Tag Archives: music

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 #33 Guest Speaker’s Tips on Reading and Sight-reading (part two)

Today, I turn again to Ms. Margaret Fabrizio for part two of “Guest Speaker’s Tips on Reading and Sight-reading”. (Part one appears in AC #30). Among many other things, Ms. Fabrizio is a master harpsichordist and a very well respected music educator.

In today’s post, she continues to share her opinions and give you valuable tips on various things that pertain to beginner and intermediate piano students. She gives hints and makes suggestions as to what you should be doing and how you might be “thinking” about certain things that are pertinent to your musical development, progress, and growth. Spend the next 5-minutes with her and check out more of what she has to say.

Of all the tips and things she briefly discusses in this video, I’d like to single-out and draw your attention to the tip she offers in the form of a question at the point of the video where she asks, “Do you know intervals?” (2:25) After elaborating a little she gives you a few examples of how intervalic information is applied to piano. I’ll focus on intervals a little more in the next post.

In addition to the entertainment value of watching her play, there are things you can actually learn from simply observing her hand positions and finger movements as she negotiates her way a piece like the one I’ve linked here.

I’ll close here and say practice daily, practice well, and be patient.

See you next post.

AC #27: “T” it up!

ATTN: All Instrumentalists and Vocalists! This post applies to you!

As you’re listening to some music and you hear a melody, a phrase, a motif, or an arrangement that draws your attention because it “speaks” to you and you really like it, you should “T-it-up”! What do I mean by that? You should transcribe it! You’ll benefit whether you “T” all of it, or only a fractional part of it! Just get in there and “T” something up!

I borrowed the title phrase for this post from the world of golf. I’ve been a fan of Tiger Woods for a long time. Through his actions on the golf course and his interviews, Tiger has always demonstrated that he possess a deep knowledge of golf on many levels. He has frequently spoken about the high regard and respect he has for golf’s “elder statesmen” like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas. He’s spoken specifically about the fact that he’s watched many videos of them and studied them.

In the world of music, you’ll find many musicians, including myself, who have the same kind of high-regard and respect for music’s “elder statesmen”. For instance, whenever someone asked The Beatles and Eric Clapton questions like “who most influenced you?”, they’d always name Chuck Berry first as they spoke about their high regard and respect they had for him. Whenever Chuck Berry was asked that same question, as he addressed it in his autobiography, he’d immediately credit his local peers, the great boogie-woogie pianists and the great Nat “King” Cole as he spoke about the high regard and respect he has for them all!

So, I was particularly delighted when one of my students, bass player Nicholas Gendron, originally an ear training student who by the time he signed on with me had already done complete James Jamerson transcriptions on his own by ear, spoke to me about the high regard and respect he has for many of the same great jazz bassists for whom I share the same feelings. When Nick expressed his interest in expanding his ear training studies to include having me work with him on “strengthening-up” his walking bass lines, I immediately suggested that he start right away on transcribing some of the great jazz bassists. I agreed to get right in there with him and do some of my own transcriptions of some of the bass veterans also to share with him in his lessons. So for this post, I decided to give you the complete transcription I did for Nick of what the great Israel Crosby played on “But Not For Me” from one of Ahmad Jamal’s classic albums. You can view the video and download this PDF too!

[gview file=”http://www.artmatthewsonlinepianolessons.com/wp-content/uploads/But-Not-For-Me-Ahmad-Jamal-AM.pdf”]

The information you can get from studying transcriptions is invaluable, and by all means, I strongly suggest that you, and all serious students of improvised music, should do a lot of your own transcription work! Don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely ok to draw information from the transcriptions of other people, however, the benefits of doing your own transcription work will pay bigger dividends because, in doing so, the information you derive gets planted deeper into your musical soul by the nature of the do-it-yourself process.

Whether you do one-chorus, multiple choruses, single phrase, multiple phrases, right-hand only, left-hand only, both hands, partial heads, full heads, partial arrangements, or full arrangements… you’ll be doing something that’s good for your musicianship!

The focus of your transcriptions are determined, of course, by whatever your objective may be at any given time. For instance, you might limit the focus of your transcription to getting the actual musical notes only! Or, you may want to exclude the actual notes and focus on obtaining chord progressions only, as in getting the chord changes of some particular song or tune. Perhaps you want everything… actual notes, chord changes, articulations, and dynamics too! Ear training makes it all available to you.

You can write your transcription work down on manuscript paper using standard music notation, or you might write it down in some other form on unlined or lined notebook paper for that matter! If you have a good memory, you can even skip the writing-it-down process altogether and simply keep it all in your head, as Nick did with his James Jamerson transcriptions. If you can do it, I recommend you do some of both because it’s all good!

At the time of this post, Nick is in Aruba! He’ll be starting his own page within my site soon after he returns so if you’d like to follow Nick on his page, check back in a few weeks and just type or paste his name into any search box on my site.

Remember that although your teacher or coach can point you in the direction of what work you need to do, it is YOU that has to DO the work by practicing!

Do some listening and “T” something up!

Practice well!

AC #24 – Three Piano Technique Practice Tips (Part-1 of 3)

It doesn’t matter how much you may already know or how much you may learn about the inner workings of music theory. If you are going to be a “player”, you need to have a minimum of at least an adequate technique to go along with your theoretical knowledge and know-how. With an inadequate technique, you will surely experience lots of difficulty in executing musical ideas and expressing yourself on the piano. If your fingers have not been trained, your brain telling your fingers exactly what to do will have no effect because your fingers just won’t cooperate! They will not be able to follow the orders issued by “headquarters”!

So, to help you build or maintain your piano technique, here is the 1^st tip in this 3-part series.

1: SCALES: Start with the major scales. Practice them in the one-octave range and play them using the traditionally recommended fingering for each of the 12 scales. Try to make this practice, as well as your practice on all rudimentary items and drills, as fun and as musical as possible by practicing with some sort of accompaniment track or rhythm track. Find a tempo marking that allows you to play evenly and accurately, then incrementally increase the tempo. The video just below shows me playing three metaphorically named major scale variations in the key of C.

1 – The “Stagger Lee”: Mostly 16^ths but the 8^th notes on beats 1 and 3 yield a staggered effect.

2 – The “Cloud Nine”: This extends into octave #2 to get the 9^th scale degree from the “cloud”.

3 – The “Michael Phelps”: After descending each time, go “under water” to change direction.

After you’re comfortable with playing all 12 major scales, move on into the one-octave dominant 7th, dorian minor, half-diminished and diminished scales. I encourage you to play these one-octave scales using your own rhythmic and style variations! After that, you should expand this activity into some multi-octave ranges and include chords, inversions, and arpeggios. Whether you “swing it” or play it “straight”, be sure to keep everything in a groove and have fun!

Part-2 coming soon in AC #25…

AC #23 How to learn the language of jazz? Speak Like a Child!

I don’t know about you but the first word I heard as a newborn baby was probably the word “NO!” Well, maybe it was “mom” or “dad”, but “NO!” was probably very high on the list of first-heard words.

My first physical experience was probably the doctor-administered “rear-end spank” that was customarily given to newborns. Do they still do that today? That spank hurt and it made me cry, and henceforth, my connection to “blues” music was immediately solidified! (Just kidding!)

Seriously though, I chose “Speak Like a Child” to be a part this post’s title because, for me, the phrase has a special figurative significance.

When a child learns to speak English or any other spoken language, a big part of the process is spending lots of time listening to and imitating the words, phrases, and sentences being spoken by the people around them–family members in most instances. The key words here are listening and imitating.

Likewise, one of the best ways for people to learn the language of jazz is to spend lots of time listening to and imitating and even transcribing the sounds of musical ideas and phrases being played in the music you hear or by the musicians around you. The key words here are also listening and imitating.

All of the world’s best orators started off as kids learning the intricacies of speech by listening and echoing single words, short phrases, longer phrases, and sentences, etc. until eventually, the ability to compose and express their own thoughts finally took hold. The language of jazz has the same dynamic! That is to say, all of the world’s best instrumentalists and improvisers started off as beginners who could barely make a sound on their respective instrument(s). But through the long process of listening, imitating, and learning to read in many cases, the art of self-expression finally developed and they became great players.

So if you’re not already doing it, I want to encourage you to “Speak Like a Child” and add this type of listen-and-imitate approach to your practice routine. Get in there and get started by learning to imitate some short phrases first before moving on to medium length and longer phrases. Melodies and fragments of melodies are good too! I’m going to ask a couple of my students to let me post some of their work along these lines on their student page in the near future. It really is a very effective way to learn the syntax of jazz language and to build a lexicon of phrases and vocabulary. Stay tuned.

AC #22: Block Chords: What are they? How to use them?

While recording “You’re My Everything” during a recording session on October 26, 1956, Miles Davis whistled during the song’s intro to stop the recording and said to Red Garland, his pianist, “Play some block chords Red… Alright Rudy?… Block chords Red”.

This instruction was left in the mix and can be heard on the commercially released recording. What did Miles mean when he said that? What did Miles want from his pianist? The song’s intro starts at the video’s 19th second time code marker and as you’re listening, pay special attention to the difference in Red Garland’s playing before and after Miles’ instruction.

http://www.plosin.com/MilesAhead/Sessions.aspx?s=561026

“Block chords” is a harmonic device that calls for all harmony being played, during the spans-of-time that block chords are engaged, to be delivered within certain close-position voicings and rhythmic parameters. When block chords are applied to melody and/or single-note improvisation lines, a more impactful, “phatter”, richer sound results! I’ve seen Phineas Newborn draw actual gasps-of-excitement from audiences with his highly skilled block chord use!

There are several types or variations of block chords but the one on which I’m going to focus in this workshop I’ve named “book ends”. Book ends call for 5-note voicings with a numerical schematic that spells voices 1 through 5 the from top to bottom with the melody or lead always being note 1 or the top-most note. Note 5 always doubles note 1, one octave lower. Notes 2, 3, and 4 are harmony notes which must be placed in between or within the one-octave span of notes 1 and 5 (the “book ends”) at all times.

Since this is a tall order, I highly advise you to do yourself a favor before moving on to blocking melodies and improv lines. Do the prep work of making sure that you can play all Major7, Dominant7, Minor7, Minor7b5 and Diminished7 chords in all four of their positions in the 5-note block chord style! It’ll make what follows much easier!!!

As I always say, don’t hesitate to contact me if you need some assistance. I’ll be glad to hear from you and glad to help. Let’s Skype!

Where did block chords come from? Who invented them?

I recall having read somewhere in the past that pianist/organist Milt Buckner was given credit for starting or inventing block chords!

I’m not going to co-sign such an absolute statement but I will go along with acknowledging the fact that Milt Buckner is one of the first musicians to be widely noticed and recognized for bringing this style of playing to the “forefront”. George Shearing credited Milt Buckner and the big band sounds of Glenn Miller as his two major influencers along the lines of his developing the block chord “George Shearing sound”.

http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/05/milt-buckner-block-chords-parade.html

Erroll Garner also credited the sounds of big bands as his main influence in the development of his signature style which uses block chords. There are many other musicians who cite Milt Buckner as a main influencing source along these lines but as to whether or not Milt Buckner actually invented block chords, I choose to remain a non signatory.

John Lennon once said that if you had to rename rock and roll, you’d have to call it “Chuck Berry!” However, in Chuck Berry’s autobiography, Chuck thanked J.L. for the statement but spoke up right away saying that the whole “Chuck Berry” concept and sound was not actually his! It came directly from his being influenced by his local peers, the great boogie-woogie players, and people like the great Nat “King” Cole!

I like to think that if Milt Buckner were around today, he might thank all of his fans and “influencees” before giving the same kind of cautionary statement the C.B. gave J.L.

And so the story goes… Because of the influence factor, it’s usually inaccurate at best to try to trace and pinpoint something like a trend or a style in music down to one person. What is more important to me is finding out how to do it and how to use it in my playing.

With that said, let me draw your attention to the 7/22/13 update release of “Block Chording Short Scales” in my store. It is a rudimentary block chord drill system that focuses on block chording 3-, 4-, and 5-note scales of the major and minor varieties and it has MIDI accompaniments to help your practice move right along. If you do the work, this updated package can be very helpful to you in getting block chords “together”. Contact me if you need assistance.

See you next post.

Art

AC #21 Attention Beginner Piano Students!! First Things First!

The first thing you want to do as a beginner piano student is to thoroughly learn the names of the white keys. These names need to be so deeply imprinted and ingrained into your long-term memory and subconscious that identification and recognition of each key is instantaneous.

In the same way that your ID’ing and recognizing any member of our 16-letter alphabet takes less than a “billisecond”, your identification and recognition of the piano key names should be just as fast or faster! (:-)

The inevitable question of, “How to study and achieve this task of knowing the piano keys?”, is usually among the first questions asked by enquiring minds. In this post, I’m going to recommend cue-cards as a method of study.

Cue-cards have been used in the movies and TV since the 30s and 40s but they were also used in many walks of education for years and years and more years upon years before that!. Like wire recorders pre-dated tape recorders, cue-cards pre-date all of the modern computer study methods like Flash and Java applets. However, using computer technology to recreate the old-fashioned card study method only enhances it and makes it more efficient and fun!

I’ve brought three ready-made cue-card helpers into the blog this week to help you get started with really getting to know the piano key names. This activity is mainly for beginners but if you’re further along and you need a refresher, or if you’re just curious, then, by all means, please visit this page as often as you like.

I suggest that you thoroughly work your way through each of the three itemized applets in numerical order. Of the four on-board study modes, I found the Flashcard and Scatter modes worked best. Have fun!

Piano Key Name Practice Item #1 (White Keys aka Natural Keys)

Piano Key Name Practice Item #2 (Keys named as Sharps and/or Flats)

Piano Key Name Practice Item #3 (All Piano Key Names)

AC #19 Can Your Dog Learn to Play Piano? Read Music?

Click the links on the magazine cover to view the title story and other contents inside.

Well if you are expecting your dog to play some jazz, blues, classical or pop music after a few sessions with a teacher, I’ll say that it will take more than a few lessons in most cases! (Smile!) However, if your dog seems to enjoy just doodling around on the keys, I’d say encourage it! I’ve known that many animals actually like music and will listen and respond to it in their own way.

I used to have a cat named Tom-Two who loved to sit on the piano and listen to music while I practiced alone or rehearsed with a group that had drums, horns, singer(s), and everything! Tom absolutely loved it! He’d stay on the piano and listen and purr until I was done or the rehearsal was over.

Although Tom would sit still, stay present, and listen to may types of music, he couldn’t stand the sound of a marching band! As soon as any parade would pass our home, he’d run under the bed or couch and stay there with flattened ears until it had passed and the drums and music were completely out of ear shot!

The idea of trying to teach Tom or any of my previous pets to play the piano never entered my mind but when I first saw what I’m about to share with you, I didn’t know what to think or make of it! But the more I thought about it, I said, “Why not?”

Kanal von Schlauwauwau, who I feature in the virtual magazine’s title article links, makes very serious efforts at teaching her dogs something about music. I agree with a point she made to one of her responders that “dogs really need new challenges like all intelligent creatures”. Her dogs have really taken to their lessons in ear training and note reading! She also has some birds that seem to be interested in music too!

Speaking of birds, check out this parrot dancing to Gangnam-Style. It might do well at piano!

I think that Ms. Schlauwauwau, her dogs, and her birds are awesome! Her work is very interesting to me and I’ll continue to follow her by visiting her YouTube channel. I would love to see this kind of work done with dolphins and other animals known to possess exceptional intelligence. Personally, however, all of my teaching activities will remain focused on working with people of all ages.

See you next post.

Practice well!

AC #18: |: Repeating Two Things I Said In AC#15 :|

Regarding improvisation:

1: Anyone who is fluent in any spoken language can learn to improvise and play jazz.
2: People who say, “I can”, and people who say, “I can’t”, are both right!!

I have a great group of students who frequently bring music to class in which they’re interested and who’ll periodically introduce me to musicians of whom I was not aware. Recently, on such an instance, I was introduced to a superbly wonderful Ukrainian musician and I am now his newest fan!

While researching this person, I came across a specific statement he made, and that same statement was echoed verbatim by two of his followers, both of whom are amazingly gifted and extremely accomplished young musicians in their own right! The ages of the two young musicians are 12 and 20-something!

The statement, with which I could not disagree more, originates from an assumption they’ve all made that they “can’t improvise”. All three of these fantastic musicians say they love jazz and they all believe and say they “can’t improvise”. They say have to “read everything”!

To all three of these beautiful people I say, if you love jazz and you really want to play jazz, please discard the “I can’t” phrase from your vocabulary forever! Then find your way to a person like me who can help you because teachers and players of this music may be found in just about every country throughout the world! Art Hodes (1904-1993) was a great jazz pianist from Mykolaiv, Ukraine.

I never played in Ukraine but I did play in several communist countries before the “Iron Curtain” was brought down and I’ll tell you that in every country I played, I met some pretty awesome jazz musicians who could improvise very well. Jazz music is really appreciated and loved around the world.

Remember. Art Tatum said, “You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!”

So it’s going to take some serious work and it won’t happen overnight but if playing jazz is something that you really want, then don’t let some hard work stand between you and your goal and get out of your own way by ridding yourself of the “I can’t” affliction if you have it! Get a coach and get busy! The positive effects it’ll have on your life is well worth the time and investment.

See you next post.

Practice well!

Art

AC #17: How to make your own bed then play on it!

In this post, I’ll show you a brief video of one way I make my own bed then play on it.

20 push-ups right now private!

Now I’m not talking about an Army bunk kind of bed where a mean looking drill sergeant might demand twenty forearm push-ups if he or she is not able bounce a quarter off of your bed or discovers that your sheets and blankets are not “cornered” according to Army regulation specifications.

In my office right now private!

The sergeant on the right might send you to solitary confinement if she ever caught you playing on a bed while under her command!

Beds that don’t meet code and playing on beds are bad in the Army.

So don’t play on Army beds! I’m talking about music beds!

No! I’m not talking about beds that play music like either of these!

Bask In Surround Sound

OK! All kidding aside! I’ll explain.

“Music bed” is advertising industry jargon for background music (usually instrumental) that an announcer talks over in a commercial. From Coca-Cola to Pepsi-Cola, Chevrolet to Ford, Burger King to McDonalds, music beds have been used in commercials since the 1920s.

I’m borrowing the term as it’s used in that context and applying it to the practice room where you would either play or sing your part over the background music. Think of karaoke or the music-minus-one records of decades past.

Although there are literally hundreds of sources on the Internet where you can find free and commercially available pre-made music beds, many times I find it easier, less time consuming, and very often necessary–not to mention more fun– to make my own.

There are several ways to make these types of beds and I believe that one of the easiest ways is to use MIDI technology to sequence your tracks. Then it’s time to play on your homemade bed!

For this video, I’ll use a couple of phrases from my Improv 101 class to illustrate how I have my students take a phrase and conjugate it and use it in musical sentences. This music bed is titled, “Take The I-Train“. The “Improvisation Train” is about to leave the station. Climb on board!

That’s it! If you want to see a slightly longer version of the same video, click here. However, the short clip just above effectively and quickly summarizes the process of how I start making many of my basic music beds before I move them into other programs to enhance and fine-tune.

Although Army drill sergeants won’t encourage you to play on Army beds, I highly encourage you to play on music beds in my classes and at home because it’s an effective and fun way to practice. It’s nice to make your own beds but I often make them for my students and I can make them for you too! Check out Jeff DeLangie playing on some beds I made for the Muzio Clementi Opus36 package from my “Fun with the Classics” series.

See you next post. Practice well!

Art