Piano Solo

Techniques. Some of them are more useful than others. Especially when it comes to piano playing. What you’re about to learn is a special way of forming chords at the keyboard that will have you playing chord piano in no time.

It’s called the open position chord and it’s exactly what its name implies - a chord structure that covers more than 2 octaves of the keyboard and uses both hands right away.

The open position chord (or OPC for short) is not an easy chord position to master at first, but once you get it in your hands, you’ll be well on your way to playing chord piano.

(more…)

So, you’ve taken piano lessons for years but you still can’t play on your own.

You probably know the scales and can read off music sheets, but you can’t just sit down at the piano and make music.

Don’t worry. It’s not your fault. You see, literally thousands of people are just like you. They’ve taken piano lessons for years and while they can play a piece by Bach or Beethoven, they can’t for the life of them figure out how to create something original. Something that is not written by a dead composer or that isn’t on music sheets.

(more…)

Music boxes have always come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small enough to fit in your hand, while others are designed to hold jewelry, and still others are large enough to stand alone like a piece of furniture. Wood, metal, glass, and stone; jewelry boxes are familiar to all of us. Equally familiar is the musical jewelry box. In fact, it is almost rare to see one without the other. A piano music box is another variation on that theme, and what a unique and intriguing variation it is!

(more…)

We all want quick results. And fortunately for fans of the New Age piano style, quick results are easy enough to obtain.

One of my favorite techniques for creating a great sounding improvisation is to use something called an ostinato pattern. The reason I like this technique is because of the variety available. There are literally millions and millions of combinations.

For example, in the lesson “December Twilight,” (listen to it by clicking below) we have a left-hand ostinato pattern. The amazing thing about this is that it’s just 2-bar repeating pattern! And only 2 chords are used - A Major and D Major. With just this small amount of material, a few minutes of music is created.

(more…)

Do you know that you can play melodies on your ukulele? Amazing Grace is a popular christian hymn. It doesn’t contain many notes and it is quite easy to play on ukulele with the help of ukulele tab notation. Let’s learn Amazing Grace!

Here is the lyrics to the first verse:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

We will start this ukulele lesson by introducing an ukulele tab notation suitable for article sites.

(more…)