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.
Do you know anybody who seems like they can play any song and change it a little bit to make it sound even cooler? Have you ever heard a musician who plays a solo while the rest of the band … Continue reading →
Listen to this short podcast on syncopation:
Continue reading →How Does Improvisation Work? Can I Learn to Do It? There are main 3 ways in which a pianist can use improvisation in their playing: – Melody – Harmony – Rhythm If you understand how these areas work, and know … Continue reading →
Imagine if a painter only had 12 colors to choose from. He wasn’t allowed to mix them together, he couldn’t dilute the colors, he could only use one type of brush and every painter had to use the color and … Continue reading →
Have you ever heard a piece of music that sounds like it was going along just fine and suddenly the whole thing sounded higher or lower? Or have you heard a piece that sounded just as happy as can be … Continue reading →
Head towards the internet and do a search for Arnold Shoenberg. Listen to some of his music and other composers who use the twelve tone composition technique and you will instantly have opinions. If you’re like many, your opinion will … Continue reading →
Once in a while it’s good to take a little review of the basics, so we’re going to take a quick look at augmented triads and see how they are formed and how logical they are. Augmented triads (3-note chords) … Continue reading →
Using original chord substitutions in your piano playing puts your own stamp of originality on the music, so your song doesn’t sound like everyone else’s song. There are some basic principles of chord substitution which you can use right away, … Continue reading →
Have you ever wondered what those strange symbols are at the very beginning of each line of music? Doesn’t it seem a little bit pointless to have them at the beginning of each line? Those symbols are sharps or flats … Continue reading →
The blues scale is kind of a unique animal: half diatonic scale, half blue notes. Some people think that only the flat 3rd, flat 5th, and flat 7th of the diatonic scale is used in the blues, but that’s not … Continue reading →
