Piano Note

Imagine being able to sit down at your piano, place your hands on the keyboard, and just play! Many piano students think the ability to do this requires years of study. They couldn’t be more wrong!

Learning to play what you feel does not require extensive knowledge of harmony or theory. All that is required is the ability to do two things:

1. Believe that you know enough
2. Believe that you’re good enough

Thousands of classically trained pianists are able to play Rachmaninoff and Bach but are unable to express themselves poetically at the keyboard. Why? Because of the above 2 beliefs! It’s not enough to have mastered piano technique.

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Those of you who have been reading my articles for some time now know that I believe improvisation to be the cornerstone of musical creativity. Why? Because without the ability to just play, we become stifled and the “real” music that is within each of us withers and dies.

Now, if you’re a writer, you have lots of support in this area. There are books, (many, many books) that explore the topic of freewriting to its fullest. There are plenty of exercises and advice from professionals in the field. There are even classes designed to “free the writer within.”

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Many piano students spend much time learning how to play the piano. Years upon years of study time devoted to perfecting technique, tone, dynamics, etc. All the while, many of these same students have never really played the piano. That is, they have spent their time practicing in preparation for the moment when they can “perform” for others.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if instead of learning how to play other peoples music, we could feel confident enough to create our own? Why is it so daunting a task for most of us? I think it’s because we’ve been taught that only a very few gifted individuals are capable of producing music from scratch - whatever the genre. Rock, jazz, classical etc.

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Imagine asking a beginning writer to write a short story from scratch. Our writer does not yet have much experience in writing but accepts the challenge and begins to plunge ahead.

He has to start somewhere so he begins to examine how to construct a short story. He learns all about plot, character, and structure and now believes he is ready to begin writing.

As soon as he begins to write, he discovers something. He can’t move forward. He is blocked. What’s the problem? He knows how to construct a short story and should be able to forge ahead right? The problem is he has not allowed his “voice” to unfold naturally. His internal critic is blocking the natural voice inside his

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Is it really possible to conquer the guitar fretboard? Do you find the notes you want to find? Is tabulature cheating? Let me invite you to the guitar fretboard!

I suggest that you right now start to take command over your guitar. Usually when you are playing your first guitar sheet music melodies you will have to learn the notes in the first position on the guitar. To have a good grasp of these notes on the guitar I suggest that you learn them slowly and with concentration.

I usually begin by teaching the notes on the first string like E on open string, F on fret 1 and G on fret 3. On string two you ll find B on open

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