Starting in high school and though college, I had more opportunities to play at weddings and other events where I had to play songs on piano where I wasn’t just accompanying myself singing. Sometimes these were instrumentals where I could cheat and play in a more comfortable key. Other times, I was playing for someone else to sing. When that was the case, it was more important to play in the correct key. This was always a challenge.
Shortly after I was married, I was asked to play piano at a revival at a small country church. Soon I was asked to become one of the pianists in a regular rotation for this church. I took it on as a challenge. The church was small so if I messed up, not that many people would see me. Even more important was the opportunity to learn to play in a style where a congregation could sing along. Even though I was already able to play many of these songs, I usually played them in a style that suited my singing. Now I would be regularly challenged to play in the correct key and play songs like they had heard them in church forever.
One day I was talking to my mom about playing for this church. She offered me a bit of advice that is probably the best music lesson I ever received. She said when a song is written in 4 sharps, play it in 3 flats. When it is written in 3 sharps, play it in 4 flats. She knew that on the piano, playing in flats is more natural than sharps (It’s just the opposite on guitar). She told me I could save myself a lot of headaches by making this change and most people would never know the difference. While we rarely talked about my musical abilities, she knew enough about how I played to know that I would know what to do with this information. And it made a huge difference.
Her timing was spot on. If I had gotten this information before then, I wouldn’t have known what she was talking about. And it expanded my abilities to a degree more than any other lessons I’ve ever taken. My mom was my first and best music teacher.