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.
A fake book is a book of songs where the melody, the lyrics, and the chord changes are included. If there is anything unique about the song, like an area where everything stops for a certain amount of time, that will also be noted.
Continue reading →A suspension in music is when the previous chord has a “hangover” into the new chord.
Continue reading →Music has a beginning, middle and end. Today, we’re going to focus on the end and it’s the end that average listeners react most to. In music, the end of a piece, a movement, or even a phrase is called a cadence. The cadence not only ends a section of music but it also tells the listener where it is going next.
Continue reading →Creating a run in your right hand usually consists of either playing a scale of some sort or a chord broken up.
Continue reading →Here’s a quick quiz: how many lines does a staff have on it? Did you say five lines? If you did, you’re right but can you imagine if a staff had more lines? What if it had 10 lines or even 7 or 8 lines? Would it be easier or harder?
Continue reading →Chromatic scales, whole tone scales, pentatonic scales
Continue reading →Polytonality involves playing two chords at the same time, usually in opposite hands.
Continue reading →There are about a zillion things you can do with chords so there is no need to overuse any one technique.
Continue reading →There are so many things you can do with chords there seems to be no limit
Continue reading →To create a tremolo as illustrated in this short piano video, take any 4 or 5 note chord and rapidly alternate the notes using wrist action, not finger action.
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