“Do we have to study classical? I personally don’t particularly care about it; I just want to play some nice pop tunes” – Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Well, this time my answer won’t be very short, I’m afraid.

Imagine that you come to a language teacher and say, “I want to learn just 6 letters from the ABC, so that I could use a few books for very young readers that I particularly like. I don’t care about the rest and I never will, because is too difficult and boring to learn more”. What do you expect to hear in reply? Well, some teachers will be glad to give you just what you ask for (teachers need to eat something, too). Or, maybe, they themselves know just 12 or 15 letters, and it’s still enough for fulfilling your desire. Some of them will refuse to even bother with such a strange request. The most optimistic ones will try to convince you to consider learning more, because you have no idea how profoundly beneficial it can be for you, and how hugely enriched you would feel at the end.

Firstly, let’s talk about the classical piano technique. Since this glorious instrument was first created around 1700, many generations of talented musicians devoted themselves to mastering it, and they really developed the best ways to deal with it for to use all of it. For studying the piano, one of the toughest instruments, a student needs a structured approach, which includes developing deeper awareness and good understanding of one’s own hands and entire body, a lot of specific exercises and pieces for training one’s muscles and ligaments, and most importantly – ears! We don’t have to re-invent the wheel; it’s already invented, and successfully tested, and proved being perfect thousands times. You have no idea, how much more of subtle little things your ears could notice after just 2-3 years of training with classical requirements! However, if you are OK with playing some basic stuff with stiff, shaking, and tired hands, then, probably, you don’t even need a professional teacher. You could just ask some high school kid from your neighborhood, who is taking piano classes at school, to show you how to press those few keys on the keyboard. That could, possibly, satisfy your modest needs. (It’s quite possible to save a lot of money this way, too).

Secondly, what exactly do we call ‘classical’? As a mater of fact, that particular word has a very blurry meaning nowadays. Do you like soundtracks by Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Michel Legrand, Alan Silvestri, Thomas Newman? The list could go on and on… They are quite classical by the style. Do you like original soundtracks from video games, such as The Elder Scrolls, or Advent Rising? Those sound like nice classical symphonic pieces, too. By the way, the main theme from Metal Gear Solid was ripped off from G. Sviridov’s (famous Russian composer) symphonic pieces, “Troika” and “Winter Road”.

According to Wiki, “the use of his (Tappi Iwase’s – A.L.) theme song was discontinued from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots onward due to allegations that its motifs were plagiarized from a classical piece by Russian composer Georgy Sviridov.

In short, ‘classical’ style is just a set of tools for creating all kinds of music. ‘Classical music’ doesn’t mean only music by dead composers! Moreover, talking of the dead, who could you name out of that honorable list? Those, who state that classical music is “boring”, most possibly heard 3 or 4 names only. Have they heard of anybody else but Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky? How about Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Puccini, Verdi, Debussy, Ravel, and Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Medtner? And if they have heard those names, how much of those composers’ music would they recognize? Besides, if something that you’ve heard didn’t touch you right away, it doesn’t mean that all classical music is boring. Just by mere statistics, there are thousands of extremely various compositions out there, and considering ALL of them a piori being not good enough would sound at least very strange.

Thirdly, some of the pop stars appreciate, study and use classical singing technique. Here is a quote from one Internet blog: “A few pop and rock singers have studied the classical technique, believe it or not! In addition to Pat Benatar, Madonna (after she made it big) worked with a teacher on the “24 Italian Songs” to prepare for her role in “Evita.” Lady Gaga worked on classical technique every day for six months to prepare for her big “Sound of Music” medley at the Oscars. Contrary to popular belief, metal singer extraordinaire Ronnie James Dio did NOT take vocal lessons, but he did say he was greatly influenced by the singing style of tenor and great singer Mario Lanza!”

Finally, if you are thinking just about playing some pop songs, then I can tell you that a great number of modern songs, while played on the piano, proved to be not very suitable for this instrument. The fact is – originally, the majority of them are created for a vocalist and a band, or for the voice accompanied on the guitar. Being played on the piano, it may sound very scarce, not impressive at all, and not very pianistic, i.e. rather inconvenient for performing on a piano. Every musical instrument has its own particularities and limitations. Paradoxically, the piano’s ‘limitation’ is that it may sound poor if not fully used, and many modern pop songs are very primitively done. They can sound good only in a whole production, with lyrics, a band behind, and a lot of colorful show around. Just close your eyes while listening to different musical videos and try to focus only on the music itself. You will understand what I mean.