[zsetehtb] piano pedagogy

ways to teach or learn to play piano:

1. classical, solo repertoire.  (very common path)
2. as primarily an accompaniment instrument. mash out chords with a soloist playing another instrument.  (inspired by how piano is a rhythm instrument in jazz.)  if the soloist is a recording (this has become easier with modern technology), then this is "inverse karaoke".  or, soloist could be yourself, singing: maybe you've already learned the song singing with a recording.
3. as a tool for learning music in general, especially for learning to compose, arrange, or improvise.  this route should stress breadth of repertoire over depth -- lots of easy songs and arrangements -- in order to learn and internalize common patterns in music, to learn a vocabulary.  ("easy" of course changes as you grow in skill.)

2 and 3 seem easier routes.  1 and 3 require thinking about and performing melody and accompaniment simultaneously.  this makes 1 more difficult but is helpful for 3, to learn how parts interact, how a whole song is constructed.