People have been debating the pros and cons of the memory technique used in taking piano learning lessons. Some of the champions of this technique line up a long list of benefits those can be accrued from this technique. Their major claim for the suitability of this technique lies in the perception that the player doesn’t need a book to turn to for taking the lessons or playing the piano. One can simply memorize and start playing the instrument.

Another advantage cited by these people is that the player doesn’t need to divert his attention to book – one can concentrate solely on the fingers. This focused attention leads to better performance. Moreover, one need not spend time on turning the pages of the book. Add to that the benefit of ability of playing piano anywhere, even if the book is not available. The benefits can be stretched to an extent where the player can play the piano in dark and that it can also be done by closing eyes.

Those against the use of this technique for piano learning lessons assert that this technique is difficult for some people. People with limited memory retention are at a disadvantage to use this technique. Even if a student is good at it, he may forget some parts of the lessons while performing, and this may have detrimental effect on his overall capabilities of taking piano lessons and play at a pro level. 

I would say that when you’ve played a song for hundreds of times, it becomes part of your subconscious mind. Your fingers just moved automatically. However, one important question that go against these memorizing effort is: How long do you think the exact score can “stay in your mind”? 

I used to memorized the exact scores of  some of Richard Clayderman pop piano songs when I was a teenager. The songs are nice, simple and most importantly – it sounds great and impressive. But after a few months without playing them, the memory deteriorate. But if you understand the chords progression and with the main melody in mind, you can still play the song well and fluently. Does memorizing the exact score play a significant role in your piano practice?  

While you are taking piano lessons, it is important to know what to be memorized. In other words, memorize the tricks (chord substitution, scales, rhythm pattern etc)  so that the performance is not at risk. The exact score is not so important in my opinion. One must be very good listener in order to have larger chunk of piece being memorized with ease. Further, you must try to memorize something which you have started practicing. It shouldn’t be other way around – you first memorize and then memorize the same.

You or your tutor must be able to analyze the piece by splitting it into parts clearly identifying the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic units separately. This analysis must mandatorily precede memorizing. Experts also offer this piece of advice for those taking piano lessons – technique of verbal mediation. This technique employs simple procedure – student should speak out the lessons and practice it simultaneously. Memorizing process can be reinforced with the help of visual memory.

Simply put – when you can play what is heard in your mind, you’ve done the memorizing!

If you are playing several notes at the same time, then you are playing piano chords. Simply put, when multiple notes are played together, piano chords are achieved. The chords then come together to accompany a melody. Every song that you hear has a melody and it is through the different chord progression that dictate the overall feel of the melody. Sound complicated? Well, that’s ok because it really isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

If you still can’t play a major 7th chord, any diminised 7th chord, any minor chord with added 9th or 11th, then you are really missing something very fundamental in free-flow style piano improvisation.

As a musician, whether it be professional or hobbyist, you will need to learn the various types of piano chords. The more that you understand about piano chords, the more variety you will have when playing. If you want to write your own music, you not only need an ear for tunes, but also the understanding of how to make them come together. A good instructor will introduce you to piano chords during lessons.

The sad thing is that most students learn nothing about chords in the initial 4-5 years of classical training. I believe Mozart didn’t spend his first few years sight-reading. As one of the most established composer of all time, he might have learned about chords when he composed his first song.

If you already have some experience, but simply want a better understanding of advanced piano chords, discuss these options with a private tutor or music teacher. By gaining an understanding of what sounds good and what doesn’t, you will have the undeniable edge over other budding musicians.

Every piano has 88 keys and while it may seem intimidating to learn piano chords, it actually comes down to memory. When typing on the computer, you know which keys to press in order to make a lowercase letters change to uppercase, right? By studying piano chords, you will begin to understand which keys to press at the same time in order to play a chord. During your introduction to learning piano, an instructor will cover some of the basic chords and you will come to know their sound when you hear them. After enough practice, you will be able to immediately identify piano chords by ear.

Start with the easy triad – 3 notes chords. Play them in all 12 keys. Learn the major and minor triad. Play them in arpeggios and comping. Then add the 7th note, the 9th, the 11th. Then play them randomly in certain key. In no time you will find yourself start improvising!

There are several other ways to help in your learning of piano chords, including instructional books, tutorials and videos. In the beginning, it may even help to label the keys until you have a better understanding of each of their unique sounds. As you progress in your learning, you can remove the identification labels and play using any arrangement of sheet music. Learning to identify notes will play a large part in your understanding of piano chords. As you move through your studies, you will learn all of the terminology associated with piano playing and the definition of each.

Learning piano chords is a very important part of the process, but it does require a certain degree of patience. Always remember that time will lessen the difficulty and, before you know it, you will be playing and identifying piano chords by ear. While it may seem intimidating at first, you will soon begin to notice the ease of playing piano chords will come naturally.

I believe that playing piano chords is the crucial skill that gives you the freedom of playing by ears and improvising. Do you believe it? Do you agree?

I am sure that many of you would be passionate about music and might be having a piano or a keyboard to enjoy this pleasant joy given to us. There are different sort of music instruments that people usually owe such as guitar, trumpet, drum, woodwinds, strings or piano. Out of these pianos is the one that is more popular due to its versatility in comparison to the other ones mentioned. Due to its complexity in design and its bigger size, piano is also harder to maintain.

So if you have a badly stained piano and you want to care for it then it doesn’t require any professional cleaner or polisher but all you need is a regular soft buff with a lint free cloth. Any sprays or harsh chemicals will damage the surface of the delicate keys and shall also make the instrument look older and worn than what actually it is.

For cleaning the ivory keys you should not:

1. Immerse in water
2. Scrub with a brush or even a scouring pad
3. Use any type of chemicals or even washing up liquid can damage the previous surface
4. Spray with furniture polish
5. Use air-freshener anywhere near the keys or piano

Ivory should be gently wiped with a soft clean cloth and for stubborn marks or fingerprints you should first wash your hands and thereafter you can use a mild non-colored toothpaste on a damp cloth but ensure that you gently rub and never scrub. Rinse with fresh milk with another lint free cloth and buff well.

You should leave the piano open on sunny days so that the keys stay bleached and don’t turn yellow. Keys that are badly discolored or stained should be scraped and recovered by any professional piano cleaner.

For cleaning plastic keys you should not:

1. Use chemicals
2. Leave the piano open for long period of time as this shall cause discoloration of the keys
3. Use furniture polish as this could be very harsh

Dust regularly and wipe occasionally with a soft solution of warm water and vinegar on clean chamois leather. Then buff well for added shine. If you want to clean the casework that usually gets very dusty you can use a vacuum cleaner attachment to get rid of any cobwebs or dust. It can take some time but it will surely be worth and remember not to use any water or liquid to clean the casework. For stains and marks you can consult a professional piano cleaner or tuner.

Do you have any other tips or tricks to clean your piano keys that we haven’t mentioned. Tell us more in the comment below.

Are you ready to finally learn how to play piano despite years of lessons? If you’re like many students of the piano, all your lessons and all your practicing have only gotten you so far. Many had given up after just a few years of learning. Maybe you’ve found that you’ve hit a wall in your piano playing ability, beyond which you just can’t seem to get. The following are some helpful tips for taking your piano playing to next level.

* Learn pattern recognition: Every song ever written follows a pattern, a structure of sections and chord progressions. This is especially true on pop music. You need only listen to a handful of songs by The Beatles to hear what we mean. Recently, most pop songs just get so repetitive that there is only 4 chords again and again and again ….. throughout the verse, chorus, bridge, intro, ending…. I know you got what I mean. To expand your repertoire and build versatility in your ability to pick up nearly any song you hear quickly and easily, learn the patterns with which all songs are composed.

* Play by the numbers: Every song is written in a particular key – one of but 12, to be precise – and every key has it’s scales, series’ of notes in specific intervals, any of which will sound natural and pleasing to the ear when played in it’s respective key. Every scale in every key has its 1-chord, its 2-chord, etc (tonic, supertonic, dominant chord etc). Instead of straining yourself to memorize how to play various piano chords, learn instead the keys that chords are played in and the scales they’re built upon. Then you can quickly and easily figure out how to play any chord in any key on the spot, whether you’ve memorized that specific chord or not. It sounds like mathematic! But in fact it is mathematic. Pianist do a lot of calculations. Don’t you agree?

* Listen: This tip is about learning to play by ear. The secret to learning to play by ear is simple – just learn the aforementioned 12 musical keys. By doing so, you can easily transpose any song you hear into any key you like. Of course, transposing on the piano is not as easy as for the guitar. It is because you’ll need different fingering style on different keys. Unless you referring to the “transpose” button of a digital piano.

Learning to transpose, then, will take you to the next level of playing piano, which is knowing how to improvise. Many piano players can read and follow piano sheet music, but far fewer can sit down and start playing along spontaneously with any song they hear – and have it sound pleasing to the ear. Of course, if you don’t yet know how to read piano sheet music, then you may also want to begin studying that skill as well. But not at the expense of learning the fundamentals of music, which is not in writing but in listening. In musical terms, this is called “ear-training”. Learn to recognize the sounds of harmonic and melodic intervals and you’re more than halfway to playing them.

* Expose yourself: No, we’re not suggesting you run naked down the street. What we’re suggesting is that you spend time surrounded by musicians of exceptional quality, professionals and amateurs alike in whose presence you can hear what it sounds like to play how you want to play. The body’s muscles have memory far superior to than our brain’s conscious recall ability. By simply immersing yourself in an environment where your ear is exposed to the sort of piano playing you aspire to, your body has a far easier time reproducing those sounds on the piano yourself.

Most importantly in your piano playing adventure is to remember to give it a little attention every day. You don’t have to practice for hours and hours a day to get good at the piano. You need only devote a small amount of time daily to keep the skills you’re learning present in your mind and body. Even just 15 minutes a day keeps your piano playing ability in tune.

Tell us what’s your most challenging obstacle to get to the next level. See if anyone here can give you a well-thought solution.

A piano is a musical instrument that is classified as a keyboard, percussion, or string instrument, depending on the system of categorization used. Piano is probably one of the complicated machine that’s invested centuries ago that is still being made now.

Playing the piano is wide-spread in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and is also trendy as an abet for composing and rehearsal. Materials used for pianos are strings, pin blocks, strings, plates and soundboard. The common pedals of a real piano are:

- Damper pedal
- Soft pedal
- Sostenuto pedal (I believe we as pianist use this pedal the most)

But until a decade or so ago, inventors had put together electronic boards, sound card, speaker and some sensors to create the first digital piano or keyboard. Since then, the technology had evolved and you can find pretty decent digital pianos now at a very affordable price.

A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument designed to serve primarily as a substitute to a traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play as well as sound produced. Digital pianos are also premeditated to look like an acoustic piano. While digital pianos may plunge short of the genuine article in feel and sound, they nevertheless have many advantages over normal pianos:

• - They are relatively inexpensive and are considerably lighter.
• - They do not necessitate tuning.
• - They usually manufacture several different piano timbres. (e.g. rhodes, organ, electronic piano, sometimes guitar ???!!!! etc)
• - They integrate MIDI implementation and have extra features to aid in learning and composition.
• - They embrace headphone output and have a transposition feature.

When a key is struck on an acoustic instrument, digital pianos fabricate overtones that reverberate around the room creating a sound that no digital instrument can accurately capture. Today’s digital pianos are so good that most listeners can not tell the difference between a “live” piano and a digital one. But for regular pianist like you and I, we can certainly tell if it is a real piano. You can blindfold my eyes and sit me on a piano bench. I can tell instantly after I strike a few chords and listen to the sounds, whether it is real or a digital version.

Experts say that the complex resonance of other strings when the sustain pedal is pressed down is the hardest part to emulate. I think that is the key difference! It just doesn’t sound the same.

Add to that the fact that they are the most inexpensive of the kinds of pianos you can buy and you’ve got an instrument that’s hard to beat. Digital piano manufacturers are getting better and better at duplicating the tone of real acoustic pianos. But no matter how well the piano sound is sampled, it will always sound digital. The acoustic sound is far superior to that of a digital piano. Due to portability, economical and MIDI capabilities piano and keyboard players choose digital pianos over their acoustic counterparts.

Advantages of digital pianos:

- Built-in rhythm accompaniments (only some more expensive models)
- Ability to record your performance (this is really a great feature to observe your own playing and mistakes)

However, do you think digital piano is really an adequate substitution to the real thing? If all your life you just practice on a digital piano, will it make any difference when you play the real piano? I’ve got a digital piano that acts mainly as a MIDI controller for recording piano track. I’ve also got a baby grand piano. You know what? I still love the grand much more than the digital.

Let’s discuss this further in the comment section.

This is my transcription of the solos in the song “how high the moon”, dee dee bridgewater version. Attached to this post are the vibraphones, trumpet and saxophone solos in that song. Plenty of 2-5-1 turnaround in that tune, will be very useful to any jazz learners out there. check out the technical review attachments for a brief article analyzing some techniques used by the soloist.

Vibraphone Solo – How Hight the Moon

Trumpet Solo – How High the moon

Saxophone Solo – How High the Moon

Brief technical review of How High the Moon

do take note that the chords in the score aren’t the exact harmony used for this version of the song, but provide a good guideline for learning purposes.

Must-Have information before deciding on Piano Lessons!

Music is a very important part of our lives. It does a lot more than just please our ears – it is an integral part of human development.

Several years ago, there was an experiment done by scientists at the University of California at Irvine in 1993. (published in the journal Nature) They had college students listen to Mozart Sonata for two Pianos in D Major, a relaxation tape or silence. Immediately after these sessions, the students took a spatial reasoning test (the ability to put together puzzles) and the students’ scores improved drastically after listening to the Music. The reason is because music and spatial abilities share the same pathways in the brain.

Another experiment was done later on by researchers at Appalachian State University and the researchers were successful as well in connecting music to boosting “brain power”.

They gave preschool children (ages 3-4 yrs. old) training for 8 months. Children were divided into 4 groups: Keyboard lessons, Singing lessons, Computer lessons and No lessons. After 8 months of this treatment, the children were tested on their ability to put together puzzles (spatial-temporal reasoning) and to recognize shapes (spatial-recognition reasoning) and the results were astounding! They found that only those children who had taken the keyboard lessons had improvement in the spatial-temporal test. (The children did not, however show any change with the spatial-recognition.)

Another interesting observation I’ve made is the connection between the Medical profession and the Music profession – a large majority of M.D.’s are Classically trained musicians! I’ve encountered many and have asked them all the same question – how do you make the connection between the medical and the musical – and the response I’ve had is that they are both very intricate and require a rare focus and mathematical mindset in many different directions at once. It’s achieved by many years of training in either and/or both fields, which by the same token – enhance each other. So to them – the similarity in brain function and focus is evident and invaluable to both the medical and the musical. It will be interesting to see the results of further study in that matter. Currently, there is no conclusive proof scientifically of the connection between Medical and Musical.

Now – for the 5 Tips for Piano Lessons!

1) Interest:
Assess the interest of your child. Is this something they really like – or is it your dream? The child should show genuine interest in music and a keyboard in order for their learning experience to be a pleasant and successful one. If they are not interested – ask yourself why you even pursued it? Is it because you have an inner desire for it? It’s NEVER too late to begin! Sign yourself up for Piano lessons if that’s the case. I’ve have students of every age – some played when they were kids then quit. As they got older, regretted quitting and vowed to one day pick it up again. Then there are others who always had the desire but not the opportunity and now find themselves retired with plenty of time on their hands. They’ve actually become Piano virtuosos! I give you these lovely examples to give you hope and a nudge – psssst! It’s never too late! The student must be genuinely interested.

2) Instrument:
It’s fine to begin Piano lessons on an electronic keyboard. As time goes on, the student will know in which direction they’d like to take the Piano lessons. If it’s just for personal enjoyment, it’s fine to stay with a keyboard.
If it’s for classical Piano training – then the student should be switched over to an acoustic Piano. In my experience as a Piano teacher, I’ve realized that a Spinet Piano (the ones that have a low back) unless it is given as a gift, should not be purchased. It would be preferable to purchase an “Upright” which is a Baby Grand Piano, but instead of the strings being vertical they’re horizontal. The reason being, that the action on the keys is much better technically for the student’s hand, and it sound substantially better to the ear.

3) Teacher:
Ask around and get feedback from others about their teachers. Find out the teacher’s background. Where did they get the education from, how long have they been teaching, where do they teach from, what are the surroundings like? Ask current students how patient the teacher is and how do they feel during the lesson. You should get a pretty good idea about the teacher by how current students are progressing. Does the teacher’s personality blend with your child’s. Remember, this is a choice! In school the children have to adapt to the teacher that has been assigned to them, and that’s a good thing. They learn to get along with different types of personalities, but Piano is an extra-curricular activity and should be a pleasant one that they look forward to.

4) Schedule:
Children can be easily overwhelmed by too much in their schedule. As adults – we’ve experienced overload for ourselves and it’s SO counterproductive! It’s highly advisable to limit activities in order for the kids not to be pulled in too many directions.
Once activities have been chosen, I’ve found with my own kids and students that by writing down a daily schedule, everything gets done and there are no excuses for forgetting to practice.

5) Dedication:
Once a schedule is in place, practicing piano will become part of daily routine. After a while, the student won’t be so “worried” about time, but will want to achieve goals set by the teacher. The student will need dedication in order for the craft to go from mechanical to musical. Encourage them to listen to a wide range of styles and genre’s in order for them to develop their own taste for music. At an early stage, dedication can be ingrained in a student by participating in Recitals, Talent Shows and Worship Services. It takes diligence and dedication – also sacrifices to make piano a beautiful craft.

What is your tips about piano lesson? Please share it below in the comment section.

Thanks!!!

Click the link below will download a power point file.I prepared the file to share about music arrangement during a song writing camp year 2006. It is in Chinese languange.

Secret of Pop Music Arrangement

This is the opening song from the album Highway Rider, released in this year. In this piece we can remark traditional 2nd minor intervals and semiquaver rhytmic feel, used very often by Mehldau.

You can listen to original version in above YouTube content and download the music sheet
here.

This is a transcription of the chords for Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles in PDF format.

A-Thousand-Miles

and here’s the youtube link to the music video.

Hope it will be beneficial to anyone looking for it.

Enjoy and Have Fun ……

Imagine a digital piano sounds exactly like an acoustic grand piano. That’s what reviewers think about Yamaha’s Avantgrand N3.

The selling street price is US$15,000. According to Keyboard Magazine review, the touch, the sounds, and the realism of N3 is comparable to a US$30,000 six-foot grand piano. This is without considering the extra features such as “no-tuning-needed-ever”, “mute-with-headphone-plugged-in”,”instant-scale-temperaments-change”, and “song-recording-playback”.

WOW!!

Here is a list of 14 cool and unusual pianos, compiled by Toxel.com.
My personal favorite is the transparent piano because it will be fascinating to see the hammer and pedal actions in full clarity.

When people are still arguing whether they are too old to start learning the piano, one-armed pianist Jamey Ray had formed his band and working on his coming album.

He proves to us that regardless of our age, gender, fingers’ length, everyone and anyone can excel in piano playing. He did it just with 5 fingers.

Ray is born with only one hand. But it didn’t stop him from playing the piano. After all, we need fingers to play the piano. It doesn’t matter how many you have.

Simple and cathcy song by Jason Castro, thought I share with you guys the chords. Here it is in PDF format.

lets-just-fall-in-love-again

and here’s the video for your viewing pleasure

Enjoy and Have Fun ….

This guy is really funny. I can do the same stuff, but not in English of course

This is a very useful invention indeed only if the keyboard touch feels a lot like the real thing. I play my grand piano while listening to the music I want to transcribe on iPhone ear-piece. Piano Silhouette is a sort of combination of the two. How good is it?

The Piano Silhouette is 12 centimeters long, 4.5 centimeters wide, and features a rechargeable battery. The USB port facilitates data transfer and charging operations, while the small LCD below the touch controls provides feedback to the user.

Check out this design by Jia Peng

Isn’t it fun to find a piano when you are walking down the street? Just sit down and play your favorite tune. You can even sing to the people who walk by.

This is an international touring public art project called “Play me, I’m yours”, started by artist Luke Jerram. More than 30 pianos were installed at public places like public parks, busy street, and train stations. It happened since 2008.

This video shows the situation when it was held in London. It is now in New York. I hope it will eventually comes to Malaysia.

Update on July 5, 2010

One of the piano installed at Queens Park was vandalized. All of its keys and some inner part gears were stripped. I am shocked that this can ever happen in New York city!

A 12-year-old school kid performed (singing on the piano) Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi. He did a great job with unique piano chops and magnificent vocal performance.

The video capture of the performance was posted by himself on youtube creating a buzz! More than 7 million views in two weeks!!

You just have to watch it.

Brief Analysis and Transcription of Kenny Kirkland’s piano solo on Sting’s “Bring On The Night”, with video samples

Ask any jazz pianist about funk piano solo improvisation, and one of the first thing that comes to mind would be Kenny Kirkland‘s piano solo on Sting’s “Bring On The Night”

Here’s a video clip of a youtube guy emulating Kenny’s solo note for note.

I transcribed a few bars of the solo, starting from about 0m48s of the video. Here it is in PDF.

kenny-kirkland-funk-piano-solo-on-bring-on-the-night

The harmony for the solo part is a recurring four bars, as shown in the first four bars of the transcription.

| C13     | D7     | Em7     | Em7     |

Superimposition

One technique used quite often by Kenny or any funk pianist is a Superimposition of a major 7th or major 9th chord a tone below.

Here are two examples of Kenny superimposing a Dmaj9 over the Em7 chord.

Bar 4

Bar 8

The harmony for the two bars shown above is the Em7. But observe the notes applied in the solo, they are ALL from the Dmaj9 chord superimposed, thus adding some flavor into the solo giving it a brighter sound.

This technique is also applicable over a dominant 7th chord.

ie. the Dmaj9 chord can be superimposed over an Em7 or E7 chord.

 

Case of Ambiguity

It’s hard to tell whether an Em7 or E7 is intended for the third and fourth bars, since the player has the liberty to use the G note instead of G# over the E7.

- The G note could be the #9 of the E7 chord, altering it into an E7#9

or

- The G note comes from the E minor pentatonic scale applied over an E7 chord

Either way, I consider this a case of ambiguity, where both chords are possible.

Here’s another video of Sting’s “Bring On The Night” with Kenny Kirkland himself doing another killer piano solo.

Enjoy and Have Fun ……

 

For more on Funk Piano Solo Improvisation Techniques and Superimposition, read these posts:

Jason Rebello Solo on Why Not

Jay Oliver Funk Piano Solo Analysis

Jason Rebello Funk Piano Solo on Never Coming Home

Facing the competition of piano makers from China and Korea, the world’s oldest piano firm and the last still operating in France, Pleyel has stopped making the conventional piano. Instead, they are now focusing on innovative design. If you have never heard of Pleyel before, they used to make piano for the Polish composer Frederic Chopin.

The most prized product they are working on now is an aubergine-colored grand piano with a turquoise interior and transparent legs.

Piano has been invented 250 years ago. Pleyel had been making pianos for 203 years. Lately, they had shifted its product range to the top end of the market due to the Asian competition and the falling demand for pianos on the French market. They only make 25 pianos in a year.