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Saturday, December 27, 2014

Easy Way of Learning the Chords

I ran across this little video that shows how to learn the chords simply and easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U0DfLRxSBU

In a nutshell...

1. The root note, or bottom note, of the chord names the chord.

2. To play Major chord, or triad (3-note chord):
Play the root + count up 4 notes + count up 3 notes.

3. To play minor chord, or triad:
Play the root + count up 3 notes + count up 4 notes.

4. Turn the chord into a Major 7th, by adding 3 notes at the top (Major 4 + 3 + 3; minor 3 + 4 + 3).

The related website is http://www.chordmusic.net/chordfinder.html, which gives additional information on chords.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Teaching Preschool Children to Play the Piano

Can an old dog learn new tricks? I've always felt that the best time to start teaching a child to play the piano is when the child has a good handle on reading. But I'm beginning to see that I may be wrong. I've been studying this paper by Paula M. Thomas-Lee about beginning very young children in music instruction:

https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/thomas-lee_paula_m_200312_dma.pdf

I'll be exploring some of the aspects of this paper in this blog.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

It's About People

Some of the most beautiful music ever written is Christmas music. I love the carols of Christmas. They pluck the heartstrings of the soul.

And please remember in all the busy-ness of the season, Christmas is all about people, not things.


The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than in things.
~ Thomas S. Monson

Saturday, December 13, 2014

The Music of Christmas


Last night I went to a wonderful Christmas Concert at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, at which the Sesame Street Muppets and Santino Fontana performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. An audience of 21,000 people, including children ages 5 and up, were enchanted with the delightful and magnificent performance.

I was especially intrigued watching the little children, including my 7-year-old grandson, as they witnessed this magical performance. What a wonderful experience...to not only enjoy the fun of the Muppets and the wonderful dancers, the lights and decorations and special effects, but also to have a chance to listen to a full symphony orchestra and exceptional choir perform.

These are the kinds of experiences that help mold children...experiences they never ever forget.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Free Hanon Lessons Online

http://www.hanon-online.com/the-virtuoso-pianist/part-i/exercise-n-1/

Hanon exercises are great for developing precision and good piano technique. Here's a site where you can print free Hanon exercises.

This from a previous post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF1_zGpwbPQ

How do you effectively practice Hanon exercises? Check out this great Robert Estrin video. Some of the points he covers include:

1. Always use a metronome. Start with a setting of 60--play one note per click initially.

2. It's all about finger strength. Use only the fingers, not the arms.

3. Keep fingers raised.

4. Once you've gone through this exercise several times at 1 note to a beat, move on to 2 notes to a beat, still with fingers raised.

5. Next, move on to 4 notes to a beat. There's no time to raise fingers now. Fingers close to the keys. ROUNDED hands.

6. Practice Hanon every day--focusing on one exercise a week.

7. After you've gone through the first 10 exercises, you're ready to move on to scales and arpeggios.

Playing a Trill

A good site about trills.

http://www.piano-play-it.com/trill.html