Benefits of Learning To Play The Piano
there is more than a few advantages in learning to play an instrument. The piano is a definite favorite, but why is it so popular? It takes a lot of talent to play the piano well, and in almost every musical genre there are the greats that take the stage and prove this is not a simple, ordinary instrument.
Jazz enthusiasts may have heard of a few of the greats, namely Duke Ellington and Count Basie, as well as many modern jazz artists topping the charts today including Jim Brickman, who’s original piano compositions not only take the air on smooth jazz stations world wide, but also pop, new age, and inspirational stations as well. There are also a variety of well known rock pianists from around the globe, like Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Carole King, and Carly Simon.
And as you know, many mainstream classic and modern rock or pop bands of today seem to naturally include a keyboard player. Dennis DeYoung, front man for the band Styx is one of the better known rock keyboardists. Other exceptional artists include Tony Banks from Genesis, Rick Wakeman from Yes, and David Sancious, who has famously played alongside Carlos Santana, Sting and Bruce Springsteen.
Playing the piano can expand your musical knowledge and taste to include classical and other styles of music. You may not know much about this very important musical style, but you may come to like it as you attempt to play works from the classical greats like Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. As you hear the different works from the above mentioned classical artists, it becomes more tempting to try to play them. This is sure to impress your friends and family, as well as yourself once you start to master them. After a while, as you progress and become more natural, it is quite likely that you could end up playing solo or joining a band. Being a professional performer can benefit you personally or financially. Naturally, not every piano player ends up in a high paying job, but if it’s something you love to do, it’s certainly worth striving for.
Learning to Play the Piano Today can benefit you in other ways too.
The piano can help you to release your tensions from a busy day, or clear your mind from a stressful situation. The piano even offers an emotional uplift, heightening your mood as you concentrate on the music distracting from your problems. Also, playing the piano can teach anyone discipline. You’ll need to commit firmly in order to learn the piano, which will require daily practice. The same techniques can then be applied to other goals in life.
Still not convinced? Well, there are a few more benefits as follows:. First, it is way easier to learn piano than becoming a vocalist, as you never have to think about not being at the right pitch. Unless of course the piano isn’t in tune! Just make one call to a piano tuner and that problem is solved. Wind instruments require reeds or mouthpieces and guitars require daily tuning and frequent string replacements. With the piano all you need is yourself and your fingers, warmed up, ready to play! Lastly, one big reason of learning to play the piano is for personal gratification and achievement. You can feel a sense of true happiness when you play a composition well. Adding the joy of music to your life can certainly develop you into a more energetic, interesting and confident person, whilst enhancing the mind and body..
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My pick of Londons better gig venues
A list of some of the London event venues in London, which are mainly used for music.
- The Hammersmith Appollo, which used to be know as the Hammersmith Odoen, and still is in some circles. Hammersmith’s reputation proceeds it, having housed some impressive bands -Iron Maiden swear by it. The floor runs diagonally to the floor in the middle to the back, which allows for you to see wherever you stand, and the bars in the middle are great for seperating the mosh pitters and the people who just want to watch the band -look out for the drop down in the floor here. A solid venue.
- Brixton academy -Similar to Hammersmith in that both have sloped floors so you everyone can see the bands without pushing down the front. But unlike the Hammersmith, the bars down in Brixton are right down the front, which can cause those moshers to slam against it and people down the front to get crushed against them. I dont know if those barriers have been removed, but the bars are a lawsuit waiting to happen -they need to be removed, or pushed further back.
- London Astoria -Its not there anymore -to my disgust its being torn down for the 2012 olympics- im not amused? Certainly not as long as the two previously mentioned venues and without Hammersmith reputation, it was alittle wider than Birxton and could house afair number of bodies. Plus the sound did travel well in the venue. Not a huge less, but its still one less music venue we have.
- Kentish town forum -A huuuuuuuuuuge venue compared to the Astoria, with so much space Metal Hammer magazine managed to fit a boxing ring in for the bands to play AND get tons of people in to rock out. The merchandise area is tiny, so be prepared to crowd around a small booth and completely overwhem the people in the booth.
- Earls court -Were dealing with a flat(ish) floor here, so the shorties in the audience better move near the front for a chance of seeing the band -prepared to get crushed. Quite big as well, and when they open the queing part downstairs in decemeber its a god send but that does get complex with having to venture back out for the toliet and go back in just to que. A large venue with room inside for seperate sections for merchandise and food and drink outside the gig area.
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Online Music Lessons: Learn To Sing, Play Guitar, & Play Piano
Learn How To Play Guitar (here)
In the dark ages you didn’t have any real choice if you needed to learn to sing better or play a musical instrument, you had to pay for extremely expensive local music lessons. This was a very expensive way to go about learning! It was also not always very efficient because the unfortunate truth is, many private music teachers are really bad at what they do and receiving lessons from them may be much worse than not getting lessons at all.
Now it’s the age of the World Wide Web and it’s much more easy to receive the music lessons you need as you can download them on the internet immediately. There’s nothing to wait for. These online music lessons are also 100% satisfaction guaranteed which means there’s no risk in trying it out.
Singorama singing lessons are the recommended singing lessons. Everything you need to learn how to sing like a real professional is included and you can actually be singing just like a pro in less than three months if you follow the program closely. Like I said before, the program is 100% satisfaction guaranteed and can be downloaded online instantly. You can start learning to sing exactly like your favorite singer whether it be Whitney Houston or Thom Yorke. These singing lessons also include a lot of great free bonuses such as a free "mini recording studio" which you will also get instant access to.
Jamorama Guitar Lessons are the recommended guitar lessons. You can learn to play like your favorite guitarists and also develop a style of your own with these very effective guitar lessons. As with Singorama, Jamorama can be downloaded online immediately. If you want to be a great guitarist, why should you wait? Start learning to play like Jimmy Page, Green Day, and Eric Clapton today!
Rocket Piano lessons are the recommended online piano lessons. Rocket Piano is just as effective for learning piano as Singorama is for learning to sing and Jamorama is for learning to play guitar. It is highly recommended that you learn to play piano even if it’s not to be your main instrument. It really helps you to understand music when you can play piano. With these online lessons you’ll learn how to play your favorite piano based songs whether they are by Coldplay or Bach.
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Teach Yourself Guitar
The first thing a lot of people do when they decide to learn that guitar is hire a guitar tutor and have lessons. This approach is perfectly valid, but there is another way. You can teach yourself to play the guitar. This article will address some of the ways you can do this, and explain exactly what you need to do when teaching yourself guitar.
It’s always good, when learning any new skill, to set yourself goals to work towards, both long and short term. This helps you to focus your learning time, and by breaking things down into small chunks, you won’t feel so overwhelmed by all the information you’ll have to absorb. You should ask yourself what reasons you have for learning the guitar- are you looking to become a professional performer, or do you just want to play at home, or at parties, with your friends? Knowing where you want to take your guitar playing will help you to stay disciplined and motivated, as well as enabling you to see your progress more clearly.
In order to properly teach yourself guitar, you’ll want to refer to as many resources as you possibly can. Traditionally, this would comprise mostly of books, and many self taught guitarists have, over the years, amassed quite impressive collections of these. Nowadays there are many more ways to learn guitar. The internet and new media offer an enormous amount of information for you to delve into, both paid for and free. Finding it is as easy as typing into Google, and the resulting internet sites, containing videos, audio, lessons, and more, will be enough to keep you occupied for months on end.
There is a fantastic downloadable guitar course that we thoroughly recommend for anyone teaching themselves guitar. It’s called Jamorama, and you can read our full review here Jamorama
If you want to make good progress it is vital that you take a logical approach to learning. To begin with you should tackle the basics before moving on to more advanced aspects of playing. If you try and rush things, you’ll make less progress and just end up getting frustrated.
One of the best things about learning on your own is that you wont necessarily be tied to the conventional ways of learning. You have the freedom to try out as many different ways of playing something as you can think of, and this can be invaluable in developing your own distinctive style and sound. A lot of the best guitarists in history taught themselves, and a large part of what makes them so great is the unique sound and style they’ve created, which is often a consequence of not having learnt in the conventional way. However, it is advisable to also be familiar with the more conventional ways of playing, as this will make you more of a versatile guitarist.
Without a guitar teacher to keep them on track, many people who teach themselves often find it hard to stay disciplined and focused. This is a difficulty faced by many, and it is down to you to make sure you put in the work, and stay focused on learning. If you do it right, once you start to see progress this should be more than enough inspiration to continue, and work even harder. Above all else, you should make sure that you enjoy the process of teaching yourself guitar.
That just about covers it for now. I hope it has made a few things clearer for anyone thinking about taking it up.
For more information about teaching yourself guitar have a look at Teach Yourself to Play Guitar
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Visit my Blog Teach Yourself Guitar
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