Reading music is by no means cast aside, we just don’t make it the doorway you must pass through first.  As infants we don’t learn how to read before we learn how to speak.  On the contrary first we learn to talk, through parrot-like mimicry and repetition, then eventually with exposure to the written word we begin to learn to read and write – extremely useful skills of course and highly recommended in the fullness of time, but not essential in order to begin our journey of self-expression.

That said a knowledge of Scales and Chords does help super-charge memorisation, as it effectively offers a shorthand that reduces long sequences of notes to a few simple common chord progressions, consequently the list of things to remember reduces from the 100s to the single digits.  Scales & Chords are very simple concepts, and a fully produced series explaining them form the backbone of the theory course that will form part of the daily schedule on retreat, and will likewise be available in the online tutorial library, to which retreat participants receive full access of course.

Learning how to enjoy the piano is much more accessible than people assume.  All that’s needed for medium/long term gains is strategic and structured practice and a small but regular time commitment.  For short term gains the same applies but instead of an atomic approach, full immersion. The ultimate program then can be likened to the ultimate meditation practice, short of selling up and enrolling in a monastery, ie a mix of a small daily commitment during regular life, with a week or more per year on retreat.