Archive for January, 2009

Learning any musical instrument is an easy task, if the learner has a lot of determination and commitment. Piano learning is no exception and learning it is easy, if one is passionate about learning. Learning to play piano is an asset and creating your own music with chords and structures is an achievement. Today more and more people prefer to learn easy piano music that allows them to experience the pleasure of playing piano, without any glitches.

Getting started

Easy piano lessons and music make the entire process of learning piano, very simple. Easy piano music lessons offer one the luxury of beginning to learn piano, using three or four chords. For beginners, repetitive songs make them accustomed to the keys, chords and the pleasant melody involved in the tunes. ‘Chop sticks’, an easy piano classic is ideal for beginners and this acts as a template, on which complicated compositions can be built.

Easy piano songs

To learn easy piano music, a person has to select songs that are easy to play on a piano. The easiest song that is preferred by young and old alike, is the song, ‘Mary had a little Lamb’. The song’s tune is a three-note tune and this allows the learners to be familiar with the keys and use their hands dexterously. Songs like these are building blocks, in the process of learning. Songs like ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Row Row, Row your boat’ and ‘Ode to Joy’ are ideal for beginners. Choosing songs like these help one to master easy piano music, without any complication.

Easy piano classics

It is not true that when a person learns easy piano music, he learns songs that are simple and mundane. He/she can also experience playing classics, which are easy to play. The simple and classic compositions of the renowned musicians like Bach, Chopin and Beethoven offer the joy of playing classics on a piano, in a simple and lucid manner!

Easy piano classics are available online and one can download it from a particular site. They are also found in the form of CDs and even as musical scores. One can choose any form, depending upon his/her convenience. Learning the uncomplicated classical composition of the great masters is the first step towards learning more complicated songs.

Contemporary songs

Learning Easy piano music is inclusive of learning to play easy songs, easy piano classics and also contemporary songs, that are easy. Beginners consider learning contemporary songs, a pleasure. A gamut of songs are available that are timeless and simple, in the music galleries, across the globe. Songs like ‘My heart will go on’, ‘somewhere out there’, ‘Unchained melody’, etc are great songs that are also uncomplicated compositions.

Easy piano music can now be learnt online or using tutorials. A wide variety of websites offer classes on piano music and also teaches the learners easy ways to learn piano music. A person learning piano online or preferring self study must put in a lot of effort, unlike somebody, who learns piano, under the tutelage of a reputed teacher. He/she must work hard and concentrate their complete energy towards mastering their piano playing skill.

Only a person with total devotion, extreme passion and the urge to learn every nuance of playing piano becomes a great musician. Mastering the chords is the first step and the rest follows. Learning a few easy songs and classics can make a person restrict his talents. One has to learn, explore and experiment with music. A true musician masters basics practices consistently and finally focuses all his/her efforts in creating charming tunes that entertain and elevate!

In Here Comes The Sun by the Beatles, we get to hear George Harrison at his best. This is a classic and one of the best acoustic guitar songs to be learned. If you can play an open D chord, then you should be able to play the biggest part of the song. You will need a capo and put it on the 7th fret.

As learning all songs, you should have a recording of Here Comes The Sun. This will help you out with all the phrasing and the arrangement of the song. It’s important that you don’t skip this part. Don’t cut corners with your acoustic guitar playing. Lots of people do skip this part, but don’t be one of them! Rise above friends. Ok moving on.

Put your capo on the 7th fret and play a D chord. Right away this should remind you of the tune. It’s such a beautiful chords played there. By the way, this is now an A chord because we are playing it way up here. But for ease and lack of confusion we are going to refer to it as D in this lesson.

Can you take your second finger off the first string and hear it open. You will need to be able to do this. This gives you a Dsus 2chord. (Asus2 for the picky people). Now can you put your pinky on the first string, same fret as your third finger? This gives you a Dsus4 chords. You will need to be able to do this one as well.

At first these chords may seem a bit difficult, especially the Dsus2. Keep on them. Make sure your third finger is up and over the first string. You can’t let it touch the first string at all or you won’t get any sound out if it. The main part of the song will call for you to be able to get the D, Dsus2, and Dsus4 all ringing out perfectly.

To finish up this part, practice playing individual strings and getting all the notes to ring. If you can do this, then you will be ready to move on to the song.

First of all, you want to make sure that you find the best beginner bass out there. There are many of them that are horrible with mechanics and will give you a horrible playing experience – so you want to find one that is cheap and great for you as a beginner!

Some of the best guitars for you to start learning on is the: ESP B50, Squier Standard Jazz, and the Yamaha RBX374. All three of these bass guitars will give you a great start on learning the instrument. You’ll be learning in no time on how to to play!

Buying a bass guitar for a novice can be tricky… there are a ton of cheap beginner basses out there, but many of them feature cheap hardware, and shoddy workmanship. The trick is to find a bass guitar that is both easy to learn on, yet also easy on the pocketbook. The following basses, all of which hover in the couple hundred dollar range, are some of the best valued bass guitars on the market.

Keys To Learning the Guitar Effectively

Here are some things that you should do when learning the guitar:

o Always make time when trying to learn the guitar, you want to practice at least a little bit each and every single day!
o The hardest part is keeping time; so once you get this down, you’ll be able to add your own style to it and get a little fancy
o One of the great songs to learn as far as bass lines are any punk song or Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin – these are great songs that will help you learn with the Bass
o Know the importance of single strings and matching them up with the chords!
There are many other songs that can help you learn but you have to be patient.

You may also want to start learning those Bass Guitar Tabs so that you can start playing simple songs and knowing exactly where to place your hands when you are trying to play a song!

It will take some effort – but by learning the bass, you will be the heart and soul of every single song that you decide to play. That is by far the most incredible way to start learning the guitar!

Your child can announce that he wants to play the piano when he comes home. The question of he is too young, always arises. Generally anything under 4 or 5 is too young however children under 4 can still be introduced to music in many forms including piano that is appropriate for age and attention span. Many lessons can be learned by young children when put in the form of music. If your child is under 4, check with the local musical schools or pre-schools to see if they have any kind of musical programs for your child.

There have been many studies done regarding children and exposure to music with many positive results. Children exposed or involved in music early, learn to read earlier and generally score better on tests (even standardized tests such as SAT etc.).

Only you can tell if purchasing an acoustic piano is right for you and your budget; or perhaps you want to let your child first start with a digital one (less expensive) and judge to see if the expense is warranted based on your child’s enthusiasm.

Upright pianos and the grand piano style are examples of an acoustic piano. A digital one is just the key board and the electronics give all the sounds of a piano without taking up the room like an acoustic takes. Perhaps if space is tight in your house then a digital piano might be the way to go.

Since we are talking about teaching young children, the prospective teacher should be approachable, with the ability to motivate your child through inventive lessons. A devoted teacher will treat each child as an individual and gear lessons towards both your child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Ask the teacher about their philosophy on piano technique. Some teach that the fingers and only the fingers should be involved in playing, while others believe the whole arm is involved. See what the teacher feels is appropriate for your child and ask how they go about teaching it.

One method of teaching that does work with very young music students is called the Suzuki method. The drawback of this method is that it concentrates on developing istening skills but doesn’t teach the reading of musical notes until the child gets older. Some teachers swear by this method while others disagree.

The Music Tree (or Clark Method) does a very good job teaching the basics. The lessons teach the reading of music as well as counting, phrases and form from day one.

A very popular series is written by Nancy and Randall Faber (Faber & Faber) and is used by many teachers. The position method is taught in these books and it reinforces proper hand position and appropriate suggestions for counting.

There are many other methods used by teachers and the goal will be to find the right teacher and method for your child. Many teachers believe that playing scales over and over is the right thing to do, where as others feel it’s making a child do something that is not necessary. Some children do well with one method and not with another.

When speaking with the prospective teacher, ask about what books they use. Is it possible they loan the books to you until you know if the method they are going to use will be good for your child. That way should your child decide he doesn’t want to play piano anymore; maybe it has to do with the method being taught. Find out how flexible is the teacher when it comes to method.

By doing some foot work following your child’s announcement of wanting to play piano, you will be giving your child the gift of music today and long into their future.

How do you improve yourself as a worship drummer? The supportive nature of your instrument means that growing in skill and maturity is less a question of developing more riffs and chops and more that of learning how to choose the right notes for a song.

The root problem for worship drummers is this – They are usually not engaging with the songs that are being used for the worship. With this in mind, here are the three steps that will enable you as a drummer to engage more deeply with the worship songs, and help the congregation you serve to do likewise.

1) Get your rudiments right.

Many drummers playing for church are self-taught. This means their rudiments usually leave much to be desired. But you will need them in order to express the music within you and engage with the music.

So give the basics serious attention. If you can afford the time and expense get at least a few formal lessons in drum basics. Learn your single strokes, double strokes, paradiddles and double paradiddles; learn them well. Find a few four-way independence exercises and practice them diligently.

If time and money are an issue at the moment, seek out the free online drum lessons that abound on the Internet. Whatever you do, make sure you can express yourself through the instrument and get a good sound, or you may end up dragging the rest of the musicians down.

2) Learn a chord instrument.

If you want to play the drums with understanding and engage with a song, you need to think about how to use the drums to emphasize the important chord changes. For example, the crash cymbals very appropriate for bringing out the linking chords of a song. But it is hard to do that if you have no idea what is happening in the chords of the song.

So spend some time learning a chord instrument, maybe guitar or contemporary piano. When you can sense the chord movements within a song, you are better able to use the drums to support and emphasize these chord changes in a meaningful way.

3) Sing as you play.

It never fails to amaze me how few drummers actually sing as they play, even church drummers. But it is one of the simplest ways to grasp the feeling of a song and engage with it.

It also helps you choose the right notes to play on the drums. The singing will often give you strong hints on what rhythm patterns to use for a particular song. They will also tell you when to use fills and when to hold back.

And that is pretty much the area most church drummers miss it. They are as involved with the music as a drum machine would be, which is not at all. Or they play too much and become a distraction to the worship of the congregation. All these can be dealt with by just simply singing along with the song while playing and listening to how everything fits together.

Conclusion: These three steps are not flashy or glamorous. But they are very helpful to you because they force you to engage on a deeper level with the songs used in church. You will find that you then greatly enhance the worship experience of the church you serve, and glorify God in the eyes of his people.

Sheet music for Christian songs is becoming easier to obtain as the popularity of Christian music continues to rise. Many people use sheet music for Christian songs for various purposes. With the internet, you are no longer limited to buying sheet music at a local music store, nor are you limited to songs that already slipped from popularity. Sheet music for Christian songs is available in several different forms, and therefore used by different people. For example, many individuals use sheet music for their instrument or voice for their own personal worship, or to share as a soloist at their church. In another respect, a choir director or worship leader may use sheet music for Christian songs that covers various instruments and vocal ranges.

Whatever song or type of music you are looking for, you will probably find sheet music for Christian songs online, if not at your local music store. While your local music store may carry a great selection, often the internet had the best selection, especially of the newest Christian music. Internet search engines will also help you to find even those difficult to locate songs, whether older or hot off the contemporary Christian charts. Furthermore, you can find sheet music for Christian songs in many different styles of music. For example, there is sheet music for Christmas, gospel, contemporary and every style in between. There is sheet music for jazzy instrumentals to fill your service prelude or postlude needs. Sheet music for Christian songs is even available for your individual or worship teams or choir needs.

Websites sites may offer different options for ordering sheet music for Christian songs. Some websites are set up to let you hear the song before you order the sheet music. Many sites allow you to order individual songs, while some websites may also offer books of songs by a particular artist or company. Much of the sheet music for Christian songs is downloadable, provided you can use a credit card to pay for your selections. Most individual songs will be under three dollars. Keep in mind that sheet music for Christian songs needs to be used in accordance with the copyright laws that protect it. Most sheet music is available only for individual or church use. If your church is in agreement with Christian Copyright Licensing International, the license for reproducing lyrics and music, you must report your use of the sheet music.

You are no longer limited by going to your local music store for sheet music for Christian songs. Nor do you have to wait for an order if a particular song or book that you want is not in stock. Instead, you can search the internet which has many resources for ordering sheet music for Christian songs. Often, the Christian music you are looking for is only a click away.