More About The Course

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This course is designed to make learning piano FUN, FAST AND EASY. This course is for both existing musicians and also complete beginners, who are passionate about learning or improving their piano playing.


What is FastPlay For?

The FastPlay piano method, is designed to enable you to learn to play a recognisable song, in the fastest time possible, playing both melody and chords. Even if you have no prior piano experience at all, you should be able to play your first song incredibly quickly.


Once you have learnt the FastPlay method, you have the option to learn more songs or develop your skills with the ProPlay (professional style) method.


FastPlay is an incredibly fast way to play both melody and accompaniment, both or which are required to play solo piano.

If you wish to play piano to accompany singing, then you don't need to play the melody and it is easier just to play the accompaniment, using the SingPlay method shown in Section 3.


Types of Piano Sheet Music to Use - PianoTabz / Lead Sheet

The easiest way to play songs using the FastPlay method, is with the PianoTabz song sheets. These are the standard DecPlay piano tabs sheets which replace notation and chords letters with numbers. This enables rapid results for beginners, as well as advanced skills and other piano methods in the DecPlay range, and assists with learning to play by ear.


If you already read notation, then you can apply the same FastPlay techniques to a lead sheet.


Terminology Explained

'Melody' is the part of a song that a lead singer of a band would sing, also known as the 'tune'. Melody is played by individual notes.

'Accompaniment' is the music that supports the melody such as 'backing music' played by the musicians in a band. Accompaniment is played using 'chords' ie several notes played at the same time.

'Relative numbers' are numbers that reference a note or a chord by its position relative to the 7 note musical scale eg 1st, 2nd, 5th place being numbers 1, 2, 5 - instead of referencing them by letters eg C, D, G etc...

This method is used in jazz, advanced classical music theory and in the Nashville Guitar System and has many advantages over using letters both for beginners and for advanced players. All DecPlay methods other than ChordPlay, use relative numbers, to take advantage of these benefits.


How Does FastPlay Work?

FastPlay enables rapid results because it replaces traditional notation (which takes a long time to learn) with a simple numbers system that is easy to learn within minutes. I created this numbers system which is called PianoTabz (as it is 'tablature' for piano) specifically to enable popular music to be played easily and to enable flexibility of playing, from beginner to professional, using the same music sheet.

No other method of writing music can achieve this at its significance has been recognised, being awarded a patent.


Levels of Playing / Skill Development

FastPlay enables solo piano to beginners level and FastPlay Advanced (also included in this course) enables playing to intermediate level. Many people find that this is sufficient for their needs.

ChordPlay/SingPlay is designed for playing piano to accompany singing and enables beginner to intermediate and advanced level.

The ProPlay method enables playing solo piano to an advanced level and builds on the FastPlay and ChordPlay skills shown in this course.



Who Is This Course Suitable For?

  • Beginners
  • People who have previously had piano lessons but struggled with reading traditional music notation
  • People who can read the treble clef in notation but want an easier way to play the left hand, without having to read the bass clef.


What are the requirements?

  • Piano or keyboard - Ideally 61 keys or more - touch sensitive (although you can make progress using smaller keyboards)
  • Internet access to view this course on a regular basis



HOW DECPLAY ACHIEVES RAPID RESULTS

DecPlay achieves incredibly rapid progress for both beginners and existing players with a unique approach that harnesses the power of PATTERNS within music. This makes it much faster to learn and memorise songs and to develop playing skills.

Patterns are used in 2 main ways:-

  1. the way music is written down (chords)
  2. AND also how it is played (playing patterns)


SONG SHEETS & CHORD SHEETS

The DecPlay 5 Step Formula works with any type of written music that includes chords eg :-

  • Chord sheets (eg Ultimate Guitar sheets)
  • Lead Sheets (notation and chords)
  • PianoTabz sheets (DecPlay's own numbers system)


ChordSheets

ChordSheets enable you to play accompaniment (not melody), which is all you need if you are playing to accompany a singer or playing in a band. The ChordPlay method within this course, uses Ultimate Guitar style chords sheets, which gives immediate access to a huge free library of music.


Lead Sheets / PianoTabz Sheets

All other methods in the DecPlay range replace traditional notation with an alternative 'piano tabs' sheet music format known as PianoTabz. PianoTabz only takes minutes to understand and has many advantages over traditional notation, as it highlights the patterns that exist within the music.

PianoTabz is an intuitive system of learning, that mirrors how we 'hear' music by showing the simple patterns that exist in the majority of Western popular music.


GUITARISTS

This course is suitable for non-musicians, but if you are a guitarist, you have a head start as tips are included to transfer your guitar skills to the piano.

This includes the ChordPlay method which shows how to play piano using Ultimate Guitar chords.


DEMOS AND LESSONS

Demo videos are demonstrations of the songs being played, which enable you to:-

  • be familiar with the song
  • see how skills being taught in the lesson are implemented
  • play along with the song


Lesson videos show how to play different aspects of the song in more detail.


Video Speed can be adjusted when watching videos on a computer, by clicking the settings 'cog' icon bottom right on the video and selecting a different speed. For example selecting 0.75 will play the video at three quarter speed, which may help when learning difficult sections.


How Many Video to Watch? - You don't have to play all the demo videos when using the course. You can select which songs you prefer. It is advisable to play as many of the lesson videos as you can, as these teach useful skills.


METHODS INCLUDED IN THIS COURSE

Different methods in the DecPlay range are suited to different playing objectives. This course includes:-


Playing melody & accompaniment (eg solo piano)

  1. FastPlay - Beginners to intermediate level
  2. ProPlay - Professional style


Playing accompaniment (eg for singing / band)

  1. ChordPlay - using standard chord letters
  2. SingPlay - same as ChordPlay but uses numbers for rapid progress and foundation for advanced skills


Bonus Styles ('taster' mini-lessons)

  1. Rock n roll
  2. Blues
  3. Jazz
  4. Classical 
  5. The Entertainer 
  6. Heart and Soul 'duet'


SKILL DEVELOPMENT & MORE SONGS

Once you have completed this course, you then have the choice to:-

Increase your repertoire by learning more songs, using Ultimate Guitar chords, the PianoTabz song library or by converting any song you like into PianoTabz format.

Develop your skills with other courses in the DecPlay range (not included in this bundle), which build on the skills in this course to enable highly advanced playing skills:-

  1. ProPlay - More depth on the professional style playing
  2. ImproPlay - Improvisation
  3. ComposePlay - Composing your own songs
  4. EarPlay - Playing by ear



Complete and Continue