| |
| |
|
Music Information |
|
|
|
Learn To Play The Piano Better By Learning To Arrange Chords & Chord Progressions
Piano arranging is the process by which you take a written piece of music and rework it with chords, adding new bass accompaniment, fills, or even slightly altering the song's structure. And while it's a process that takes years to truly master, anyone with a basic education in piano and a working knowledge of a few key techniques can create an inventive, satisfying arrangement. It all boils down to one thing: chord recognition. And anyone who plays a little piano can learn piano chords to add excitement to their piano playing. Most people learn to play the piano by playing just the written music. Playing by written music is exactly what the phrase says it is -- playing the exact notation on a piece of sheet music. But playing by chord symbol is a little different. Instead of following the harmony note by note, you follow the chord symbols (i.e. C7 or F) written above the harmonies, filling in the gaps with...well, whatever you want as long as it sticks to those chords. Of course, you'll still read the melody (it is, after all, often what makes the song recognizable) but even that is completely open to interpretation. Playing by chord symbol allows you a freedom that playing by written music simply doesn't. The freedom to create. The freedom to invent. The freedom to arrange chord patterns in the way you want. Does that mean playing by written music is less important than playing by chord symbol? Absolutely not! The ability to play by written music is an extremely valuable skill, one that even some of the most famous musicians don't possess. And while you don't necessarily need to know the skill backwards and forwards to create great arrangements, it's a tremendous help. Think about it this way. Some of the most revered modern artists create paintings that look very simple, very rudimentary. But the majority of those artists went to art school for years before they began creating that sort of work. They learned the fundamentals of drawing and painting, of color composition and light; they learned to draw or paint something exactly as it actually looks. Only after they mastered those skills did they move on to create the simple, yet often innovative, work that hangs in galleries and museums -- work that still abides by several basic principles. They learned the craft before bringing their imagination into it; after all, you have to understand the rules in order to break them. So after you have learned the basics of reading piano sheet music, consider learning chords and chord symbols (such as G7, Fm, etc.) and chord progressions. There are many places online where you can learn all about chords - just type in "chords" or "chord piano" into your search browser, and you will find several to choose from. When you can both read the written sheet music and then add chords and chord progressions to your piano playing, you have the very best of all musical worlds. Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions" with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Music - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
College Radio: The Most Important Radio Level for Musicians For the self-promoting independent artist, the idea of taking on a radio promotion campaign can, in itself, become overwhelming. But, this idea is usually based on such artists attempting to obtain worldwide airplay on a local budget. How To Make a Fortune Teaching Piano (or Guitar, or Drums, or Singing, or?) To Beginners "But I'm not in it for the money" you say.Me neither. Choosing a Jazz Band for Your Party In many years of arranging jazz bands for all sorts of events I am struck by the similarity of how the request is made by most of our clients.It goes something like this: "We are looking for a jazz band to play at our wedding / book launch / family fun day / sixtieth birthday/ store opening etc. Is the Record Album Dead? Not by a Long Shot In 1982, Sony and Philips introduced the compact disc, a digital music playback format that used a laser to read the disc. The compact disc was expected to quickly replace the long play record album (LP) that Columbia had introduced in 1949. 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. Guitarists...Are You A Victim and A Loser? I was thinking today about THE most dangerous enemy of musical progress?the victim mentality. What do I mean by this?Often we can let our personal circumstances dictate our progress. New Age Piano and Improvisation There are so many areas in life where one must do things right. Thankfully, art is an area where great discoveries are made by making mistakes!Take improvisation for example. The Post-rock Revolution (Explosions in the sky) A lot has been said about the 'post-rock' revolution as of late. The rise of instrumental bands such as Explosions in the sky, Godspeed you! black emperor, Maserati, and The Mercury Program has raised questions about the direction that music is traveling. Reaching For The Soul Zone Every searching artist wants to get there. It's that magical place where something takes over, you know, when something bigger than you whispers in your ear and says "Relax - I'll take it from here!"I like to call it the 'soul zone', others simply call it the 'zone', I'm sure there are many other names for it. 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. How to Create Hip, Mature and Lush Harmonies Rarely is a chord played with its tones contained in a single octave, the root on the bottom, the third in the middle, and the fifth on the top.Usually chords are "voiced!"This basically means that the positions of a chord's tones are scattered over the keyboard. Performance and Gigs "For optimum amp tone onstage, plug your amp into your own AC outlet.. New Age Music - How Its Made Different styles of music have different "sounds." We can all pretty much agree on that point. Beginners Guide to Music File Formats Are you confused by the various types of music file formats out there? Most of you would have heard of the popular MP3 format, but are you aware there are other alternative digital music formats like WAV, WMA, RA and MIDI? Some of these give better sound quality than MP3 (e.g. Is it Possible to Download Music Legally Anymore? Throughout the past few years downloading music on the internet has increased in popularity. At the same time though, it has become illegal through many companies to download music as musicians and artists have been losing money on their CD sales. How to Play Piano Using a Few Chords How many chords do you need to create a piece of music? Would you believe that it doesn't really matter and that whole pieces of music have been created using just one chord? For example, if you play a D minor 7 chord, you could use the bass note D to create a drone effect and anchor the whole improvisation. It could last for a few seconds or many minutes. How to Improvise Using a Few Chords When a painter is getting ready to paint, a color palette is usually chosen first. For example, if a forest is to be painted, the artist may choose browns, greens, and blues for the sky. Buying a Violin "How do I buy a violin, (or fiddle)?"That question has risen to the top of the fiddle FAQ list, even above "What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?"This is an account of how Richard Blackwell, my student, actually purchased a violin.He had been using a good quality student violin on loan from his sister. Throat Singing In Inuit Culture Originally, Inuit throat singing was a form of entertainment among Inuit women while the men were away on hunting trips. It was an activity that was primarily done by Inuit women although there have been some men doing it as well. When Does Practice Make Perfect? Not Much Of The Time Unless All The Pieces Fit First Often people receive a banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar or some other musical instrument as a birthday, Christmas or special occasion gift. There's glee and joy everywhere.
|
|
home | site map Visit our other sites: GamesBlog | GamingDepot | GimmeaRide | GimmeNetwork | Golf Biz | HotorNotGame | I Want Computers | I Want Games | I Want Hosting | I Want Music | I Want Security | JokeBox | ScriptShock | Wantedfonts | Webalize |
| © 2006 |
