Research shows that playing an instrument provides health benefits
Check out the article in the Medford Mail Tribune this morning about the relationship between music and health.
Continue reading →Category Archives: Chords & chord progressions
What Is The Difference Between Transposing & Modulating? Watch This 7-Minute Video
I’m sure that you have had the experience sometime in your piano-playing life when someone asks you to play a song — but in a different key than in which it is written. It might be a singer wanting you … Continue reading →
Beware of little old ladies from Oregon playing old gospel songs…
Watch this video then read the caption below: Acclaimed Jazz pianist Patti Moran McCoy plays “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder” at Pastor Andrae Crouch’s church on Easter Sunday, 2005. Patti McCoy is a wonderful friend and neighbor of … Continue reading →
Are guitar chords different than piano chords?
Several people have asked me if guitar chords are the same as piano chords. The answer is yes and no. No — because they are fingered entirely different, and of course the tone color of the sound is different. Yes … Continue reading →
Rhythm and Blues
Rhythm and blues, in its most modern definition, is soul and funk-based style of pop music that started during disco but truly flourished well after disco’s death. Originally, however, in the 1940s rhythm and blues was a term coined as … Continue reading →
How To Become a “Chord Detective” and See Through The Notes Into The Chords
I have had many people call or write me and ask me something like this: “I play by ear, or by chords, but lots of music doesn’t have chord symbols written in — how do I know what chord to … Continue reading →
The Samba – A Gift From Brazil
The Samba is a sort of carnival genre of music and dance. Rooted in Rio de Janeiro, it’s the most popular and well-known genre to come out of the Afro-Brazilian culture, a culture created by the slave trade from Africa … Continue reading →
Piano Fingering Is Just Common Sense
When I operated a piano school many beginning younger students would try to read the notes by assuming that the little numbers above the notes in their piano books were the notes they were supposed to play. We finally convinced … Continue reading →
Can you improve more at the piano in 2008 than you have in the last 5 years?
It’s that time of the year when people think about the meaning of their lives, and what they would like to accomplish the next year. I’ve always been a goal-setter — ever since I was a little kid. That doesn’t … Continue reading →
Can You Become The Piano Player Of Your Dreams in 2008?
Can You Become The Piano Player Of Your Dreams in 2008?7 Piano Playing Goals To Accomplish in 2008 As you begin this new year, here are seven goals for you to accomplish within one year — 2008. Of course you … Continue reading →