Better Concerts and Music

If you’ve ever just learned to play an instrument you are familiar with the shy embarrassment of being asked to play for someone else or even a group. The performance anxiety can completely cripple your ability to put any two notes together.  It’s a confidence shredding experience.

 I always envied those who could sit down and entertain or accompany others singing with calm assurance and enjoyment. I could do so with my guitar but never with a keyboard or piano. Never, that is, until I took it upon myself to learn chord piano and discovered the wonderful the joys of chord piano and the world of FAKE books.

 In short chord piano allows you to play chords with your left (and right) hand instead of playing the notes and written arrangements for the left hand. I can sight read a melody line with relative ease. However, combining that with the left hand accompaniment has always been a challenge. By learning to site read and play chords in my own style I can play most every song you put in front of my face.  All I need is the melody and some chords and off I go.

 This has opened a whole new world of possibilities for public sharing of my talent.  On occasion is the organist at church is sick I can step in on the piano. I just open up my 1000 hymns FAKE book and I’m ready.  If children come to visit I reach for my anthology of children’s songs or my Disney FAKE book and I’m ready with” Itzy Bitzy Spider” or “When You Wish Upon A Star.” The enjoyment on their little faces is so rewarding.

 Some evenings my wife sits with me on the piano bench and we sing old Gospel or 100 Contemporary Christian Favorites. She especially likes “Go Light Your World.”  Then she might take a break while I sing and play romantic ballads or some show tunes. Take my word guys, playing the piano goes is a hit with women! At least my wife says so!

 It’s a great joy to play old favorites at the Nursing Homes. I often get asked to entertain there in my job as Chaplin. They Love “You are My Sunshine” and He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands”. It’s touching to see how much my elderly patients enjoy these songs.

I’ve been blessed with the inspiration to write many Praise and Worship songs greatly enjoyed by my congregations over the years. It’s always a thrill to sing “Under Your Rainbow” one of my favorite songs of the hundreds I have written. I have many of my original songs on  New Christian Songs.

 I highly recommend you learn chord piano. Maybe you had a frustrating year or so of paino lessons as a child only to give up. I urge you refresh you knowledge of simple notes of the music scale and to try agian with chord paino! 

Are you considering learning to play the piano? Piano is one of the most popular musical instrument, and it’s not surprising that many want to take lessons on it. There are piano tips that can guide us in our learning process. Playing the piano can be learned in different ways. You can learn piano from a private piano teacher. But this may not always work, because piano lessons with private tutors are generally expensive. You can also try to enroll for a piano course in a music school. The disadvantage on this is that you cannot miss any class because there are no make-up classes for missed lessons. The cost and tight schedule are some of the reasons why many get frustrated from getting piano lessons. If you are trying to learn quality piano lessons at your own convenience, the Rocket Piano by Ruth Searle, is what you are looking for.

Well, good news for you. Piano lessons are now available online. The internet can give us any information that we need to know and learn. Many websites offer free piano lessons that can give you the basic skills like playing patterns and keyboard techniques. To make use of other study materials like video tutorials or music sheets, there are also paid online sites available for you. If you want to learn more advanced lessons in piano, there are online programs for you. Your attitude towards learning would measure your success or failure not the lesson itself. Expect that you cannot become a piano master overnight. You have to give it a lot of effort and dedication, and a lot of practice to be an excellent piano player.

The online piano programs are deemed very effective by users. Since there are so many piano programs offered, selecting the most effective program is rather a problem. To save you from this problem, try the highly rated Rocket Piano by Ruth Searle. You’ll never regret getting this product, as it motivates you to learn by giving you a solid background on music theory. It’s good for you to compare Rocket Piano to other programs for you to know which one would work best for you, check out also programs like Learn & Master Piano, Piano For All and Piano Power Chords, Learn and Master Piano by Will Barrow, Piano For All and Piano Power Chords. ReviewMOZ.org is a review site that allows you to read on Learn & Master Piano Review. Be called a ‘Pianist’, learn to play now!

The first step to take when learning how to read piano music is to learn the notes. They are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. And it’s important to know that the notes, in addition to simply being notes, can be sharp or flat. To read music, it’s important to understand the layout of the page as well as the symbols on it.

You’ll see two horizontal columns, or staffs, each beginning with a symbol. The top staff is usually the treble clef and the bottom staff is usually the bass clef. The treble clef, also called the G clef, symbol is a swirly figure that looks like a cross between a fancy capital G and an S. The bass clef, also known as the F clef, symbol looks like the number 9 that’s not all the way closed, followed by a colon.

When playing the piano you’ll most often use both hands. The right hand plays the treble, which is the melody, while the left plays the bass, which is the harmony. On the page you’ll find the song’s rhythm, written as a time signature. It often looks like a fraction, and it appears next to the G clef symbol.

Notes are written on both the lines of the staff and in the spaces in between. Where they are on the staff tells you what note it is. If you start from the bottom and move up, beginning with the bass staff, the notes on the lines are G, B, D, F, A, easily remembered by reciting the sentence good boys do fine always. In the spaces starting at the bottom are A, C, E, G, or all cows eat grass.

The treble notes, on the lines from the bottom up, are E, G, B, D, F, and in the spaces F, A, C, E. Remember Every good boy does fine, and the word face. In between the two staffs you’ll find the middle C, and to its left is a B note which rests atop the top line of the bass staff. To its right is a D, which sits just below the bottom line of the treble staff.

Whether a note is empty or black indicates how long it is played. Empty without a tail indicates a whole note which is played for a full measure, or four beats. A half note is empty but with a tail, and is played for two beats. A quarter note is black with a tail and played for one beat. There are also eight and sixteenth notes, both also black and with tails but with added flairs at the tops or bottoms. A dot next to any note extends its count by half.

It’s a good idea to have some sheet music and a keyboard in front of you when you start out. Learning how to read piano music isn’t all that difficult.

For more information about all aspects of learning the piano have a look at – How To Read Piano Music

or, to find out about the best online piano course, read this – Rocket Piano