My first exposure to Oscar Peterson was in Sacramento at a concert called Jazz at the Philharmonic. It was a series of concerts and recordings produced by Norman Granz over a period from 1945 to 1983 featuring such jazz giants as Louie Bellson, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Gene Krupa, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Barney Kessel, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Lester Young and a few others, including the great Nat King Cole. 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.

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 Musical Mindreader!

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 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.

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.

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.

Google just listed some of our piano courses in their data base to make finding them easy. It’s a pretty neet listing of about 129 of our courses. Go to: Google Base Listing Of Piano Courses

I have some new short free piano videos posted on my site you might want to check out: Free Short Piano Videos

In case you don’t know about my other blog, it is at http://freepianolessons.blogspot.com/ There are several new videos there that you might want to watch.

EVERYBODY Ought to Learn to Play At Least a Little Chord Piano! There are roughly umpteen zillion reasons why you should learn enough chords to be able to “chord a song” at the piano. By “chord a song”, I mean the ability to play 3 or 4 chords on the piano in some sort of rhythm while you or someone else sings the tune. To do this, you don’t need to be a Van Cliburn; all you need to do is learn a few basic chords and be able to more back and forth between them in some organized rhythmic pattern. For example, did you realize that all of these songs (and hundreds more) can be sung or played with just 3 chords? Auld Lang Syne Amazing Grace Kum Ba Ya Silent Night Joy To The World Jingle Bells Happy Birthday Down In The Valley On Top Of Old Smoky… and hundreds or maybe thousands more! Add just one more chord to the basic 3, and you can play another thousand songs or so. So why not learn a few chords and start your chording career? Here are my top 10 reasons for learning “chord piano”: 1) It’s easy. Learn 3 chords and start in — it’s not rocket science! 2) Even though it’s easy to get started, you don’t have to stop there. You can learn more and more chords and more rhythm patterns and get really good if you choose to. 3) You’ll be able to play “Happy Birthday” while the gang sings it, since it only has 3 simple chords. 4) You’ll be able to play half-a-dozen Christmas carols like “Joy To The World”, “Silent Night” because they too have just 3 simple chords. In case you haven’t noticed, Christmas comes every year, so every year you’ll get better as you participate in family gatherings. 5) You can help your kids learn to play the piano, guitar, or most any other instrument by learning chords. Most teachers don’t teach chords, so you’ll be giving your kids an advantage by learning chords. 6) People will admire you. It’s true. Musicians are popular. Anyone who can play anything is in demand at parties and social gatherings. And if you can “chord” while others sing, you’re bound to be popular. 7) Piano playing using chords is good for your brain. Studies have shown that people who actively participate in music do their brain lots of good. And since chords require 3 or 4 notes at a time instead of one, you are giving your brain a good workout. Piano playing, particularly using chords, is good exercise for your wrists and fingers. (Take the time to learn about correct hand position, though!) 9) Piano playing is excellent therapy for the stress of life. Many professional people come home from a hard days work and relax by expressing their emotions on the keyboard. Play a few dark and angry chords, and you’ll be surprised how much better you feel! 10) Piano playing is a blast. It’s just plain old fun. So learn 3 or 4 chords and get going. Maybe you’ll stop there and enjoy it the rest of your life. But just maybe you’ll love it so much that you keep going and turn yourself into an excellent piano player who can read music as well as play chords! To get started, go to http://www.chordpiano.com

The ability to play blues piano is usually not expected of beginning pianists. There are reasons why most beginning pianists start out playing old songs written by classical composers from centuries past. Many songs written for the piano by such composers as Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky were originally intended as pieces to be used for lessons. Plus, the conventions of classical music lead to chord structures, harmonies, and melodies that were comparatively straight-forward, perfect for students who were not musical experts. Attempting to play blues piano presents new challenges for pianists. Many non-musicians don’t realize the technical difficulty of blues and jazz music, but in fact, to be an accomplished musician in one of these genres requires years and years of intense training and practice. Some would even say that these musical genres are actually more complicated than pre-20th century musical forms, which would mean that blues and jazz musicians are, in general, the most accomplished and versatile musicians out there. So, as you can guess, the decision to take the plunge into playing blues piano should not be made lightly. In order to have a true understanding of blues, its scales, harmonies, and rhythms, one needs to have at least a basic understanding of more traditional musical forms. Blues isn’t a parallel form of music to Classical and other traditional genres; no, it’s an augmentation of traditional music. Just like jazz, blues actually complicates traditional music. Thus, unless you have a natural feel for the blues, your study of blues piano requires at least a solid bedrock of musical knowledge. I presume that you already know, at the very least, about the traditional major scale. For example, in order to understand and play the C blues scale, you must know the C Major scale. If you have that knowledge, then it’s pretty simple. The blues scale simply takes the major scale and adds three extra notes. That’s it. The three extra notes are a flatted third, a flatted fifth, and a flatted seventh. Thus, the C blues scale has all of the same notes as the C Major scale — that is, C D E F G A B — with the three additional notes being E flat (or D sharp), G flat (or F sharp) and B flat (or A sharp). That’s right, if you look closely at the blues scale, you’ll find that there are only two notes that are not included. In the C blues scale, only C sharp and G sharp are not played. If you want to play blues piano, learning the blues scale is your first step. Even doing nothing more than playing the scale, you’ll hear a “bluesy-ness” to the scale, and if you are a fan of blues, it will sound great to your ears. Once you can do this, you are ready to play blues piano. The next step is to try improvising. Come up with a chord progression. C F G C is a standard blues chord progression, except — and here is another important point — it is fairly standard in blues music to turn nearly every chord into a seventh chord. So, this progression, in blues form, would be C7 F7 G7 C7. Of course, with the new notes added in, you must remember that, in most cases, these should be played as minor 7th chords. Thus, both the C7 and F7 chords use notes that are not in the traditional C Major scale. Once you have your chord progression down, improvising is easy. Come up with a simple, bluesy melody, and go from there. Just remember that in order for the music to have that special blues quality, you need to utilize those extra three notes that are not in the traditional scale. Those are the notes that give blues its edge.

When learning how to play piano, free opportunities present themselves all over the Internet. Most notably, many websites offer quick step-by-step lessons, as well as free online sheet music, which beginning pianists can use to learn how to play piano at no cost. Obviously, like any free service, these should be approached with caution, and many should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, they are free for a reason. In spite of everything the Internet has to offer, most of the best ways to learn piano still involve paying money to a highly qualified professional instructor of some kind. Whether you are learning how to play piano using free lessons, or you are using a pay service, any high-quality learning process begins with the fundamentals. It is one thing to show a few diagrams and to instruct the beginning pianist where to put her fingers; it is quite another thing to instill in the pianist’s mind a real understanding of the structures, systems, and theories that every great piano player must have internalized. Thus, when learning how to play piano, free or through a pay service, make sure that the instructions use real musical terms, rather than downgraded proxy terms. That is, for example, an instruction shouldn’t refer to notes on the piano as numbers or as fingers; instead, the instruction should use the actual names of the notes — C, D, B flat, G sharp, and so on. In other words, a beginning pianist wants to internalize the fundamentals of music as early as possible. If you feel like your ability to play music is proceeding faster than your actual knowledge of piano and music, then there is something wrong with your instruction. Both the skills and the knowledge should go hand in hand. When starting out, the budding pianist can expect to be assigned a lot of repetitive tasks. She will have to play a lot of scales, arpeggios, and simple songs that are designed to help piano students master the complex methods of keyboard fingering. This is normal, and in fact, it is necessary. Any piano lesson program that doesn’t involve a lot of repetitive tasks is probably not the best way to learn how to play piano. Free lesson plans are often guilty of this. This repetition is what leads a lot of beginning pianists to give up very early, but for the more persistent, things do get better. After a while, when you have internalized the fingering techniques that every pianist must master, songs will grow more complex, and then the repetition becomes a joy. For pianists who are a little further along in the learning process, there is nothing more pleasurable than opening a book to a seemingly incomprehensible notation and working at it until it becomes a beautiful piece of music. For now, though, most of the songs played by beginners are relatively simple and straightforward, not involving a lot of sharps or flats, and not requiring the pianist to move her hands around a lot. In fact, most songs will be in the easiest key — C major — and won’t deviate from standard hand positions. Of course, this will all change when you begin to learn about more complex chords, more difficult keys, and more convoluted melodic structures. Once the basics are learned, it won’t take long before these fun elements come into play. In short, what I have been driving at is that starting to learn the piano rarely offers instant gratification. When learning how to play the piano, free services tend to offer unrealistic, quick goals. In reality, learning piano is a gradual process that involves lots of practice, lots of repetition, and a strong commitment on the part of the pianist.