Why can t I just learn chords straight away and not have to wait until Level 2?
Chords on guitar are rather wonderful, ready-made blue prints for a satisfying musical sound. Perhaps you are a chord-reading guitarist and wish to transfer this to the keys. There are some courses that teach this but it is not the point of Musically Fluent. In reality, learning chords on the keyboard is much easier and fluency with them is only possible if you first gain fluency in a melodic sense covering in all keys. The melodic map of the keyboard is the foundation. When you can improvise a melody in any key, without thinking, you are ready to start building chords. In reality, there is a grey area. I introduce broken chord textures in Level 1 although at this stage, we are still thinking in terms of single notes or a melodic sense of key. At level 2, we are still developing melodic key awareness but it makes sense to notice and tag a couple of simple root position chord structures that lie under the fingers.
