A student recently emailed me saying that she was through with piano playing. She was very upset because the desire to play piano had disappeared. My sage advice? It happens to everone!

Look, if we were meant to have the muse on 24/7 we would burn out faster than an accountant on espresso. There’s something about the creative spark that does not like to be pressured. Sure, you can show up at the piano and try and enter in to the music, but if your spirit is not in it, chances are you’re not going to want to play.

As frustrating as these dry spells can be, they are necessary for further creative growth. Patience is key here but many creative types (myself included) are not patient people. As I said before, forcing rarely works and will leave you even more frustrated. The only real solution to this is to see that we are more than who we are when we sit down to play the piano.

If we identify only with our creative self, we set ourselves up for frustration. It’s also good to know that 99.9 times out of 100, creativity returns and we can relax and entertain the muse once more.

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/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Remember the old ad that used to run endlessly in magazines and newspapers:

They laughed when I sat down at the piano…but when I started to play… ?

I remember very well the first time I played piano for a group. They DID laugh. It was a disaster. I overheard the leader say Let’s get somebody with some rhythm in there to play.

Ouch!

That hurt. But I told myself right then and there that I would learn to play the piano so well that no one would ever laugh at me again.

Guess what?

Nobody laughs anymore. And they don’t laugh at my students, either.

Why?

Because I discovered…

– The BACKDOOR to piano playing –

What in the world is the backdoor to piano playing?

Chords.

Chords are a way in to the world of piano playing without having to go through the front door: years and years of scales, drills, rote practicing, etc. Chords are really a shortcut to understanding and playing music without all the formal training.

Formal training is fine if you have the time and money. But most adults don’t want to wait forever before they can play something enjoyable on the piano. I took lessons when I was a kid, but found it boring. Not only that, but all I could do was play the written music exactly as it was written. Without the sheet music in front of me, I didn’t have a clue what to do. So I lost interest in piano playing until the incident described above. But shortly after that, I had the opportunity to play in a school combo — but to do that, I had to learn chords, and learn them fast.

I didn’t really know where to turn, so I sent for a $2. chord chart advertised in Popular Mechanics, and within hours after I got it I was playing the Dm7 chord and the C6 chord in my left hand while I played the tune with my right hand. Talk about excited! Within a few weeks I could play dozens of songs using chords. And I discovered that my sight-reading speed greatly improved at the same time, because now I understood what I was seeing on the printed page!

So I came in through the back door instead, and now I enjoy what I used to hate! Why? Because I understand what I’m doing because now I understand chords and chord progressions. I eventually went on to get advanced degrees in music and literature from Southern Oregon University — and it was easy because of all I had learned about music theory and harmony due to playing and understanding chords.

Can you do the same?

There’s really no reason why you can’t if you have the desire. Start looking at sheet music with new eyes: look for notes that make up chords and then analyze those chords. Before long you’ll start seeing a pattern of recurring chords; in other words, chord progressions. Do this for a few months while simultaneously learning about chords and how they are formed, and music will take on a new dimension for you. You’ll no longer view sheet music as something you are tied to, but rather you’ll see it as a map that you can follow to create the sounds and styles you choose.

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions Piano Lessons for Adults with over 84,400 current subscribers.

Piano improvising and arranging is an art but definitely not a science. It is all based on chords and chord progressions. There aren’t any steadfast rules for creating an arrangement, nothing to dictate the limitless potential of your imagination. Musicians learn to arrange by simply arranging ? and improvise by improvising — over and over again. It’s a big game of trial and error. But it?s also a scientific method: you keep the experiments that work, and abandon those that don?t work.

That being said, there are a few things that can help you in the knowledge of piano improvization. Don’t think of these as rules, but rather points on a roadmap guiding you through the vast world of arrangement and improvisation possibilities.

- The first step, of course, is to learn as much as you can about chords and how they work. Once you get a handle on piano chords and the chord symbols that represent them such as Fm7, G9, D, C7, etc., you can then learn how to break those chords up in various patterns.

- Learn several different chording patterns, such as open voicing, arpeggios, upward inversions, western bass, Alberti bass, swing bass or boogie bass. This course guides you through these techniques, in addition to others, and teaches you to understand when they’re the most appropriate.

- Learn some right hand fillers, like octaves (and the multitude of harmonic possibilities associated with octaves), tremelos, grace notes, twangs, runs, and turnarounds. Again, this course teaches you these fills and several others.

- Study pre-arranged sheet music. Your local music shop will have tons of music books containing several arrangements; read and play through these in detail. Seeing what other people have done with various pieces of music will help you understand the art of arrangement and also introduce you to new techniques!

- Dig into different musical styles, like ragtime, blues or country-western. Pick up some compilation CDs focusing on a particular style of music or purchase some piano sheet music specializing in the style. Understanding the fundamental elements of various styles will help you learn to arrange any song in that particular style — or just add a few stylized elements to any arrangement.

- Jump online and type in ?chord piano? or ?piano chords? into your search browser, and you will come up with a zillion choices where you can learn all you need to know about chords in a reasonably short time. It?s not rocket science, and once you learn a few piano chords, you probably will become addicted to chords and their application to your piano playing.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com.

When I first heard this technique applied over 15 years ago, I couldn’t believe my ears. How could so much music be coming out of one piano? Turns out, what I was hearing was something called an ostinato. Ostinato simply means repeating pattern and is used frequently in all kinds of music.

But it really shines for the New Age piano genre. Just listen to George Winston’s piece Rain to get an idea of what can be done with this technique. He uses a very large chunk of the keyboard to create a beautiful left-hand ostinato pattern while the right hand improvises. And what music! You’d swear it couldn’t be just one piano but it is!

Now, ostinatos can be used to create a staccato sound (as in the Winston piece Rain) or they can be used gently as in the lesson piece Winter Scene.

Here we use 2 chords to create a nice harmonic background. Once the left hand is set, so to speak, the right hand enters in with an improvised melody. And that’s all that is required to create a full piece of music!

An ostinato pattern can use as much or as little of the keyboard as the player desires. In fact, if you just play a repeating bass note you’ve created an ostinato pattern. The lesson Winter Scene uses suspended chords that are broken up. Winston’s piece Rain actually uses a left-hand arpeggio pattern – yes, an arpeggio can be turned into an ostinato too!

Once we have the ostinato pattern, we can create a harmonic loop. We can chart out the chord changes on a piece of paper and notate our pattern for future use. Ostinatos are great because they quickly give you the entire background and mood of the piece. We then paint our melodies on top of this background to create our aural canvas!

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/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Have you ever listened to your favorite pianist and wondered why their music felt so alive? What was it you wondered. Was it technique? Maybe, but probably not. Technique can allow you to play difficult passages. It can’t give you the X factor that careful listeners can discern.

Perhaps it was the personality of the performer that drew you in. Personality is great but will only take you so far as a pianist. After all, if they can’t see you, it’s just the music that’s heard.

So what is it? What is it that makes one pianist sound alive while another sounds like they just don’t have it? You may think it’s how much someone has practiced or how many years of conservatory is under the belt. It’s none of these. The best players, the ones whose music has something otherworldly about it, have relinquished control of their egos and allowed their higher source to take over and guide them! That’s it.

They may not say it, but if you notice, the best players never take full credit for their playing. In fact, most players at this level will say nothing unless pressed to. You see, once the ego is out of the equation, the player is free! And once free, the music is allowed to flow and move through the player as if? yes – as if it is something coming from another world – or at least a higher place.

To make your piano playing come alive, you must let go and allow the music to take over. I know I keep saying this but only because it’s true. As soon as you think that you are a good player or even a bad one, you’re setting yourself up to fall. Certainly, it’s OK to have a healthy does of self-esteem and admit that you feel good about your playing but…

Here’s an interesting tidbit. Do you know why Mozart only wrote first drafts and never scribbled anything out? It’s because he trusted himself so much that he knew that his first drafts were the best ones. That is, he learned to get out of the way and let the music speak through him.

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/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Are there really secrets to becoming a really good piano player? Or is it just a matter of practice, practice, practice?

Practice is necessary, of course, but you could practice until the cows come home without understanding what youre doing at the piano, and all you would end up with is fingers that behave obediently to whatever the sheet music or score tells them to do.

Understanding how music works in terms of form and content is the key to productive practice. Then you are not just playing mechanically by rote like a machine, but you can get inside the music and eventually let it flow out of your brain and heart as well as your hands.

There are at least 33 elements that contribute to becoming a good pianist, says Duane Shinn, pianist and owner of Keyboard Workshop in Medford, Oregon. There are probably more, but without these 33 principles a pianist cannot hope to rise to the level of his ability.

So yes there really are secrets to becoming the piano player of your dreams. Its not that anyone is purposefully trying to keep a secret from you, but its a rare teacher who has the ability to not only play well but to be able to explain music theory chords, melody, rhythm, dynamics, and all the other elements that contribute to playing the piano well and with feeling.

In our piano teaching studio at Piano University we have identified 33 distinct skill that must be developed if a person wants to play up to the limit of her or his potential. Here they are:

1 – Hand & Body Position — Should you look down at your hands? How to use eye flips

2 – The key to productive practice — Spaced repetition

3 – Attitude — how it affects your learning

4 – How & when to pedal. Using explosive dynamics

5 – Exposure: why it’s critically important

6 – Ear Training — Intervals from 2nds to 13ths

7 – Fingering — which finger do you use when?

8 – Chord substitutions that create fantastic sounds

9 – Chord recognition — how to recognize what chord is being used

10 – Musical vocabulary: tempo words, form words

11- Arranging: how is your bag of tricks coming along? Head arrangements

12 – Melodic sense: how does the melody relate to the chords?

13 – Sight-reading: 7 fundamentals you just cannot ignore

14 – Key orientation: Can you think in the key you’re playing in?

15 – Scanning the score before you start playing

16 – Mental practice — how to learn music in bed

17 – Repertoire: Why you need one to be prepared for any opportunity

18 – Goal setting: How good can you get? Is there a limit?

19 – Rhythm awareness — samba, bossa nova, bolero, etc.

20 – Why knowing music history is important to you

21 – Idea stealing — how and where & from who

22 – 12-bar blues; creating a motif; blue notes

23 – Extended chords: 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, suspensions

24 – Technique acquisition: rubber balls, fingering drills

25 – Harmonization: Using I, IV & V to harmonize

26 – Key identification: Recognizing key signatures

27 – Voicing: Open, closed, registers, color tones

28 – Improvisation: Making music right out of your head

29 – Harmony & theory: How much should you know?

30 – Stylistic devices: Western, boogie, jazz, etc.

31 – Analysis: How to understand what you’re hearing

32 – Riffs & runs & fills: How to develop them

33 – Cross-pollination: The best of all worlds!

While reading music is important, the individual who develops these 33 basic skills will be light years ahead of the person who simply plays sheet music the way it is written. There is no longer any reason to be tied to the written music when you can master these techniques that allow you to play from the heart.

A complete list of the 33 essentials of exciting piano playing can be found at http://www.playpiano.com/33-tips.htm Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and music educational materials such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. His 4-CD and 33-card course titled 33 Tips For Becoming a Great Piano Player! is being used by pianists around the world. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions with over 70,000 current subscribers.

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There are roughly umpteen zillion reasons why you should learn enough chords to be able to chord a song at the piano.

By chord a song, I mean the ability to play 3 or 4 chords on the piano in some sort of rhythm while you or someone else sings the tune. To do this, you dont need to be a Van Cliburn; all you need to do is learn a few basic chords and be able to more back and forth between them in some organized rhythmic pattern.

For example, did you realize that all of these songs (and hundreds more) can be sung or played with just 3 chords?

Auld Lang Syne

Amazing Grace

Kum Ba Ya

Silent Night

Joy To The World

Jingle Bells

Happy Birthday

Down In The Valley

On Top Of Old Smoky

and hundreds or maybe thousands more!

Add just one more chord to the basic 3, and you can play another thousand songs or so. So why not learn a few chords and start your chording career?

Here are my top 10 reasons for learning chord piano:

1) Its easy. Learn 3 chords and start in.

2) Even though its easy to get started, you dont have to stop there. You can learn more and more chords and more rhythm patterns and get really good.

3) Youll be able to play Happy Birthday while the gang sings it.

4) Youll be able to play half-a-dozen Christmas carols. In case you havent noticed, Christmas comes every year, so every year youll get better as you participate in family gatherings.

5) You can help your kids learn to play the piano, guitar, or most any other instrument by learning chords. Most teachers dont teach chords, so youll be giving your kids an advantage by learning chords.

6) People will admire you. Its true. Musicians are popular. Anyone who can play anything is in demand at parties and social gatherings. And if you can chord while others sing, youre bound to be popular.

7) Piano playing using chords is good for your brain. Studies have shown that people who actively participate in music do their brain lots of good. And since chords require 3 or 4 notes at a time instead of one, you are giving your brain a good workout.

Piano playing, particularly using chords, is good exercise for your wrists and fingers. (Take the time to learn about correct hand position, though!)

9) Piano playing is excellent therapy for the stress of life. Many professional people come home from a hard days work and relax by expressing their emotions on the keyboard. Play a few dark and angry chords, and youll be surprised how much better you feel!

10) Piano playing is a blast. Its just plain old fun. So learn 3 or 4 chords and get going. Maybe youll stop there and enjoy it the rest of your life.

But just maybe youll love it so much that you keep going and turn yourself into an excellent piano player who can read music as well as play chords!

Duane Shinn is the author of the book-CD-DVD course titled How To Play Chord Piano In Ten Days! which has sold over 100,000 copies around the world and can be found at http://www.chordpiano.com/piano-chords.

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