March 2004

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There was some guy on the local PBS affiliate tonight babbling on and on and on about how he teaches adults to play the piano by teaching them the treble clef notes and the chords associated with letters found above the music staff (on the pieces he was teaching, these were not guitar chord symbols, just letters, in case you're curious).

And he was onto this like it was the best thing since sliced bread. I can't argue with his point; it would be a quicker and easier way to learn than the traditional methods. What I can argue with is his tone whenever he started blathering on about the traditional methods. He committed one of the graver sins in Beckyland by being very negative about how other people had learned to play in order to make the point that his way was good.

It was so not necessary to do that. He had ample chances to point out the virtues of his methods without dismissing a lot of us who have taken music lessons and can indeed read both the treble and bass clefs. He kept on about how the treble clef always had the melody, blah, blah, blah, and pretty much treated its companion clef as being entirely unnecessary, period.

Somehow, I don't think the man has any friends who play trombone or any of the other instruments for which music is only written in bass clef. And for the record, it's not all that unusual for the melody to be in the bass clef. But whatever. Don't confuse the expert with facts.

I noticed he had made a couple of errors in facts and spelling on his charts, but I would have to go way too far over into the geeky side of music to comment on them. You're welcome.

Needless to say, this particular show did not make me run to the phone to call in a pledge. It did make me change the channel when I realized I was falling asleep.