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Discover How beginners unlock their piano reading skills so they never hit the "sheet music wall"
How to practice with sheet music so you can learn songs faster right from the beginning!
“The biggest revelation was that I could start with real music that I wanted to play instead of starting with a method book that was designed for kids.” - Kathy Lewis (Measure by Measure member)
As a thank you for trying my program, you'll get these exclusive beginner piano approaches FREE
The "Staff-to-Keys" Beginner Course
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Beyond the Notes:
Relationships in Piano Reading
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7 Habits for Beginner Success
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The Genesis of Piano:
Bach's Prelude in C
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30-day Access to the 5-finger Repertoire Collection
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1 Month Free Access to
"Measure by Measure"
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AND, you can keep the beginner courses forever even if you decide not to continue your membership.
How beginners unlock their piano reading skills so they avoid the sheet music wall
And how they connect to intermediate piano repertoire faster than ever
Are you convinced you need to play endless warm ups and countless drills to learn piano?
I was.
Sadly it took me thousands of hours of practice and a few years of college music classes until I realized that what worked best is learning the right music with the right approaches.
Worse, most of my fellow students were convincing me I needed to crank up my effort, put in more hours, and sacrifice everything just to play piano like I wanted to.
So I gave up on the idea of becoming a piano professor and started teaching real people with interests that included more than playing the hardest pieces in the world.
The result? They learned how to play the piano just like me, only they didn't have to go through the same process.
You see, I treated every new student as though they already knew pretty much everything contained in piano method books.
Instead, we focused on playing real music that sounded awesome.
Studio-style repertoire training
In a college piano lesson, it doesn't start with a checklist of scales and exercises.
Most of the time, you arrive at your lesson and the professor asks "what would you like to play today?"
You then play the repertoire you've been practicing.
They help you refine it. You might only play about four measures in your lesson because they have so much to say and teach you about the music.
That's the secret. The lessons are in the repertoire.
The online piano problem
While online piano programs have endless modules of exercises, tips, tricks, and gimmicks. It's not how accomplished musicians have learned for generations.
If your goal in learning piano is to be able to play beautiful music, most of that happens when you refine your piano pieces. The products of that practice will result in greater skills and musical knowledge that only comes through experience.
But what pieces should you practice? And how should you approach them?
One of the greatest teachers I've ever met mentored me in my own teaching. He told me "when you learn it's all about getting your students in the right pieces, you'll see more progress".
Ever since then I've taken great lengths to find the piano pieces that work best for piano students.
It isn't the "100 Greatest Hits!" It's a unique collection of pieces from old teachers who studied with and even taught the masters.
For instance, Karkonov was the teacher of a young Sergei Prokofiev (yes, of Peter and the Wolf). I wouldn't dream of giving a Prokofiev piece to a beginner, and it takes quite a bit of effort to play even his easiest pieces. But the music of Karkonov is great for students. It's the music that may have helped produce some of the great composers.
There are other composers, like Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang) and Kirchner (friend of Brahms and Clara Schumann). Composers like Thomas Attwood (Mozart’s student), Carl Reinecke (a protégé of Mendelssohn), Burgmuller, Gedike, Heller, Scharwenka and many many more!
They wrote miniature masterpieces, but these pieces are more accessible to pianists who don't necessarily practice for hours a day. They require the same skills to play, but a fraction of the discipline and dedication.
Some of the beautiful pieces featured in
the Measure by Measure lessons
Handel-Halvorsen
Passacaglia
This piece is a transcription of a piece written for Violin and Viola by GF Handel. Halvorsen arranged it for piano and it's one of the most beautiful "Passacaglia". What makes it great is the opportunity to build a theme over a repeated left hand pattern, which also prepares you for music with challenging left-hand, like works by Chopin and other romantic composers.
Flotow: Prayer from the Opera "Stradella"
This prayerful melody gives you the chance to practice balancing between the hands, shaping a phrase in the right hand, and controlling a left hand accompaniment. Not only will you learn great skills, you'll sound beautiful in the process.
Moniuszko - Chimes from the Opera "The Haunted Manor"
Opera transcriptions often provide excellent music for beginner and early-intermediate students because it was composed with the intention of telling a story. While most of the well-known piano composers wrote most of their pieces in well-known forms (like Sonatas), they don't exactly spark the feeling of a story. Imaginative playing can come from many places, but I love pieces like this that showcase a relatable enchanted vibe.
Heller, Op. 138 No. 19 - Tziganyi
Inspired by Hungarian folk music, Stephan Heller composed many short pieces that are beautiful, fun to play, and teach amazing piano skills. Playing music like this before trying to tackle Liszt, Chopin, or Scriabin is a must.
Why you need principles,
not method books
When I was teaching 40+ students every week I learned what nearly everybody struggles with in their learning experience. I found myself repeating the same things over and over for every student. Several years into teaching I realized I had to teach differently if I didn’t want to burn out from nagging and pleading with my students.
I knew that if I could just help them understand the “why” of piano technique, and of music literacy, they would govern their own behavior and wouldn’t need constant badgering from me.
I also knew that my own practice boiled down to just a few good habits repeated consistently. The simplest of approaches had always given me the best results, so I stripped my teaching of extra nonsense (stuff I’d always been told I “should” do as a player and teacher) and instead focused on just a few principles. The result turned into what I offer in the Measure by Measure “Principles” lessons.
Inside the Measure by Measure Principles you’ll learn …
1. THE FOUR MEASURE PROMISE
First, we’ll simplify your approach with low-effort, high-leverage practices that are guaranteed to advance you in the music. Not only will you have a systematic way of working through your music, you’ll have a framework that you can apply to any music at any stage of your learning.
Turn the note-learning process into an easy warm-up that you’ll do first thing, then summon your creativity early in your practice to make every new phrase fun to learn. You’ll play expressively and beautifully every day with less effort. You’ll validate your new practice system by learning and recording (and sharing if you choose) newly-learned sections of your music.
2. SIGHT READING SECRETS
When you know the actual visual, tactile, and aural mechanics that maximizes your practice, reading music feels fun! Developed over 17 years (and more than 10,000 hours of observing people learn to read music), Sight Reading Secrets will teach you the “secrets” only the best sight readers know (but can’t actually express it to you, even if you ask them). You will engage your personal music strength (you have one, and if you don’t know it I’ll help you discover it). Taking that personal strength you’ll learn to exploit it while you read sheet music. You will support your new Super Power in the context of spontaneous sight read and learning the repertoire of your choice to summon your latent skills and let them blossom.
3. DELIBERATE PRACTICE FRAMEWORKS
With a high-yield practice and a newfound super power in place, you'll unlock the ability to learn new music faster than ever. With the Piano Reader’s favorite practice frameworks you’ll have more tools at your disposal. You’ll learn the ability to dismantle any musical problem into its essential parts, all while maintaining trust in you creative vision. You’ll avoid getting stuck in the process because you’ll always have multiple pathways to success. Your motivation, technique, memory, and accuracy of performance will grow with just a few simple approaches that can carry you for years in your learning.
What my students say about
the program
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FREE GIFT #2 ... Piano Reading 102: Beyond the Notes
FREE GIFT #3 ... Beginners Techniques: 7 Habits for Success
FREE GIFT #4 ... 5-finger Repertoire: 37 Easy Pieces
FREE GIFT #5 ... Bach's Prelude in C: The Genesis Of Piano
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What's Inside
"Measure by Measure"
Frequently Asked Questions
Nope! It won't be too hard. We start with the basics, to make sure you're reading like a grown up (and not using childish tricks). The trainings is concise, comprehensive and practice-oriented.
The Repertoire Refinery is full of hidden gems especially for intermediate students. Yes - Measure by Measure is great for intermediate students, all the way to early-advanced students.
A few members supplement their Measure by Measure subscription with an in-person piano teacher. Most people are fully in the DIY mode and don’t have a piano teacher. I’ll give you lots of resources and lenses that will help you fill the roll of teacher for yourself, so you know when you're doing things right.
Like any program, you get out what you put in. Decide what consistent practice looks like for you. If that’s twice a week, that’s a great place to start! My "4-Measure Promise" is this: If you can sit down and learn 4 measures of music, twice a week to start, you’ll see tremendous progress.
I keep you engaged during the month as I roll out new content and repertoire for the course, but you can work through it at whatever pace feels comfortable. If you have a busy month, just pick up where you left off or start a new piece - it's very flexible.
It is self-paced. I'm here to point you in the right direction and answer questions whenever you need.
Any piano or keyboard will work. Any device will do.
Yes. You need some device to access to the content - your phone will work, but a tablet or computer with a bigger screen is ideal.
To keep Measure by Measure reasonably priced, it is a subscription model. To access any of the content you’ll need a current subscription. You will lose access to the content after the end of your last-paid month of membership once you cancel. See the Terms of Service for more details.
Yes. You can cancel any time. After you cancel you won't be charged again.
There is no free trial unless specified above. There is no money-back guarantee. Your month-to-month payments are nonrefundable, but you can cancel any time.
Yes. $270 per year saves you $54 and grants you access to the Technique module.
You can upgrade to annual at any time and it will prorate your current billing period towards the annual.
YouTube tutorials are almost always “learn by rote” experiences. They don’t foster your music literacy by requiring you to read.
You won’t find music like this on YouTube. The search-based “algorithm” means that YouTube pianists only teach the popular songs that everybody knows, regardless of whether or not those are actually good repertoire for the use of learning piano skills.
The Measure by Measure frameworks and principles that I reinforce with the unique repertoire are what set this apart from random YouTube lessons.
Mostly classical music.
You can apply the principles you learn to any other music. With this approach, you will see more carry-over than you can imagine.
I use classical music for a couple of reasons - one is to make sure that I comply with all copyright laws. Most programs illegally use copyrighted music without obtaining a license to use it.
My experience teaching piano for over 20 years also taught me that this music is the best venue for learning skills at the piano, regardless of your goals. If you want to play classical, jazz, pop, gospel, or anything in between, there is no disadvantage to learning classical music as your foundation, but huge disadvantages if you do not. It will only serve you in the long run.
Umm, yes! Like, that’s the whole thing.
Yes, there is a community feature to the program for asking questions and feedback opportunities. I consider the community a “perk”, not a core feature of the program. It’s there for us to use and I engage in it as best as I can, but it’s not required for your use of the program.
I answer every question that comes up in the community (give me a day or two), but I can’t guarantee that I’ll have time to personally answer every concern that comes up.