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Stumbling on New Chord Voicings

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by Harper Willis

A lot of guitarists add chord voicings to their repertoire by learning the root position of a new chord type on a given set of strings, and then all of its inversions on that same set of strings.

Example of Major7 Voicing and its Inversions

inversions2 Stumbling on New Chord Voicings

Learning chords as part of a set of inversions can help you organize your practice, but it can also lock you into you using the same chords in every situation.

I have started using a much more disorganized way of finding new voicings, which forces me to be creative in my approach and seems to yield much more musical results.

Here’s how you can try it out for yourself:

Take a standard chord progression and write a quarter note melody line over the changes, sticking mostly to chord tones and extensions. Now, for every melody note, find a chord that makes that note the top voicing, so you have a different chord and melody note on every down beat.

Don’t worry about staying on the same string set or using different extensions, so long as you’re not leaving the tonality.  If you see a minor 7 chord, don’t be afraid to make it a minor 9, or a minor 6 chord or minor 11. For any chord type you can leave out the root or the 5th or even the 7th. Dominant chords resolving to a minor or major key can generally include altered extensions (b9, #9, b5, #5, b13); otherwise use the 9, #11 and 13. The goal here is to give yourself as many options as possible and use your ears to narrow down the possibilities rather than preexisting theoretical system.

Example of Voicings Under Quarter Note Melody

chordVoicings2 Stumbling on New Chord Voicings

Or alternatively:

Take the same chord progression and write a half note melody using chord tones and extensions. Now find two voicings for every melody note. It’s important to not just find one voicing for each situation and leave it at that. This exercise will force you to come up with alternate voicings and colors for the same situations. (Note: you may have to lift your finger off the quarter note melody in between voicings depending on the fingerings you choose).

Example of Voicings Under Half Note Melody

chordVoicingsHalfNotes2 Stumbling on New Chord Voicings

The point of the exercise is to free yourself from the restraints of learning within a system that always yields the same results and encourage you to explore possibilities you might otherwise never uncover. Learning the new voicings in the context of a chord progression keeps the choices within a musical framework, so you’re not just memorizing random collections of notes. It can also lead to discoveries about how to voice lead between chords.

Once you go through the above to exercises, you can begin to set yourself stricter parameters like only using a certain string set, or using all root position or first inversion chords.

One of the side benefits of these exercises is you will begin to develop ideas for chord solos. If you decide to go in that direction, you can begin to write melody lines in different rhythms, or interject single lines in between chords.

Whatever direction you decide to take it in good luck.

Stumbling on New Chord Voicings

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Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking – Banjo Lesson

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by Mirek Patek

It is winter time again (in the northern hemisphere) and banjo players may face the challenge of playing in lower temperature, when the frozen fingers have limited ability of high-speed picking. In these conditions it is helpful to involve more pinches (by index and middle fingers) into the game. In this article we will return to the three-finger Travis picking presented in the April 2010 article and we will mix it with some patterns presented in the chord-melody article from December 2010 issue of Banjo Sessions. The exercises are for fingerpicked tenor banjo in DGdg tuning, but they could be transferred to 5-string banjo too if you use different left-hand voicing – look at the final Example 10.

Basically, we will try to fit the melody played by the middle finger on the highest (first) string to the syncopation of the Scruggs style roll, while the thumb regularly alternates in Travis picking mood. For each presented rhythmic pattern, there will be shown the development from thumb-lead roll via middle-lead roll to the conventional Travis picking pattern (well, with specific convention on thumb notes as you can read later) and finally to the “frozen fingers” option with index + middle finger doublestops. I recommend practicing the examples with metronome – if you are in front of computer, here is one ready for you: http://www.metronomeonline.com/ . Please note that the thick bar lines indicate that each measure in the first three Examples is separate exercise to be repeated “many times”. As the article is focused on the picking hand, there will be no actual melodies presented in the Examples – it is up to you to find some melody on the 1st and sometimes 2nd string of your banjo.

The three-finger roll fitted into the eight-note measure results in the specific syncopation, i.e. shifting some of the melody notes to upbeat position. First measure of Example 1 shows the forward roll which divides the measure to the segments of 3+3+2. The melody played by thumb is on the 1st, 3rd and 7th note of the eight-note measure (marked by red centre). While the 1st and 7th notes are on the beat (assuming that we have four beats per measure) the 3rd note falls between the beats and it is the one which makes the syncopation (see the Example 6 of the June 2010 article about bluegrass rolls). The second measure moves the melody to the first string while keeping the same syncopation; now it is played by the middle finger and the result is the backward roll. The third measure shows one of possible renditions of this syncopation of the melody on the first string in the Travis picking style. Note that the thumb plays root-root-fifth-fifth, the middle finger plays the requested syncopation and the index finger fills some spaces between the melody notes – I have placed the index finger between the beats where was the empty space. Finally, the fourth measure shows the “frozen fingers” option, where both the index and middle finger form the unit (late guitar legend Jerry Reed would have said “the claw”) which up-picks the melody string and the neighbor lower one at once. Practice this measure with different chords until it becomes automatic, and take care for the correct thumb alternation. Ideal chord voicings have root and fifth on two thickest strings, e.g. in case of DGdg banjo it is G chord 0000, D chord 0202, C chord 5520 and F chord 3532. Five-string banjo players may use G chord 0000 or 0005 and D chord 0234.

patek 13 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson
The Example 2 shows the same process for the 2+3+3 syncopation which is used in the Foggy Mountain Breakdown tune of Earl Scruggs. Note that in the second measure the second note is picked by thumb instead of index finger, to avoid the middle-index-middle picking sequence. After you have practiced the fourth measure of the Example 2, try to combine it with the fourth measure of Example 1; listen to different syncopation while keeping the correct thumb alternation. You may also experiment with muting the pinched pair of strings with your left hand – the open strings would be muted by the touch of left pinky, the closed string by releasing the pressure of the respective fingers, similarly to the back-up technique called vamping.

patek 23 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

The Example 3 shows the 3+2+3 syncopation. Again, in the second measure the fifth note is played by thumb and not index finger. In the third measure, you may prefer to omit the last eighth note, especially when the new chord is played in the next measure. But note that in such case (before the change of the chord) the thumb would play the root-root-fifth-ROOT pattern (the open third strings instead of fourth in this case) to confirm the root of the just abandoned chord and to avoid the duplication of the next chord (e.g. when moving from G chord to D chord). This is explained in my own comment to my April 2010 article at Banjo Sessions. The fourth measure with the index + middle finger pinches is very similar to the fourth measure from previous Example 2; combine them without interruption, listen to the difference and keep the correct thumb alternation.

patek 33 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

The Example 4 shows the development of two-measure Travis picking pattern with Jerry Reed style pinches. The first two measures show the starting point –  continuous thumb-lead forward roll which crosses the bar line; the second two measures show the continuous backward roll with the same syncopation of the melody, played by middle finger on the first string. The second line starts with Travis picking approach to the given syncopation, and ends with the same syncopation played by index + middle pinches.

patek 43 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

Let’s look again at the first two measures of Example 4, but now with the perspective that the melody is played on the first string by middle finger (so it is on the 3rd and 6th note of the first measure and on the 1st, 4th, and 7th note of the second measure). You may recognize that such syncopation is used in the B part of Ground Speed tune by Earl Scruggs, shown in the Example 5 with the tab for 5-string banjo and for DGdg tenor banjo. In this case the main voice is probably the one played by index finger, but the syncopation is the same.

patek 53 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

The same syncopation is used in Jerry Reed’s composition The Claw, shown in Example 6. The transcription to DGdg tenor banjo (with capo on 2nd fret) does not match the rhythm on guitar perfectly, because Jerry Reed used also ring finger of his picking hand. As the contemporary banjo players generally use the thumb, index and middle finger (and not ring finger), the exact emulation of this pattern would require either successive thumb strokes or the rolls with crossed thumb and index finger – this is definitely not the “frozen fingers” option so let’s not enter this territory now.

patek 63 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

The Example 7 shows the etude of Jerry Reed style pinches on dominant seventh chords, with the melody on the first string. Watch the root-root-fifth-fifth thumb alternation before the measure with the same chord and root-root-fifth-root before the chord change. If you want to practice the etude also in the key of D (with D7, G7 and A7 chords), stretch your fretting hand to the barre voicing 2256 for A7 and mind the correct thumb notes.

patek 73 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

The Example 8 shows the same picking-hand pattern in the situation when the melody drops from the first string to the second one. You have two options: either to pick the melody just with the index finger and without the pinches (not shown), or to shift the whole pair of middle + index finger so the melody on the second string is played by middle finger again. As the index finger moves to the third string, you may stay with your thumb only on the remaining fourth string (not shown), or you may keep the thumb alternation between third and fourth string as in the Example 7. The result is sometimes the simultaneous pinch with thumb and index finger on the same third string! It may appear weird but it helps to keep the steady picking pattern. The Example 8 in its full length should be considered just as an extreme exercise; in the reality one should try to keep most of the time the melody on the first string (as in Example 7) and just momentarily drop to the second string with the help of the pattern from Example 8. For practice I recommend to return to Examples 1–4 and try the repetition of last measures with the pinch permanently shifted to the middle pair of strings, and then with the pinch shifting between the middle and treble pair at your will.

patek 83 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

Of course, you may use other two-measure syncopated patterns for the chord progression in the Example 7. One option is the pattern from the last two measures of Example 4; some other options are in the Example 9. The first line combines the patterns from Example 3 and Example 2. It is useful to think about the non-syncopated source for each pattern; in this case it was probably half note, two quarter notes; two quarter notes, half note. In the second line you can hear that the pinch from the beginning of the second measure was anticipated (syncopated ahead) so it is played at the very end of the first measure. The same logic is used in the third line, where the pattern starts with the pick-up pinch in the previous measure – it means that the last pinch of the pattern belongs already to the next pattern and next chord in case there is chord change.

patek 93 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

Final Example 10 shows the famous C7 lick from Earl Scruggs’ version of Bugle Call Rag. Also in this case you can hear that the pair of Bb notes, which was originally on the first two beats of the second measure, has been shifted ahead so one of them appears now as the last note of the first measure. The first tab is the original 5-string banjo version, followed by the transcription to DGdg banjo. The third tab shows the Jerry Reed style pinches on the 5-string banjo with the syncopation matching the Bb notes of the original tab – the C7 chord barre voicing is 5558. The fourth tab then shows the same pinches on DGdg tenor banjo with 5523 chord voicing. Look at the thumb alternation: root-root-fifth-fifth of C7 in the first measure, but root-root-fifth-root in the second measure to avoid repetition of G note, the root of the following chord.

 

Enjoy!

patek 103 Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

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About the Author

Mirek Patek from Prague, Czech Republic started in 1999 the fascinating expedition to the terra incognita of fingerstyle tenor banjo tuned in open G tuning DGdg, which matches the open G tuning and range of 5-string banjo. He adopts the techniques from bluegrass banjo, frailing banjo, guitar, and ukulele. He uses three finger picks on his thumb, index, and middle fingers for fingerpicking plus the fingernailpick on ring finger for frailing and strumming. His ultimate goal is to legitimize this playing style on tenor banjo tuned either to DGdg or to Irish ADad. More info at www.mirekpatek.com

Mirek Patek proudly plays the Czech made tenor banjos Janish (boosted by Prucha 5-string bridge with 4 notches in Crowe spacing) and Capek .

Jerry Reed Style Pinches in Travis Picking Banjo Lesson

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Easy guitar lesson

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Major Chord Progression and Minor Chord Progression

The teacher may open the lesson by selecting well known and simple songs for students to play. The students must then write down important chord sequences found within the given song. Each student must possess firm knowledge of the name of each chords and how to fret them. Preliminary lessons on how to fret basic chords, will help facilitate learning.

After repeating the exercise with several other chord sequences, the teacher may encourage the students to analyst the data and look for patterns.

After a discussion and some prompting to help students to discover the answer for themselves, the teacher may explain that the key to a chord sequences is the name of the chord that begins the sequence. In each case, six important chords will be found within each key, three of which are major, and the other three minor.

Chords Found Within Major Keys

The chords found in each row below will always fit together, regardless of the order, but the opening chord, known as the “tonic” or “keynote chord,” denotes the name of the key. For example, in the first row shown, a chord sequence that begins with A major, may contain any of the chords within the same row in any order: Bm, Cm, D, E Fm and Am itself. Some of these chords need not necessarily be used. The result will be a chord progression that fits together well. The same applies to the chords found in the other major key chords.

Playing the electric guitar with easy guitar lessons online can be a breeze if you manage to find the right mentor. With tons of options from beginner guitar courses to guitar lesson DVD, the Internet has made easy guitar lessons online a reality. Most electric guitar players start on their guitar journey with the glorious stardom of their admired bands and guitarists. You stand in front of the mirror playing the air guitar, imitation your guitar idols. This may not be that far achieving the dream is you pick the right easy guitar lesson.

While very glamorous, playing the guitar is not as tough as it used to be because of all the new and creative teaching methods that guitar teachers utilize. While many of your guitar gods play the guitar flawlessly now, many started with traditional lessons that built the foundation. Many of the guitar gods like John Mayer and Jimi Hendrix have expended many years of their time to perfecting their guitar playing. For a start, go online and find an easy guitar lesson course or perhaps a guitar lesson DVD.

After you learnt how to play notes, chords and the rest, here are a few practice tips you can use to bring your skills up to the next level:

Master famous riffs

There are tons of very simple, but impressive sounding electric guitar riffs out there. These are great way to put your basic skills into use and develop it into something a little more advanced. A few very good guitar riffs for beginners are “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple, “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry and “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Practice them until you are familiar with them but at the same time, do not get too hooked up with playing them too much. Always make it a point to play a greater variety of songs to expand your skills.

Learn tons of chords!

One very often misunderstanding of the basics is that chords are just boring fundamentals. It is true that chords are one of the first things you will learn when you pick up the guitar but they are extensive and is the building block for other techniques down the road. Make sure you command mastery over as many of them as possible.

Practice often with faster licks and riffs

Faster licks and riffs will build up your agility with the guitar while extending your endurance with playing fast notes so you do not get fatigued after playing a demanding portion of a song. Practicing faster licks and riffs is not about just being to play fast, however. More importantly, it is about accuracy and speed combined. What you want to achieve is playing fast notes in succession with pinpoint accuracy as well.

Playing the electric guitar with easy guitar lessons online can be a breeze if you manage to find the right mentor. With tons of options from beginner guitar courses to guitar lesson DVD, the Internet has made easy guitar lessons online a reality. Most electric guitar players start on their guitar journey with the glorious stardom of their admired bands and guitarists. You stand in front of the mirror playing the air guitar, imitation your guitar idols. This may not be that far achieving the dream is you pick the right easy guitar lesson.

While very glamorous, playing the guitar is not as tough as it used to be because of all the new and creative teaching methods that guitar teachers utilize. While many of your guitar gods play the guitar flawlessly now, many started with traditional lessons that built the foundation. Many of the guitar gods like John Mayer and Jimi Hendrik have expended many years of their time to perfecting their guitar playing. For a start, go online and find an easy guitar lesson course or perhaps a guitar lesson DVD.

After you learnt how to play notes, chords and the rest, here are a few practice tips you can use to bring your skills up to the next level:

Master famous riffs

There are tons of very simple, but impressive sounding electric guitar riffs out there. These are great way to put your basic skills into use and develop it into something a little more advanced. A few very good guitar riffs for beginners are “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple, “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry and “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Practice them until you are familiar with them but at the same time, do not get too hooked up with playing them too much. Always make it a point to play a greater variety of songs to expand your skills.

Learn tons of chords!

One very often misunderstanding of the basics is that chords are just boring fundamentals. It is true that chords are one of the first things you will learn when you pick up the guitar but they are extensive and is the building block for other techniques down the road. Make sure you command mastery over as many of them as possible.

Practice often with faster licks and riffs

Faster licks and riffs will build up your agility with the guitar while extending your endurance with playing fast notes so you do not get fatigued after playing a demanding portion of a song. Practicing faster licks and riffs is not about just being to play fast, however. More importantly, it is about accuracy and speed combined. What you want to achieve is playing fast notes in succession with pinpoint accuracy as well.

Easy Guitar Lesson For Beginners

If you are just plain fascinated with the guitar and you want to play like a professional, you need to have patience as this does not happen overnight and it requires a lot of patience on your side. Nobody just became a professional guitar player but they did go through this testing period of learning, through which they were successful and this is why you see them on stage now. You need to start somewhere and the best position is to start with easy guitar lesson online.

It is best to choose the online easy guitar lesson available as this will channelize your complete mechanism and will put you on the right track. When you are learning initially, there are certain things you need to keep in mind.

o Make sure you choose your instrument with care. It is best to buy a basic acoustic guitar for the initial easy guitar lesson. You can then upgrade your instrument based on your choice of stream that you want to play rock, blues, and jazz, classical or pop etc. In connection with this you also need to understand the parts of the guitar. If somebody asks you to look at the bridge of the guitar you need to know exactly where to look at.

o Learn your postures and the position of your guitar and how you need to hold the pick or the striker etc as part of your next easy guitar lesson.

o Once you are through with the basics you need to learn to name each string and the name is given because of the sound that is made when you play that string open. So there are six strings of varying thickness to create the different tones. Make sure you learn progressions too as this will help in tuning.

o One of the basic things you need to learn in your easy guitar lesson is to tune your guitar. You can either use the pipe or the piano to give you the tones and this will indeed prove you musical ability as this will prove if you do have the ears for music and tones.

Easy Guitar Lesson – Playing Beginner Acoustic Guitar Effectively At Your Own Pace

Learning to play the guitar can be a hassle when you have to balance work and still rush down to a learning center after slogging in the office for a good 8 hours. Nowadays, a lot of beginners are turning to guitar lessons DVD or online guitar courses for an easy guitar lesson.

The benefits of learning the guitar online are apparent with both learning pace and cost. Online guitar courses now deploy videos to teach students so first time guitarists can easily repeat any part of the lesson they are unsure of. The value of being able to learn at your own pace helps tremendously for newbies starting to learn guitar lessons.

Learning guitar lessons online or with a guitar lesson DVD will typically start with the basics like how to read tablature or tab. Tabs are a simplified numbering system used in guitar playing and was invented for people who are not familiar with musical notes. Not everyone has a foundation in music and tabs can really help kick start the process.

Next, a decent online guitar course will explain to you what notes are and how to play them. This is then followed by simple exercises that utilize these notes. This is followed by chords and then by then, you should be able to play a simple song on your guitar. A good lesson will also have tips and tricks on how you can keep proper rhythm when you’re playing the guitar as well as keep its lessons fun and engaging to discourage students from giving up. The last part about having fun is especially important because there is absolutely nothing stopping you from quitting if you’re taking an online course and a good one will drop you reminders to practice or polls to track your progress.

Learning beginner acoustic guitar can be really awesome because guitars can be brought around events and gatherings and there are always great opportunities to play simple song. In fact, playing for yourself and in front of an audience is quite a different experience so take any opportunity to play for people because it really helps to get rid of “stage fright”. Share your music with the people you love because music is meant to be shared. (Not as in sharing of illegal MP3s online!)

Take your time and look around various online guitar courses that will suit your taste and preference. Make sure that before you pay for one, do yourself a service and read some reviews about the only guitar course that you’ve narrowed down to.

If you want to know more about this articles, You can go and them at

 

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Online Guitar Lessons – The End of Traditional Instruction?

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300px E Guitare horiz Online Guitar Lessons The End of Traditional Instruction?

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The advent of the Internet has revolutionized guitar instruction. Formal guitar instruction is becoming less and less prevalent. Online guitar lessons are becoming more and more popular. Why is this shift occurring? Why are people choosing online guitar lessons over instructor led courses? There are several factors that contribute to this change. Price and convenience are two of the main factors for this shift.

Traditional Instructor led courses are great for students who have true musical aspirations. This category includes professional musicians and music students among others. In fact, I do not believe that any online guitar lessons can meet the needs of this category. They need to learn sheet music. They need to learn the minutiae of playing that only a true music teacher can provide. The one-on-one instruction is paramount to their success.

For the category of people who are only interested in recreational play, traditional lessons have long been the only choice. Books and early VHS instructions were fraught with problems. These media were and still are very static and not well suited to then dynamic nature of guitar playing. This category of aspiring guitar players had to invest a lot of money and time to learn the guitar. Lessons can run anywhere from $30 per hour to over a $100, depending on the pedigree of your instructor. Students had to make time in their often-busy schedules for the lessons. Finally most students had to travel to the location where the class was being offered. The costs of instruction got quite high as many lessons had to be scheduled in order to make any noticeable progress. We can see that the above factors, while acceptable to most students with professional aspirations, were often too much for the casual student.

People that want to play recreationally make up the majority of people trying to learn to play the guitar. They need a method of instruction that is not expensive and is convenient. Enter online guitar lessons!

Online guitar lessons offer the flexibility that instructors cannot. The online lessons usually cost what one-hour of instructor led training would. This is very appealing because it is a one-time fee. No recurring expenses that drain your finances over a long period of time. The online guitar lessons that you buy can teach you for months instead of one hour. You get a lot of bang for your buck.

The next benefit of online guitar lessons is that they are convenient. You do not need to travel to any location to learn how to play the guitar. You can do it in your own home. No braving traffic or parking hassles. You are learning in the comfort of your own home. In addition to this, you do not have to have a set schedule to take the classes. Most of us already lead busy lives and have little time to spare. With online guitar lessons you can learn whenever you want. This fun activity can be learned at your leisure. If you can’t do it one day there is no stress. This is supposed to be enjoyable after all, not a stressful time management challenge.

We can see from the points above that online guitar lessons are very appealing to the aspiring recreational guitar student. Since this category of people make up the large majority of potential students, it is understandable that they would shun the heavier commitments required for traditional guitar instruction.

If you are interested in online guitar lessons, consider Jamorama. It is a complete multimedia online guitar course with many more benefits than those listed above, and none of the downfalls of having an instructor.

Learn to play guitar online like the pros. Visit my Jamorama Review to find out how you can be playing real songs in no time!

 

Online Guitar Lessons The End of Traditional Instruction?

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Do Music Lessons Make for Smarter Kids?

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?Looks like they do! The most recent issue of the peer-reviewed psychology journal “Advances in Cognitive Psychology” contains a study examining the link between intelligence and music. The researchers asked the parents of 194 boys about their musical activities since preschool, and looked at the boys’ reading and spelling performance. The results concluded:

Intelligence was higher for boys playing an instrument. To control for unspecific effects we excluded families without instruments. The effect on intelligence remained. Furthermore, boys playing an instrument showed better performance in spelling compared to the boys who were not playing, despite family members with instruments. This effect was observed independently of IQ. Our findings suggest an association between music education and general cognitive ability as well as a specific language link.

300px Juilliard Chamber Orchestra Do Music Lessons Make for Smarter Kids?

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Meaning–kids who had been given music lessons had higher IQs, and did better in spelling and reading than kids who were not given music lessons. This was true even when the non-music-lesson-having kids lived in a household with a musical instrument in it.

This is not the first study to show a link between music lessons, academic performance, and intelligence. In 2006, an article published in the Journal of Educational Psychology demonstrated not only that music lessons are strongly correlated with good academic performance among 6- to 11-year olds, but also that the duration of music lessons correlated positively with IQ. Meaning, the better a kid is doing in school, the more likely he or she had music lessons, and, the longer a kid had been given music lessons, the higher his or her IQ. This was the case even when the researcher controlled for differences in the parents’ economic background or own involvement in music abilities.

While listening to music as a child leads to (very, very) short-term gains in intelligence, taking music lessons as a child is associated with small but long-lasting benefits to the intellect that aren’t explained by class, family involvement in education, or other confounding variables.

Some of this makes sense, but some of it doesn’t: It naturally follows that learning to play the piano, for example, could help a kid develop fine motor skills; it’s less clear, however, why those piano lessons might help with spelling.

So how to explain the connection between music lessons and spelling? Some researchers hypothesize that the connection between music lessons and increased language skills can be explained by a “transfer effect”: Learning to read written music might help a child learn how to read the written language. Learning how to pay attention to musical sounds might lead a child to more easily pay attention to spoken sounds, thereby increasing spelling ability.

Another theory is that music lessons simply exercise your brain and ergo boost your IQ. This would naturally transfer to anything requiring intellectual ability–music, math, spelling, whatever.

But of course, the correlation between music and intellectual ability may just be that–correlation, even when income, education, and other confounding factors are controlled. For example, parents might know their kids well enough to know that they will or won’t enjoy music lessons in the first place, and the kids that enjoy the structure of music lessons might be the same kinds of kids that can enjoy the structured learning environment of school, where “intellectual abilities” are measured.

What do you think? Do music lessons cause people to be more intelligent, or is it just a coincidence?

Do Music Lessons Make for Smarter Kids?

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Music Education for Parents: Learn to Read Music with Ease Using a Music Study Guide

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You know how musically trained children read music notes as if they are reading a book. Is it so easy? If you are thinking of sending your child for music lessons, he too will learn reading notes on those magic five lines as easily as them. Is it really possible? Yes, dear parents, it is!

A music study guide will teach your child how to read those notes. If you find your musically talented child a good music teacher, he will blossom into a wonderful music player. But before you plan all your budget and other things, you need to first understand your expectations from musical education.

Parents who don’t know a thing about music lessons think that it is impossible to plan what to expect from music. They are even scared to sign their child up for music lessons as they think he should just play for “own pleasure” and concentrate on public school.

Actually, when they say “own pleasure”, they really mean their own pleasure. It’s they who want to see their child create some music from their tiny fingers and enjoy – only because it looks so cute!

Why are parents who have no idea of music education so scared of letting their child play an instrument or compose music? It is because they think that learning music or reading a music study guide is too difficult a thing and their child won’t be able to do it since nobody in the family had musical talent.

Dear parents, music talent is not hereditary and anybody can learn music and read notes as effortlessly as reading a regular book. Even a music study guide can teach you how to read music!

Learning music begins with learning notes in one octave, then in the next, and so on. By practicing what you have learnt, you can easily start playing the musical instrument of your choice. Of course, since it is a new language your child will need time just like he needed time while learning the alphabets. But very soon he will learn words, then sentences, and then large texts!

The more your child practices, the faster he will learn. The technique of sight-reading will help him learn faster. Although a music study guide is helpful, it is always better to learn from music teachers whether at a music school or at home.

If your child is scared of the big stage or following strict regimes, just hire a private music tutor for your child in the comfort of home and buy a good music study guide.

So, even if you wish to see your child play “for his own pleasure”, it is vital for him to learn to read music notes freely, regardless of whether the music piece is complex or simple. After mastering this essential skill, your child will be grateful to you for giving him this gift of musical training.

Tatiana Bandurina is an owner of Quintecco Educational Products Inc. She develops a new trend in education – Music Education for Parents. For more tips on music study guide, visit http://www.quintecco.com

 

Music Education for Parents: Learn to Read Music with Ease Using a Music Study Guide

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Piano Lessons – Kids Do NOT Learn Music Faster Than Adults

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Let’s do some myth-busting, because this is my favorite myth to bust as a career piano teacher. Ready…?
The popular notion that kids learn music faster than adults is… completely false! It’s categorically untrue. Where it has come from over the years is a piece of neuroscience being erroneously applied to a situation in which it has no basis.

What this means is children between the ages of two and six years old have an advantage learning a particular skill called absolute pitch. That means they learn to identify a musical pitch by letter name solely through hearing it, with no reference note given for comparison. They learn to hear and identify a particular sound in the sonority of the pitch and can forever automatically identify that pitch by it’s name with certainty. This is something that about two percent of the general population is born with the ability to do, however, if one is not a trained musician, then no one knows that the ability is there in a person. It is an advantageous ability for musicians to have, yet it is not a hinderance to lack this ability. Additionally, about 85% of professional string players develop this ability just in the course of learning their instrument.

Children between the ages of two and six have an advantage in acquiring this skill because of the rate and amount of brain growth going on in them during that phase of their development. However, they only have the advantage in acquiring this skill during that time if they are taught properly. “Taught properly” in this case means thirty minutes to an hour of instruction every day with a qualified teacher until the skill is acquired. (Repeated tests and experiments have shown that if taught properly one hundred percent of the kids in this age group will acquire absolute pitch.)

Can you imagine having your two-year-old in an expensive series of music lessons every day? I thought not. That’s what it takes to develop absolute pitch in a two-to-six-year-old and it is the ONLY portion of learning music where children have an advantage over adults.

What most people don’t know is that adults actually have an advantage over children in learning an instrument, particularly the piano. The reason is adults have a lifetime of musical history, have heard thousands of songs and already know what they like. In teaching adults, I’ve found they learn to play the instrument far faster than the kids. It seems this stored lifetime of loving music is such a powerful advantage that, if the adults practice regularly, they outpace the kids in every skill involved in playing the piano. Hands down, if the adults apply themselves, they win every time.

However, I have also seen that it can be easier to make kids practice daily, especially if their music practice is considered part of their school “homework” in the household. The adults often times have more outside obligations and responsibilities that prevent them from getting daily practice. I have found in fifteen years of teaching over one thousand students that this is the only advantage the kids have over the adults. If you are an adult student, don’t think that you are at a disadvantage!

If you are a parent and have questions about absolute pitch, please contact me and I’d be happy to provide more information. If you are an adult and have specific questions about piano lessons, and how to use all that stored memory to your advantage, please do contact me at http://anaheimpiano.com

http://anaheimpiano.com Athena Murphy teaches piano lessons in Anaheim, CA. Visit her website for her free report “7 Insider Secrets to Getting Your Money’s Worth from Piano Lessons.”
In the past fifteen years, she has taught individual lessons to over one thousand students, including one who went on to become a multi-platinum-selling recording artist. Athena has studied neuroscience extensively for the past twenty years and incorporates all her knowledge of brains and learning habits into her music lessons. If you are in North Orange County or the southern Los Angeles County area and would like more information on lessons with Athena, please visit her website at http://anaheimpiano.com

 

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Advanced Guitar Playing

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300px Guitar 1 Advanced Guitar Playing

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Advanced Guitar Playing must include chords, scales, arpeggios, lead playing, guitar theory, fretboard study and more to a level of high proficiency. The advanced guitar player must have a number of concepts and skills as well as a level of comprehension that will provide him or her with an ability to perform on the instrument to an advanced level. Students of all levels whether they are starting out, or have been playing for years, need to know the essential concepts that will make them advanced like the players they admire. There are a variety of teaching tools, methods and practice suggestions available for advanced guitar playing but they generally fall short in ever leading the guitar playing there.

Most guitarist who have spent time trying to learn the guitar have heard repeatedly the importance of practicing to achieve advanced guitar playing ability. But this is often so misunderstood and unapproachable due to lack guidance and training tools available in the “get rich quick” idea, that have been transposed to the guitar in the form of “become a guitar master fast”, mass information dump throughout the web, that guitar students are at a loss for any real substance in the practice area. You must practice on a regular schedule and often. You must practice various skills and music applications. There is much to the subject of practice that is critical to your success.

The degree to which you understand guitar chords, arpeggios and scales is absolutely a main ingredient that you can not take lightly if you want to raise your playing stature to the advanced level. So often the guitarist does not understand the true nature of the guitar , it’s makeup and composition. How to musically apply the chord in the musical styles and at least the proper musical structure that allows one to play with other musicians, write music, or record in a studio as a contributor to the music, is essential to advanced guitar playing. Applying the chords on the fretboard, understanding the variety of ways to view them and the underlying methods to morphing them and expanding or “tightening them up” is a part of advanced guitar playing.

How about guitar ? Well, surely those are covered pretty easily with a few online diagrams and explanations. If you think that is of any value for the advanced player to make use of guitar scales and apply them in significant tonal and functional ways on the fretboard, then you have no understanding of these. The musical foundations, applications, structures, and adaptations of scale theory and the implications on music usage, fretboard application and modifications are far beyond what a scale is or for example, “how to play a minor pentatonic solo”. Guitar are a whole other area of study and comprehension that again is far more than the typical arpeggiation of a chord. Various simple patterns and cool riffs in no way constitute the melodic reasons, musical theory, and fretboard structure that reflect the world of arpeggios for advanced usage. The advanced guitar player must be able to use the guitar fretboard, to a degree that makes them in charge of the instrument as opposed to the instrument being so available yet so inaccessible.

Any guitar player who can play some chords and some scales, even in the open position make think this isn’t so important, as some great song writers and guitar songs have the music played in one area of the fretboard. And that can be true in regards to song writing and band success, but also this more limited playing is in no way any guarantee at all of success either. In fact advanced guitar playing allows the guitarist to play more “intermediate or basic concepts” better and in more musical ways.

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Advanced Guitar Playing

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How to Determine My Child’s Readiness to Learn Music?

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300px Juilliard Chamber Orchestra How to Determine My Childs Readiness to Learn Music?

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When should the mother enroll their child in a formal music lesson? The answer is that it depends on the child’s readiness to learn music. The child has to have the interest and is mentally and physically capable and ready. Some music teachers suggest enrolling the child when she reaches the age of 8. Others say 5 rather than 3, for in this age, the child has developed the control of the hand movements. Some mothers start enrolling their child when they are able to read letters and recognize numbers.

As a parent, you should know whether your child could endure a half hour of lesson or not. Another important idea is that the child has to overcome the separation anxiety stage before starting because this could affect the cooperation and attentiveness of the child in the learning process. Children grow and learn at different rates, so what is right for one might be disadvantageous to another. Mothers could determine when should their child be enrolled in a formal lesson based on their observations.  They need to be sensitive enough in order for them to know the perfect time.

Interest will serve as the motivation for your child to start and as she goes through the progression of learning. A mother could start developing the interest of the child while she is still pregnant. It is scientifically proven that the child can hear even she is still in the womb of the mother and that the child could develop a taste on music later on. Sing and dance with your child your favorite songs and music. These can create to your child happy memories. Influence you child with your interest in music. Teach her with action songs or you could bring her to music concerts and orchestra. In these ways you are introducing to her the different rhythms, types and concepts of music.

Everyone has his own talents and gifts but these needs to be nurtured and developed. Parents have to take part in harnessing the talents of their youngsters. As a parent, you have to support your child and try not to fail to praise them every time they do well on their performance. Give them the opportunity to play in some occasions such as family gatherings.

Never put too much pressure on the child. They may lose their interest and could also cause stress to them. Children could learn easier and faster when you make the lesson more enjoyable. They will be more cooperative and you are letting them learn in their own creative way. Good and expert tutor is another significant factor that could affect in maintaining the interest of the child in learning to play an instrument. He must know how to create a fun but productive learning sessions.

How to Determine My Childs Readiness to Learn Music?

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The Modern Guitar Lesson

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Most people know what the typical music lesson experience is like. After teaching for 7 years in studios and music stores, I know all about it. At the very least, one can imagine what it’s like. You get in the car hoping to get there in time and realize you are low on gas. A parent has to load the van with a child or three. You get to the studio, sit and wait in the front room with many others while you wait on your teacher who is running a little late with his current lesson. You pass the time wishing some of these kids would sit still while reading a four month old issue of Time Magazine. After all is said and done, you have lost over an hour of time for a 30 minute lesson.

Why?

“Well, the kids really like it and it gives them something to do other than Guitar Hero.”

“I really want to learn how to play the guitar, but I can’t afford to pay someone to come to my house.”

“What? You got a better idea?”

Yeah. I do. Web cam guitar lessons. I’m not talking about buying prerecorded videos. Web cam lessons are live, one-on-one lessons just like the ones in the studio. Only instead of driving to a studio or store to take lessons from a teacher who doesn’t seem like he or she wants to be there in the first place, you are in your own home. You don’t have to pay the high price of the typical house call lesson and due to the lack of overhead, it’s cheaper than most studios and definitely cheaper than your average music school.

The best part about web cam guitar lessons is the convenience. Not only do you not have to drive to the lesson, the web cam lesson lends itself to a very flexible schedule. You see, when you buy music lessons from a school, you are not just paying for the lesson itself, you are paying for the block of time. You know the policy: If you miss a lesson, you still have to pay. Not so with the web cam lesson. You don’t pay for a block of time when you purchase a lesson. You pay 100% for the lesson. When you buy a lesson, it is yours to take whenever you want. Let’s say you buy a package of four lessons. You have the freedom to take the first lesson this week, then the second one 2 days from now, or two weeks from now. No more worrying about missed lessons. The scheduling is as simple as making a hair appointment or scheduling an eye exam (but it’s more fun).

If you are thinking about guitar lessons for yourself, your kid, or someone you know, the web cam lesson is worth a shot. Just because the teacher is not physically in the room doesn’t make it less effective. There is as much interaction as a “normal” guitar lesson. Using technology for music education is getting more and more popular. Taking advantage of it makes for a cheaper, more enjoyable experience.

 

Andrew Wilson (The Music Corner) – Professional guitar player and instructor. View video guitar tips, get information on web cam guitar lessons, and check out the blog.

 

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