Have you encounter people that tell you: My wife and I plan one day to have a piano in our home that the whole family can enjoy. Perhaps our children can learn to play also.

I will practice and practice until I become good at it. If I can’t do it in the morning then I will do it when I come home at night after work, and on weekends I can play the piano for hours on end

I do not think you had that experienced too often, maybe never, but my guess is that there are many of you that have friends in other parts of the country or less fortunate countries where they know of people in this situation. The point I am trying to make is that there are people out there that can not wait the moment in which they can have access to a piano or another ‘proper’ like instrument where they can practice and practice, because it is a joy and a dream for them.

On the other hand, I ask myself if there are many people that buy pianos, very expensive pianos just for show, to be used just as furniture display items, that gather dust in a corner of a mansion, while in a different neighborhood we have somebody that would love to get his/her hands on it for just few minutes. How can we develop this same feeling of love for an instrument? I believe some ways would be:

1) By being aware that an instrument, expensive or not needs to be used and care for.

2) By seeking out like-minded individuals with whom you can learn how to play this beautiful instrument.

It should be a rewarding experience to meet a bunch of different people with access to a piano, and you can go to it and improvise and laugh with your friends about the funky noises that you make and start to take some shape. For sure that would be therapeutic, playing in groups, not only the piano, but also music games, piano learning video games and the like.

Another option would be to take your own I Can Play Piano Camp instruction somewhere that is available in your city or at your own home. You can even take advantage of it while on vacation. Take a few moments and head for the entertainment room at the hotel, restaurant, conference area where you can find a free piano and play by ear whatever tune you desire. You will see how music inspiration thoughts come to mind. Remember, your audience either does not know much as you do now, or has gone through the same challenges that you are experiencing and they will be happy for your accomplishments.

My best wishes to you in your new musical adventure. I know it will be rewarding and fun. Awake those hidden talents!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jesse Fisher enjoys writing about interesting new developments in the music instruction world. To learn more about milestones in educational music products, visit PianoWizard’s I Can Play Piano informational page.

Did you take guitar lessons in high school? Can you strum a few bars of a Bob Dylan song, or play along with the Rolling Stones? If you are considering learning classical guitar, you are in for a whole new experience! Classical guitar is considered to be an art; one that has been practiced for hundreds of years. It has a history all of its own. Before you begin learning to play classical guitar, you will want to study its history and learn a few other things that make the classical guitar different from a regular acoustic guitar.

The main difference between classical and regular acoustic guitar is the way that you play them. A classical guitar has to almost become a part of you. Your body needs to move with the guitar as you play. Let yourself feel the rhythms and the melody and be caught up in them. If you are willing to take this approach, the music you play will have much more passion and movement than if you sit straight up and strum stiffly on the guitar.

Playing classical guitar requires the musician to be relaxed, both in mind and in body, and to become part of the music. Any thoughts or ideas you have of playing acoustic guitar will probably not apply to classical guitar. Be open to changing any habits or ideas that you have; this will help you to learn more quickly and to become a classical guitar player that people love to listen to.

Although classical guitar will seem difficult, take the time to learn the basics. Practice them over and over. If you do this, you will have a strong beginning to build on when you want to learn more complicated tunes and techniques. Practice and patience are very important when you want to learn classical guitar.

There are different ways to learn to play classical guitar. You can buy a book, CD or video, or even find information on the Internet. The most successful way to learn is to find a classical guitarist to teach you. It is much easier to learn how to sit, how to hold your guitar, and how to play the music if you have someone right there to show you and to correct you if you make any mistakes. Contact your local music store or put an ad in the newspaper to find a teacher. Enjoy this new learning experience, and if you feel discouraged, listen to a CD of a professional classical guitarist and look forward to the day you will be able to play that well!

Learn more about playing classical guitar at http://guitar.activitiessite.com/.

Even if you haven’t played guitar tablature before you can impress or maybe shock your friends by playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Let’s start playing guitar tab!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is a popular English nursery rhyme with the French melody Ah! Vous dirais-je, Maman. You can play this song on the first three strings on the guitar.

The text is from a poem, The Star, by Jane Taylor. It was first published in 1806. Here you have the English lyrics:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

We will use guitar tablature so you will not need to read sheet music. You will only use the thinnest strings on the guitar. The string with the highest pitch is called the first string or E-string. Look at the following guitar tab:

1. 0-0-0-0—————–
2. ——–1-1-1-1———
3. —————-2-2-2-2-

This is a tablature staff and the four number 0 indicate that you play the first string four times without pressing down any finger on your right hand. This is called to play on an open string.

The four number 1 coming after is played on the second string pressing down your first finger on the first fret. Then you will play the third string four times pressing down the string on the second fret. This is what the previous guitar tablature notation is telling you.

Let’s play the first notes of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with guitar tablature:

1. ————0–0————————–
2. ——3–3——-3—-1–1–0–0———-
3. 0–0—————————–2–2–0–

If you want to use your left hand in a professional way you can play the guitar tab notes on the first fret with your first finger, notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

Now it’s only one guitar tablature part left:

1. 3–3–1–1–0–0—–
2. ——————3–
3. ———————

After having played this part twice, go back and play the first guitar tablature part and the melody is complete.

Now when you understand guitar tablature notation you can find many songs written this way on the internet. Search for guitar tab or guitar tablature. A complete guitar tablature staff has six lines representing the six strings.

If you have an ukulele hanging somewhere you can use the previous tablature too. The first three strings on an ukulele is tuned the same way as on the guitar.

Just one more thing for you to do. Play the song for your friends! Good luck!

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

To be on the right place at the right time is quite nice. It is called timing. In your guitar playing you will find that timing is crucial. This means to play your notes at the right time so that the result will be music.

To learn to play guitar notes at the right time is not the same thing as playing mathematically perfect. You cannot learn to play music by only using a metronome for example.

You have to listen to music and play together with other people and learn to react rytmically upon other peoples playing.

Anyway, in music there are usually a pulse that you can feel more or less and your ability to feel the pulse in the music will help you contribute with your musical and rytmic playing to the end result.

How can you learn to feel the pulse in the music? I will give you seven suggestions that might help you develop your timing when you play guitar and increase your ability to feel the pulse:

1. Dance to the music. If you can learn to feel the pulse with your whole body it will help you play musically. In this case it doesn’t matter how your dancing is performed.

Listen to music on your stereo and move to the music. The important thing is to develop the feeling that you are floating or surfing with the music without any effort on your part.

2. Learn to play drums. I think it would be a good thing if all musicians as part of their musical development on their particular instrument learned to play drums.

The ability to create rhythms and patterns when playing drums will help you a lot when you try to learn to play guitar in time and in a musical way.

Actually you don’t need drums, you might as well play rhythms on your laps with your hands. Try to play eights for example on your laps by alternating between your right and left hands and by accentuating different eight notes as you play.

What you can play with your hands on your laps or on a table or something else requires another article I guess.

3. Buy a metronome. A metronome will give you a 100% even pulse and can help you play in different tempos. It will help you play in slow tempos and help you keep a steady tempo.

How to use a metronome to your andvantage you can learn in other learn to play guitar articles.

4. Practice strumming patterns on your guitar. The act of strumming chords on the guitar resembles drum playing and will increase your overall ability to use a pick.

For example, playing eights with up and down strokes on a barr? chord and playing around with the rythm by releasing the left hand pressure on some notes thereby damping them and also accentuating some notes with the up or downstrokes with your pick can create interesting rhythmic patterns.

5. Play with other people. As I said before the art of timing when you learn to play guitar doesn’t mean the same thing as playing mathematically perfect even if it is sometimes necessary to do that in some music.

When I produce my own music on my preferred recording software I have realized that the bass part for example can be edited to play on exact beats.

When I have quantisized the bass part 100% it usually means that the whole production loses tension so to speak. I can see that I many times play a little ahead of the beat and other times a little laid back and this is done intentionally to create energy in the music.

When you learn to play guitar it is very important to learn to feel the pulse in the music. I hope my tips can help you be on time!

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

Playing guitar requires a technique that is uniquely different from an instrument such as piano. Think about this for example, you can drop a roll of quarters on a piano and get a clean crisp sound out of the keys. The guitar requires a little more finesse with both hands in order to get notes to sound (other than the open strings). Most beginning guitar players focus most of their attention on the left hand (or fretting hand for you lefties), and rightly so. The left hand needs to learn the grid pattern of the fretboard ? where the notes are, where to hold your thumb, how much to squeeze down etc. For the most part, their right hand just holds a pick and swipes away at the strings with little regard to control.

A strong right hand is essential to becoming a complete guitarist. The right hand is the key factor in controlling dynamics, tempo, and clarity. If you want to increase your right hand control and accuracy, practice scales, arpeggios and chord rhythms with palm muting. By palm muting, you are ?training? your right hand to be where you want it to be at all times. Make sure each note comes out equal. Don?t go so fast that you can?t hear each note clearly, you may be over-muting or not muting enough. It may be tricky at first, but stick to it.

Here are some ideas to get you started. First, keep in mind that there are no rules in playing music or guitar. However, as my students know, I do create ?temporary rules? for the sake of developing certain techniques or theory knowledge. So, for now, let?s make alternate picking a temporary rule. Downbeats will get down-picks, and upbeats will get up-picks when playing eighth notes. When playing sixteenth notes, the first sixteenth gets a down-pick, two is up, three is down and four is up. Discover different rhythmic variations of eighths and sixteenths, use strict alternate picking and of course palm mute all of your notes. Palm muting should sound like the notes are muffled, not choked off.

This practice strategy is great for acoustic as well as electric players. Work palm muting into your daily practice schedule for at least 14 practice days. When done properly, you will start to notice a great improvement in your overall dexterity!

John Maurice Doyle is a top Elite Performance and Guitar Coach in Los Angeles, California. His clients have included A list Hollywood celebrities, international rock stars, and hundreds of pro artists. He is the owner of Green Monster Music and creator of the internationally acclaimed Monster Guitar Method interactive guitar instructional DVD series. Visit http://www.greenmonstermusic.com and download your free guitar lesson and listen to his Guitar Monster Podcasts (also available on iTunes).

http://www.greenmonstermusic.com

Did you take guitar lessons in high school? Can you strum a few bars of a Bob Dylan song, or play along with the Rolling Stones? If you are considering learning classical guitar, you are in for a whole new experience! Classical guitar is considered to be an art; one that has been practiced for hundreds of years. It has a history all of its own. Before you begin learning to play classical guitar, you will want to study its history and learn a few other things that make the classical guitar different from a regular acoustic guitar.

The main difference between classical and regular acoustic guitar is the way that you play them. A classical guitar has to almost become a part of you. Your body needs to move with the guitar as you play. Let yourself feel the rhythms and the melody and be caught up in them. If you are willing to take this approach, the music you play will have much more passion and movement than if you sit straight up and strum stiffly on the guitar.

Playing classical guitar requires the musician to be relaxed, both in mind and in body, and to become part of the music. Any thoughts or ideas you have of playing acoustic guitar will probably not apply to classical guitar. Be open to changing any habits or ideas that you have; this will help you to learn more quickly and to become a classical guitar player that people love to listen to.

Although classical guitar will seem difficult, take the time to learn the basics. Practice them over and over. If you do this, you will have a strong beginning to build on when you want to learn more complicated tunes and techniques. Practice and patience are very important when you want to learn classical guitar.

There are different ways to learn to play classical guitar. You can buy a book, CD or video, or even find information on the Internet. The most successful way to learn is to find a classical guitarist to teach you. It is much easier to learn how to sit, how to hold your guitar, and how to play the music if you have someone right there to show you and to correct you if you make any mistakes. Contact your local music store or put an ad in the newspaper to find a teacher. Enjoy this new learning experience, and if you feel discouraged, listen to a CD of a professional classical guitarist and look forward to the day you will be able to play that well!

Learn more about playing classical guitar at http://guitar.activitiessite.com/.

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