Being Piano Man - Tips for Teaching Yourself to Play Piano Easily

           

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The piano is an exquisite musical instrument that may be a bit intimidating to learn but is worth every sweat, time and money you'll spend. If you want to teach yourself to play piano easily and fast, start now. The earlier you begin, the better you'll be and the earlier you'll be able to play a favorite piece. Here's how you can start:

Decide on your piano playing.

If you want to teach yourself to play piano easily, you need to decide what kind of piano player you want to be. If you want to be a concert pianist playing Mozart or Tchaikovsky, you will have to learn how to read notes and somewhere down the line, probably take formal lessons, if only for the technique. But if you only want to learn the piano so you can accompany a singer or compose your own song, you can start with chords, which is arguably the easier way to start playing.

There are also different styles of piano playing you might want to concentrate on ? classical, jazz, blues, new age, etc. You can learn one or several of these styles in the future once you're familiar with the instrument itself.

Have access to a piano.

To teach yourself to play piano easily you need access to a piano. A piano is a bit expensive, but you don?t have to buy one to be able to teach yourself to play piano easily. There are many sources you can tap for free ? local clubs, schools, churches, even friends and neighbors who might be willing to let you use their piano.

If you're a little shy and want to practice at home, get a portable electronic keyboard to learn to play piano easily. There are some very inexpensive ones that work as well as a Korg or a Roland. These keyboards even allow you to plug a headphone so no one else hears your playing. Just buy one with full-sized keys because the really cheap ones can have smaller-sized keys. If your fingers get used to smaller keys, you might have some trouble adjusting if you begin playing a full-sized piano in the future.

Get your lesson.

A piano lesson is never far away. There are numerous books, CDs and online lessons you can tap to help you to teach yourself to play piano easily. There are some videos and audio instructional sources you can use.

You can get free or paid lessons easily and can even access some of the most popular music to learn. Because we all learn differently, it's important that you find the lesson that you feel most comfortable with to teach yourself to play piano easily.

Have a back up.

There are times when you might get stumped on a lesson simply because you don?t get it or are not using the right technique. If this happens, find a different resource you can use for reference to teach yourself to play piano easily such as a different website, book or video or just simply ask someone if you're playing the piano correctly.

Practice.

Nobody learned to play the piano practicing only when they felt like it. Even the virtuosos played the piano as often as they can. Playing this instrument requires teaching your hand and mind to remember motions and learn to associate notes with the black and white keys on the piano. Practice for at least half an hour everyday or about 4 to 5 days a week is one way to teach yourself to play piano easily.

Learning to play the piano doesn?t mean you have to be born with talent nor do you have to be as young as your niece or grandchild. Anyone who has normal mental and physical abilities can teach himself to learn to play piano easily and succeed. Piano playing is as much a learned skill as it is a talent. If you can teach yourself the skill, you're halfway there.

Do you want to discover the astonishing, step-by-step secrets of how to play the piano with the rhythm, timing and magic of a professional? You're going to save time, money, and aggravation. You'll learn to avoid the mistakes and disastrous situations that you've been vulnerable to. Teach yourself to play piano easily visit Rocket Piano -The Ultimate Piano Learning Kit at Learn To Play Music Instruments

Gerry Restrivera writes informative articles on various subjects including Being Piano Man: Tips for Teaching Yourself to Play Piano Easily. You are allowed to publish this article in its entirety provided that author?s name, bio and website links must remain intact and included with every reproduction.

Piano Lessons: Creating an Impressionistic Soundscape

           

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Ah? the Soundscape. That indefinable rush of notes that envelopes and soothes. The first classical composer to really embrace this type of music was Claude Debussy.

In fact, a whole style of music (Impressionism) was coined based on his music alone.

It's a lush style that tries to steer clear of too definable a melody line. Instead, textures and rhythms are explored. Some students think this style is the hardest to learn but I think it's actually easier to play this style than the straight melodic style embraced in the classical period.

For the improvising pianist, creating an impressionist Soundscape requires nothing more than learning a few chords and playing them.

Debussy based much of his music on something called the whole-tone scale. This scale basically takes out any "tension" that can be found in our major and minor scales. The Chinese and Japanese use pentatonic scales frequently and this is also similar.

But, we don't have to use these scales to create our Soundscape. The C Major scale will work just fine. For instance, in the lesson "Reflections in Water," we use open position chords to create with. It's HOW we use them that gives us the feeling of a Soundscape.

We play slowly and allow the notes to ring out. No rushing is involved here. Instead, we adapt an attitude of exploration. The music is created by allowing our fingers to play with the tones in the C Major scale. Chord changes come every few bars or so. The music is repeated a few times and then we stop.

You see, you don't need fancy materials to create beautiful Soundscapes with. You can use just a few chords from the C Major scale and improvise a beautiful piece of music! We play with the textures and allow the music to appear - without forcing or willing it into being.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Private Piano Lessons - Are They a Waste of Time?

           

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Let me say from the start that I have nothing against private piano lessons. I think there are good teachers out there who can help you reach your goals. Having said that, I do have some things to say about them from personal experience.

My goal was to find a private piano teacher who could help me create my own music in the style I enjoyed - New Age piano. I knew a few chords but what I really wanted was a mentor; someone who could already compose and improvise and help me do the same. And so I searched my city of San Diego for a teacher.

I found someone who I thought could help me (because of the brochure he mailed) and made an appointment. The first thing he did was assess what I already knew?which was what he was supposed to do. Fine. I showed him the chords I could play.

Then, for some bizarre reason, he started writing out chords on a piece of paper and that was the rest of the lesson! Talk about disappointing! And a waste of time and money.

I soon discovered, much to my dismay, that I probably wasn't going to find private piano lessons that would help me reach my goal. Now, if my goal was learning classical piano, there are literally thousands of teachers out there who could just whip out a folio and have me go through the book.

But I really wanted to be able to create my OWN music. Why was that so difficult?

My search finally took me to my local libraries where I discovered the books and materials to help me.

Look, I'm not saying that there aren't any good private piano lessons out there. I'm saying there are other ways to reach your music goals.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for 2 FREE piano lessons!

Learn To Play Piano Chords: Learn To Play II-V-I Progressions

           

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II-V-I progressions are common in most types of popular music and mainstream jazz and more. If you can play II-V-I progressions you are in a lucky position. What then is a II-V-I progression? Well, come and see!

A C-major scale consists of seven notes: C D E F G A B

A C-major chord consists of the first, third and fifth notes in the C-major scale. This is called a triad.

A chord built from the first step of the scale can also be called I from the roman number one.

If I start on the second note of the C-major scale and construct a triad chord consisting of D F A, I have a chord built upon the second step of the scale.

This will be a D-minor chord and I can indicate that I have built a chord from the second note of the C-major scale by giving it the number II with roman numbers.

If I decide to build a triad chord from the fifth note of the C-major scale I have to add more notes in the C-major scale: C D E F G A B C D

If I start building a triad from G it will consist of the notes G B D. This is a G-major chord and to show that it is a triad built from the fifth step of the C-major scale we can call it V which is the roman number for five.

The smart thing with the roman numbers is that they don't indicate an absolute chord but rather the position of a chord in the key you are playing on your guitar, piano or other instrument.

In the key of C the roman numbers I stands for the chord C, II indicates the chord D-minor and V the chord G. Simplified we can say that when I say I will play a II-V-I chord progression in the key of C I will play the chords D-minor, G and C.

Actually this is just the beginning of the art of playing II-V-I progressions. You can spice the chords in different ways and play the chords in major or minor.

And of course a chord on a piano can be played in many different ways. A C-major chord must have the notes C, E and G but how many or where to play them is a matter of choice.

Here are a few easy examples of II-V-I progressions in C-major that can be transposed to other keys:

1. Dm, G7, C 2. Dm7, G7, C 3. D7, G7, C

When you practice these progressions on your piano you can choose to play them with both hands, with the left hand, giving room for right hand improvisation or your right hand, giving room for left hand bass playing or improvisation.

Practicing playing II-V-I progressions on your piano will help you see the relationship between chords and being able to play these progressions in different key will give you a tool that will help you recognize chord progressions in songs you hear which will help you trancribe songs by ear.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com