Learn to Play Piano on Your Terms - Practically Free!

Many people want to learn the piano as cheaply as possible. I can understand that. It takes a while to gain the skills to learn a musical instrument and someone experienced needs to help. But the benefits are extraordinary.

My new online piano course is self-paced and follows the innovative Piano Marvel learning system. You can actually learn to play on your schedule and without leaving your home.

 
Because I think that I am presenting one of the best learning solutions around for anyone - ages 9+ through adult - I'm giving out coupons for FREE entry. Yes, free.

But, there are only 25 of them. Use it and I mean now. Use Coupon: LEARNPIANOFREE1 for permanent access. You will need a subscription to the Piano Marvel learning system which gives you all the materials you need ($12 monthly with the first month free - no contract). All in all, a screamin' deal.

Go HERE to claim - and go fast.

New Companion Online Course for Piano Marvel

Learn piano more easily than ever before...really!

My "sojourn" teaching with the Piano Marvel computer-based program has been so successful that I have now opened up an online course using it. Since Piano Marvel is very self-directed, meaning students always know where they are and where they're going in their musical journey, creating self-paced help videos and documents online just makes good sense. 

I've built the course on the slick "Udemy.com" elearning platform. It's easy to use and runs great. I've created help content for all 5 sections of Level 1 (3 - 5 months of learning content or approximately 200 pieces and exercises). It's quite a deal at the regular price so grab it half-off now. Levels 2-5 coming soon.

If you want to learn the basics of playing the piano and reading music, contact me for a 50% off deal for Level 1 of my online course. It really is learning for the new century. Go HERE to view the course. Contact me for the 50% code.

Learn Math without Music? Horrible!

Get this - "The greatest scientists are artists as well," said Albert Einstein. He was not only one of the greatest physicists that ever lived, he was also an amateur pianist and violinist. A recent article in Psychology Today reveals that Einstein's insights did not come from logic or mathematics. It came, as it does for artists, from intuition and inspiration.

In a conversation with the great music education pioneer, Shinichi Suzuki, Einstein also stated, "The theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition. My parents had me study the violin from the time I was six. My new discovery is the result of musical perception." It's no wonder the Greeks considered Mathematics and Music two essential areas of study for all young students. Anyone not knowing there are important connections between the two has not been paying attention. Perhaps losing Music education in our public schools has a negative "Math and Science" fallout.

Check out this informative article.

Piano Improvising: Good for Your Brain?

A new, scientific study is out that investigates changes in the brain when creating original music (improvising) on a piano keyboard vs. playing an existing song by note. Charles Limb, a brain scientist at Johns Hopkins looked at the whole brain, and found more than 40 areas that were active during improvisation. And yes, the subjects actually played an electronic keyboard while in an MRI machine.

They found that the prefrontal cortex area of the brain changes greatly when improvising as compared to playing memorized music. And the part of the brain that "turns off" is the part that's linked to inhibition. He said, "So during creative playing, you get this combination of self-expression with the absence of conscious self-monitoring. We think that's how jazz musicians are able to improvise."

One of his jazz pianist subjects expressed that when you're censoring yourself, playing the notes feels physically different. "It's as if your brain is fighting with your central nervous system and trying to control your movements. But when you're in the zone, it just feels easy. It feels just like breathing or talking. It feels so natural it almost seems not profound."

In the second part of the study, somehow Limb (a pianist himself) managed to play a duet with the subject in the MRI. As they were trading musical phrases back and forth (a popular technique in improvisational jazz, called "Trading Fours"), other areas of the brain began to be activated - areas known to be responsible for understanding language and in speaking. It seems to provide a strong link between neurobiology of music and language.

Now, none of this is probably news to music educators but it's always good to have science back you up.

Piano Marvel Learning System: Free Online Demos

Over the next few months, I'll be conducting some free online demos of the innovative piano learning system, Piano Marvel.

You can attend virtually from anywhere. You will learn about the system, how it works, and how it can make child and adults students successful at learning to play the piano. Few methods use technology to monitor your practice and let you know when you  make mistakes and where they are. My current students are loving this way of learning because it doesn't waste their time and they learn much more quickly than with any previous methods. It also gives accuracy scores, which gives it a video game-like intensity.

See for yourself. For more information, go to Ustream.tv. 

Many piano students have studied the well known classical piece, Für Elise (for Elise). It was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven around 1810 when he was firmly established as one of the greatest composers in history. It is named "Für Elise" because a Beethoven researcher named Ludwig Nohl claimed to have seen this dedication on the original autograph which has been missing for many years.

The piece was not published until 1865 well after Beethoven's death and no records or letters from people at the time make mention of an "Elise" in the composer's life. Beethoven was in love with a woman named Therese Malfatti around the time he created the work. Some researchers think that Nohl misread the composer's poor handwriting and it actually read "Für Therese". Others say that's unlikely. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure to whom this beautiful piece was dedicated.

Hear an interesting arrangement of Fur Elise for piano and orchestra.

Build Your Own Band

Singing a song and need some quick accompaniment? Want to spice up your piano playing and have great fun at the same time? I just purchased Chordpulse software and I'm having a blast with it. It can give you the tools to build your own arrangements of songs with a jazz or blues combo, acoustic guitar group, or rock band to play with you.

It doesn't do anything really fancy (less than "Band in a Box" or "Garage Band") but I'm having much fun just creating the arrangements. It's easy to use and has over 100 musical styles to employ at the click of a mouse. Plus, it's slick and just looks great. Chordpulse software could be used by music teachers, church music directors, worship musicians, and others who want/need something more but cannot afford their own band or orchestra. Try a 14-day free trial and have some fun.

Composing Your Own Music 2.0

Music notation programs on the computer have been around for a long time. Finale and Sibelius are two standards in the music industry. As times (and technology) have changed there are some new players in the field and one seems pretty exciting.

Enter Noteflight. Noteflight® is an online music writing application that lets you create, view, print and hear music notation without having to even download a program. It works in your web browser and it's easy enough for younger budding composers. Work on a score from any computer on the Internet or share with other users or your teacher. Like many "webware" sites, it offers a free version or a premium account which adds additional features. I highly recommend adults and child students try out at least the free version and start making your own music.

Learning Piano in the New Century

Okay, computers have invaded almost every area of our lives. But is that really a bad thing? I submit that - except for those times when we want to point a machine gun to our PC to see if it will finally process something - in the final analysis, we're really better off.

Computers and music working together? Absolutely. Programmers have taken an in-exact science/art of music and invaded musicians' lives - for the better. Programs like Garage Band, Cakewalk, Finale, Sibelius, and Piano Marvel let us program our electronic keyboards to sound like an orchestra, take our piano playing and print in musical notation and sharpen many of the skills of playing piano.

My piano students have been able to play around with the Piano Marvel tool this past week and I think they're hooked. The younger ones are hooked on getting that high score when you play a piece accurately. The adults are hooked on getting instant feedback on their practice so they don't waste time playing a piece incorrectly until their next lesson.

However you get hooked, I think it's a good thing. Check it out.

Exciting Addition to my Music Studio

I'm blown away by this technology called, "Piano Marvel." It truly rocks! I can't wait to get my students into it. They're going to love it. Take a look at the link below for a short video tour. I've also updated my website with lots of new information about it.

I'll be using this program for both in-person and online students and including beginning guitar shortly. Let me know what you think.

Piano Marvel Tour

Learn to Accompany

It's an interesting phenomenon. Good musicians who can play most anything as long as all the printed notes are in front of them. "Chording" a piece is foreign territory to many musicians. Learning to read lead sheets and developing other accompaniment skills are valuable for worship musicians, choir accompanists, and beginning pianists who want to accompany themselves. 8 sessions, beginning August 8.

Improving your Piano Learning with a Playlist

Have you taken a few years of piano lessons? How many pieces can you play right now without using music? If you've been taking what I call non-traditional lessons, the answer may be 3 or 4. Since I've been teaching the Simply Music program, my students' answers would be anywhere from 10-50 pieces.

One of the many valuable benefits that traditional piano curricula doesn't have is maintaining a "Playlist." It's simply keeping a collection of the pieces/songs you have learned. The playlist that I use with students provides a graph for the student to mark each time they play each piece. It's helps both of us prevent pieces from falling through the cracks. The value comes with keeping those pieces
"alive" by playing them every (or almost every) day. Consider this:

1. You put in a lot of work honing your wonderful piano skills. You're out in public or at a friend's house and you're asked to play something. With all the pieces you've learned, you should be able to give a concert. Could you?
2. Playing piano (especially without printed music) exercises a very large portion of our brain, including memory centers. This strengthens our neural connections. Yes, we need them or we'll get to the point where we'll be looking for our car in the parking lot for hours only to realize we took the bus to the mall.
3. We learn from playing songs - even when we know them really well. We discover nuances that we were not able to notice while we were learning the notes and rhythm.  
4. Your playlist is like a photo album or diary. You're journaling your progress throughout your music learning journey. You (and your instructor) can spot trends and be better able to correct problems, thus making learning more efficient and fun.

This is the shortlist of what you can gain by maintaining a playlist of your piano pieces. Now, how many songs can you play - right now?

Summer Piano Workshops

Want to do something productive this summer? Learn to play piano. Yes, you can do this. I have several 4-week workshops beginning in July for beginners or near-beginners. Over four sessions, you'll learn 4+ pieces (blues, classical, gospel, etc.). No music reading required - just you, some easy diagrams, and the keyboard. I use the innovative "Simply Music" method which will get you playing immediately.

Children and adult workshops are offered but register soon. Go to my Workshops page for more information.

Freedom Isn't Free - But it Sure is Fun!

The "Simply Music" curriculum differs from others in that students are actually encouraged to improvise and arrange the pieces in their book, plus compose their own music. I think my students are enjoying this new-found freedom. Last week, I decided my fairly new 7-year old student was ready to learn how to transpose our version of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" into a new key. When he arrived at his lesson, however, he was excited to play - yes - a new version of Fur Elise for me starting on different notes. He then proceeded to play it beautifully in the key of D minor (originally in A minor).

I was thrilled that he discovered this totally on his own. He is learning how music and the piano works to his benefit and enjoyment and it's an excellent stepping stone into music reading (theory) coming in a few months (yes, he did this with no knowledge of note-reading).

Learning to play piano is a "freeing" experience? Times have certainly changed since my first piano lessons.

Recitals: Not a Four-Letter Word

It's always exciting to get new piano students ready for their first recital. My two new students, brothers (7 and 11), are asking lots of questions; "Does everyone play together?," "How do you know when to go to the piano?," "What happens after we play?" - all good questions for newbies.

I realize the words, recital or concert conjures up stress for some, usually due to bad memories of childhood performances. I always like to play up the "fun" angle - getting to celebrate music with others and expressing yourself. And, the more we do it, the more fun it is.

My 7 year-old says he's going to rent a tux for the recital. I told his mother that really wasn't necessary - but it's always nice to see enthusiasm.