Saturday, December 6, 2008

Ruth Searle's Rocket Piano Review

Learn How to Play with step-by-step piano lessons supported by video and audio files. Rocket Piano is organized into 3 high quality books taking you on a journey from beginner to advanced in your gospel piano playing.

These video lessons are amazing, they have been professionally recorded and edited and are guaranteed to be more stylish and useful than anything you will find. There is no substitute for seeing and hearing how something is supposed to be played. You'll discover the most effective ways to practice so that you master new material quickly, without developing bad habits. Learn to play the piano smoothly and flawlessly, while cutting your learning time in half!

Discover how you can train your ear to identify all the various piano notes, simply by playing the revolutionary new computer game called "Perfect Your Pitch Pro". Training your ear by playing "Perfect Your Pitch Pro", is not only fun, it will fast track you to playing your favorite songs by ear!

Discover how to master impressive skills, such as the various fingering techniques, how to play by ear, arpeggios, including how to play Gospel, Jazz and much much more!

You WILL NOT waste hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on expensive piano lessons. You will learn all of the tips and tricks. You even get sounds files (AND video) so you can play along. And, unlike a piano teacher, you can repeat each song or riff over and over again until you get it correct and professional sounding.

Discover how to perform the trickiest of piano skills. That's over ten years worth of expensive and hard won information in a simple and easy to follow format - Comprehensive knowledge at your finger tips! Learn the one thing you must do to ensure that your piano playing sounds as perfect and well practiced as professional pianists!

Learn with an advanced piano learning technique, developed by a university psychologist (originally for guitarists, and adapted successfully for pianists), for training your fingers to automatically remember all the chord shapes, in 1/3 the time! And, you'll learn all about how your brain processes information, and how to maximise your piano practice time... (nine out of ten people are absolutely floored by this secret!)

Learn how to play with exceptional speed and timing by using our cutting edge Metronome. Find out how to decide whether you should learn to play piano on an actual piano, or whether you should use an electric keyboard.

Play " JaydeMusica", a fun game included which is designed to help you learn how to read music, with Rocket Piano for your enjoyment.

Discover how to play jazz piano, step-by-step with a specialist how to play jazz piano book! This book is part of the Rocket Piano package, in it you'll gain a comprehensive grounding in jazz, including history, distinctive rhythms, underlying qualities, rhythmic movements, common jazz chords (and how to play them in different jazz arrangements), how to break jazz songs down and play them and much much more! For those of you who are particularly interested in jazz piano, this book is the best place to start!

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Monday, December 1, 2008

What Are Barre Guitar Chords

Barre (bar) chords should be learnt by all the guitarists. If you can find notes on the fifth & sixth strings, you will have the ability to play chord be it a major seventh or  minor seventh or dominant seventh chor. You will have to learn a just a few shapes more to play any other chord.

Bar chords can be more than that but they definitely are the most important and they can give you the variety to play most of the rock and blue songs. They are handy to learn and are sometimes also called as moveable chords. You got to learn one shape for each of the chord and then move it along fretboard to change its starting note.


Bar chords can extend beyond those listed above but these are the most important and they give you enough variety to play most rock and blues songs. Barre (bar) chords are also called moveable chords and this is what makes them so handy to learn. The fact they are moveable chords means you simply learn one shape for each chord type and move it along the fretboard to change it’s starting note.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Caring For Your Piano

Taking care of your piano does not only entail having it tuned up every two to five years. It would also appreciate a daily maintenance from the owner himself. What good would it do to a piano if it would just be left at one corner of the house, untouched for sometime? Absolutely nothing, and it would just gather dust and rust.

One of the best ways to maintain its good condition is to play it often. Just like a human being, this piece of entertainment equipment needs exercise so as not to expire soon. Through regular playing, you are not only practicing to become a better pianist, you can also play and check if your piano is still in perfect tune.

It is recommended to clean the keys with a light soap solution preferably that of Ivory brand. Use a new soft cloth to wipe the cabinet. Do not use old towel converted into rags as the rough fabric can scratch the finishing. To polish the cabinet, it is best to use piano polish. Do not use the usual aerosol cleaner on a piano as it contains alcohol that will react with the finishing or tarnish the varnish or lacquer paint on your piano surface.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Difference between a piano and a keyboard?

An acoustical piano is what your great grandmother and Beethoven learned to play on, only now they're built in a factory. A factory built acoustical piano is a great investment at a practical cost. There are many types new and used. From smallest to largest they are: spinet, console, upright, baby grand and grand. You can also rent a piano. Usually the rent is applied to the purchase price of the piano should you decide to buy it within six months.

A keyboard is an electronic instrument with many features such as recording and the ability to play with headphones. Again, get the best one you can afford. I recommend a minimum of 76 keys. A full keyboard is 88 keys. This is important because learning to play the piano involves "geography." Reading piano music is comparable to reading a map of the piano keyboard. Other key features that affect playing quality and enjoyment are touch sensitivity, weighted keys, and hammered-action keys, which imitate the lever action of an acoustical piano. Touch sensitivity is a minimum requirement. If you are considering a used keyboard, check to see if it is still under warranty before you make your offer. Also, electronic keyboards do not need to be tuned.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Should You Buy A New or 2nd Hand Piano?

There are a lot of people selling 2nd hand pianos who are making a lot of money playing upon the ignorance of the piano buying public. They have found that they can take an old piano and clean up the instrument, make the metal parts shine, polish the wood and in general tidy up the appearance of an otherwise useless piano and then place a high price on the instrument. There has always been a sense of ‘the higher the price the better quality’, this is not the case. When it comes to second-hand pianos you need to “do your homework”. Its like buying a second-hand car!! You need to get the advise of someone in the industry like a Qualified Piano Tuner, or a Piano Teacher who knows what to look out for. One of the pianos to try and avoid is the “over-damper” pianos. These usually have problems with the damper mechanism and have been found to be a lot of hassle to repair by tuners and technicians.

Be aware that there are a lot of second-hand pianos being imported from Asia and you really need to “proceed with caution” on these. You will probably be told that they are great pianos, excellent condition, etc. But, consider if they are all that they are made out to be, why did the Music School, University, etc. in Asia decide to replace these pianos??? Also, the comment by the salesperson, “they have not had much use!!” is something you need to think about. Remember that about 75% of these pianos have come from a Music School, University, etc. and are from 5 years to 20 years old and have countless students practicing on them for maybe up to 14 hours a day over every day of the year for 5-20 years. That’s a lot of work that these pianos have been receiving and it makes you wonder if over this time if they have been properly maintained and serviced.

There are some good models coming in to Australia as second-hand Imported Pianos and these are from homes and have been used as private pianos. When purchasing any of these instruments from a store or a private piano tuner selling these types of pianos is to make sure that they have some type of warranty which include the pin block, frame, soundboard. The person selling these instruments should be able to place a 5 year warranty on the above. Also make sure that the piano is tuned in your home after delivery, this is usually done about 1 week after delivery with a new piano and should also be done with a piano that is second-hand .

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Playing by ear – by Ash ley Southam

I often have people ask me about playing a piano “by ear”. What they are referring to of course is learning and being able to play songs just by listening to them.

When I was quite young and still learning to play the piano I remember watching someone listen to a song on the radio and then quickly walk over to the piano and play what was on the radio. It was very impressive. I remember thinking how amazing that was. The thing that I’ve learned since then is that if you spend time with music, listening to it, playing it, paying attention to it, that things start to stick out. By this I mean certain chords start to become familiar, certain melodies that then go along with those chords. Probably the most important aspect of this is that chord progressions that start to stick out. These are the fundamental parts to playing by ear.

One thing that happens quite often with piano is that when someone starts their piano education they are usually taught how to read music first, then to play off sheet music. So when it comes time to play something that isn’t written down they have great trouble. I know, this was how it was for me in the beginning.

To really learn to play music by ear you need to have at least some knowledge about chords and chord progressions. Once you know a little more about chords (major and minor and what they sound like) you can start learning to play by ear. The first thing to do is find a song you really like and would like to play. The second thing is to do is make sure it’s an easy song. (You will probably find out pretty quickly how difficult it is to play!) If there are a lot of chord changes then it might be a good idea to pick another song. The thing about learning by ear, when you first start out, is that it will take a while and you will need to be patient. When I first started it took me quite some time and I had to work through quite a lot of frustrating moments but it’s much more rewarding.

Some people will be able to pick up music by ear much easier than others. This is just a fact of life. Some people’s ears are just more tuned to music than others. Quite often though, these people are the ones who listen to the most music.

The key is to experiment with playing along with music and give yourself time to learn to play by ear. You will find that the more you that, the better at it you will become, and after a while it will come naturally and you will be able to play with whatever is on the radio.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ashley Southam (The Piano Guy) is a pianist with years of experience behind him. Piano is his passion, and he is also the drive and inspiration behind Rocket Piano – the Ultimate Piano Learning Kit, and Rocket Piano Gospel Edition. If you want to take your piano playing skills to a new level, you need the Rocket Piano Kit. You get step by step instructions complete with audio and video lessons, and you can instant access by clicking the link now http://www.rocketpiano.com.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Does size of your piano matters?

The answer to this question is… Yes and No. Size/height of an upright piano does not really matter. The difference in pianos in relation to size, means that in an upright piano the soundboard and also string length are greater therefore give the piano a richer tone and an increased resonant sound. For instance… in an upright piano with a height of 108cm compared to a larger upright of 121cm there is a height difference of 13cm. Therefore there is approx. 13cm more in the height of the soundboard and also greater length of the strings. The soundboard of a piano is like the speakers in a stereo system, the bigger the speakers the greater the bass response and deeper the tone. This is exactly what happens in a piano. You must also keep in mind the size of the room in which the piano is going to live. In some rooms that have deep pile carpet and heavy curtains the smaller pianos will loose their volume because of the ‘soft furnishings’ absorbing the sound. If the player is just a beginner or has only been learning for a short amount of time then a smaller size piano like the 108cm or 112cm will be fine. If the player is a serious student, teacher or a person that has been playing for sometime, then a 121cm or larger would be required, maybe a grand piano. The reason for this is that the player has experience and performance ability and would be looking for a better tone and resonance in the piano which they are playing or practicing on.