Since creating Chord Power® in 2003, I’ve travelled to over 500 cities in the USA and Canada. In conversations with thousands of adult piano player hopefuls, I can’t help but smile at how similar our experiences were in wanting to play this amazing queen of all musical instruments, the piano.
As a child I eagerly started piano lessons. That excitement quickly faded however into a boring routine of drills, long tedious practice sessions and elusive success that was hard to maintain. I could hear the joyful shouts of friends playing ball outside while I pounded those ivory keys under the stern gaze of my piano teacher. It’s not that I didn’t want to learn how to play, but why wasn’t it fun? “You want to have fun playing the piano, my teacher asked? That only happens after many, many years of hard work!”
At least for me, the “fun” never happened at that time. And like so many I’ve met over the years, my piano playing stopped, when the lessons stopped.
What never ended however… was my love for music! As a young teen, I taught myself how to play chords on the guitar and it was a blast being able to play the songs of my generation. I even formed a couple of bands. I enjoyed it and it was FUN.
In my mid-twenties, I became a committed Christian, active in music ministry. The keyboard player was impressive with his ability to bang out song after song with none or hardly any music in front of him. He usually just had a “leadsheet” with a melody line and chord symbols. And that started my love affair with chord piano!
With the same fun and excitement I had to teach myself guitar, I bought books and sought out mentors to learn chord piano. When the keyboard player quit, I was “it”. I had to get better fast. And that’s where I developed personal systems and techniques which eventually became Chord Power® years later.
I really see God’s Hand in all this because not only did it work magically for me, I've been able to transfer that skill to thousands of adults (average age 65, oldest ever was 94!). What a joy it’s been making their piano dreams come true!