You can learn to play using a keyboard. Many of my students have done so.

Still, at some point, depending on your interests, you may find yourself itching to get an acoustic. Here are some thoughts on both sides of the divide.

Keyboards have a number of advantages. They’re usually less expensive, and, unlike pianos, they don’t require tuning (which can cost anywhere from $125 to $190 and should be done at least twice a year).

Many keyboards also boast a variety of instrumental sounds, and, if used with headphones, can enable late-night practice that won’t disturb others.

Despite all that, I myself usually prefer to play on an acoustic instrument, especially for the classical repertoire I so enjoy. While electronic instruments are getting closer and closer to duplicating the sound and feel of the piano, they still have a ways to go. For a nuanced sound with the most subtle dynamic shadings, the choice is clear. (See this post, though.)

But in the beginning stages, a keyboard will serve you well, assuming you get one with:

•Touch sensitivity. A keyboard with this feature enables you to vary the volume of sound of each individual note, just as you can with a piano. The more force that’s applied to the key, the louder the sound.

•Weighted keys. With a piano, you feel a certain resistance each time you play a note. (Because pressing a key does the work of raising a hammer.) This resistance is desirable because it makes it easier to control how loud or soft you’re playing. Keyboards with weighted keys strive to emulate the touch of a piano.

Often, you can save money by foregoing a multitude of digital sounds and options, and purchasing a keyboard that is primarily designed for piano lovers.

Two relatively inexpensive keyboards in the latter category are the Casio PX-160 and the Yamaha P115.

Don’t worry about making a perfect choice right off the bat. Buying your first instrument is tricky because to understand what sound and feel you’ll want to live with over the years, you need to actually start playing and practicing.

Fortunately, the instruments I just mentioned are in the $500 range, so your initial investment doesn’t have to be huge.

Enjoy!

The post Buying a Piano or Keyboard: Advice for Beginners appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

In one of your lessons you show how to read a chord chart. But can you explain how to read a chord chart like Let It Be? [He’s referring to the sort of chord chart you get on UltimateGuitar.com.] It has the chords but no bar lines, so how do I know exactly when to play each chord? Please help for I enjoy both your courses very much.

What a great question! And since there may be others of you who are wondering the same thing, I’ll explain.

Here’s a link to Let it Be on UltimateGuitar.com.

If you go to that page, you’ll see the chord symbols printed over the lyrics.

What you may not realize, is that those symbols are positioned directly over the word—or part of a word—on which you play the chord.

So, for example, there’s no chord at all until the word “find.” At that point, as you sing “find,” you play the C chord at the same time.

When you sing “times” you play the G chord, and so forth.

Now a bit further on, after you sing the words “let it be” for the first time, you’ll see three chords in rapid succession, with no lyric below.

So that’s what you do—play those chords right after “let it be.” Or actually, while you’re still holding out the word “be”. To get the exact rhythm of those chords, you’ll need to listen to the recording.

And remember—all this depends on your ability to sing the song. If you can sing it, then what’s on the chord chart should make perfect sense.

The post How to Read the Chord Charts on UltimateGuitar.com appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

How to Play a Song in Any Key (Transposing Made Easy)
There’s a big difference between singing a song in a key that sort of works, and singing it in the key that brings out the best in your voice. If you’re currently singing and playing any of your songs in less than the ideal range simply because you don’t know how to transpose, this lesson can help. Read more.

Empowering Your Left Hand with Open Voicings
Now that you understand the magic of open voicings, a whole new world of possibilities is within your reach.

The left hand pattern you’ll learn in this lesson is so versatile, and so satisfying, I’ve gone through periods when I’ve thought: Bruce you’ve gotta stop using this so much in your music—people will get sick of it! Read more.

Intermediate Styles and Beyond
In this lesson, you’ll learn to make your accompaniments sound fuller and richer. As you add open voicings in the left hand, and a fourth note to the three your right hand is already playing, your arrangements will sound more and more like the recordings you love to listen to. Read more.

The post Three New Tutorials! appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

Recently, several of my private students wanted to learn Nora Jones’ Don’t Know Why. It’s a song whose chord roots largely follow the circle of fifths, the sort of progression I’ve always found strangely irresistible. (We discussed this pattern in an earlier lesson.)

So that got me fooling around with Nora’s chords, and I discovered that with only a few alterations I could use them to play an accompaniment for Amazing Grace. You can hear it in the video above.

With its emphasis on seventh chords, this progression is more sophisticated than others we’ve looked at. To my ears it’s just plain gorgeous, and I thought teaching it to you in this tutorial might be a fun way to introduce the principles of voicing.

Voicing, for the uninitiated, is the flip side of voice leading. It has to do with how we distribute root, third, fifth, and so on. Grasping its principles can make the difference between playing a chord that sounds clunky, and one that sings.

Bottom line, here’s a lesson with some sweet music for you to practice, and insights guaranteed to raise your playing a notch. Enjoy!

(This is the latest addition to Pop Piano Accompaniment, which you can subscribe to here.)

The post New Voicing Tutorial Teaches a Very Special Amazing Grace appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say your right hand always begins a particular song by playing a C chord in the first inversion. Maybe an F chord comes next, which you’ve always played in root position. That creates a nice smooth connection between the two chords.

So far so good. The voice leading sounds great, and since your hand doesn’t have to move, it’s easy to play.

But here’s the problem: after countless repetitions, that same voice leading can begin to sound stale. Your ear yearns to hear something fresh, but not necessarily radically different. So what do you do?

Simple — start with the C chord in root position, which might then lead you to play the F chord in the second inversion. And that, of course, can have a domino effect, because each succeeding chord is likely to cry out for a different treatment than you were giving it before.

Alternatively, you can start with the C chord in the second inversion, which would lead naturally to an F chord in first inversion.

Get the idea? These are simple changes to make, though they do require a bit of thought, and then some practice to get you back to playing the song smoothly and easily.

Another possibility is that you might end up using both your old and your new voice leading(s) for different sections of the song. That can help to differentiate verse from chorus, for example, or one verse from another.

When you accompany a singer with a single instrument (like the piano), you don’t have the advantage of different instrumental timbres to play with, so you need to find other ways to create variety and spontaneity.

You may be surprised at how a new voice leading or two can restore the thrill of playing music that’s been in your repertoire for years. Give it a try!

Incidentally, voice leading is the subject of the latest lesson added to my DoctorKeys collection of very special tutorials.

The post Tired of Playing the Same Old Song in the Same Old Way? appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

I’m particularly thrilled to be offering the one called “Voice Leading: How to Connect Chords Beautifully While Bringing Variety to Your Playing.” As I say in the video:

I always love teaching this lesson because it’s a way for students to go beyond copying, and move very gently into creating. With the tools I offer here, you’ll no longer be dependent on me or anyone else to tell you what notes to play. From now on, you are your own arranger.”

But there’s another reason I’m feeling so good about these new tutorials. You see, I began creating my DoctorKeys courses about 8 years ago. And up to now, the lessons have focused on skills that are best described as basic. As a teacher, I’ve always found the early stages of piano study to be genuinely exciting, so making these videos has been a pleasure.

But as I watched the new video on voice-leading one last time before uploading it, it suddenly occurred to me: we’re not in Kansas anymore! In this lesson, I talk to my online students quite differently than I have up to now, presenting ideas and skills I myself didn’t master until I was in college, at a music conservatory.

And I have to say, it feels great to have arrived at this point. (Though I will never want to forsake the thrill of helping beginning piano students take their very first baby steps.)

Of course, what makes this new stage possible are the Play & Sing tutorials that lay the foundation. Judging from these testimonials, and well over a million YouTube views, it seems clear that those earlier lessons are doing exactly what they’re designed to do: getting folks off to a great start at the piano. Or, in the case of you more advanced players, helping you learn new “tricks” and discover entirely new ways of being at the instrument.

Anyway — I couldn’t resist crowing a bit today. Enjoy the new lessons!

Best,
Bruce

The post Three New Tutorials appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

It takes me too long to invert chords when I am trying to play songs. For example, if I was playing the root position of C chord and wanted to progress to the closest inversion of G chord, I have to think for a while to know that it is “B D G”. Also, once the chord is inverted, I get lost. (like, “what is this chord that I’m playing right now?”) Do I just have to practice the transition over and over or is there a better way?

And here’s my response:

Great question! Two things in particular can help.

One is exactly what you suspected — practicing that transition repeatedly. And the good news is that mastering it will not only help you with the song in question, but also pave the way for you to play other songs that use the same (or a similar) chord sequence. So as you practice, you’re always accumulating ability that will continue to pay off.

The second suggestion is to practice an exercise specifically designed to help you master inversions. Some people like exercises, some don’t. But for those who are open to them, certain drills, if practiced regularly, can help you accomplish a lot in a fairly short time.

In Play & Sing, go to the lesson called “Inversions: The secret to smooth chord changes”. The last page has the Chord Inversion Exercise. It shows you how to systematically practice each position (root position and the two inversions) of the C, F, and G chords. If you make that exercise part of your daily routine, it will go a long way towards putting those inversions literally at your fingertips whenever you need them.

You can also expand on that drill to include other chord qualities and roots. In fact, as part of Pop Piano Accompaniment, I just uploaded a new version of the same drill, incorporating the many new chord qualities that are introduced in the tutorial called “The Essential Chord Guide: How to Build 21 Different Chords on Any Note,” also part of Pop Piano Accompaniment.

And the video after that one extends this exercise by having you practice in all the keys (or as many as you feel ready to tackle), by following what we call the circle of fifths.

I hope this helps!

The post Do you struggle with chord inversions? appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

Here’s your chance to master one of the most beautiful progressions in all of music. In the key of C, that would be the C, G, A minor, and F chords, in that order.

The songs you’ll learn to play (at least in part) include Someone Like You, No One, She Will Be Loved, You’re Beautiful, With or Without You, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Forever Young, Let it Be, Under the Bridge, No Woman No Cry, Land Down Under, So Lonely, Happy Ending, Fall at Your Feet, When I Come Around.

As always, I cover ALL the essentials: chords, fingerings, and the rhythmic styles for each song. I even help you with your piano technique.

Enjoy!

The post How to Play Adele's Someone Like You and Other 4-Chord Songs appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

If you haven’t yet seen this highly entertaining video, do yourself a favor and watch it now. In it, Axis of Awesome shows how you can play big chunks of many of the greatest pop hits using the same four chords.

Now as it happens, my new course, Pop Piano Accompaniment, opens with two tutorials based on the same premise.

In these two lessons, I teach you to play that progression using a variety of rhythmic styles, styles that I match up with specific songs, including Someone Like You, No One, She Will Be Loved, and many others.

So I thought I’d share with you the Axis of Awesome video and the list of songs it contains. If you’re working your way through my course and are looking for more music to play using the same chords, this will be of interest to you.

Clearly, If you’re a songwriter, you need to know this progression.

Update: I just found another video called “4 Chords, 65 Songs”, based on exactly the same idea.

You can find my course here.


On the Axis of Awesome video:
0:52 Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
1:00 James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
1:09 Alphaville – Forever Young
1:17 Jason Mraz – I’m Yours
1:25 Mika – Happy Ending
1:34 Alex Lloyd – Amazing
1:41 The Calling – Wherever You Will Go
1:49 Elton John – Can You Feel The Love Tonight
1:56 Maroon 5 – She Will Be Loved
2:04 The Last Goodnight – Pictures Of You
2:12 U2- With Or Without You
2:19 Crowled House – Fall At Your Feet
2:29 Kasey Chambers – Not Pretty Enough
2:38 The Beatles – Let It Be
2:42 Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Under the Bridge
2:48 Daryl Braithwaite – The Horses
2:54 Bob Marley – No Woman No Cry
2:56 Marcy Playgroung – Sex and Candy
2:59 Men At Work – Land Down Under
3:03 Banjo Patterson’s Waltzing Matilda
3:05 A Ha – Take On Me
3:06 Green Day – When I Come Around
3:22 Eagle Eye Cherry – Save Tonight
3:23 Toto – Africa
3:30 Beyonce – If I were a Boy
3:32 The Offspring – Self Esteem
3:38 The Offspring – You’re Gonna Go Far Kid
3:47 Pink – You and Your Hand
3:53 Lady Gaga – Poker Face
4:00 Aqua – Barbie Girl
4:04 The Fray – You Found Me
4:09 3Oh!3 – Don’t Trust Me
4:16 MGMT – Kids
4:23 Tim Minchin – Canvas Bags
4:33 Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
4:49 Five For Fighting – Superman
4:53 Axis Of Awesome – Birdplane
5:05 Missy Higgins – Scar

The post What Do These Crazy Dudes Have To Do With My Latest Piano Course? appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.

Read more about the new course here.

The post Pop Piano Accompaniment Goes Live appeared first on Doctor Keys Piano-Blog.