Duane Shinn (that would be me) has good news for you if you want to play the piano. He (me) has little fat hands & stubby little fingers - not at all suited for playing the piano - more suited to making mud pies or some such. I am also fairly uncoordinated with just average musical ability - certainly not a great piano player. But I've learned a ton about music over the years and people tell me I'm pretty decent at explaining how music works & how to progress more rapidly on the piano. Over the years I have developed about 150 techniques for conquering the piano. Most professional pianists can do these techniques, but very few can explain them in a way people can understand. I specialize in making complex techniques simple. I invite you to watch a few of my free videos and see some of these for yourself before making any decision about taking any of my courses.
Perhaps the best reason to study the circle of 5ths is it makes sense mathematically on a number of different levels and thus it’s very helpful to anyone studying music and music theory. Most often using a circle to display the relationships of particular key signatures (both major and minor), one of the functions of the circle of fifths is a geometrical representation of these relationships.
Continue reading →Every major key has a relative minor key which is related to it — kind of a “kissing cousin” — by the same key signature. For example, the key of C major and A minor both share the same key signature — no sharps and no flats.
Continue reading →Musical intervals are simply the distance between any two notes, such as 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5th, etc.
Continue reading →World Music: How does oriental music differ from western music? Hawaiian? Israeli? Mexican? etc…. The term, “Western Music” includes genres of music originating in the Western world (which includes Europe) that are differentiated from music from the Orient or Middle … Continue reading →
Grace notes: what they do, how to play them, why they exist, composers who use them, “blue notes” in jazz, “twang notes” in country, etc, etc. A grace note should perhaps be thought of as an extra bit of flourish … Continue reading →
Are you a mother looking to get your child piano lessons? Maybe you took them as a child as well, but stopped as you got older. Or maybe you always wanted to learn the piano and never got the chance. The good news is that helping your child learn how to play the piano can actually help you learn the instrument as well.
Continue reading →Do classical musicians ever play jazz? Or visa-versa? It’s very common for a classical musician to try their hand at jazz. Perhaps the biggest difference between classical music and Jazz is the classical musician is tied to (reading and playing) … Continue reading →
What is a triad? An interval? A unison? A chord? An extended chord? A chord is made up of three or more notes played together or as an arpeggio (playing the notes of a chord in a specific pattern). The … Continue reading →
What different kinds of chords are there? There are a number of different chords, some having complicated names. As a starting point, think of a chord in it’s simplest form — a major chord. A major chord is built on … Continue reading →
There have been very influential women performers and composers in the 20th and 21st century. Billie Holiday is still considered by many as the best blues singer of all time. Even though she passed away in 1959, recording technology was … Continue reading →
