Let’s face it. Learning isn’t usually fun. It’s a big drag.

Especially when it comes to learning a musical instrument. Scales, repetition, and monotonous exercises abound. Most people love the piano but won’t go near it for fear of not being able to to play it. And most times, their fear is justified!

A typical beginning piano student scenario may go like this: You walk into the teacher’s studio. He or she asks you what you want to learn. You respond with any number of choices; classical, jazz, new age. Then out pop the books. You know the one’s I’m talking about. Hanon scales, Czerny. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll get introduced to a chord-based method. Maybe. But probably not.

You see, most piano teachers have this idea that you must learn how to read music before you can play music. That’s nonsense!

In fact, it really works the other way around. You should be able to make music with chords and improvise first. Why? Because music is what the end result is. Music is not notes on a sheet of paper. It’s hammers striking strings produced when a pianist fingers a chord. Children speak their native language first before they learn how to spell and write it. They have no difficulties doing this BECAUSE IT COMES NATURALLY! Music should be the same way! We learn the language of music by understanding how to use chords first. We then use these chords to create our music with.

There is nothing wrong with being able to read music, but if that’s all you can do, you’re limiting yourself creatively. Stop playing piano the hard way and learn how to use chords and improvise first. Because by learning how to improvise, you are actually speaking the language of music first!

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!

Solders march to the beat, athletes exercise with music, and people united in a cause sing. Music, an integral part of human life, is often overlooked as a tool for improving human performance. In this era of ?better, faster, cheaper,? trainers, educators and presenters are looking for new, innovative approaches that help learning interventions succeed. Music is one such approach.

The connection between music and individuals is primitive and deep, providing a level of communication that transcends language. (Music may in fact be the original language.) Music, when systematically applied, calms frayed nerves, helps people focus, encourages receptivity to new ideas, accelerates learning, and improves the performance of individuals. Here are some music application ideas.

Music Helps Learners Focus
Background music during learning discussions and solo reflection activities can be especially helpful. It creates a sense of privacy for small group discussion, making conversations more satisfying and your learners more likely to say what they feel; enters into memory and aids recall; and masks ambient noise from other groups. The steady tones and tempos of Baroque music make it ideal for this purpose. Much of it was in fact composed as background music for kings, emperors, and other dignitaries.

Music Changes Energy Levels
Music can change the dynamic of your learning environment at appropriate moments, encouraging people to move about, relax, calm down, or get excited, depending on the needs of your session. After intense concentration, play faster music in a major key to encourage better moods. After heated discussion, play slow, minor-key music with low-rhythmic activity to calm your learners down. After a depressing, worrisome discussion, play major-key music with high-rhythmic activity and short, quick notes to create a happy mood.

Music Creates a Positive Learning Environment
Providing pleasant emotional content to your learners will establish a link between you, your classroom, and the learners? pleasure. Music reaches deep into the brain?s limbic system, and creates pleasant emotions. Learners who walk into your classroom and immediately feel comfortable because of the music you play will be engaged to learn.

Music is not a replacement for effective content, nor is it the only resource available. Rather, music is one more tool effective trainers should have at their disposal. Music, by its very familiarity, does not draw attention to itself. Instead it works much as coffee comforts the morning, popcorn anticipates the movie, and baking bread remembers home; it awakens the recesses of your learners’ minds and calls the emotion to attention. Trainers, educators and presenters who harness the teaching power of music find that training does indeed have a beat!

Visit Lenn on line at www.offbeattraining.com. Blog with Lenn at http://offbeat-online.blogspot.com.

Lenn Millbower, BM, MA, the Learnertainment? Trainer is an expert in applying show biz techniques to learning. He is the author of the ASTD Info-Line, Music as a Training Tool, focused on the practical application of music to learning; Show Biz Training, the definitive book on the application of entertainment industry techniques to training; Cartoons for Trainers, a popular collection of 75 cartoons for learning; Game Show Themes for Trainers, a best-selling CD of original learning game music; and Training with a Beat: The Teaching Power of Music, the foremost book on the application of music to learning. Lenn is an in-demand speaker, with successful presentations at ASTD 1999-2005 and SHRM 2006; a creative and dynamic instructional designer and facilitator formally with the Disney University and Disney Institute; an accomplished arranger-composer skilled in the psychological application of music to learning; a popular comedian, magician and musician; and the president of Offbeat Training?, infusing entertainment-based techniques into learning to keep ?em awake!