Keyboard skills associated with jazz, pop, and other improvisatory styles may be taught so that instead of working against or being separated from the classics, this more comprehensive set of skills complements and enhances students’ understanding of traditional piano repertoire, and vice versa.  This way of teaching can be referred to as integral keyboard teaching.

Gaining music literacy, the ability to read music, is an essential and desirable lesson ingredient for a student learning to play keyboard music. However, it is not the only important aspect. Piano players, if they are complete musicians, should be ready to simply sit down and just play something, whether they have their music with them or not, or whether they have a piece memorized or not. This way of playing involves skills that come from the aural, or oral, traditions of music from around the world, and include improvising, arranging, composing and playing by ear.

To develop these abilities, piano students must understand music from the inside out, a highly useful proficiency in all styles of music. It's actually a required, yet fun way of looking at things, when jazz/pop keyboard players create arrangements and play contemporary styles. Unfortunately, piano students are often caught in a quandary of which type of teacher to choose. “Classical teachers” emphasize notes and fingerings, while “jazz teachers” teach chords and such. When taking piano lessons, students shouldn’t have to choose between either learning how to play jazz from a lead sheet, or learning how to play a fully written out piece by a composer such as Beethoven. After all, it is said that Beethoven improvised more than he wrote down. Both of these sets of skills are important, and both sets of skills inform each other in the learning process.

Students who are familiar with the building blocks of music are often far better music readers than those who are not. Keyboardists with a working knowledge of these rudiments are more capable of learning and interpreting the great works of art music from the past, which are a part of the vast and wonderful world of piano repertoire. And perhaps most important, students who learn keyboard this way more readily find their own voice as musicians.