Who writes this

I am Henry Q Allen. I have played piano at my church in St. Louis every Sunday since March 2007.

I did not grow up a pianist. I started on drums as a child and spent most of my teens and twenties known for singing and playing bass. The piano came at thirty-five, when my pastor asked me to become the church musician — which is a generous way of saying nobody else was going to do it.

I could not read music then. I learned the way most church pianists actually learn: by ear, one Sunday at a time, working out where a song wanted to go and getting it wrong in front of a congregation until it went right. Music directors called out chord numbers and held up fingers, and eventually I understood what the fingers meant.

Most piano instruction is written by people who trained the other way, for people they assume will also train the other way. It is good material and it was no use to me at all. So these books and charts are the explanation I wish someone had handed me on the day I said yes — sound first, names afterwards, and no assumption that you read a note.

Everything here is written for the person who has been handed a keyboard and a service, and has until Sunday.