So, you want to learn how to play piano. So do thousands of others around the world. Here's how they usually go about it.

First, they try to find a piano teacher close to where they live. They may or may not know what style they want to learn, but figure the piano teacher can help them figure this out.

Next, it's off to the piano teacher for the first appointment. What usually happens here is the teacher gives the student "an assessment" to see what they know. Now, for the most part, piano teachers won't ask prospective students what they want to learn because they assume it will be classical in nature.

The benefits for the piano teacher in teaching the classical method are enormous! First, students must learn how to read music and this can take anywhere from 1-month to 1 year depending on how fast a learner the student is. Second, students learn classical repertoire and this can literally take forever. As this is happening over time, the student becomes a piano player who can read sheet music and play the music of dead composers reasonably well. That's the goal anyway.

The student at this point may have spent thousands of dollars learning how to do this thus increasing the piano teachers income. What a great deal for the piano teacher! But what about the student?

Listen, if your goal is to learn how to note-read and play other peoples music for fun then that is what you should do. But if you're interested in a more creative approach to piano playing, you may want to seek out a teacher who will show you how to play piano using a chord-based approach. Here's why:

1. Time spent learning is greatly reduced. Listen to this... you can learn most chords on the piano within one month's time. You won't be an expert at it, but you'll know enough to get around on the piano. This puts you light years ahead of your classical playing counterparts.

2. Musicianship is quickly realized. Do you know that most classical players don't have a clue how what they are playing was created? That's right! They just play the notes like a typist and never understand the mystery behind the music. Now, if you learn chords, inevitably, you're going to learn about chord charts and once you learn how to "chart out music," you'll be thinking like a composer. You'll be quantum leaps ahead of most classically trained musicians.