We all need to relax more, and music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. But, have you ever thought that you could create your own relaxation music? Doing so actually has more benefits for you than just listening to it.

Take the piano for example. This instrument is perfect for creating soothing, relaxing ambiences and has been used just for this purpose. There’s no need to create bouncy Jazz rhythms or sharp dynamic classical crescendos. On the contrary, the piano can be used to provide a lovely, delicate environment.

The good news is that creating relaxation music is quite easy. All you need are a few chords, a way to play those chords and a scale to improvise from. In fact, if people knew how easy it was, they’d be playing the piano more and more.

For example, let’s say you’re stressed out and in need of some musical comfort. You go to your piano or keyboard and place your hands on a E Major 7 chord. This could be the beginning of a nice improvisation. You choose a few more chords from the Key of E major and you can now use the music to help you unwind and forget about your busy day.

After a few minutes of playing, you start to feel more relaxed. In fact, it’s as if a great weight has been lifted from your shoulders. The music has done it’s work of soothing and healing and you feel refreshed and more in touch with yourself.

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!

Boogie music, also known as boogie woogie, is a genre of piano-heavy music particular to America in the 1930′s and 1940′s and 1950′s. It’s characteristic walking bass is familiar to many as a harkening back to rock and roll, even though the form is based strongly on the blues (in fact, it’s often been called an upbeat version of the blues).

Boogie originally started as a strictly piano form; the most familiar versions are still based solely around the instrument. The precise origin of boogie-woogie piano however is uncertain; it was no doubt influenced by early rough music played in the roadhouses and honky tonks in New Orleans and Kansas City and other cities and towns in the south.

A couple early boogie-men were W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton, and as it grew in popularity many other pianists adopted the style. But as boogie became more and more popular, so too did the idea of including a whole band. Before long, the once solo genre adapted itself to accommodate an entire band. The latest versions of boogie often include guitar and other instruments, but the piano and drums remain the focal point. Even years later you can hear the influence of boogie in the music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and many others.

Many boogies (but not all) are based on the familiar 12-bar blues, which is a series of chord progressions using just the I, IV, and V chords:

Typical 12-bar blues:

4 bars of the I chord

2 bars of the IV chord

2 bars of the I chord

2 bars of the V chord

2 bars of the I chord

then rinse and repeat

Here is a typical left hand boogie pattern in the key of C that can be played either as single notes or octaves or offset broken octaves:

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

F – A – C – D – Eb – D – C – A

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – D

G – B – D – E – F – E – D – B

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

Boogie is often credited as the originator of rock and roll, but that idea isn’t necessarily valid. While boogie definitely played some role in rock and roll’s early days, it was really rhythm and blues that started the form. Boogie, on the other hand, remained an off-shoot of blues and an entity in its own right. It also may have indirectly spawned a dance of the same name, a dance that led largely to boogie being credited as rock and roll’s most dominant predecessor.

The boogie dance, an upbeat and energetic social dance with small roots in swing, was danced mostly to rock and roll. It spread through teenage social circles like wildfire and became almost synonymous with rock and roll. As boogie (the dance) continued to grow through the 50s, boogie (the music) began to disappear from the limelight. And as it grew further and further from the mainstream, boogie’s captivating hold on audiences became understood as a product of the dance, not the music. The way in which the two forms of boogie were interchanged often led to confusion about where and when the form originated and how it related to the dance and the inception of rock and roll.

In any case, boogie is here to stay. It’s fun to play and fun to listen to.

Can you become a boogie-man or boogie-lady?

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- Intelligent Piano Lessons For Adults Only! with over 84,400 current subscribers.

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!

Different styles of music have different sounds. We can all pretty much agree on that point. For example, Jazz uses seventh chords almost exclusively. This, and the kind of chord progressions used in Jazz gives it its unique flavor. But what about new age music? Does it have it’s own special ingredients? Yes it does.

Now, there are no hard and fast rules here but for the most part, new age music is a consonant music. That is, there is little or noharshness going on in the music. No Saxes wailing and what not. Having said that we can eliminate most of the tense jazz chords and their voicing. So what are we left with? Mostly Major and minor chords based on the regular scales and the modes. The chord progressions are simpler and usually start on the l chord. No ll-V-l progressions here.

What about melody? In jazz, we have a soloist who usually plays a lot of chromatic notes. This is rare in new age music because it would create dissonance. New age melodies tend to be softer and more on the spiritual side. Solos, if there are any, are not so much concerned with the expression of the self than they are with letting the music express itself. A subtle but very important distinction. Jazz players may have some ego invested in their performance. New age musicians learn to let the music play them. They learn to become a channel for the music itself allowing it to speak through them. Of course, I’m not saying that this can’t happen in Jazz, but, just watch a Jazz performer and you’ll see what I mean.

Last but not least is rhythm. Let’s do a comparison/contrast between Jazz and New Age music. Jazz has a definite discernible rhythm. It is what makes Jazz Jazz. New age music can have a pattern or an underlying rhythm to the music. It can be used to create trance like states in the listener. Drums are usually a part of Jazz music. Percussion is mostly absent from the New Age sound simply because it would not add to the atmosphere most New Age musicians create. Timing is very important to the Jazz musician. The soloist has the freedom to play whatever he wants as long as he maintains the meter and stays in time. New Age music is more elastic in that timing is there, but is not a master of the player. The New Age player can disregard time altogether. Just listen to Zen flute music as a good example of this.

Now, what does all this mean for the aspiring New Age musician? A couple of good things. It means that there is a definite new age sound out there. That it is here to stay and that people like and need to hear it. And it means that there are some guidelines out there for what defines the meaning of New Age music.

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!

A Brief History-Renner The inventor of the much-relied-upon Renner piano action was Louis Renner. He began producing piano actions on a very small scale in October of 1882. At that time, action manufacture centered around hand?crafted production. The history of the Renner Company is intertwined with German piano production and increasing specialization in piano making. When the company moved into a new factory building in 1902, Renner employed a Staff of 35. By 1911, the total had risen to 100, and a new wing had to be added to the plant. In addition, since 1906, Renner had also been producing hammers as well as actions. Production became increasingly mechanized. Only the most important production stages required skilled craftsmanship, although careful quality control guaranteed a superior product. The number of employees had risen to 175 by the First World War. Labor-saving methods were developed as new machinery became available. Hundreds of electric? motors drove specialized production lines, and grand pianos actions were being manufactured as well.

All action production was now performed under one roof. Labor-intensive Manufacture The number of employees rose to 400 in the 1920s and 1930s, and the plant covered 5,000 square meters. A resident steam ?turbine power plant produced 410 hp to light the plant and to power about 300 motors running the individual machines. The complexity of action production is particularly apparent when considering that 5,700 sections and small parts, springs and strips must be assembled for one single piano action. It is scarcely possible to enumerate the number of motions and work stages leading to the end product. Renner is a typical example of German precision industry as recognized throughout the industrial world. The most modern machinery ensures the highest possible standard of precision and the reliability of the individual sections. The Renner factory was almost completely destroyed in 1944. However, by 1948, the company was once again producing piano actions, initially for Germany and later internationally, as piano manufacturers abroad relied once again on Renner. Expansion was necessary in 1960 and again in 1974, when a new plant was opened in Odenheim, where the entire processing of raw wood, the hammer glue?works and other pre-assembly sections are now located. The major wood storage yard at Renner holds more than 2,000 cubic meters of wood. In 1991 Renner opened a third plant in Zeitz near Leipzig where their upright action manufacturing plant stands today.

Please don’t hesitate to call us for anything at 800.595.2535 or visit our website at www.pianocenter.com!

Here’s one of my favorite methods for quickly blocking out entire sections of music and creating a complete piano composition.

First you need to draw out 8-bars on a piece of paper. I use 8-bars first because it’s a relatively small space to fill up quickly. You don’t have to use notation paper. Any paper will do. In fact, I use a spiral bound notebook with blank pages. I just write out 8-bars and voila, I’ve jotted down what will become a section of music.

Now, here’s the interesting part. Most composers start with the melody line first. Nothing wrong with this. But if you really want to zap out a section quickly, start with the chord changes. Why? Because you can block out bars of music faster. Here’s what I mean.

Say you want to create something in the Key of F Major. Great. Now we know that we have at least 6 chords to work with. By using just 3 chords, we can block out our 8-bars. How? Look? Say we have the F Major 7 chord for the first 4 bars, then comes B flat Major for 2-bars and C 7 for the last 2-bars. We have now created a chord progression and charted it out. You can do this in under a minute. I swear it! It’s that easy. Now all you have to do is decide upon the kind of arrangement you’ll create for these chords.

It might be arpeggios, block chords, open position chords? whatever. The point here is that by using chords, you can map out a harmonic territory. Now you can either create a melody using these chords, or keep it entirely textural. It’s up to you! Try it.

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!

Some of you may remember a book titled Drawing on the Right-Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.

In this book, Betty Edwards tried to teach you how to see differently. She reasoned that once you could look at something with the eyes of an artist, you would be able to create like an artist. A simple idea, yet one that has helped many draw.

I wondered how this might also apply to music. Music is, at it’s best, a right-brain activity. That is, the thinking left hemisphere is dormant while the intuitive right side is engaged in creative processes.

So how then can we play piano on the right-side of the brain? The answer has to do with trusting ourselves. Once we sit down to play, we must allow ourselves the freedom to play ANYTHING that comes to the fore. If that anything is doodling and making nonsense noises, then that is what we must do.

Once we allow ourselves the freedom to play anything, we are sending a message to the creative right hemisphere. We are saying, OK, I’m giving in to whatever. I’ll just play what I want. Now, once you can do this, PLAYING AROUND WITH CHORDS BECOMES AN EASY MATTER because you have given yourself permission to mess up.

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!

I guess you are learning to play piano in order to become a better pianist. Do you know that there are many secret learning processes in action as you practice on your piano. Let’s find out the truth!

I presume that you practice on the piano with the hope of becoming a better instrumentalist, pianist and musician and and in order to experience the joy and satisfaction that follows.

The learning processes in action as you try to learn to play the piano can lead you forward towards you goals. However, some things you learn can limit your progress and I think it is important to be aware of these factors.

Let’s take a look at what you don’t want to learn as you play piano! Let me mention three things!

1. At times when you practice on your piano you might experience stress and other uncomfortable feelings due to a deadline in the form of a upcoming piano lesson you don’t feel prepared for or other disturbing thoughts.

The feelings you experience as you practice a specific piece of music have a tendency to be evoked when you play the same piece at another occasion.

2. Can tensions stick to your sheet music? Your actual muscle tension level when you play a piano composition tends to be present when you play the same piece of music in public.

In other words, it will be more difficult to perform and play a piano composition in a relaxed manner when you have practiced it with a high tension level.

3. Can you learn not to play a piece of music? I guess you practice on your piano and take piano lessons in order to become a better player.

However, if you don’t concentrate on your piano playing and if you play new passages too fast you will probably make a lot of mistakes.

These mistakes tend to slow down the learning process and in fact they will be a part of the learning process. The more mistakes you make playing a particular piano sheet music passage the harder it will be to play it right.

Why is it so? All your earlier mistakes will accumulate and disturb you as you try to play a passage right. To play a passage wrong will become easier and easier the more times you make mistakes.

Is this depressing news? Well if these news will help you change your way of practicing piano playing it will be good news!

You can use these piano practicing news to your advantage! Read on!

1. Try to make your piano practicing sessions to peaceful and joyful occasions by never procrastinating your piano lesson homework and by having the right attitude as you start playing.

2. Always practice a new piano piece slowly and with concentration and with correct posture. If you don’t make mistakes as you practice you will progress much faster!

3. Remember to relax as you play piano. Your piano practicing session can also be a relaxation exercise and if you play piano in this manner it will be beneficial both for your physical and mental health!

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

Boogie music, also known as boogie woogie, is a genre of piano-heavy music particular to America in the 1930′s and 1940′s and 1950′s. It’s characteristic walking bass is familiar to many as a harkening back to rock and roll, even though the form is based strongly on the blues (in fact, it’s often been called an upbeat version of the blues).

Boogie originally started as a strictly piano form; the most familiar versions are still based solely around the instrument. The precise origin of boogie-woogie piano however is uncertain; it was no doubt influenced by early rough music played in the roadhouses and honky tonks in New Orleans and Kansas City and other cities and towns in the south.

A couple early boogie-men were W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton, and as it grew in popularity many other pianists adopted the style. But as boogie became more and more popular, so too did the idea of including a whole band. Before long, the once solo genre adapted itself to accommodate an entire band. The latest versions of boogie often include guitar and other instruments, but the piano and drums remain the focal point. Even years later you can hear the influence of boogie in the music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and many others.

Many boogies (but not all) are based on the familiar 12-bar blues, which is a series of chord progressions using just the I, IV, and V chords:

Typical 12-bar blues:

4 bars of the I chord

2 bars of the IV chord

2 bars of the I chord

2 bars of the V chord

2 bars of the I chord

then rinse and repeat

Here is a typical left hand boogie pattern in the key of C that can be played either as single notes or octaves or offset broken octaves:

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

F – A – C – D – Eb – D – C – A

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – D

G – B – D – E – F – E – D – B

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

Boogie is often credited as the originator of rock and roll, but that idea isn’t necessarily valid. While boogie definitely played some role in rock and roll’s early days, it was really rhythm and blues that started the form. Boogie, on the other hand, remained an off-shoot of blues and an entity in its own right. It also may have indirectly spawned a dance of the same name, a dance that led largely to boogie being credited as rock and roll’s most dominant predecessor.

The boogie dance, an upbeat and energetic social dance with small roots in swing, was danced mostly to rock and roll. It spread through teenage social circles like wildfire and became almost synonymous with rock and roll. As boogie (the dance) continued to grow through the 50s, boogie (the music) began to disappear from the limelight. And as it grew further and further from the mainstream, boogie’s captivating hold on audiences became understood as a product of the dance, not the music. The way in which the two forms of boogie were interchanged often led to confusion about where and when the form originated and how it related to the dance and the inception of rock and roll.

In any case, boogie is here to stay. It’s fun to play and fun to listen to.

Can you become a boogie-man or boogie-lady?

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 book-CD-DVD course titled How To Play Chord Piano In Ten Days! has sold over 100,000 copies 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 Piano Lesson Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions with over 70,000 current subscribers.

I’ve had a few piano teachers over the years. And I can’t say that they really helped me. Why? Because I can learn technique pretty much on my own.

What I needed was for someone to help me TRUST MY OWN INTUITION and act as a mentor guiding me to my desired goal, which at that time, was to create my own music.

Think of a visual artist as an example. This artist may be able to understand and apply different techniques to create a pleasing work of art, but the art itself won’t have that special X factor that only comes when an artist fully trusts their own intuition.

Intuition is the most confusing thing for someone without it to develop. That’s because they’ve had a long time not trusting in themselves and their own unique talent and ability.

Nothing is more important for without the ability to trust yourself, you really won’t be able to hear the intuitive voice that is always present and is always willing to guide you – if you let it.

The first step to accomplish this trust in yourself is to switch from a product oriented attitude to a process oriented one. You must let go of the need to produce something that is good or bad. Instead, allow for mistakes and experimentation. Improvise and start out by using simple means. A few chords, a scale, some brief instruction are all that is required.

You must be able to play! Children trust themselves and their power of intuition without exception. They haven’t learned how not to. I like to use the analogy of finger-painting as an example of this.

Put finger-paints and paper in front of a child and watch what happens. They can’t wait to get started in exploring this world of color and form. They’re not concerned with good or bad. What they are concerned with is pure joy. And this comes from their ability to suspend judgement and just play!

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!