Posts Tagged ‘Playing Piano’

Piano playing is an art with unlimited possibilites. Pippi Longstocking made a remark in a film that can be used when you try to learn to play piano.

Pippi Longstocking is a nine-year-old Swedish girl in a series of children’s books. Pippi has red braids and is very unconventional, assertive, extraordinarily strong, and rich. She lives alone with a monkey and a horse in an old funny house. Her friends Tommy and Annika accompany her on her wild adventures.

One Christmas when she was alone in the house looking out through the window feeling lonesome her lyoung friends and the children from town came in a procession to her house surprising her with a Christmas present.

She was very happy when she saw them and when she opened the present she found a trumpet and immediately started to play on it.

One of the children commented: “I did’nt know that you played trumpet!”. Pippi answered smilingly: “Well, it is easier when you have a trumpet!”

Much wisdom there. It is easier to learn to play an instrument if you have an instrument. It is easier to learn to play piano if you have a piano. Do you have a piano?

What does it mean to have a piano. Let me explain………..

One of my cousins lived with her family in a small town in a small house. In the house was a tall black piano bought from a nearby amusement park. This piano was fascinating in one aspect.

It was fantastically out of tune!

When you played a melody on the piano it was like playing in different keys at the same time. My cousin living there never became a pianist. I don’t know if the out of tune piano put her off but it sure didn’t help her.

She learned one funny piano song at least and I can still remember the sound of it on that piano.

I think that you can say that a piano has to be tuned or it isn’t really a piano. All those beautiful and fantastic piano compositions are intended to be played on a tuned instrument.

I would suggest the following….

1. Have a piano. Meaning a tuned instrument. Make it a priority to have your piano tuned by a piano tuner or if you are adventurous, try to tune it yourself! Read about piano tuning on the net.

2. Buy a digital piano. It is always in tune but has other small disadvantages. It should have weighted key action to imitate the action of an acoustic piano.

When I was a child we always had our piano in tune but I guess it is quite common to find pianos that is out of tune around the globe.

I guess you can get used to playing on out of tune pianos but this will limit your progress and the joy you deserve to experience when you play piano.

Have you ever seen someone playing piano without sheet music and wonder “how are they doing that?”

It’s like magic to the uninitiated. They think this person must have years and years of piano lessons under their belt. And while some pianists do have years of classical training it doesn’t mean a thing!

That’s right. In fact, taking classical piano lessons can actually hinder your ability to just sit down and freely improvise. No, what most improvising pianists know is how to use chords. Chords and knowledge of the scale the chords came from is all that is needed to make music at the piano.

Now, most of you have heard of triads. These are 3 note chords that sound something Mozart or Beethoven might have played for their children to get them interested in piano. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with learning triads – except for one thing… they’re boring!

Listen to this…

What if you could learn a chord position that would give you a modern sound right away AND allow you to use both of your hands. And what if this chord structure could provide you with rich, lush sounding chords? You’d probably want to learn this kind of chord type over triad’s right?

Yet thousands upon thousands of piano students begin their studies with the age-old chord structure known as the triad. Now, thankfully, you don’t have to start this way.

Here’s the point. This is the year 2006. We have Jazz and contemporary styles that go beyond the triad and begin with something called seventh chords.

But how exactly do we play these? By using something called the Open Position Chord structure. Here we use both hands to finger a modern sounding seventh chord. And we use over 2 octaves of the keyboard as well. With this kind of chord, we can instantly begin creating our own music.

How easy is this? If I were to tell you that you could begin creating your own music within 1 hour would you believe me? Probably not. But if I were to show you exactly how to do it… well, then, that’s another matter altogether. Don’t take my word for it. Just take my free lesson below and see for yourself!

The pleasure of being able to play a song on the piano is something that must be experienced. And playing piano does not have to be difficult — there are methods for easy piano that get you started with just 3 or 4 simple chords.

Repetitive songs are great for beginners to get used to the keys while still being able to create a pleasant melody. Beginning piano players often start out with easy piano classics, such as “Chopsticks,” which is a great building block for more complex arrangements.

The first and easiest piano song to learn, for kids and adults alike, is “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” This song is a simple three-note tune that allows beginners to practice the key and get used to where their hands and fingers go. This song acts as a stepping stone for more complicated piano classics.

Other songs that are great for kids and beginners are “Jingle Bells,” “Ode to Joy,” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” These easy piano classics require little or no knowledge of piano keys and don’t entail the player to be able to read sheet music.

A great way for adults to get started quickly on the piano is to take an online course such as “How To Play Chord Piano” that teaches 3 or 4 chords and shows how to play a simple melody with the right hand while harmonizing it with those 3 or 4 chords.

Learning to Play Easy Piano Classics

The idea of playing Bach can seem unrealistic for new students who are learning to play piano, but in truth, Bach offers simple compositions that prepare students for more complicated songs. The same is true of Chopin and Beethoven songs. Seek easy arrangements for classic piano favorites, and you may surprise yourself with the types of songs you can play.

Timeless Piano Classics

If you are drawn in by the timeless piano tunes that have been around for centuries, some easy classics to start with include “Ave Maria,” “The Wedding March,” “The Emperor Waltz,” “Swan Lake,” and “Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot.” A collection of piano songs that include one or more of these titles will feature timeless music that never goes out of style. The nice thing about learning these types of songs is that they are appropriate to play for almost any occasion.

Easy Contemporary Songs

In addition to timeless classics, beginners enjoy learning to play contemporary songs on the piano. There are equally as many contemporary collections of piano music available as well.

Some contemporary titles for piano to look for are “When I Fall in Love,” “My Heart Will Go On,” “Stayin’ Alive,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Terms of Endearment,” “You Light Up My Life,” “The Way We Were,” “Somewhere Out There,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Unchained Melody,” and “What a Wonderful World.” Obviously this is just a small sampling of what is available. Collections are available based on movie titles, specific decades, children’s movie hits, easy listening, jazz, rock, and more.

Where to Find Easy Piano Classics

Many collections of classic piano songs exist, and there are plenty of places to find them. The format of music you choose will depend on how you intend to learn the easy piano classics.

1. Online: Popular classic piano music is widely available for free download on the Internet. Learning to play piano for free is possible with the help of piano websites.

2. CDs: Easy classics for piano are also available on CD. CDs are nice because they offer a collection of similar melodies and are all at the same level of difficulty to play. A simple online search will provide hundreds of listings for music CDs available that feature piano classics.

3. Sheet music: Easy classic music for piano, of course, can still be found in the basic form of sheet music. You can find sheet music through websites, music stores, and any place that sells pianos or offers piano lessons.

If you’re looking for a perfect way to keep your mind sharp, piano playing is the solution. It exercises several different parts of the mind and body, while providing you with years of musical enjoyment. Whether you play piano currently or are thinking about starting, playing piano is great brain food.

Our population is aging. People are living longer lives, and they are constantly looking for brain food to keep their mental prowess in peak condition. One of the best ways to keep those hamsters running might be sitting in the corner of your living room gathering dust. That old piano of grandma’s has more than its share of brain teasers. Here are 7 benefits of learning to play the piano:

1.Piano playing increases coordination. In order to play piano, your hands must develop independent coordination. This is one of the basic ways to keep your mind sharp. Each hand must often perform entirely different movements, and the brain must tell each hand what to do. By learning separate hand coordination, you stimulate several different areas of the brain. Practice each hand separately, and then combine the movements of each hand.

2. Piano playing increases hearing awareness. Not everyone is born with a good sense of pitch, but people can develop it through exposure and practice. When you play piano, you train your ear to hear pitches and tones in relation to one another. This makes developing a sense of relative pitch possible. Intervals stimulate your mind in slightly different ways. A perfect fifth will cause one reaction in your brain, while a seventh will cause an entirely separate reaction. This trains the mind to recognize pitches and intervals, even if beneath the level of the concious mind.

3. Sight reading offers the brain another workout, as the eyes must follow the music while the hands play it. The ability to sight read is similar to knowing a foreign language, yet also requires extreme hand-eye coordination. The eye muscles are also strengthened as they move up and down the staff across the page.

4.The analysis of musical passages and learning the theory involved is another mental exercise when you play piano. It’s brain food at its finest. Chords, melodies, and changes are all rooted in complex musical theory. It pays dividends to learn and understand how music is put together.

5. Piano playing increases social participation. When you play piano in the presence of others, you are participating in a valuable social exercise. History is filled with participants and spectators in the world of music. You have the ability to make others’ time more enjoyable. You also meet other musicians who can share knowledge with you, expanding your understanding of the piano.

6. Proper piano playing, whether done for leisure or profession, keeps the fingers nimble. It strengthens all the muscles of the hands, which helps in other lines of work. A maintenance man with strong hands is more valuable than one with weak digits.

7. Besides all this, piano playing is great fun. It lets you create your own tune for the day. The piano has provided society with over a hundred years of enjoyment and will do so for hundreds more. It’s not only an instrument; it’s a social communication tool and a brain exercise, as well.

Play piano for your brain. It’s lot more fun than Sudoku, and it’s great at parties.

The piano is the most perfectly designed instrument for playing chords. It’s visually straightforward, easy-to-understand layout makes it simple for the beginning piano student to learn how to play chords. Unlike other instruments, such as the guitar, the player doesn’t need to learn how to contort her fingers in strange, unnatural ways just to play the most simple combinations of notes.

In contrast, the basic chords on the piano seem almost magically designed to be played by the human hand. When learning how to play the piano, the beginning pianist only needs to learn the structures of these basic chords, and a world of harmony opens itself up.

To start, although they are not technically chords, combinations of two notes — usually referred to as “intervals” or “dyads” — are often seen in piano music. Even if they aren’t technically chords, combinations of two notes are essentially the foundation of all music harmony. Thus, when learning how to play chords, it’s also a good idea for students to first learn intervals.

The smallest interval on the Western music scale is the minor second, which is made up of two notes that are only a half-step apart — for instance, E and the next F, or B and the next C. Although there are various ways of referring to the intervals, they are most often named as follows, in order of increasing size:

1. Minor second
2. Major second
3. Minor third
4. Major third
5. Perfect fourth
6. Augmented fourth (or diminished fifth)
7. Perfect fifth
8. Minor sixth (or augmented fifth)
9. Major sixth
10. Minor seventh
11. Major seventh
12. Perfect octave

You don’t have to learn all of them at once, but most piano players must learn them eventually. Plus, there are similar names for intervals larger than an octave, but they don’t come up quite as often.

When learning how to play chords, many students start out with triads, which are the most basic form of three-note chords. Basically, while intervals are the foundation of all musical harmony, triads are the starting point to more complex harmonies. Also, they are refreshingly simple and easy to play. For example, if you set the fingers of your right hand on the first five notes of the C major scale — C, D, E, F, and G — then your thumb, middle finger, and pinky are already in position to play the C major triad.

Your knowledge of intervals comes in handy when learning triads, of which there are four main types:

1. Major triad: A major third plus a minor third (e.g., C E G).
2. Minor triad: A minor third plus a major third (e.g., A C E).
3. Diminished triad: A minor third plus a minor third (e.g., B D F).
4. Augmented triad: A major third plus a major third (e.g., C E G).

Diminished and augmented triads occur far less frequently than major and minor triads, especially in the types of music usually played by beginning pianists. This will make more sense when you practice playing triads; major and minor triads will sound familiar and comfortable to the ear, while diminished and augmented triads will sound stranger and more dissonant.

Meanwhile, it’s important to understand the naming of triads. In short, all triads are named after their root note — the note which begins the scale the chord is based on. For example, the minor triad of A C E is referred to as “A minor,” because it is based on the A minor scale; the major triad of F A C is referred to as “F major,” because it is based on the F major scale: the diminished triad of Bb D F is referred to as “Bb major,” and so on.

Beyond intervals and triads, the range and terminology of piano chords only becomes more layered and complex. The number of things you will have to learn may seem daunting at first, but it’s always important to remember that learning how to play chords is a series of baby steps. For example, soon after learning about triads, you might want to learn about chord inversion, or how to turn triads into seventh chords. Both of these techniques, though becoming more advanced, are relatively simple on their own. So, when learning, stick with one thing at a time, and soon you will not be so confused by all of those bizarre chord notations you see everywhere.

What Is Rocket Piano?

It’s a top ranked piano lessons course which can be downloaded online. It includes 218 step-by-step lessons, 57 video lessons, 133 audio files, piano jazz piano book, and much more. It’s an all inclusive program for anyone who wants to improve their piano playing regardless of their current skill level. For example it’s a perfect fit for someone who is just getting started playing piano (or keyboard/synthesizer) but it’s also a great fit for an intermediate player and even advanced players will likely be able to greatly improve their abilities by using the techniques taught in Rocket Piano.

Who Is Ruth Searle?

She is an excellent piano player who is classical trained as a pianist. She does not play only classical piano. She also has extensive experience playing many other types of music including pop, blues, rock, jazz, and gospel music.

Why should you care? Because she will be your personal piano teacher when you download Rocket Piano.

How Much Does It Cost?

It’s normally $99.95 to download but they do sometimes offer a lower price. But even at $99.95 it would be far cheaper than paying a personal piano teacher. Think about it. Instead of paying for each lesson separately you are paying for all of your lessons at once!

There’s also a physical version of the program but costs over $200 and since it’s exactly the same thing that’s in the download version we think it makes much more sense to buy the download version of Rocket Piano by Ruth Searle.