Posts Tagged ‘Playing Music’

When the time comes for help piano playing, you will find that there are many options available to you. Each option holds great promise. Just remember that not all options are created equally and that you may be much better served thinking a little outside the box depending on what your particular piano problems may be.

Harnessing the Power of the Mind to Improve Playing Piano

Your mind is the sharpest tool at your disposal for every task you tackle in life. Surely you understand the importance of the mind when seeking help piano playing? Music can be an excellent source of solace, a creative outlet, or simply a means of expression. It can also be a source of infinite frustration when you find yourself facing a brick wall where you seem unable to improve playing piano and yet are not ready to find your own personal plateau.

Can Self Hypnosis Help?

Most people do not think of hypnosis as a source for help when it comes to things like music and art. But when you do take the time to think about it, hypnosis is almost an ideal solution for many reasons. First of all, it’s the subconscious mind that handles creativity in music, words, and/or art. Hypnosis is the art of using the subconscious part of the brain to send messages to the conscious part of the brain (the short version at any rate).

What are Your Options to Help Piano Playing Progress?

There are many options that can aid you in your pursuit of piano playing perfection, or as near as you may be capable of getting to that perfection. So, what can you do to improve your piano playing abilities?

Endless hours of practice

You should be well aware that practice makes perfect. Why should anything else be true when it comes to getting help piano playing? Tack on an extra 30 minute practice drill each day of the week and you will find yourself playing better than ever before.

Learn New Techniques for Old Drills

Looking at the same old thing in a different light can have a huge impact on how effective it can ultimately be. Why wouldn’t this be the case when it comes to getting help piano playing? If you are having difficulty with the same old drills find a new way of incorporating the skills those drills teach into your piano playing routine.

Find a New Teacher

Sometimes students out pace the teacher. This happens in all sorts of things. Professional golfers outgrow the instructions of their coaches and need new coaching to breath new life into their game. The same can be the case for you if you need help piano playing and your current teacher isn’t giving you what you need.

How About Hypnosis?

Each of these is a valid tool for improving but will net marginal results and may lead to frustration and discontentment with the piano in general. Hypnosis reaches the part of the mind that is actually responsible for learning these drills, skills, and techniques in a way that instruction and practice may never be able to manage. Put the power of hypnosis to work for you today and find all the help piano playing you will ever need.

Blues guitar chords are not really different than the chords you would find in many styles of music. What make blues music and blues guitar different is the fact that most of the chords are of the dominant family instead of the major or the minor family. In this article I’ll explain the difference and point you in the right direction to learn more blues guitar chords and spice up your blues guitar playing.

All chords in music are divided into 3 families: major, minor, and dominant. Altered chords usually get lumped in with the dominant chords also. All chords are built from the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale. As the chords get bigger, we can start to add in the 7th tone as well, and even notes from the second octave of the scale. This would mean the 9th is really the same as the 2nd, the 11th is the same as the 4th, and the 13th is the same as the 6th. An interesting side note is that a 13th chord actually has every single note in the scale.

Triads are the building blocks of all chords. A triad is a chord that contains the requisite 1st, 3rd, and 5th and nothing more. The major triad has the 1st 3rd and 5th with no alterations. A minor triad has the 1st and 5th, but the 3rd note is flatted. To flat a note means to lower it by 1/2 step. B would become Bb for example, and C# would become a C.

The major chord family is notated by the word “major” in the name of the chord. A major7th chord has a 1,3,5, and 7 from the major scale. A major9 chord has a 1,3,5,7, and 9 (same as 2 but up an octave.) Major11 adds an 11, and major13 adds the 13 on top of that.

The minor chord family has the word “minor” in the name of the chord. These chords all have 1,b3, and 5 from the minor triad. A minor7 chord has a flatted 7 as well. Minor9 adds a 9 (not flatted), minor11 adds an 11, and minor13 adds a 13. Only the 3rd and 7th are flatted in all cases.

The dominant family is the most common in blues music. The dominant family is the default case. So C7 is really C dominant 7 even though it’s usually not notated that way. These chords all have a 1,3,5, and a flatted 7th. The 9th chord adds a 9, the 11th an 11, and the 13th a 13. In all cases the 7th is the only flatted note.

The most common blues guitar chords are the 7th chord and the 9th chord. The 7th can be used for hundreds of songs. The 9th is a great substitution for the 7th chord and can add quite a bit of spice to your playing. The 11th and 13th chords can take a bit of getting used to.

Obviously, on the guitar, we have to leave some notes out to play an 11th or 13th chord because we can’t play 6 or 7 notes at a time. Even most common chords that have all 6 strings have some duplicate notes to make them playable. Getting used to playing all of the 7th chord and 9th chord shapes will get you well on your way to great blues guitar playing.

I’ve taught piano to lots of kids of all descriptions, but children with disabilities are the greatest beneficiaries of piano by number. The reason for this is that many of these kids may not be able to read sheet music. Thus piano by number is their only chance to enjoy playing music on the piano.

The result varies, of course, with the particular disability, and the gravity of the disability is the major factor in how well the child is able to play piano by number. But that’s only from our, the adult, point of view. From the child’s point of view, piano by number is easy and fun. It’s a refreshing victory for many of these kids who have trouble with learning.

But, since each condition limits ability so specifically, we should discuss the result according to each specific condition. Some of these conditions I have had direct experience with; others I refer to using emails and letters of people who have communicated to me the success they’ve had using piano by number with their special kids.

I want to stress that I’m not a doctor: I’m a piano teacher who was asked by parents of certain special kids, many of them home-schooled, to teach them piano. I observed these kids closely, and would in fact say that it was my experience with them that led me to develop the piano by number books.

Here’s a list of the special kids we discuss here:

DOWN’S SYNDROME
TOURETTE’S SYNDROME
ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER

DOWN’S SYNDROME

The kids I taught were all enthusiastic, but limited in their apparent perceptions and attention span. They loved the fact that they can play simple songs like Twinkle, Twinkle right away, with little or no confusion. Numbers are that simple. I usually hammer home an easy song like Jingle Bells right away, to give them confidence, coming back again and again until they feel comfortable. All of these kids responded enthusiastically to playing simple songs; there was no child who could not play at least a portion of a song like Jingle Bells, much to their delight. Piano is not just for Paderewski or Billy Joel!

They also enjoyed simple rhythm games, and the art of guessing whether a chord is happy or sad. Regarding rhythm, I had two boys with Down’s who were excellent at rhythm. One of them even played drums and various percussion instruments with such deadly accuracy, that I wondered if they could actually be percussionists. They had the most developed sense of rhythm that I’ve seen in ANY child, normal or special.

The Down’s kids were also very good at guessing whether a chord is sad or happy, a task that many normal kids have far more trouble with. My theory for this, and I’m not a doctor, is that Down’s kids are very open to the emotion that is so forthright in any chord. They seem able to easily identify the chord’s emotional qualities and in doing so seem in touch, for a moment, with their own constantly shifting feelings.

For Down’s kids, piano by number is a natural activity. They want so much to learn things, but are so easily defeated by failure. That’s why piano by number is so good for them. They win at an activity right away, and somewhere inside they are proud of themselves.

TOURETTE’S SYNDROME

In my experience, Tourette’s kids are so brilliant that I can hardly call it a disorder, except for the obvious, but entirely understandable behavior problems. I’ll say it again: these kids are brilliant. They have unbelievable intellectual stamina, concentration and attention span. But at a certain point they’ve had enough of one particular activity, and are exhausted by their own strenuous efforts. They seem to have no idea how to pace themselves, but flame through problems, solving them with alarming ease, and then flop back, exhausted.

For example, one boy, about 12, was so smart that he learned to read sheet music with me in about 15 minutes. Just understood everything I was saying, and did it perfectly! How? His brain seemed wired for music! Piano by numbers was so simple for him that at his first lesson he learned all 12 major chords, a feat that takes top level normal kids months!

Kids, any kids, understand numbers readily. That’s why I use numbers to get them started. I’d rather have a child happily playing by number than quit completely in frustration due to conventional methods. I’m not against the conventional methods, I just want kids to have the chance to start a little more slowly. The benefits are enormous.

ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER

Most of the ADHD kids I teach are home-schooled, and are a lovely bunch of kids. I expected more distracted kids, but found instead that ADHD kids really wanted to learn, but needed very careful and slow attention to prosper. For example, I’m always saying that a teacher should never express disapproval, a saying originally coined for normal kids. But it goes double for ADHD kids. Keep trying again and again, and these kids will surprise you. They also have great retention, that is, once you teach these children a concept, they have got it down, and they don’t forget it. They are so proud of mastering something that they etch it in their brain, one of their trophies!

My impression is that ADHD kids liked the simplicity of numbers, and only really wanted a chance to succeed and excel at something. And numbers is that “something” for a lot of these kids. The most important element for them seemed to be each small victory in understanding things in their own way; if I had to encapsulate my experience, it would be to say, ‘Find a way to get them to understand it on their own terms, not yours.

ADHD kids often made the jump to reading sheet music. Many never really got beyond numbers and playing chords. But that is more than most normal kids ever do.

The bottom line for me with kids and disabilities, and piano by numbers, is that it is the only piano or music method which allows these kids to enter the field of play on an even level, and play music that is simple but satisfying. Normal methods are impossibly difficult, physically and mentally. Piano is for everyone, absolutely everyone.

Aside from the musical benefits, piano by number is a fabulous number game for kids of all ages and descriptions. Many is the child that learns or solidifies the relationships between numbers from a piano keyboard: 3 is lower than 4, 2 is higher than 1.

The piano demonstrates these simple mathematical facts to kids of all descriptions better than any device I know.