A solid knowledge of music theory is absolutely crucial to a musician who wants to become proficient in sight reading. Besides acting as the basis for understanding the notes, a music theory education provides the ability to see patterns within … Continue reading →
The tango is an incredibly sensual genre of music and dance that originated in Argentina. It is always played by a tango orchestra consisting of strings, bandoneon, bass and sometimes piano, though various other Latin-based instruments are found outside of … Continue reading →
A harmony is a series of notes in combination, played simultaneously. Listen to your favorite songs, and pay close attention to the back-up vocals when they’re being sung along with the lead. Can you hear how the two vocal melodies … Continue reading →
A musical tritone is an interval of three whole tones (whole steps) or six half tones (half steps). Simply put, a tritone is an augmented fourth or diminished fifth, depending on the key. A tritone is typically created by adding … Continue reading →
When sight reading a piece of sheet music it is easy to lose your place in the score if you need to look down at your hands. Try to not look down, but if you must, don’t move your head … Continue reading →
Do you remember the great jazz tune titled “Four” by Jon Henricks? It told a story about what Jon considered as the 4 important aspects of life: truth, honor, happiness and love. Music has 4 basic components too. We’ve already … Continue reading →
In previous posts we have discussed two of the elements that comprise what music is all about; namely melody and rhythm. The 3rd element of music is harmony. Without these 3 elements working together, music is “bare-bones” and incomplete. Oh … Continue reading →
Musicians are inherently concerned with rhythm. In fact, the mark of a natural talent is often their ability to understand, distinguish, and play a complicated rhythm – often intuitively. It makes sense, really. Rhythm is, after all, the part of … Continue reading →
During the next 3 sessions we are going to consider the essential parts of music — the elements of music that are “must haves” — you don’t really have music unless you have these 3 elements at some time or … Continue reading →
Once upon a time about the only way people learned to play the piano was through structured lessons in a piano teacher’s home or a studio in a music store. Of course lots of people picked up the piano by … Continue reading →
