at least one of us to achieve something with the piano, having invested so much money in our lessons, so I did a deal with her. We agreed that I could quit piano lessons once I passed grade 7 - which I did.
What I realised then was that, despite years of piano lessons, I still couldn’t play anything other than the last three exam pieces I had been working on. For a teenage boy, this was no fun, and it would certainly have been the end of my piano story if it hadn’t been for a certain book.
THE BOOK THAT SAVED ME!
My best friend in school was a singer. He oozed confidence and, one day, he suggested that I accompany him on piano for a school concert. I was extremely shy so I jumped at his invitation. Here was a chance to do something cool in front of the whole school without the pressure of being the main performer.
The problem, however, was that learning songs on piano using sheet music was painfully slow. Worse, the piano sheet music used boring left hand rhythms which sounded more like examination pieces than popular songs. There was no way they were going to get a hall full of students rocking!
My salvation came when someone lent me a Beatles guitar book and I discovered the first secret that TRANSFORMED my ability to play piano: patterns within music called CHORDS.
In no time, I discovered I could learn songs within minutes by using chords and, not only that, I could memorise them easily. Even better, I discovered patterns within the music which made playing much easier than following notation. I now began to sound like the professional artists I wanted to emulate.
Later, I discovered that these are the techniques professionals such as Sir Paul McCartney use, for example when he wrote and performed piano classics like "Let It Be".
These patterns enabled me to understand how songs are constructed and, soon, I was able to write my own songs and go on to learn how to play by ear. My dream of being able to play piano with ease, and at a moment's notice, had come to pass!
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT PLAYING BY EAR
I love playing concerts, but my favourite memories are of playing at social gatherings on the spur of the moment. A particularly precious memory is of playing at my Mum’s 80th birthday. It was magical to experience the whole room singing along and to witness, and be a part of, the deep connection we all felt.
WHY I DECIDED TO TEACH PIANO
The moment I realised I wanted to teach piano was at my friend Marek's 40th birthday party. There was a piano at the venue and so, naturally, a singalong ensued! The crowd shouted out their favourite songs and, thanks to my ability to play by ear, I could play them as they were requested. I spent the whole evening at the keyboard!
At the end of the night, a friend of Marek's called Patrick came up to me and told me his biggest regret in life was that he couldn’t play piano. I explained that anyone can learn using chords and patterns, but he was utterly convinced that, as a middle aged man, he was too old to learn.
I vowed then and there to prove that you can learn at any age, and I started work on creating a step by step process that would translate the most effective playing techniques into a simple method for beginners so that they, too, could easily play songs on the piano and, in far less time than with traditional lessons, progress to advanced level playing.
I worked for several years to refine and perfect the method and, eventually, the 'DecPlay' method was born. Unfortunately, by the time I had created the DecPlay method, my friend had lost contact with Patrick so he never got to see the method that he inspired me to create.
Who knows, though. Perhaps he will, one day, come across DecPlay and learn to play after all :)