Out of the way
On listening, freedom, and the art of playing from within.
A short book for musicians who already know the rules, and are ready to forget them.
Wrong notes do not exist. Every dissonant note is an open door.
The book
I have played piano by ear for more than twenty-five years, never from a method, always by listening. This book is the closest I have come to putting that into words.
It will not hand you a system to master in thirty days. It is an invitation back to the freedom most trained musicians slowly lose, written from my own life and from the rooms where I learned it. You can read it in an evening, and then spend years finding out what it means at the piano.
Photo hereRoger at the acoustic piano, mid‑play, warm natural light, eyes closed or hands in motion. A quiet, real moment rather than a posed shot. Portrait orientation.
Where it comes from
My journey on earth started in an incubator in 1975, and even before that, in the womb with my identical twin brother. That is where I learned to listen, before I could see. It moves to a piano that was kept locked at a storytelling workshop, where one question from a stranger changed how I played forever. And it arrives at the thing I do now, sitting beside people and playing them back to themselves.
None of it was taught to me. I found it by ear, in surrender, trust and freedom. That is the whole subject of the book, and it is something you can find too.
Inside
Why the search for the correct note quietly divides you, and what your playing becomes when you stop searching.
The kind of listening that leaves anxiety nowhere to stand, and turns intuition from a gift into a habit.
How the spaces you leave open carry more than the notes you crowd around them.
A practical way in. Find the ground note, play the melody, build the chords beneath it, and treat every wrong note as a door.
Soundtrack of the Soul
Over the years I have given thousands of Soundtrack of the Soul sessions. Someone sits down beside me. I know nothing about them in advance. And I play. Not for them. Them.
The music attunes to who a person is, right then, and gives back what is asking to be heard. People come back to themselves, often in ways that words had not reached. This book is where that work is written down. The sessions are where it is lived.
Photo hereRoger playing while one person sits close beside the piano, receiving the music. Intimate and candid, soft light. Landscape orientation.
Photo hereA calm portrait of Roger, looking to camera or just past it. Warm and simple.
About
I am an intuitive pianist. I have never read my way through music. I listen, I let go, and I let it come through me. What comes out is neoclassical and cinematic, slow melodic sound journeys rather than songs. My piano has been tuned to 432 Hz for twenty years, and my playing opened the day someone asked me to touch the instrument as if I were meeting it for the first time.
Since then I have played for stories, for rooms, and most of all for people, one at a time, sitting close. This book is the first time I have tried to give that away in words.
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A complete book, delivered as a PDF you can read anywhere. Intro price for early readers.
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