Aug 30
Chord symbols (for example, Cmaj7 or G6) are a type of notation used frequently in jazz and other areas of modern music to notate chord progressions and changes. This type of notation differs from that of classical music in that chord symbols don’t show the function of a chord the way the Roman numeral notation does. Chord symbols, for modern music with lots of changes, are much easier to read. They function as a sort of shorthand for change-heavy music and are written with four chord parts in mind: the root, the quality, the extension, and the alterations.
The first part in chord symbols, the root, tells the musician which note is the root of the chord. In an E6 chord, for instance, the E serves as the root. Chord symbols also allow for inverted chords, or chords with a root other than the bass note. These chord symbols express that by showing the bass note with a diagonal slash under the original symbol.
Quality, the second part in chord symbols, denotes whether the chord is major, minor, diminished, or augmented. In a Cmaj7, the maj tells us that the C chord is major. The abbreviations for this area in chord symbols are maj, min, dim, and aug, respectively.
The extension in chord symbols, written after the quality, shows the musician if the chord differs from a triad (a third chord), such as an eleventh or seventh. This part of chord symbols is not always shown; if there is no indication of an extension, the musician is to assume that the chord is a triad.
The last part in chord symbols, the alteration, is usually but not always expressed. Think of this part as the “notes” section in chord symbols; it gives the musician any specific (and sometimes irregular) instructions for playing the chord and is always written in parentheses after the extension (or the quality, if no extension exists). For instance, (no fifth) would tell the musician that the chord is to be played with the fifth tone left out. Sus – short for “suspension”, would mean to play the 4th scale note instead of the 3rd. A minus sign would mean to lower (flat) a chord tone, such as C-9 which would mean to flat the 9th of the chord. Conversely, a plus sign would mean to raise (sharp) a particular chord tone.
Reading music using chord symbols allows a person to use written music as a map, rather than a note-for-note approach. By just reading the melody note and the chord symbols, musicians can improvise to their hearts content and create their own sounds on the keyboard.
The best of all worlds, however, is to be able to read music as it is written in a sheet music score, but also be able to read the chord symbols. Then the musician is free to choose which is best – the written part, or an improvised part. The sky is the limit for musicians who can do both. For a course on playing piano using chord symbols, take a look at “How To PLAY More Notes Without READING More Notes”
When studying the piano, a student encounters a myriad piano styles. To master the instrument, at least several of these styles must be learned, and all if at all possible. Knowledge of various playing styles enables a pianist to enjoy and play in any genre and to cross-polinate styles to create a fusion he or she can call their own.
Many modern piano styles are based on the blues. The blues involve an emphasis on the major and minor pentatonic scales, with an additional note included. The flatted fifth is added to the minor pentatonic to create the blues scale. Many blues songs are based on a simple chord progression, known as 12-bar blues. This uses the I, IV and V chords of a scale to create a foundation for melodies and solos.
For example, rock piano was born out of the blues and then took on a life of it’s own in the stylings of Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael McDonald, Elton John, Billy Joel, and many others.
Cocktail piano is a style generally connected with Liberace, Eddy Duchin, Roger Williams, and others who play popular tunes with lots of great technique — lots of notes, runs, flourishes, and so on. But I hate to catagorize and of these great pianists, as many of them play in other styles as well.
Boogie-woogie is a piano style based on the blues. It started as a solo piano style, but has expanded into other genres, such as county-western and gospel. It differs from the blues in that it is considered dance music, while blues music traditionally expresses sadness and frustration.
Rhythm and blues piano is based on blues, jazz, and gospel styles. As the name suggests, the emphasis is on the rhythm of the song. Most R&B has a particular swing to it, with a strong feel of syncopation in the rhythm. Syncopation involves placing the stress on a normally unstressed beat. This often results in an almost off-time feel to the untrained ear.
Ragtime piano also incorporates syncopation. Ragtime uses syncopation in its melodies by placing melodic notes between the stressed beats of the rhythm. Ragtime is often considered the first completely American genre, even predating jazz.
Jazz piano encompasses such a broad palate of styles that it is impossible to describe. Many piano styles incorporate ideas borrowed from jazz, such as improvisation. An emphasis on extended chord forms also stems from jazz piano.
New age piano often involves less chord changes than other styles, instead relying on simple two-chord progressions and polychords. A polychord occurs when two different chords are played at once. This technique is taken from earlier classical works by composers such as Stravinsky.
Gospel piano is often similar to the blues, jazz and R&B. It emphasizes certain extended chords, such as the 11th, and usually has the swinging feel associated with jazz and R&B. The apparent simplicity of gospel songs often hides the fact that they are, indeed, quite musically complex. Syncopation is highly stressed in gospel music, as it contributes to the overall spiritual feel of the music.
Country and western piano has similar roots as blues piano. Both styles stem from earlier folk styles, often developed by the less fortunate people of the era. Many early country songs stem from Appalachian folk songs. Country and western piano is highlighted by very bright playing, with simple chord progressions underneath the melody.
Traditional sacred piano styles involve the playing of liturgical songs and hymns. These can range from the harmonically and rhythmically complex to simple two and three chord songs. Many hymns stem from folk songs of centuries past. The variety of sacred piano styles is as numerous as the liturgical songs themselves. These piano styles often involve a strict reading of notation, with less of an emphasis on personal interpretation than other styles.
The classical piano style is probably the most varied of all the styles. Classical music is older than other styles, and is considered to the proper grounds for musical instruction. Many elements of other piano styles come from classical music, and nearly all forms of musical theory are used in classical music. Classical music usually requires intense training to master, though there many pieces designed with the novice player in mind.
Though classical is often considered the high point of music, this “ain’t necessarily so.” For instance, many players who are “classically trained” have trouble adapting to the feel and sincerity of the blues. For this reason, a well-rounded player should be adaptable and learn as much about each of these piano styles as possible. In this way, a pianist is ready for any musical challenge. And besides, who knows where the future of music lies?
I was blown away with his technique, playing complicated improvised runs at the speed of sound, and having fun doing it — singing along, now and then laughing, and generally just enjoying the music almost as much as those of us in the audience.
From his early love of music to his last years, Oscar Peterson’s life was full with accomplishments and support from his family. The decision to become a professional pianist led to a weekly radio show and many performances in hotels and music halls for Peterson.
Although his life ended at the age of 82, Oscar Peterson had a productive career that ended too quickly. Named Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, he was born on August 15, 1925, in Canada. As a child growing up in Canada, he and his family lived in a predominantly black neighborhood called Little Burgundy in Montreal. Because of his surroundings, Peterson was largely influenced by jazz music, which was extremely popular during this era.
Peterson started playing and perfecting the art of the trumpet and piano at age five. However, tuberculosis caused him to stop playing the trumpet and focus primarily on his gift for piano playing. To develop his extraordinary skills, Peterson practiced scales and classical eludes every single day. His daily routine consisted of four to six hours of solid practice time a day. Studying with pianist Paul de Marky helped further refine his talents.
Peterson soon began to concentrate on jazz, ragtime and boogie-woogie music. Because of his newfound interest in emerging music types, he was nicknamed “The Brown Bomber of the Boogie Woogie.”
By nine years old, Peterson’s collaboration list was growing quickly. At fourteen years old, he won the national music competition hosted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. However, his next life-changing decision proved controversial. Peterson decided to drop out of school and to become a professional pianist. The decision to become a professional pianist led to a weekly radio show and many performances in hotels and music halls for Peterson.
Oscar Peterson listed many of his personal influences in the musical spectrum. These influences included Nat King Cole, Teddy Wilson, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum.
After being heard on a radio broadcast, Oscar Peterson joined Norman Granz’s recording label called Verve. Quickly, Peterson was assigned to Granz’s “Jazz at the Philharmonic” project. This project included work with major artists and musicians including Ray Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Ed Thigpen, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Louis Armstrong, Stephane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, Anita O’Day, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz.
From this point on, Oscar Peterson would be acclaimed for his genius work with his craft. His reputation grew, and he soon was a major celebrity in the spotlight. In the 1940’s, Canadian Radio hosted Peterson as a regular on many jazz programs.
By the 1950’s, Oscar Peterson was a household name all over the world. He was labeled one of the leading pianists in jazz music. His greatest asset after his unique, exceptional playing ability was his versatility. Peterson played in numerous duets, quartets, solos, trios, small bands and big bands. In the 1950’s, Peterson collaborated with Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner. Duos with Herbie Hancock occurred in the 1980’s. Performances in the 1980’s through the 1990’s often featured his protege Benny Green.
In 1993, Peterson suffered a stroke. Fortunately for the world, he recovered quickly. By 1995, Peterson returned to the world of musical performance.
In a tribute to his beloved friend and associate Norman Granz, Peterson named his dog Smedley two years before his untimely death. Smedley was Granz’s nickname from Peterson. Like the original Smedley, the dog Smedley had a great attachment and devotion to Peterson. Even at Peterson’s death, the beloved and loving dog stayed at Peterson’s side by his bed, refusing to leave him. Peterson died of renal failure on December 27, 2007. His fourth wife, Kelly, and eight children survived him.
Transposition is changing the key of a piece of music, or changing the notes without changing their relationship. This is often done to make the piece of music easier to play or sing. It’s a common practice in bands that don’t perform their own material; the singer may wish to cover a song with vocals that are far out of his or her range. Transposition can correct that problem by shifting the key into a range that is comfortable for him or her. Transposition is also used with instruments. Some instruments (called transposing instruments) are not tuned to the same note; for instance, a Bb clarinet is tuned to a B flat and an alto clarinet to an E flat. Transposition of the sheet music for these instruments ensures that they won’t sound discordant when playing with the rest of the orchestra or band.
Transposition may be a simple concept, but it take lots of practice to achieve. The easiest sort of transposition — and technically it is not transposition at all, since it remains in the same key - is done by octave — simply moving the piece of music up or down eight steps. This sort of transposition may work for a male singer wishing to sing a female’s part, but it does little for transposing instruments or other areas of vocal work. In these cases, it’s best to use transposition by either scale degree or harmonic interval.
Transposition by scale degree uses the scale degrees of a piece of music to determine the relationship between the notes. Each note in a piece is assigned a scale degree (tonic, dominant, subdominant, mediant, submediant, etc.) and the same scale degrees are used for the new key. This type of transposition is potentially simple, as the relationship between the notes will always remain the same, regardless of the key.
Transposition by harmonic interval uses intervals as a guide for the transposition. By finding the interval between the dominant notes in the two keys, one can deduce the interval between the all the notes. If the difference between the notes is a major third, then transposition of all the notes will be done by a major third. This type of transposition is also potentially simple but calls for an added carefulness when dealing with accidentals that aren’t expressed in the key signature.
The very best way to transpose is to learn to think in more than one key. Most beginners start learning in the key of C, so after awhile they can think in that key — they know where the notes in that key are, and their fingers can get to them easily. Since every key a person can play in is mathematically the same as every other key, by learning to play in a 2nd key one can learn to think in that key, just as they did in the key of C.
Keys are like languages: if you don’t know Spanish, you certainly can’t think in Spanish, and when you learn to speak it, you will have to rack your brain for the right word for quite awhile before you begin to think in Spanish. Its the same in music — there are only 12 major keys in which you can play (in contract to languages, where there are hundreds) — so if you can eventually learn to think in all those 12 major keys, there is no key left that you couldn’t transpose in to.
Practically speaking, however, most people don’t need to know all 12 keys — just the keys in which most songs are written: C, F, G, D, A, Bb, and Eb. If you can learn the other six too, that’s fabulous, but you can certainly get by with just those 6 keys, or perhaps even less — and least C, F, and G — the “big 3″ when it comes to keys.
To learn more about transposing, go to 
It is called “swing bass” because your left hand swings back and forth between a low note (or group of notes, such as a 10th, alternating with a chord in the area right below middle C.
You definitely know the sound of swing bass when you hear it, even though you may not know its characteristic name. The swing style of playing is great for the piano because of the left-hand, right-hand ability the piano affords. You can play swing bass on the piano with the left hand while the right hand improvises a melody over it.
Swing bass starts with an underlying lower register note feel given to a song. Its roots are in jazz from the 1920 to 1940 era. During the 1920s, dance music was very popular in North America. This dance music was of the jazz form. During this 20-year period, some of jazz music’s most creative musicians and composers stretched the limits of this music.
Dance music tradition dictated sticking to melodies as written. The pioneers of swing music and swing bass arrangements felt that melodies needed each individual musician’s interpretation. Improvisation became the norm, and jazz had a new form that gave musicians a lot of freedom for personal music expression.
Of course, these freer melodies required a supporting bass line that fit the swing style. The swing bass style developed based on rhythm, harmony, and melody elements. Other names for swing bass are “stride” or “striding bass.” The harmonic unit for swing bass is sometimes tenths in the left hand. The piano player plays notes that are 10 scale notes apart from each other, often with the 5th of the chord included between the root and the 10th (10th is the same as a 3rd, except an octave higher)taking big strides from the low group of notes up to the chord somewhere around or below middle C. Often on the 3rd beat of a measure the 5th of the chord is used as the low note, followed by another chord on the 4th beat.
The harmonic unit for swing bass is a combination of half-note swing bass and quarter note “walk bass.” The “walk bass” involves playing the fundamental, third and fifth notes of a chord. The leaps are not as extreme in the walking bass. Therefore, a pianist can mix the great striding sounds of swing with the shorter leaps of sound of the walking bass. This lends variety to a swing piece and gives it that unique jazz feel.
The melodic unit of swing music to improvise over the swing bass are quarter, eighth, sixteenth and triplet notes. Again, playing around with these note values to shorten or lengthen note sounds is at the heart of swing playing and jazz improvisation. A piano player can jazz up even the most basic popular song by adding swing elements to a piece.
The swing bass sound and feel is great for the piano because of the lower notes. A piano player can give a bass feel to a song without a string bass player present. The style a bass player would use can be part of the song, although the tone will be different. This is because string bass creates a warmer sound, while the piano makes a more percussive sound. While a string bass player can swing by bending strings and doing glissandos, a pianist cannot. The pianist can give the swing bass sound a more articulated, harder edge with the percussive abilities the keys afford.
When should piano players use the swing bass style? It’s ideal when a song needs jazzing up in a solo performance. Without accompanying musicians to provide support, pianists can lay down their own swing bass line. In addition, a band missing the services of their bass player can have their pianists perform emergency swing bass services. They can vamp away with their left hand and still have the freedom to create right-hand melodies.
Swing bass is great for changing the mood of a song for jarring contrast. Staid classical or traditional popular songs are great for this. Your listeners expect the next logical sounds to emanate from the piano, as is normal for the piece you’re playing. They are familiar with the tune and have pre-conceived expectations of how it will sound. You can surprise them by tossing in a section with swing bass and swing melody. It will delight and surprise them and keep them alert for any other surprises in the rest of your playing.
Consider the swing bass style for some of your piano playing. It is a great tool for lending spark and variety to songs. You’ll hit your stride as you practice this technique more and keep your audience swinging with your music.
One of the highlights of my early musical life was seeing and hearing the Dave Brubeck quartet in person at my high school. It was so exciting to hear the tunes I had been practicing at home played by the man himself — Brubeck in person!
Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is one of the stalwarts of jazz piano. His music is characterized by unusual time signatures and can be either extreme – totally dynamic or or completely relaxed.
David Warren Brubeck (aka Dave Brubeck)was born on the 6th of December, 1920. His thing for music came from his mother - an aspiring concert pianist who was formally taught. She used to take piano classes to supplement her income. Despite having such organized music at home, Dave Brubeck took to his own way of learning and playing the piano opting to create his own melodies. He purposely avoided a situation where he have to read ,music and play using his bad eyesight as an excuse.
When in college, it was discovered that he could not read written music. This caused for the professor in charge to take action and expel him but his other professors stood by the fact that despite his inability to read music, he had a good abilities when it came to counterpointing and harmony. Taking his case as an exception, it was decided that he be allowed to graduate from the institute promising to never teach piano.
Armed with a degree from the University Of The Pacific, he was drafted to join the army in 1942. During his service in the army, he met his future partner in music – Paul Desmond. While serving in the US Defence Forces, he played in a band which brought both fame and dislike to his musical stylings.
After almost four years serving in the Army, he went back to college and got himself enrolled in Mills College in Oakland, California where he studied under Darius Milhaud, a great contempory classical composer.
Immediately after finishing his course in Mills College, he was signed to Fantasy Records in Berkeley California. He started singing with an octet and a trio – which eventually became a quartet when Army pal Paul Desmond joined the group which originally had Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty .
Taking after his inclination to play music that was more unusual than not at the time, they recorded some music which didn’t have enough mass appeal to be a success which hence gave them very few gigs. After failing to draw in crowds, Dave Brubeck spent many years playing nothing but the opposite of what he had intended to when he started out playing – jazz standards – with the other members of the trio except Paul Desmond. Paul Desmond had his own band by the time.
In 1951 after an almost fatal swimming accident, Dave formed his next group The Dave Brubeck Quartet this time with Desmond in it. They were the house band at the Black hawk nightclub in San Francisco. The new quartet was very successful. They started touring college campuses and made a series of recordings – Jazz At Oberlin, Jazz Goes To College and Jazz Goes To Junior College.
The fame and success got Dave Brubeck space on the cover of Time Magazine – the only one to have the honor after Louis Armstrong. Sometime around the mid 1950’s one half of the group – two members Bob Bates and Joe Dodge – quit the group. They were replaced by Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. Eugene Wright’s presence in the band put the band on a black list as he was a African – American. Many concerts were called off because club owners were averse to having ans African-American play in their premises.
Upon realizing that there were plans to not film Wright during a particular television show on which they were performing , Dave canceled the gig. 1959 saw the release of Time Out which had the one quality of Dave Brubeck that he is known by today – unusual timing. Despite them not being in common time, the album was a hit and the album was soon certified platinum.
Dave’s next act was a musical that he and his wife Iola co wrote a jazz musical based on the experiences that they had during an international tour on behalf of the US State Department. It had all the big names of the time – Louis Armstrong, Hendricks & Ross, Lambert and Carmen McRae. The further albums of the outfit include Time Further Out: Miro Reflections (1961), Countdown: Time in Outer Space,Time Changes and Time In. All these albums had iconic album covers by contemporary artists. They held a concert titled At Carnegie Hall in 1963 which was described as Dave Brubeck’s “greatest concert”, but 40 years later he continues to play great concert after great concert.
Synthesizers are electronic, keyboard-based instruments that produce artificial, or synthesized, sounds. Many frequently mistake synthesizers for simply portable, electronic pianos, but the differences are extremely vast. While synthesizers can definitely produce a piano sound, their main purpose, usually, is to create sounds not specifically found on any other instrument. And the process of creating these sounds is sometimes very difficult; while some synthesizers come with pre-created sounds, or patches, many come with a clean slate. The synthesizers produce sounds by a series of dials and knobs dedicated to a variety of aspects: oscillation, modulation, sustain, delay and attack, just to name a few. Some synthesizers even create sounds based on a patch bay. Remember old telephone operators that patched calls through based on cords and inputs? Some synthesizers use the same principle (and are generally used by those with an extremely advanced knowledge of their workings). And what’s more, many older synthesizers don’t offer the option of saving the sounds created; instead, the user has to keep detailed records of dial and knob placement, being careful to catch every nuance. To recreate a sound on these synthesizers is to keep very meticulous notes.
I remember meeting Bob Moog back in the 70’s at a trade show in Anaheim across the street from Disneyland. More than any other person, Moog had created the first useable and affordable synthesizer. Soon the big companies in the field such as Yahama and Roland, which had much deeper pockets than Moog, produced many improvements on the synth and made them available to the average working musician. I think I bought my first synth in about 1980 — a Roland that I used for probably 10 years before moving on to something more current.
Synthesizers made their break into popular music during the 1970s and 80s when numerous progressive rock bands began using them to create cosmic, unfamiliar sounds. The use of synthesizers quickly developed into an entirely new genre of music, electronic music, headed by such veterans as Kraftwerk (who, by the way, are still massively popular). They eventually found their way into almost every branch of 1980s popular music — which is probably why they fell so far out of favor. Synthesizers in the mainstream music industry quickly became associated with 1980s bubblegum pop, the very thing that new rock and punk bands were railing against. And even while an electronic music scene thrived (and even revolutionized), synthesizers became known as the outdated kiss of death for popular, mass-audience intended music. The late 90s, however, saw a resurgence in the use of synthesizers among underground rock and punk bands (ironically enough) and have quickly become re-embraced by the popular music industry.
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Popular Music
What do the majority of music aficionados search out when it comes to musical genres? What CDs achieve the highest sales results? What is the dominant style of music heard on the airwaves and on the dance floors around the world today? The answer is popular, or pop, music. While jazz, classical, polka, reggae and the like have their loyal followers, no group commands the audience that popular music does.
In general, popular music is any music that’s accessible to the public through mass-marketing means and appeals to the broadest spectrum of listeners. The number of recording sales an artist achieves is a measure of popularity, as is the amount of airplay an artist receives. Therefore, artists and their music are popular by virtue of the vastness of their audience.
Popular music is not one particular genre. Songs that are on the pop music charts (which measure success) can be any genre. A top 40 list of current popular songs may include, rap, hip-hop, country and rock songs. In the early 1960s, when rock-’n-roll was the hot thing on radio, a catchy jazz tune called Take 5, by the Dave Brubeck Quartet climbed the charts and became a hit. Conventional wisdom at the time couldn’t predict this, but it was what the public wanted to hear. Therefore, this quirky jazz tune was popular music.
The varieties of music commonly seen under the popular music umbrella today are soft rock, hard rock, country, hip-hop, rap and ballad-type film and Broadway music. The latter two often become popular due to the boost they receive from their visual media. Think of how popular the ballad “My Heart Will Go On” became because of the 1997 film “Titanic.”
Trends in popular music today are toward vibrant, energetic dance music, superstar artist duets and tribute albums. Recent years have seen crossover albums become popular. This is where a popular artist in one genre, for example country, ventures over to another genre, like rock.
Another trend in popular music is toward elaborate stage productions for artist shows. Consider the production values of Celine Dion’s recently ended show in Las Vegas. Christina Aguilera’s recent Back to Basics tour resembled an elaborate Broadway production, complete with circus performers. This is the trend: big, brash and bold, with stunning visuals accompanying the popular music.
Any music listened to by the majority is, by definition, popular. However, some achieve levels unheard of in the past due to today’s ultra-fast dissemination methods. At no other time in history has so much music reached so many people in such a short time. With computers, the Internet, cell phones and other technology, a song can achieve popularity fast.
This is great for independent musicians who have no record company contract yet to promote their work. Through the social networking capabilities of the Internet, the word can get out about their work. In an inexpensive manner, they can find listeners and become very popular. This kind of viral marketing can make a lesser-known musician a pop star almost overnight.
In previous decades different styles of music achieved the status of “popular” because of television. From the 1950s on, TV variety shows were a valuable tool for record companies to display their artists. Think of “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Dean Martin Show,” and others that combined music, dance and comedy to entertain America. Many music artists achieved their popularity due to the power of television.
The popular music field has room for songs of many styles. As Dave Brubeck proved, you never know what the public will choose to make popular. In any given year there are always surprises, remember the song “Who Let the Dogs Out”? So, there you go. Sit down at that piano and compose away. You just never know.
Most people don’t realize that they could learn how to be a “prophet” — see into the future — and tell all these things about almost any song:
What’s the most likely chord for the song to start on…
What’s the most likely chord for the song to end on…
What the three most likely chords in any song are…
What the second chord in a song will probably be…
What the 4th, 5th, and 6th most likely chords in any song are…
What chord follows a 7th chord 85% of the time…
Why a knowledge of “consecutive dominant 7ths” can revolutionize your understanding of what’s happening in any given song…
Why a knowledge of the “circle of 4ths” gives you a huge edge about what chords are coming next…
Do you have any idea how valuable this knowledge is? Can you see how it could benefit you right away and give you a big edge in music? Let’s take an example from another field:
What if you had the ability to predict what the price of a stock, let’s say IBM, would be tomorrow morning? Would that give you ad edge in the stock market? Even if you were wrong 15% of the time, it would only be a matter of months until you were so rich you wouldn’t be able to spend all the money you made. Right?
Of if you could predict what the price of pork bellies, or cattle, or soybeans, or corn…or anything — you would soon own the world and most of the solar system.
In music, money isn’t involved directly, but another kind of riches is — satisfaction, enjoyment, mutual respect of other musicians, etc., and you have it within your power to gain the ability to accurately predict — with accuracy ranging from 60% up to 85% — what will happen next in a song in terms of chord progressions.
Will you ever be wrong? Of course. I still miss now and then. But you’ll understand the framework of why chords progress the way they do, so your confidence level will soar.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could predict which chord would probably come next in a song?
I’ve got some good news for you.
It is possible. Not 100%, but somewhere on the order of 75% to 85% accurate.
That’s because music has FORM — like the skeleton that holds your flesh, muscles, and skin up. If you had no bones — no skeleton — your flesh and all the other parts of you would fall in a heap on the floor. Not a pretty picture. But because you DO have a skeleton, you are able to walk around and pretty accurately predict which way your next step will take you.
It’s the same in music. Music has FORM — a skeleton to hold it up, hold it together. And that skeleton is made out of chords — harmony — the tonal center of the song or piece.
You Can Predict Which Chord Comes Next. You Can Become a “Musical Mindreader”!
In any given key you can play in, there are PRIMARY CHORDS — chords that occur way more than other chords. They are like family members of that particular key.
At your house, let’s say you have 3 people in your family — your spouse, your child, and you. On the same block, but down the street a few houses, lives your cousin and her family.
At any given moment, who are the most likely people to be in your house?
Obama?
Payton Manning?
Rush?
Michael Phelps?
I don’t think so!
It’s possible, of course, but not too likely. If I had to guess, I would say it would be either you, your spouse, or your child. It might be your cousin down the street – there’s a much better chance of that than, say, Hillary or George — but my best odds would be to guess that the family members would be there.
It’s the same way with chords. In any given key, there are 3 “family members” that are residents of that key — the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. They are far and away the most likely chords to occur in any given key.
What chord comes next?
So how could I tell whether it should be F or G?
If the melody is a “B”, then the chord is probably a G chord. Why? Because “B” is in the G chord, but is not in the F chord.
If the melody is a “A”, than I would guess that the chord is F. Why? Because “A” is in the F chord, but is not in the G chord.
Does that mean that there are always just 3 chords in a song? No, but there are literally hundreds of songs that are made of just 3 chords.
What if there are more than 3 chords in a song? What then?
That’s what we’ll take up in the course so you’ll understand it clearly!
How will it help you to become a “musical mindreader”?
You’ll amaze other musicians & friends who don’t know what you know…
You will develop more confidence in your playing as a musician…
If you play for a living, there’s a good chance it will increase your income!
If you teach piano or guitar or any instrument, you’ll have a wealth of knowledge about music that you can share with your students.
Exciting things you’ll learn…
Learn what chords will occur in any key…
Learn what chord to start on — once you know the key of a song…
Learn what three chords are the most likely to be used in any song…
Learn what chords 7th chords “want” to progress to…
Learn “the family of chords” and never wonder who is in each family again.
Apply your new knowledge to any song in any key — major or minor.
You’ll learn about the “fam”, the “cousins”, and the “neighbors” — enough chords to keep you going (and other guessing) for a long time.
You’ll also learn all about the “Circle of 4ths” and how it reveals “family secrets” of key relationships, chord relationships, chord progressions, chord substitutions…
Do you see the power in this? Once you understand the Circle of 4ths and how it works, there’s no key that can stump you — you’ll understand every single key that any song or piece could be written in. People who know and understand this circle are at a tremendous advantage over other musicians.
If this is a skill you would like to have, check out 
Do you know about our online catalog for piano players? It is a rich resource for all kinds and levels of piano players, covering everything from chords to music theory to arranging, technique, practice, styles, and tons more. Visit it at 
It’s often playing in the places you go. Whether it’s in an art gallery, a unique specialty shop, or a restaurant, ambient music creates a mood. This music genre has seen a growth in popularity in the last 30 years. Some people refer to it as new age music.
Ambient music relies on sound and sound patterns. It does not rely on formal, traditional musical elements in its composition. While it may include these, it is open to bending or completely doing away with any rules.
Ambient music is atmospheric in nature, in the sense that it creates an atmosphere of sound to arouse the senses. It often uses the natural environment as inspiration. A composer of this type of music may use a beautiful moonlit night as his or her basis for a sound sculpture that evokes this scene.
Ambient music has its roots in classical music. It uses elements borrowed from impressionism, musique concrete, avant-garde and minimalism. However, it is not any one of these styles more per se. It is its own animal. An understanding of these musical styles will give you a better understanding of the elements of ambient music.
Impressionism: This music draws from atmospheric effects and descriptive ideas. The sound of the wind is an atmospheric effect that can be part of a piece of music. A descriptive idea to base music on could be: “I love the way sand forms ripple patterns in a windblown desert.” This word picture can inspire a composer to write an ambient piece using sound to bring images to listeners’ minds.
Musique Concrete: This music relies on natural sounds from our environment. It also uses any other type of noise that one would not consider musical. Putting these sounds and noises into a composition creates a different, non-traditional music experience. For example, the sound of a jackhammer is a legitimate sound element to place into a sound recording.
Minimalism: This music is unadorned and pared down to its basics. It may use one sound pattern or an individual sound that the composer repeats continually. There may not be any complex arranging or orchestrations done to enhance this music. Often a listener hears the repetition of one entire sequence throughout a composition.
Avant-Garde: This music seeks to break through the boundaries of normal musical parameters. It operates at the extremes of conventional musical thought as it seeks to explore new territory. Avant-garde music knows the inherent rules of traditional music and then seeks to break, modify or expand on them. This is why much avant-garde music is experimental in nature. Composers of this form experiment with tempo, time, timbre, tone, and chord and scale patterns.
Therefore ambient music takes aspects of all of the above to create a hybrid music all its own. This music developed from the works of Erik Satie, Terry Riley, Phillip Glass, John Cage, Brian Eno and others. Satie’s early form of this music had the unusual term, “furniture music,” to describe its suitability as background music during mealtime.
However, some ambient music devotees reject the notion that ambient music is only unobtrusive, subtle, background filler. Adherents to this view see ambient music as viable music that one can appreciate and listen to as one would an intricate classical, jazz or popular piece.
Eno explained it best during his musical experimentations when he said ambient music could be “actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener…” He said it exists on the cusp between melody and texture. He is credited with creating the term “ambient music.”
Ambient music can be part of any environment. It’s suitable as party music if you want guests to enjoy quality sounds and be able to converse with one another. It’s suitable for sitting back with a drink while you’re reading or just de-stressing and staring out a window. It’s also music to listen to critically. One can study sound, both artificial and natural, and how they can co-exist in a composition.
If you desire to create ambient music, all you need is simple recording equipment and something to create or capture sound. You can record natural atmospheric conditions to put in your song. This could be the sound of rushing water or the cries of birds. You can record the sounds of the city: buses, children laughing, cars beeping, to inject into your music. You can play and record a musical instrument. You can modify the sound of an instrument and record its sounds. Put it all together to create the sound you desire.
Take the time to chill out and tune in to ambient music of different kinds. Explore the works of the pioneers of this musical form. Check out who’s new and upcoming in the ambient music community. It’s music that’s adaptable, varied and able to create a mood for any occasion.
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Do You Think There Was a Fake Piano at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics?
Sure makes me wonder, the way the piano was jiggling like it was made of cardboard or plastic — real pianos don’t normally dance…plus, the pedal action looked suspicious.
I don’t know for sure, and maybe we’ll never know. What do you think?
Nevertheless, I sure have enjoyed the Olympics. How about you? 
How to Read Piano Notes
Reading piano notes may seem daunting at first, but it really isn’t if you ground yourself in the basics. The first step is learning the names of the notes. The great thing is that you only have seven to memorize.
All music is the result of combinations of these seven. These notes, named after letters in the alphabet, are A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Specific keys on the piano, associated with these notes, comprise your piano playing toolkit.
These seven notes sit on lines and spaces, called a music staff. Piano music consists of two staffs or staves: the Treble Clef and the Bass Clef. The notes from the upper portion of the piano keyboard sit on the Treble Clef. The notes from the lower portion of the keyboard sit on the Bass Clef.
Usually, the right hand plays the notes in the Treble Clef, while the left hand plays notes in the Bass Clef. The key to reading piano notes is in knowing what key relates to what note on the sheet music.
The note A on a piano is a white key. The A on the music staff corresponds to where the A note is on the keyboard. The notes on a keyboard repeat themselves:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A
Each of these notes is a key on the piano. It’s that simple, all along the keyboard.
The first A sits on one point of the music staff. As you play along the keyboard, the second A you play sits further up the music staff. As your fingers run up to the upper portions of the keyboard, the higher the notes sit on the Treble Clef. The further down you play on the piano keyboard, the further down the notes sit on the music staff, running into the Bass Clef.
You can group notes together on a music staff vertically. These vertical grouping are chords. A chord is a group of three or more notes played simultaneously. If you play the C, E and G keys at the same time on the keyboard, you play a chord known as a triad. On a piece of sheet music, you will see these three notes as such:
G
E
C …piled on top of one another so-to-speak.
If the composer wants these notes played separately, he would write them out horizontally on the music staff as such:
C E G …moves along the music staff.
Of course, these letters do not appear on the music staff; instead oval notes replace the letters.
When you first begin to read piano sheet music, locate the reference point note of each staff. This allows you to determine the rest of the notes on the staff.
The Treble Clef has the G note as its reference point. This note is on the second line from the bottom of the five line Treble Clef staff. The Bass Clef has the F notes as its reference point. This note is on the second line from the top of the five line Bass Clef staff. Every other note on either staff is easily located from these points.
Reading piano notes will be easier when you study the fundamentals. Learn the Treble and Bass Clefs and where the seven notes sit on them, and your reading skills will improve.
Just what is it about the tritone chord progression that makes it so mysterious? Perhaps it has to do with its dissonant, clashing sound. It may have something to do with its dubious history. Whatever it is, the tritone chord progression in music made a comeback in music after several centuries of bad publicity.
‘Tritone” is defined as a musical interval that spans three whole tones. A tritone chord may also be called an augmented fourth or diminished fifth chord. The tritone sounds like a clash, or as a dissonant chord. For this reason, the tritone chord was often avoided during Medieval times through to the end of the Romantic era.
For hundreds of years musical styles were, in large part, dictated by the church. During Medieval times, the tritone was viewed as too dissonant for use in common liturgical services. In fact, the tritone chord progression came to represent the devil. Perhaps as early as the 18th century it was commonly known as “diabolus in musica” (the devil in music). A great deal of superstition came to be associated with the tritone. Some church fathers in the Catholic church adhered to the belief that it may even serve to invoke the power of the devil. Because of this belief, the use of the tritone was banned by the church for liturgical use. Because of this negative association, even secular music produced during these centuries avoided it.
There is speculation that this chord may have been associated with the Devil for another reason. The tritone, as already mentioned, consists of three whole tones. Three whole tones equal six semitones. This may have led Christians to associate the tritone with the Biblical “mark of the beast,” or number of the devil: 666.
As with any widely held superstition, the tritone had a bad public image to overcome. Eventually some musicians cautiously experimented with the tritone, particularly during the Baroque and Classical music era. Finally, it seemed as though its stigma had been somewhat overcome during the Romantic period. Notable classical musicians like Vivaldi, Beethoven and Debussy inserted the tritone into various works.
When the equal temperament system of tuning came into general practice in Western music, the tritone began to make a comeback in contemporary songs. Still, it had remnants of its former reputation. The tritone began to appear in modern rock and roll, jazz and blues songs. Those with prudish natures denounced it, probably still subscribing to the old-fashioned church-propagated superstition. Despite some opposition, the tritone took hold. Today it’s used regularly and without inhibition.
Many musicians are still aware of its diabolical history. In fact, the tritone is sometimes still used in contemporary media to signify, represent or “invoke” the devil. One example of this is the 1986 movie Crossroads. In it, the main character, in a showdown of guitar prowess, ends a guitar solo with a tritone chord because of its association with the devil. However, its relation to ancient superstitions has been largely forgotten by the general public. Today, the tritone is used artistically, just another color in the musical palette.
Gospel jazz chords involve extending the dominant seventh chord with additional tones. The ninth, 11th and 13th chords are all used in gospel jazz. These are extensions of
the basic dominant seventh chord. If you don’t know how to form a dominant seventh, here’s the rundown.
The dominant seventh is formed by taking a basic triad, which is 1-3-5, and adding a b7. In the key of C, you would play the notes C, E, G and Bb. The C chord is formed by
the C, E and G. The major seventh is B, so you would lower it a half-step to get Bb. Play this chord and notice how it brings to mind some great blues and jazz. The C
dominant seventh chord is written as C7.
Now you’re going to learn a bit more theory to understand gospel jazz chords. Since the notes of a major scale are numbered 1-7, where does the ninth tone come from? It
comes from extending the scale beyond one octave. After the seventh tone of the scale comes the root, which is considered the eighth tone of the scale. So the ninth tone is
the second, only an octave higher. To form a ninth chord, take a dominant seventh and add the ninth.
The 11th and 13th chords are formed in a similar fashion. The 11th tone of the scale is just an octave above the fourth, while the 13th is an octave above the sixth. The
13th is one of the most used gospel jazz chords. By extending chords to these extremes, you’ll hear some interesting tonalities and overtones develop in a well-tuned
instrument.
Since every note of these chords is easily played on a piano, the resulting sound may get a little muddy. Some of the tones create a clash with other tones. A clash is when
two notes that are a half step apart are played together. Sometimes a clash is useful, while at other times it isn’t. For these reasons, less important tones are often left
out of extended gospel jazz chords. Take the ninth chord, for example. The fifth is often dropped from the chord to create a cleaner emphasis on the third, seventh and
ninth tones of the chord. Try it and hear the difference.
Though it all seems a bit complex at first, the simple theory of gospel jazz chords comes naturally with a little practice. Try these chords in different keys, leave out
different chord tones, and find out what gospel jazz chords sound best to you. These chords are useful in other jazz styles, as well. Even popular music today makes slick
use of extended gospel jazz chords. Tasteful use of these chords can spice up even the most ordinary of hymns and gospel songs.
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How to Read Music - Easier Than You Ever Thought!
One of the simple joys in life is the ability to read music. Learning this skill will enable you to express yourself creatively at the piano, playing your favorite songs.
It’s not difficult to learn to read music if you understand its components.
Written music has an architecture all its own. Musical notes sit on a staff. This staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Piano music utilizes two staves: the Treble
Clef and the Bass Clef. The Treble Clef consists of notes in the upper part of the piano keyboard, and the Bass Clef consists of notes in the lower part of the piano
keyboard. Music for instruments such as the trumpet uses only the Treble Clef, with additional notes written just above or just below the staff. There are also Tenor and
Alto Clefs, which accommodate written notes for a host of other instruments.
There are only seven notes in all of music. Of course, myriad combinations of these notes give us the vast array of music we have available to us today. These combinations
of notes will continue to provide us with new music in the future as well. These notes are seven letters from the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F and G; what musicians and
composers do with seven notes is what makes music so beautiful.
On a sheet of music, the Treble Clef has a figure at the beginning of the staff. This figure indicates where line “G” is, on the second line from the bottom of the staff.
Once you know where line “G” is, you can figure out the names of the other spaces and lines. The Bass Clef has a figure at the beginning of its staff. This figure indicates
where line “F” is, on the second line from the top of this staff. Again, you can figure out the other notes, where they sit on the Bass Clef, because you have a starting
point with line “F”.
You can play musical notes individually as single successive notes, or you can play them in unison as a chord. Notes do not all look alike on a musical staff. Some have
stems attached to them. Some have what look like little flags on them. Some notes are solid black, while others are clear ovals. These different characteristic of a musical
note represent its value. The value helps a music reader determine the duration of a note, how much time it should take up in a piece of music.
Written music also includes the use of “rests.” These rests are of a different shape than music notes, and they indicate intervals of silence in music. A musician needs to
know where pauses in their playing need to occur and for how long these pauses must be.
These are the fundamentals to know when you want to begin a study of music reading. From there you will come to understand time signatures, rhythm, tempo, and phrasing and
articulation markings. However, learning those seven notes and the music staff is the first step. After that, it’s full speed ahead to greater musical enjoyment.
How Can I Learn To Understand Music & Piano Playing?
The graceful flourishes of a well-played piano masterpiece are sounds that many people would love to create. From trained professionals to child prodigies, a brilliantly
played piano can steal the show. But great lessons are costly and involve scheduling time away from your busy life. So how do you learn how to play the piano or deepen your
knowledge of the instrument?
Piano workbooks can provide a solid foundation in theory, an effective practice routine, and piano classics in one package. If you don’t have the time or money for lessons,
consider buying a few piano workbooks.
The obvious advantages of piano workbooks are the ability to set your own pace and practice at your convenience. Just sit down at the bench after dinner, crack open the
book, and hear your playing improve.
The only downside is that you must develop self-motivation to flourish when studying from piano workbooks. Like any great discipline, you must develop some kind of regimen
to progress. With a teacher, you’ll always have someone keeping track of how well you’re doing. By studying from a workbook, you’ll have to keep an eye on your own
progress.
Piano workbooks range from those that focus on the basics to those that provide a comprehensive explanation of musical theory. The best offer a good amount of theory,
exercise and musical notation. Whatever type of study you are seeking, there are certainly several piano workbooks available that suit your needs.
Some piano workbooks may be a look and listen experience. They may come with CDs that let you hear the examples listed in the book. This is great for the unsure learner who
may need more than just text to explain a concept. It’s also wonderful for hearing how an exercise is supposed to be played or how a particular piece is intended to sound.
Many books give examples of practice methods. Be sure to follow their instructions so that you don’t overexert your hand muscles, especially if you are a beginner or trying
advanced techniques. Warm-up your hands with simple and light playing for a little while before going into an extended run across the keyboard.
Workbooks also contain essential piano pieces that combine theory and technique into music. The pieces provided range from simple pop songs to classical standards that will
put your skills to the test. Piano workbooks often include biographical information on the composers of each piece so that you can learn the history of the instrument.
Besides simply playing, a deep understanding of the piano and pieces composed for it provides an appreciation for musical history.
Piano workbooks can offer an extensive training course to anyone willing to invest the time. Since they’re often compiled by a company, they contain more information than
any one person can offer. Though a book can’t make you practice, they can be a benefit to dedicated students. So when you decide to fancy yourself a pianist and set out to
master the works of Franz Liszt, consider the tutelage that piano workbooks can offer.
Does the idea of taking piano lessons make you cringe? Does it make you remember some old lady beating you over the knuckles with a ruler when you were eight years old for not practicing your scales enough? Do you think back to the old woman with thirty-three cats that stunk of urine and cheap perfume that your mother made you learn scales from when you were a child?
Now that you are an adult you don’t have to be traumatized any more. Simply dissociate your bad experiences and learn how to play piano online. That way, you’ll never have to smell a smelly piano teacher again.
Know that you are not alone out there. I remember taking the piano lessons from Hell when I was in elementary school — about the 2nd grade or so. My instructor, we’ll call her Wilma (mainly because that was her name) was in her eighties — at least it seemed that way to me — she might have been much younger than that. She reminded me of the wicked witch of the West, with her long crooked fingers and a sharp nose. Looking back, I’m fairly certain that she ended up teaching piano lessons to children because she needed the money.
My piano lessons took place in a music shop that seemed ordinary enough from the selling floor. Once you entered the back room for lessons, however, you were overwhelmed by the stench of urine and cigarette smoke. Apparently, Wilma wasn’t so hot at keeping her area neat and tidy. If she only knew that a little bit of Lysol goes a long way, my nose would have been so grateful!
After a few minutes, I would get used to the smell. At least, I would become less horrified by it the more I was forced to breathe it in. What I simply couldn’t get over, however, was the giant growth on Wilmas’ hand. Yes, a huge tumor-like growth joined me and Wilma every Tuesday afternoon for lessons. It was about the size of a quarter, and since she was my piano teacher, I was forced to stare at it for a hour every week. There was simply no avoiding the sight of that awful, purplish thing that seemed to be getting larger every time I visited. How any 7-year-old can be expected to concentrate on music lessons while being forced to stare at an anomaly straight out of a medical textbook - or perhaps even a science-fiction show, considering the size of it - I have no idea. And she used that hand to slap my fingers when they didn’t play the correct note, or I didn’t have them in the shape she wanted.
But, I really wanted to learn to play piano. So, I suffered through the piano lessons from Hell for a little under a year before my folks switched me to another teacher. What do I remember from my lessons from Wilma? I most remember the trauma of being forced to play music that seemed old and boring to me at the side of an old crotchety lady whose goal in life seemed to be to make the lives of little boys miserable
Perhaps your piano lessons from Hell were a bit less traumatizing. But still, who wants to make the effort to leave the house when you can teach yourself by studying online? Such a luxury would have made my 7-year old musical life immeasurably more pleasant, and perhaps I’d even be a better piano player for it. (Presuming, of course, that I had the discipline to take advantage of it!)
So, if you’ve had bad experiences with piano lessons in the past, you can still learn to play without that weekly feeling of dread. With the advent of the Internet, you no longer need to hunt down an expensive instructor. Simply look for a great course online, and start plunking your way toward your true destiny as a piano virtuoso. Even if you only end up a virtuoso in your own home, you’ll be amazed by how quickly and easily you can learn to play piano online at your own pace.
Enjoy the comforts of your own home as you learn, and trust me, your knuckles will thank you for the absence of piano teachers slapping them around if you miss a few practice sessions.
PS Having been a piano teacher for many years, I am well aware that there are many wonderful teachers who lovingly teach kids. But I also have heard a few horror stories over the years… 
Playing piano by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role.
Many pop and rock bands don’t play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It’s even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to “Smoke on the Water”? That’s playing by ear. You’re able to play part of the song just because you’ve heard it so often.
Playing by ear is a valuable technique for many musicians; learning songs based solely on hearing them is a great way to understand song and chord structure. In fact, a great number of rock and pop musicians learned to play their instruments this way. Instead of picking up a book or taking lessons, they concentrated on figuring out the notes and rhythms to a song until it was mastered. Then they moved on to another song. And another. Gradually, they learned their instrument just by playing by ear — and in the process learned how to effectively structure a song in that particular genre.
Playing by ear is also beneficial in helping a musician develop his or her own style; sure, they’ll at first mimic the style of the song they’re imitating, but the amalgamation of the music that they’re playing by ear will help them create something distinctive, something indicative of them only.
Though classical musicians are generally educated based on tons of music theory and sight reading, some methods rely on playing by ear. The Suzuki method of musical training, for instance, claims that learning music is the same as learning a language; it’s acquired by years of hearing it, eventually coupled with formal training. Just like we pick up our language by listening to our parents and subsequently attending school, we can learn music by playing by ear and later taking formal lessons.
So can the average person ever hope to play their piano by ear? Maybe not to the degree that some extremely talented musicians do, but anyone can learn enough about the basics of playing by ear if they learn the following skills:
1.Being able to hear a tune and have a general sense of the contour of the melody — when the tune moves higher or lower as the song progresses.
2.Learning to chart that melody contour either on paper or in their memory.
3.Learning to match the melody to appropriate chords.
Playing by ear is really a combination of of three factors:
1. Using your tonal memory to recall music you have heard:
2. Using your ears and fingers to help you reproduce what you recall;
3. Using “melody contour” (the “shape” of the tune), “chord structure” (how to form the chords on the keyboard to match the tune), and “chord progressions” (the path chords take as they move through a song).
Obviously, the first 2 steps you can take more or less by yourself — you can mentally rehearse recalling a particular tune; you can sit at the piano for hours and through trial and error pick out tunes, chords, and rhythms. But the real key to playing by ear is learning how to chart the shape of a tune, learn how to construct chords, and then determine the likelihood of chord progressions — in other words, which chord comes next.
When you get an understanding of step three, you will be in a MUCH better position to understand and profit from steps one and two!
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While we have all heard stories of child prodigies and the importance of learning music as a child, an adult can still learn to play an instrument quite well. Even with no prior experience, the right training can help an adult learn to play music just as well as a child. The main thing is to find the right way to learn, whether it’s through a tutor or self-study.
Adult learners come with their own baggage, often from childhood lessons. Adult piano students may have had bad experiences with music lessons as a child. These can range from scary instructors to endless exercises or abusive teacher-student relationships. Sometimes a teacher may have punished the student for not being skilled enough, while other times a teacher may have pushed a promising student too hard. This is one of the hurdles that come with learning music as an adult.
Accepting the teacher as an authority figure is another difficulty that comes with learning music as an adult. An adult has learned to be independent. An adult wants to take part in the development of curriculum and wants to be able to self-evaluate. It may be difficult for an adult to simply listen and take instruction from a music instructor. So the best avenue for learning music as an adult may be to self-tutor or to find an instructor who teaches by long distance via the internet. There are many wonderful piano courses available nowdays on the web: just type in something like “play piano” on any search engine, and you’ll find several.
Though the process of learning music as an adult is different from a child’s, it’s not necessarily harder. For a child, making music is magical, while an adult sees the work involved to get to the music making stage. It’s mainly a mental hurdle that must be overcome. Also, learning music as a child is part of the natural development process, while learning music as an adult is usually part of a larger goal. For example, an adult learns how to play an instrument to join the church worship team.
Learning music as an adult can also be difficult because of ingrained personality traits. Even the most outwardly confident adults get insecure when someone points out their flaws. So it goes with learning music. If a tutor is used, an adult can get embarrassed when the tutor corrects a mistaken note or technique. Some adults may have difficulty breathing and concentrating when they’re highly nervous. All of these can lead to a difficult learning environment.
Adults also demand comfort. This is why adults often learn an instrument in their own home. Children are less demanding about the hardness of a piano bench, for example. Adults may have back problems or other conditions that require a high comfort level.
So the basic ingredients for learning music as an adult are adaptable tutoring, reason for learning, confidence and comfort. By taking these key points and seeking the best method of learning for yourself, you can become an adult musical genius — well, maybe not a genius — maybe just a person who has more fun. Or maybe you’ll be the guy or gal at parties who knows how to play the latest song everyone is talking about. With the right teaching, grown ups can enjoy playing music wherever they go.
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