I had just immigrated to Canada one month earlier as a self-employed musician. I made my living by playing hours of Christmas music at malls, craft fairs and parties. I was happy to have the work, but the long hours playing lively violin carols were physically and mentally exhausting.

I started to keep track of how many times I played Jingle Bells that season and lost count somewhere around 200. Every night as I tried to fall asleep, the annoying chorus rang deafeningly in my ears. My digits involuntarily twitched and repeated the irritating fingering patterns incessantly. Then I thought of the

Christmas 1998: With a few hundred hours of playing booked and several students in my weekly routine, I was developing an itchy allergy to the tune’s cadence, “one-horse open sleigh.” The mere mention of Jingle Bells caused my eyes start watering and nose running. Even my feline friend flinched whenever CBC Radio played Christmas music, as “sung” by the digitally edited “Jingle Cats” chorus. Our eyes widened with panic and we both hid under the couch until the song was over.

But any time I found myself about to bellow a scratchy “Bah Humbug,” a parent would tell me

Christmas 1999-2001: Each year brought me increased performances and students, whom all requested the dreaded Jingle Bells. Each year I reluctantly played it for joyful audiences of shoppers. Oddly, each year I seemed to develop a bizarre appreciation for the song that struck fear in the hearts of musicians. I found myself embracing the chorus’ cute little quarter and half notes. “Do do doo, Do do doo” I sang in the shower gleefully. “I’m going mad,” I thought, laughing all the way, HA HA HA!

Christmas 2002: “Jingle Bells” blasts out in the still, winter air

I am raising a relentless arsenal of “Junior Jingle Bells Radicals” (JJBRs) with a mission to gain support and appreciation for this much misunderstood song. Our upcoming Christmas recital will be a glorious display of over fifteen variations of the tune. I’m having the time of my life.

My doctor has an explanation for this unexpected turn of events. According to elaborate medical research, I have apparently built up an immunity to Jingle Bells’ harmful effects. Doc tells me I’m one of the lucky few; an advanced case which has shown miraculous recovery from the

I, like many others, felt burdened and overwhelmed by the barrage of Christmas music, decorations and commercials that strained my enjoyment of the holiday season. At times, it seemed like the meaning of Christmas was lost in all the commercialism and hype.

The change came when I played Jingle Bells for the 2,798th time. I then realized that each time I had ever played that silly little song, someone experienced joy.

I learned that all one has to do to find the true meaning of Christmas is to watch people. See the child giggling on Santa’s knee, the newlyweds holding mitten hands as

I am thankful to have musical skill so I can witness joy manifest itself in teary smiles and beaming grins every year. This brings me Christmas joy.

Happy Holidays.

**Rhiannon Schmitt (nee Nachbaur) is an award-winning classical violinist/fiddler and music teacher who operates Fiddleheads Violin School & Shop. Fiddleheads has won several distinguished business awards and offers beginner to professional level instruments, accessories and supplies with exceptional personal service: http://www.fiddleheads.ca

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.

For example, many would be writers understand how to construct a

The same goes for music and any other art. I can’t tell you how many times I repeated the above 2 statements to myself because I really wanted to get past my fear of being able to create music at the piano. I wanted to play what I felt at any given time - to be able to improvise. But this was nearly impossible as long as there was some voice in me that said I just wasn’t good enough. And believe me, we ALL

Eventually, I got past the need to seek other’s approval and realized that I was more important than the music. I learned that I already knew more than enough to play the piano. I also came to believe I was good enough and that no one person will every know it all or be a “perfect” player.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a

First, they try to find a piano teacher close to where they live. They may or may not know what style they want to learn, but figure the piano teacher can help them figure this out.

Next, it’s off to the piano teacher for the first appointment. What usually happens here is the teacher gives the student “an assessment” to see what they know. Now, for the most part, piano teachers won’t ask prospective students what they want to learn because they assume it will be classical in nature.

The benefits for the piano teacher in teaching the classical

The student at this point may have spent thousands of dollars learning how to do this thus increasing the piano teachers income. What a great deal for the piano teacher! But what about the student?

Listen, if your goal is to learn how to note-read and play other peoples music

1. Time spent learning is greatly reduced. Listen to this… you can learn most chords on the piano within one month’s time. You won’t be an expert at it, but you’ll know enough to get around on the piano. This puts you light years ahead of your classical playing counterparts.
   
   


2. Musicianship is quickly realized. Do you know that most classical players don’t have a clue how what they are playing was created? That’s right! They just play the notes like
   Bass Guitar Tablatures
   ...bass guitar is used for complementing and filling up the sound in an orchestration or a band and it goes in tune and rhythm with the drums and percussion. A bass guitar s neck or fret board is much longer ...
   a typist and never understand the mystery behind the music. Now, if you learn chords, inevitably, you’re going to learn about chord charts and once you learn how to “chart out music,” you’ll be thinking like a composer. You’ll be quantum leaps ahead of most classically trained musicians.

Look, if you really want to learn how to play piano fast, learn a chord-based approach first. You can always learn note reading later on.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by

Contemporary Hawaiian Music often contains one or several of the following; a Ukulele, a guitar, double-bass, steel guitar, slack-key guitar, falsetto or high pitched singing, chanting, and native instruments such as the Pahu or a shark-skin covered drum, and the hanu ihu or the nose flute. Many of the listed items came to Hawaii with Merchants and Missionaries, even the falsetto singing style was learned from missionaries who first

Slack-Key guitar is a tuning technique developed on the islands that leaves one or more of the strings on a guitar slackened. This can allow for longer bass notes that continue while the other strings are being plucked. It is an entirely unique method for playing the guitar. The steel guitar was actually invented by a Hawaiian and the Ukulele is a modified form of an instrument that was brought over by the Portuguese.

Much Hawaiian Music has a wide range of flavors too. You will find Hawaiian Music with

The truth is that Hawaiian Music may best be described as whatever sounds and stylings that remind one of the Islands. So if you want to listen to Elvis’s Blue Hawaii at your Luau go ahead.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies, using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. Luau Party Supplies, decorations, favors, paper goods, centerpieces and

Let’s say you have an 8-bar phrase to play. There are no chord symbols yet so you don’t know what chords you’ll be playing. You just have 8-bars in front of you. The first thing you need to know is the time signature. For our purposes here, we’ll keep it simple and use 3/4 or 4/4 time.

Now let’s select 4/4 time for our 8-bar phrase. Now we know the meter but what about the chords? Here’s where we can jot down chord progressions for either improvisation or composition. For example,

All that’s left to do now is begin your piece in the Key of F Major. We usually start with the F Major chord itself so you now know that your first bar or 2 will be the F Major chord. But now a problem arises - how do you fill up the rest of the space? By using an 8-bar phrase to begin with, you don’t have to worry about filling up a lot of space and

For instance, let’s suppose we want to chart out an 8-bar phrase for improvisation purposes. We know what chords we will be working with. Now it’s just a matter of fooling around on the piano and playing with the chord choices. You may want to place a chord change at every 2-measures. You can even use 2 chords for the entire 8-bar phrase such as F Major and B flat Major.

The whole point of the piano chord charts is to have a tool that will help you navigate what chords to play and when to change chords.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been

The artist doesn’t want to represent the entire landscape as it is, but as they feel it to be. A few lines scribbled here and there indicate the feelings the artist wishes to convey. We musicians can do the same thing! We can quickly sketch out our ideas on paper by using chords and a chord chart.

A chord chart is just a way to notate when chords change through time. You can write out 8-bars to begin with (as I do). Now let us suppose you have the urge to capture something musically. What do you do? Well, for starters,

For example, let’s choose the Key of C. Now after deciding that, we know that the piece will have a Major sound to it. We also know that we have 6 chords to create with from the C Major scale. With these primary decisions out of the way we now can focus on notating our musical ideas and capturing a mood. Here’s how I do it:

I start by just improvising and letting the music come out naturally. For example, I play a C Maj. 7 chord and I like what I hear. I’ll write down the first 2-bars of the melody, then place a chord symbol on top of the chart so I

My goal is to finish charting the 8-bar phrase with chords all the way through. Once this is accomplished I have the first section of music. If more is to come, I simply write out another 8-bar phrase and keep adding more music.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Here are some things you can include in your child

1. Holiday Recital Photos.

2. Photos of special holiday celebrations at the piano with family and friends.

3. A list of your child s favorite holiday songs they have learned to play each year.

4. A page where your piano student can write personal notes about particular challenges they overcame learning their holiday music.

5. A page for your child write a few words about all they have learned in piano compared to what they were able to play the previous year.

6. And a place to write down their piano goals for the coming New Year.

Each year your child can look back at their special Christmas at the Piano Memory Book & Journal and look forward to adding

For a Cool Piano Memory Book & Journal to download immediately and make at home, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f ree internet newsletter so you can download f ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary

The piano is not only heavy and unwieldy, but has polished and vulnerable surfaces to protect. Grand pianos have legs which are designed as stands, and they should be jacked up with proper tools - just to be moved across a room. Even upright pianos, which may be very heavy, typically suffer from failed castors. I wonder what percentage of the pianos moved actually do have a full set of working castors?… not many!

Upright Pianos

Some are small

Every moving job has hurdles: The easiest are turns, steps, and gradients, but these hurdles can become real challenges when staircases - especially with tight turns, are involved. A piano can be easily hauled up stairs with the right equipment. A straight set of stairs can be overcome with no more than a suitable length of plank and good strapping… Heavy slippery plastic sheet can help.

However often, there will be an inconvenient turn on the stairs, and this may require that the piano is overturned up to 90 degrees onto

Ideally a piano skid should be used. It is like a sledge to which the piano can be strapped. The skid not only provides a running surface to slide on, but holes through which to attach strapping. A piano at 45 degrees on the stairs offers almost no points to pull up on, but a skid with strapping points at the centre of gravity - in the middle of the skid - can help two men pulling and one pushing beneath , to pull a piano both up the stairs and also to up-angle it to turn a tight corner. When carefully tied tight to the skid with ratchet straps there will be full control and confidence that

When straight stairs are encountered, a skid allows 2 men to do the work of three… A piano will slide up (or down) with ease control and safety… But please note that I built my own skid with slippery nylon runners!

Grand and Baby Grand Pianos. You will need:
1) A piano shoe with two blocks,
A piano shoe is a wooden frame made in various lengths to fit different sizes of piano. It has padding, strap holes and straps to secure it to the piano, and provide a surface to move on.
2) A piano trolley,
3) Suitable strapping,
4) Suitable protective wraps,
5)

If you are using a moving truck, it will require room to work inside and a straight wall with good strapping points…Think about the wheel arch covers featured in small vans… and their lack of strapping points.

Handling requires at least two (very strong) or three good men… and that s if the going is easy.

If you are moving a grand or baby grand piano: The piece will have to be lowered flat onto it’s long straight side.
The process may start by removing the lid… If the lid overhangs the straight side of the piano, the piano’s weight may tear the lid’s screws from their threads. You will also reduce the weight by removing

With the lid removed, a suitable sized piano shoe is strapped to the left (straight) side of the piece, and then whilst supporting the weight - preferably with a purpose made piano stand, the front left leg and the lyre ( the foot pedal assembly) is removed (in some pneumatic mechanisms you may need to raise and support the left corner by 6 inches in order to drop the lyre). That done, the

Sometimes a piano skid is used. This is like a sledge, and is placed on the floor so the flat side of the piano can be lowered onto it. Adequate cushioning is essential to protect the fine surface of the piano.

what is the difference between a skid and a shoe?

A skid is slightly more general purpose… For example it might be useful for moving a heavy safe. An upright or grand piano could be placed and strapped onto it, and it is probably designed with runners or wheels to allow movement. It may be a metal frame with a padded wooden board bolted on. It can be slid up and down stairs.

The skid should be placed onto eight inch high blocks to reduce the back breaking weight of lowering a (grand) piano right to the floor…This will

The piano can now be moved all the way over to sit flat on it’s straight side, and The other two legs can now be removed. The various makers have their own methods of securing the legs.. Use the mallet to tap towards the wooden locking wedge. If it does not move, take time to look and think… The answer will not be force, but it may be a 90 degree rotation.

A feature of the shoe or skid is

The piano must now be strapped to the shoe / skid, and covers applied.

The piano / shoe and trolley should be tenderly ratchet strapped to the shoe if there are any steps or obstacles which may separate the two. The tension should be just so that all moves as one, but without exerting unnecessary tension on the piano. In

All movements should be conducted with a ‘hug’… The moving team should always connect shoulders and weight to the piece at all times so as to correct any loss of balance before, and not after it becomes exaggerated.

Obstacles such as steps or curb stones are always approached squarely with 2 wheels and never at an angle.

On the van : Strap the piano with at least one end on the front bulkhead, so breaking force does not work on the strapping.
Ratchet straps are not recommended on van wall strapping bars… They can apply enough pressure to damage the wall of

This article is intended as introductory reading for new staff. It in no way amounts to full instruction for the trade of piano moving.

You can find photos of a piano skid, and piano trolley in use at http://www.student-movers-forum.com/SW-Removals.htmlYou can find a technical drawing of a piano skid at http://www.student-movers-forum.com/piano_skid.htmlStephen Willett Removals move

What does it mean to play by ear? Simply that the musician understands the fundamentals of diatonic harmony. To understand this, you just need to know a little about chords.

For example, in the Key of C Major we have 7 chords. These are: C Maj. D min. E min. F Maj. G Maj. A min. and B half-diminished.

Notice that these chords are lined up in order and that they are triads. Most harmonic theory in the western world gives a number to these chords using roman numerals. Simply put, we can call the C Major

FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THESE CHORDS!

Now, once you familiarize yourself with these chords you get to learn something that most composers have know for centuries and that is certain chord progressions have tension and other’s don’t.

To play piano by ear, you need to learn the most frequently used chord progression and that is the 1-4-5 progression. To put it into chord terms it’s simply the C Major chord followed by the F Major chord and then the G Major chord.

Knowing these 3 chords will help you play piano by ear guaranteed. How? Because these chords are used in almost ALL the music here in the west! Which

You may be asking yourself why these chords are so important. You see it all has to do with the scale! When you play a C major scale you are defining the chords that can come from it. When we construct triads using this scale, the chords that are generated give a certain sound. Composers discovered that the most tension exists between the 1 and the 5 chords.

Now, the early composers prized tension because it meant that they could control how to build up to climax and how to release as well.

To play the piano by ear,

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

In the late nineteen sixties Roy Orbison, on a concert tour of Australia, arrived in Adelaide on the same flight as the Walker Brothers. I recall watching on television the airport interview in which Roy, always the nice guy, explained how much he loved the music of Scott Walker and his fellow band members. He went on to explain that he believed Rock ‘n’ Roll was a passing

Sadly, it was the loveable Roy himself who would soon die after such a tragic life, leaving behind a rich legacy of music that remains very popular so many years later. As for the music of the Walker Brothers, they certainly left the world with some memorable hits. “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More”, “My Ship Is Coming In” and “Make It Easy On Yourself” were all Walker Brothers originals that come instantly to mind, but you can’t dance Rock ‘n’ Roll to them.

Roy’s gaff can be forgiven. Its true that the production of music in the original Rock ‘n’ Roll

This also brings to mind a song released by one of the most successful Australian groups of the ’sixties, The Master’s Apprentices. The lyrics say “Rockin’, Rollin’ we’re still doing it now, 15 years today and we remember how.” When that song was released in 1970 it was apparently remarkable that we “remembered

Its a fair bet that Roy Orbison’s early songs are played a lot more often around the world nowadays than the Walker Brothers records are. The main reason for that is simply that you can Rock ‘n’ Roll to them. It can have little to do with the quality of the music, since those of us who were teenagers back then have forgotten so many excellent recordings from when we were young.

Simply put, the dance preserved the music rather than vice versa. Without the lasting popularity of the energetic, versatile and easily learned dance style, the music would probably

Most young people who learn Rock ‘n’ Roll dance nowadays have no more preference for the music of Elvis or The Beatles than they have for any of the obscure one-hit-wonders who contributed so many of the old hit records. They find Smashmouth more appealing as artists, but if an old song is good to dance to they like it no matter who recorded it. Its reasonable to assume they will preserve much of

That is what has happened to other music styles. For example, the folk music that was so popular in the late ‘fifties and early ’sixties has died out because you can’t dance to it. On the other hand many old time tunes such as waltzes and marches remain popular today because ballroom dancing preserves them.

So, how long will Rock ‘n’ Roll last? No-one can tell, but the waltz dates back to 1780 and is still practiced, so our favourite dance and music style might have a couple of hundred years to live yet. Perhaps then a songwriter will compose a song in the popular style of

Gareth Eastwood is a Rock ‘n’ Roll dance instructor and enthusiast in Adelaide, South Australia. He maintains a recently created website, http://www.rocknrolldance.com/ in which he repeatedly stresses the need for dancers to be gentle with each other rather than dancing roughly. When fully developed the site will feature articles by numerous authors detailing dance styles and reporting on events.He also created and manages Going Places With Gareth, a gigantic singles social network revolving around a long-established website http://www.garethevents.info/ The network has been operating since May, 2000. Since then over three and a half thousand people have become involved in it to some degree.