A Million Dreams (The Greatest Showman)

Here is my arrangement recorded on the Korg Pa700, incidentally the first time playing this song.

Enjoy



https://youtu.be/r5HyZulllqs

Very nice James! Are you reading the notes from a printed score, or... ?

I have the sheetmusic but figured it out by ear.. Thanks for the feedback.

Agreed… the sooner you wean yourself from the sheet music, the sooner you can make it yours! 🎹♥️

Having sheet music in front of me was a habit. I remember playing a song through only to find I had a different song on the music stand. I memories the chords – melodies and fills come from what I am feeling.
John C.

For me sometimes the sheet music is more of a security blanket, or for songs that modulate into a different key which sometimes throws me.

Best thing to do when you acknowledge a weakness in one area or another is to attack it full on. Learn a simple song in one key. Now ditch the sheet music and play it by ear in that key. Now play it in every key, by ear. Sure, struggle a bit with some keys at first but the more you do it, the easier it gets.

But sheet music is really a shorthand system. It isn’t REALLY what you should play. If you saw an actual computer transcription of a pro player’s rendition of a tune, it would be unreadable as the computer tries to annotate the subtle timing things the player did!

So ditch it as fast as you can! Make yourself a little chord chart if you need that, but get away from a written lead line. What you come up with will be far better!

I agree with DIKI - ditch that sheet music, and learn to play those songs by ear. You will be amazed at what you can do with just a bit of creativity while playing an arranger keyboard. Granted, the sheets will help you in learning a song that you have never played, but if you have to have something in front of you, a chord chart or lyrics with the chord changes over the words is really the best way to go, IMO. At least, it worked for me.

Good luck,

Gary

Well if not, there's always THIS:
https://youtu.be/V6rHWQXFnOE?t=30

The bitter irony is that the equivalent of "Stream Lights" could easily have been implemented 100 years ago using technology that was readily available at the time. (Think about wide rolls of newsprint punched as for a player piano, and advanced by a variable-speed electric motor.)

Despite a few years of lessons, I personally find the grand staff, time signatures, etc., non-intuitive, especially if it's a piece I've never heard before. I think the Guitar Hero guys are onto something!

You don't have to play exactly as it says on the sheet music unless you are in a large group or orchestra, so just vary it a bit to give more feeling.
In addition learn the circle of 5ths so you can sort your own chord progressions.
To remember music learn 4 bars at a time until you cant get them wrong, then move on to the next 4 bars etc. until you can put it all together without needing the music.
Fake books are a good way to learn flexibility, as they just give you the basics thus allowing the player to improvise around them.

Bill