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Arranging for New Age Piano
A while back, I wrote an article that compared flower arranging to music arranging. While this may seem a world apart, it really isn't. In flower arranging, the goal is to create a pleasing whole using different flowers, colors, textures, etc. If you've ever seen a beautiful flower arrangement, you'll know what I mean. The eye takes in the various contrasts and colors and is pleased when it forms into one satisfying whole. In music the object is the same. When arranging a piece for New Age piano, we work with sections. We can label the sections (A) and (B) and then "arrange" the sections into an order. The most common order is ABA form. It has the benefits of simplicity and is a good place to start with New Age piano. Most times, I'll use an 8-bar phrase for the (A) section. This gets repeated 2 or 3 times. Then it's time for some contrast - the (B) section. This can be a 4 or 8-bar phrase depending on taste. Then the (A) section is repeated one last time. Now, there are other elements that go into our arrangement such as introductions, transitions, and endings. Using these elements, we can create a pleasing musical arrangement that satisfies the minds need for order and beauty creating art! 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!
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Memorizing Music - How Is It Best Achieved? When memorizing music there are several things you can do that will make your job that much easier. Memorizing music is important as most people know you play better when having the music in your head rather than having your head in the music. So where to start when memorizing music effectively? 3 Quick & Easy Steps To Playing Music by Ear Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role. Many pop and rock bands don't play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It's even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb"? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to "Smoke on the Water"? That's playing by ear. You're able to play part of the song just because you've heard it so often. Green Day: Punk Rock Masters Taming Mainstream Radio Their Way Before they got together as Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool were merely three extraordinary hopefuls hoping and looking for their big break. The trio has no formal training and got their 'practice' from playing for free at punk clubs on Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Out on the streets is where the 3 talented individuals got their big break ? they turned from punk rock's most unlikely success story to a remarkable band with a series of chart-topping hits. Together, they sold more than 10 million albums and won a Grammy Award in the process. It's been a long journey for the trio who started out singing out in the streets. Why Play Guitar? As a full-time guitar instructor, I am constantly faced with people in all walks of life who, for all different kinds of reasons, believe that playing the guitar will add something to their lives. Most people that are just starting the guitar for the first time are young (pre-university) although certainly not all. One of my favorite students last year was a 65-year-old retiree who wanted to learn enough to be able to start a bar band with his friends. History of the Clarinet From the 19th Century While composers had already begun to write music for the clarinet, such as Mozart with the Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet, it was the 19th century that saw an explosion of use of the clarinet in the music of most composers of the day. This was mainly due to two factors. Your First Guitar Congratulations, you just bought you first guitar! Now that you've met the love of your life and made that big commitment, you're probably excited about building a good relationship with your new partner. But where do you begin? You've just come home from the music store with this beautiful, mysterious stranger, or perhaps even rescued an abandoned orphan from the flee market or pawn shop. Cradling it lovingly in your hands, you admire it's graceful form and captivating voice. Zen and the Art of New Age Piano We all want to be in the moment. That's where real transformation takes place. For some, walking gets them there. Others like to play sports or watch movies. For me, it's playing the piano. When I'm in the moment, letting the music speak, it's like the world is new again. Be An Organized Church Pianist Playing in front of a congregation each Sunday is no easy feat. Make sure you are well prepared before giving your best for God and before others. How To Play Piano Using Chord Symbols Chord symbols (for example, Fm7, Cmaj7 or G6) are a type of notation used frequently in jazz and other areas of modern music to notate chord progressions and changes. This type of notation differs from that of classical music in that chord symbols don't show the function of a chord the way the Roman numeral notation does. Chord symbols, for modern music with lots of changes, are much easier to read. They function as a sort of shorthand for change-heavy music and are written with four chord parts in mind: the root, the quality, the extension, and the alterations. Radio - What?s Happened To It? Remember when radio stations played great music? Facts about MC Big Proof Facts about MC Big Proof"If I was you, suicide would be a way of life. If you was me , you'd kill you." (Proof)Before I start talking about D12's gifted Mc Proof, I would like to thank and to give credit to the webmaster of the following Derty Harry website for the rare info I found about Deshaun Holton aka Derty Harry aka Proof:http://angelfire .com/bxc3/dertyharry/main_bio.htmlDeshaun Holton aka Proof was born on October the 2nd 1975 in Detroit.Although they didn't attend the same High School, Eminem and Proof have been friends since 1988. They used to live in the same street in Detroit.Proof used to go to Osbourne High school while Eminem was attending Lincoln High. Both friends used to skip high school in order to rap together: in fact Eminem skipped Lincoln High and used to come to Proof's school very often, because both friends wanted to rap together. This is how they met:"I was skipping school, and he was skipping school also, passing out flyers for his concert he was having in Centerline. That had to be, like, '88 or something." (Proof)Some (white) underground Mcs from Detroit like Backstab the Kingpin are convinced of Proof's racism. But Deshaun's statements seem to prove the contrary. CDNow has asked Proof how he felt about Eminem's skin color at the time they met:CDNow: Did you wonder what this blond, white kid was up to? Proof: "You know, I went to Catholic school and had a great, great friend of mine who happened to be Irish; we were best friends since the sixth grade. So when I saw [Eminem] was white, I didn't even jump off like that; when he rapped, he was dope. What made us get dope and become great friends was we both rhymed "first place" and "birthday," and we've been tight ever since [laughs]."Eminem and Proof have been real friends since the beginning. When Eminem was kicked out of his home, he would sleep at Proof's house.It is well known that Proof is an amazing freestyler.He won the freestyling competition in the Source magazine in 1999. He his a better freestyler than Marshall, but Marshall's force is in the way he handles his words in his lyrics. That's exactly what Proof states about their complementary talent:"We were both impressed with each other. The advantage I've got over Em is freestyling; I'm the kind of guy who freestyles off the head, right? The advantage he had over me was that he knew how to write intricately; he knew how to put a song together and bring feelings about. That's why I journeyed under him, like, "Yo, show me the ropes, homeboy." The idea of the D12 group composed of talented MCs and sick aliases with popped into Proof's mind:"I was in New York; I had this deal with Tommy Boy that didn't work out, unfortunately. But I just had this idea that we could put together a team of dope MCs, put a lot of Detroit on as far as having MCs with skills. Everybody's solo took so we'll make aliases, like Eminem's Slim Shady and I'm Derty Harry, and call it the Dirty Dozen -- and at this time, to be honest with you, we thought The Dirty Dozen was a Western movie; we didn't know it was an army movie [laughs]. That fits us, army rather than Western, 'cause we see ourselves more as gun-slingers, lyric-slingers. Then the idea was to form a pact whereas this team, whoever gets out first comes back and gets the rest of the group."Proof has always been confident in Eminem's loyalty, even if some other members of the group may have been worried:"Not me; I've been there since day one, almost. I think the rest of the group may not have been there, but Proof has been beside Eminem all this time. I play a leadership role in the group, where I talk to everyone else; Em is like the president, and I'm the general. I talk to the rest of the fellas and put 'em in line and show 'em the direction. It's a family, too, so there'll be a lot of fighting and bickering, and some people might have felt it might not be the way it should be. So, yes, there were times when people felt funny about things. But now everybody thinks back to that, and we were tripping out over nothing."Acccording to Proof, Eminem's success was the best thing that could have happened to D12:"Right. Some people look at us like, "You're gonna be Eminem's group. You're gonna be in his shadow." They don't realize how positive and great that is to hear; if you're in the shadow of a guy who can sell almost 10 million records in just the states alone, great. That's not a dis to us. But when they hear the album, they hear the individuality of each person, how everybody holds their own."It is so true that each D12 emcee has his own talent and ability to rap.It is less known that Proof's first stage name was "Maximum". Proof has always been appreciated in Detroit for his raps and his freestyling qualities. He changed his nickname when people started calling him "Living Proof", because in many people's minds, Proof was the "living proof of the living MCs in Detroit".Proof has collaborated and still collaborates with numerous artists such as Dogmatic.Proof's first released Cd was called "From Death" and was co-produced with Da Goon Squad.He has released a CD called "Promatic" with Dogmatic and a six Track solo EP called "The Search For Jerry Garcia".As well as for Eminem, Detroit has been very influencial to Proof who describes his hometown as "the type of place where eye contact can get you killed" and also as " a city where the sun never shines, full of pot holes, snow and con artists ready to jack everything you got". How the Internet Helps Musicians Everyone talks about the negative impact of the Internet on the music business. Illegal file sharing and copyright violations have decimated the profits in the industry. Record labels are less willing to take risks with new artists because the profits have dried up. Sales have steadily declined over the past several years due in large part to the proliferation of illegal downloads. All of that is true, but there are two sides to this coin. Sure, things are tougher today for the new musician than ever before, but there are also new opportunities thanks to the Internet. Form - Giving Shape to Your Music Do you ramble on endlessly with your improvisations? If so, good. This has its place in music making and in new age piano playing in particularly. Just listen to Michael Jones's music to hear an example of this kind of free-form improvisation. Soul Band for a Party Was the request six months ago, a sixtieth birthday party, the client said. It got me thinking. There is a whole untapped market out there for people who lived as teenagers and twenty somethings through the sixties and seventies. They are all coming up to this big sixtieth birthday date and they all love the kind of music I love to play and earn my living out of! More than that, their kids are off their hands, their mortgage is paid up and they can afford to splash out on a big celebration. Home Run Gigs Are you still playing your heart out to small audiences on gigs at unappreciative dives (excuse me, I meant to say nightclubs) that feel paying you a couple of hundred dollars for a 3-4 hour gig is also paying you about $150 too much? How Much of Your Potential Will You Release? Do you ever feel there is an inner voice speaking to you, telling you that you're not very good, or you can't do it, or there's just not enough confidence and repertoire with you? This is the voice that calls itself "I" right? Let's refer to this as Self 1, and Self 2 as the normal you, the real you that has the masses of potential. Can You Really Learn To Play a Musical Instrument From an Online Course? Out of the 250 million people in the United States, about 25 million of them play an instrument of some kind, or used to when they were in school and would like to pick up where they left off. Another 30 million or so sing in a church choir, a barbershop quartet, or at the very least, in the shower. An Interview with Jon Bon Jovi ? 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Cant Be Wrong The idea originated with singer Jon Bon Jovi. Jon kept upping the ante with his label and ultimately they consented to a four-CD set of essentially new material. Here, he talks about this 20th anniversery project (100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong) and the things that make Bon Jovi unique. How to Create Interesting Textures A lot of new age piano music consists of repeating patterns, or textures in the left hand while the right hand improvises a melody. This approach is really a good one! It frees you up to create in the moment. First you decide what chord or chords you'll be using in the left hand. You then create an ostinato or arpeggio that lays the foundation for the entire piece. Getting Rhythm - Three Tips for Guitar Beginners If you are just starting out learning guitar one of the hardest things can be getting a good rhythm and keeping that rhythm going while you change chords with your left hand.
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