Everyone wants to be able to sit down at the piano and “just play”. And I think it is a myth that either you can do it or not, that it is something you are born able to do or you cannot do it. I disagree. Are some people born with a natural gift for [...]
One of my regular adult private students said to me in her lesson a few weeks ago, “when you play the exact same notes, it sounds so different, so musical. What are you doing to make it sound so different?” That was a great question and it really got me thinking about what and how [...]
So how much time should you spend practicing your chords and how should you do it? I think that if you spend more than 10 minutes practicing chords, you will be too bored and will have the inclination to listen to your ipod or turn on your ipad. So keep it short. 10 minutes tops. [...]
My husband had just downloaded a bunch of songs onto his new ipod. One of them was “Whenever I See Your Face” by Sting and Mary J. Blige. It is an incredible song. Now, I have seen Sting in concert three times and have loved every minute of them. He is so poetic, versatile, and [...]
Did you know that there are seven chords in every key of music that you play? And within those seven chords, there are patterns that are used repeatedly. Let’s call the chord that is built on the first scale degree of the key your are in I. The second chord (built on the second note [...]
Now, you may be thinking. why is a piano website talking about singing? Well, I have been a singer my whole life as well as a pianist and I have been singing and teaching quite a bit lately. I think that one of the reasons that I love to sing is not only does it [...]
So, I cannot take credit for this analogy. I read this somewhere on-line. Honestly, I cannot remember where but I think it is brilliant. I use this analogy in all of my classes when I am teaching students about the Primary chords. Why do we care what the Primary chords are in a key? Because [...]
How did I get around to learning how to play jazz and popular music? Afterall, I had taken classical lessons from age 5 to 21 without a stitch of jazz. Well, this is what happened. When I was in my senior year in high school, I walked into my music room and there was a [...]
Well, first of all, the blues is the foundation of all popular music. This includes jazz, R&B, gospel and rock. So if you want to play in those genres, I highly recommend learning something about the blues. You want to start with the blues form (12-bar blues is best) and then learn the blues scales. [...]
Have you ever practiced and practiced a certain song or technique or chord progression and just couldn’t get it right? I think we’ve all experienced this in one form or another. Shouldn’t we just keep it up and wait for those synapses to kick in? When is persistance in practicing actually NOT a good idea? [...]
