Tag Archives: music lessons

AC #62 March (2017) Spotlight Feature

Cory Henry is the artist in the March 2017 Spotlight Feature. I think he is one of the most gifted musicians that have come to the forefront of the public’s attention in recent years. One of my students introduced me to him, “figuratively”, and I quickly became a fan.

He plays all of the instruments in the keyboard family and he plays them all exceeding well! He is a multi-instrumentalist who is “at home” in any musical genre in which you might find him playing. Here’s a link of him playing drums.

In this Spotlight Feature, he is playing the Hammond B3 Organ on an original composition he dedicated to his parents titled…

“Heart At Midnight“

I did this transcription/video as a way for my students and me to have a little fun while we study this particular snapshot of Cory’s artistry, and to wish him a “Happy Birthday” (2/27/87).

I transcribed the complete song performance but limited the scope and focus of the document to his right-hand only. A PDF of the transcription is available as a free download on my website.

In general, my first purpose in doing transcriptions is to give my students and me some additional material to help us in our study and analysis of improvisation. However, being a valued visitor and guest, you too are welcome to download all of the freebies that I’ll be posting and to purchase any of the other deeply-discounted materials that are displayed in the store. (No membership or password restrictions here! Just come on in and join us!)

If you’re not familiar with Cory, you can check him out further on the Internet. In the meantime, for your convenience, I’ve included the following 7 links of him playing various “boards”:

Yesterday;
Amazing Grace;
He Has Made Me Glad;
Giant Steps;
Donna Lee;
NaaNaaNaa;
Billie Jean (with an orchestra);

If you like what I’m doing here, please “like”, subscribe, and share my site. Also, consider donating and/or signing up for, or gifting some online music lessons.

Lesson appointments are available 24/7 because I love working on a worldwide basis with beginners and intermediates of all ages. Let me hear from ya!

That’s all the time I have for now but, stay tuned, more transcriptions in general and more with Cory will be coming in the future.

Practice well.

AC #60 A Happy Holiday / New Year wish for you! (2016-17)

Just a quick post to say I wish nothing but the best for you in 2017 and thereafter.

I’ve been staying fairly busy lately which means I’m finding I have less time to post in this blog. However, if you’re a beginner or an intermediate student, of any age, I can always make time and room for you. I love teaching and coaching and I’d love an opportunity to work with you.

Please visit my website frequently to check out and share the videos that I post in the “Spotlight Feature” section on the site’s front page: artmatthewsonlinepianolessons.com.

In the meantime, keep practicing and making great music.

Stay safe and be well.

More later!

AC #58 Website Update March 2016

Hello everybody!

It’s been a while since my previous post and the main reason for that is simply “there aren’t enough hours in a day“. I’m sure the thrust of that familiar expression impacts many of your lives in the same way it impacts mine–and probably more so for some of you.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the busier I get in working with and having fun with my students and my other music service customers, the less time I have to spend blogging and making “ed-vlogs” for my website–which is fine on one hand because I love teaching… but on the other hand, I thoroughly enjoy all of my website extracurricular activities too!… I’m torn!!

By the same token however I must say, “I’d rather wear-out than rust-out”! I’m just glad the key phrase is “less time” in stead of “no time“! Even though my posting pace is slower than I’d like, things are definitely continuing to develop and move forward on the extracurricular activities front.

With all of that being said, here is a synopsis of the website updates as of this post:

Website Update March 2016

In addition to the updated page and post header images, there are three new items to which I’d like to draw your attention.

1 – The Bulletin Board
2 – Matthews Music Mall
3 – Spotlight Feature

1. The Bulletin Board: Bulletin boards are pretty much self explanatory and I’ve placed an auto-scrolling board in the sidebar of my site’s front page. A mouse-over stops the scrolling and a mouse click on any of the board links will take you to that item’s notice page. Although I’m not sure how or whether this will work out, but I’m going to try to make some sort of tie or link between all three new features and the Art’s Corner Blog.

2. Matthews Music Mall: is a virtual 5-store strip mall of stores which offer practice items that often feature a virtual bass and drum rhythm section playing accompaniment tracks against which you can practice various rudiments.

As I write this post, the stores in the mall are under construction but most of them are open with only a few practice items. The store’s item population will be increasing over time. Your visits are welcome and this link takes you to the mall’s parking lot. where you may select a store by clicking its logo title. I ask that you please pardon the construction signs and any other inconveniences you might experience because, at the time of this post, the stores are still unfinished. These stores and the other website expansion projects are all works in progress.

3. Spotlight Feature: The front page now displays an area titled “Spotlight Feature”. The idea for this comes from WGBH radio host Eric Jackson’s “Monday Night Spotlight” where he turns a figurative spotlight on a featured artist or topic.

As I write this post, the spotlight is focused on Joey Alexander. (A fantastic 12-year old musician).

A couple of my students introduced me to his music and expressed an interest in taking a closer look at some of his work. So, following their cue, I transcribed “My Favorite Things” and “I Mean You” for my students and me to analyze and study. You can get both of them free of charge in my store under the “Study Materials” category. Once you’re there, scroll down to the “Transcriptions / Adaptations” area where you’ll find the Download buttons.

I plan to post mostly music-related features in the spotlight but you never know what might be presented because I won’t know either! I’ll be taking ideas from my students, customers, and you, if you’d like to chime in, so, again, stay tuned!

At the end of 2015, I closed my downtown brick-and-mortar office. Now, all of my teaching and music services are conducted online exclusively (100%). Since that happened, a couple of alter egos have developed themselves in my consciousness.

When you see them, those of you who know and/or follow me will immediately recognize the radically different character traits they display. In fact, some parts of their persona are about as far away from mine as one can get! However, like me, they love to work hard, practice well, and have fun while doing it. They’ll make periodic cameo appearances in various pages and posts in the MATRA-sphere starting in the very near future. So watch out for them!

More soon!

Cheers!

AC #57 A Happy Holiday/New Year wish for you! (2015-16)

We extend our warmest wishes to you for 2016

We hope your 2015 holiday season sparkled with love, laughter, and goodwill.

See you next post… stay tuned!

AC #56 Tempus Fugit – This Is The Way We Roll – Old School

Tempus Fugit

In my previous post, (AC #55), I stated that “I’ve been super-busy”. Well, on that point and close to a year later, nothing has changed and that’s something about which I feel very good!

I love being busy because I’d much rather “wear-out” than “rust-out”–if you know what I mean!! Time seems to pass by so much faster when I’m happily engaged in something and having fun with it. Otherwise, time seems to be an endless super-slow drag!

So, even though I’ve been happily engaged in other aspects of my work and the year has flown by, the fact remains that this is my first post of 2015 and it comes out near the halfway point of the year’s 11th month, and that’s a point about which I’m considerably less happy!

Ultimately, I feel that all delays between posts, that are deviations from a regular release schedule–intended or unintended, short or extended–, are really just one type of “blog vérité”–if you will–which inevitably happens from time to time, whether you’re a one-man crew conducting nearly 100% of your business’ operations, like me, or a part of a staff. John Lennon sums it up like this, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans“! (“Beautiful Boy” )

As I organize the activities of my days, I give top priorities to my wife, my family, and my students, and most of the time, everything and everyone else, including myself, comes after them.

During my sabbatical from posting, the behind-the-scene logs of my website and social media properties all show that people were, and still are, reading and watching in increasing numbers. I want to thank my new students who’ve recently signed up and also acknowledge the people who decided to subscribe and follow me, despite the fact that I hadn’t posted any new material all year–until now of course! Thanks, guys! I’ve noticed all of you and I appreciate your visits.

I am very fortunate and blessed to be in the circles of some really great people and to be able to stay busy doing only the things I absolutely love to do–namely, learning and making music at home, teaching music in class, teaching music online, tinkering with computerized music technology, posting and blogging on my website, and helping people along the way.

“This Is The Way We Roll” – “Old School”

The video project, about which I spoke in AC #55, is finally posted. I emphasize the word “posted” because in no way do I consider it “finished“… although I’ll bet that overshooting my originally stated release date spread by 6 to 9 months, any possibilities of “project manager” jobs coming my way are probably very much “finished“! I just don’t know how the time disappeared so fast! In any case…

“This Is The Way We Roll” / “Old School“! is now viewable here and via the links on my website’s front page. It’ll go “public” on my YouTube channel on Friday the 13th!

The project was done for fun as part of our studies on improvisation. It is not for sale.

When I approached my students, I promised I would not do or include anything that would make them or their parents ashamed to say they know me. However, when I looked at some of the videos my students posted of their own on their website(s), I realized I had a WHOLE lot of room in which to roam!–like the whole state of Texas, which would only take up a fraction of the safe areas available to me! It was all done in a spirit of fun and I love it all!

Overall, I’m glad our project is finally released but I can’t believe I miscalculated the time it would take me to get it posted by a factor of at least two or three! There are more things I wanted to do and include and you’ll see lots of rough edges that I could have and should have corrected or fixed.

However, I really desired to get the project out before the end of the year, so I decided to “take a page” from the modern business practices handbook of the major software companies and release it now, in spite of its unresolved bugs, imperfections, and problems. You know how they do it! Maybe I’ll do some “point-upgrades” and releases as time goes on. I may include a few pop-ups here and there but I guarantee that I’ll never sink to sneaking in spyware! (Just kidding!)

In closing I want to say, “Thank you“, to the folks who made many behind-the-scenes contributions, and to my students who were brave enough to participate. We had some fun in the process of putting this thing together and I hope that everyone who views the video really enjoys it or can find at least a smile or two somewhere in the flick.

AC #55 A Happy Holiday/New Year wish for you! (2014-15)

I hope you had a very happy holiday season and that 2015 will be a great year for you.

I’ve been super-busy lately, working with with my students on their lessons and on another video project in which a couple of my non camera-shy students have agreed to appear. We’re having lots of fun putting it together and it should be finished and posted here in the blog by mid spring.

Keep studying, practice well, and I’ll see you next post.

AC #54 Even though you’ve never done that! Why not try it‽

During the 1990s (ancient history now!) I had several experiences with making music for a few computer/video games and other less populated outlets such as music for an ice cream truck, live “muzak” in grocery and department stores. When the opportunities were offered to me, I thought, “I’ve never done that! Why not try it‽” So I did, and I had loads of fun. I learned a lot about those particular aspects of the music business and I got to work with some great people.

Many years later, when Jason Peter, one of my local students who does in-office and online lessons, first started asking me basic questions about MIDI, sequencing, and electronic music in general, I was more than happy to share with him my experiences and what I’d learned.

Jason, who’s an awesome drummer, is still studying music with me today and I’m very happy that he has continued his involvement with keyboards and sequencing in addition to his other musical interests. On any given lesson day, he’s apt to bring a project to class on which he’s working and whenever he does, we make his project the focus of that day’s lesson.

Check him out just below in the short video he made about a project for which he composed, played and produced the music.

Jason is testing his light show systems in this clip.

So even if you’ve never taken an on-line or in-office piano or music lesson before, why not try it‽ Like Jason, you may discover that they’re fun and who needs to have less fun in their life‽

See you next post.

AC #53 How To Use The Free Interval Study Script Utility

You’ll find this free utility inside of my store in the “Study Materials” section in the right sidebar. It is a script that can assist you in getting to know the functional names of most of the intervals contained within any give one-octave range. For anyone who may have questions about how to use the utility, here is a short video clip of me demonstrating a few examples of how I use it.

Even with its limitations, which are documented in the script’s on-board instructions, I still like to use the script because it can be run off-line directly in your browser. It may be run manually or automatically, and it hardly takes up any hard drive real estate because of its very small file size which makes for a fast and easy download!

Download the script then “kick back” and use its hands-free mode to be quizzed on ascending and/or descending intervals within an octave.

See you next post

AC #50 Musical talent: Do you have it? Here is a way to tell!

Here’s how you can tell if you, your child, or someone you know has a talent for music.

One of the oldest and surest ways to tell is to notice if an ability to pick out melodies by ear on the piano, whole or in part, is present. People of any age who can play and reproduce melodies on the piano, on their own, without having any music lessons, have a natural talent for music.

On one hand, there are many children who’ve demonstrated this ability at ages as young as two and three and discovering this talent at such early ages gives children a chance to get an early start on their musical journey.

On the other hand, there are many people who’ve gotten started a little later or a lot later and many of this group have often discovered they, too, have this natural ability to pick out melodies and even more.

Keep in mind that as melodies are being picked out, perfection is not required because flawless execution is not the decisive factor in determining whether or not a talent for music is present. As long as songs can at least be half-way recognized, talent is present and lessons are in order! If you can even partially pick out any of the melodies below, I’m interested in working with ya.

However, even if you feel you don’t have this ability because all of the melodies you pick out are not even remotely recognizable, don’t despair because if you like music and music speaks to your soul, chances are your talent is hidden within you and needs to be uncovered and developed. This ability can be learned through “ear training” and practice.

Picking out melodies may be described as the ability to find a starting source pitch by ear, reproduce it on the piano, and then match the intervalic movements of each subsequent melody note in relationship to the last or previous note that was played and correctly identified. Simply put, it’s a kinda “what-is-this-note-and-where-did-it-go-from-here” exercise and your success at picking out melodies depends your skill at distinguishing half steps from whole steps.

As a follow-up to post AC #49, here are ten melodies on which you can practice and sharpen your picking-out-melody skills. Each song, with its multiple courses, repeats three times.

This activity works best if you use a piano, a keyboard, or some other real-world instrument, but If you aren’t near one, try using this onscreen piano keyboard just for fun to play along.

The levels of difficulty range from fairly easy to a bit arduous. Try a few! See how you do!

AC-50-Song-1 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-2 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-3 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-4 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-5 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-6 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-7 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

AC-50-Song-8 (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

A short revisit post on “block chords” is coming soon, so here’s a song with a “blocked melody” .

AC-50-Song-9a (Click the down-arrow to download. A Tempo)

AC-50-Song-9b (Click the down-arrow to download. Slower)

Here’s a jazz tune with a bluesy melody.

AC-50-Song-10a (Click the down-arrow to download. A Tempo)

AC-50-Song-10b (Click the down-arrow to download. Slower)

Good luck, have fun!

See you next post.

AC #49 For kids of all ages! Use your ears to learn this song!

This is an “action” post where your ear training capabilities are called into action. Should you choose to accept this challenge, get your instrument ready then follow these instructions:

1. Activate the MIDI file to listen to it and play the mystery song melody by ear, note-for-note.

Mystery Song (Click the encircled down-arrow to download.)

2. Practice it until you have it memorized then you should be ready for steps three and four!

3. Solve the Maestro Jigsaw Puzzle to hear him play along with a mildly orchestrated version.

4. Your mission is to play along with the Maestro and his orchestra!

The Maestro will play the song three times per puzzle solution–once for each of his admirers! This allows you to have some extra tries at learning to play the chords by ear. Also, upon solving the puzzle, an optional download link for the orchestrated version is revealed inside the puzzle!

If you aren’t near your own instrument, try using this onscreen piano keyboard to play along.

Have fun and good luck!

See you next post.