Painting with Sound

Whenever I go to a Borders bookstore here in San Diego, I make it a point to look at the art instruction books. I'm not a visual artist, but I've always enjoyed the step-by-step approach authors of the better books take to teach students how to create a finished painting.

You get to see it all demonstrated within 2 pages or so.

Everything is explained and while I may not understand it by just reading about it, (you have to do it!) a complete finished painting was always the goal - a very attractive goal too for someone wanting to learn how to paint!

You have something worth working for by doing this. I've always wondered why music instruction couldn't be more like this. If you could explain, in a step-by-step approach, how to complete a piece of music, then students would be able to sidestep the tiresome harmony and theory courses taught at college and University.

This is what I've tried to do with my online piano lessons and while there is nothing wrong with learning theory, it's not the end all be all that many piano teachers would like you to believe.

Instead, a step-by-step method, where students get the materials they need to create with right away (scale, chords, technique) can be used with great success! Students are able to use these materials to create unique compositions and improvisations of their own!

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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com/ now and get a FREE piano lesson!

Classical Cellist Raves about Quiescence Music!

The following article is from classical cellist Eric Edberg's site. Enjoy!

While I'm on the subject of resources that provide excellent starting points for improvisation, here's another one. If you play the piano, or want to play the piano, and like New Age music, Edward Weiss's Quiescence Music site is a great resource.

Edward does an excellent job of providing chord structures, which he describes in a way that does not require previous piano experience or the ability to read music, that provide a framework or starting point for improvisation.

The bulk of Edward's lessons are in a pay site, but the cost of a subscription to the site is fairly low. And he provides a number of free resources, including a blog, a Yahoo discussion group, and a goodly amount of articles.

I'm especially fond of his articles. Sure, they all plug his site, but many also contain pearls of wisdom which apply to improvisation in any idiom.

In "Piano Improvisation Tips - Enjoy the Process First" he puts his finger on an absolutely key issue:

The right approach is to let go of your need to control the outcome. Then and only then will your intuition come to your aid.

Listen, you may want to create something beautiful on the piano, but it is exactly your desire that is creating blocks! How? Because the ego is never satisfied and wants a perfect music, a good music, or something that will satisfy it. The ego is insatiable and is never satisfied.No matter what your preferred styles of music, how can you not just love a guy who puts into words so well what so many of us experience:

When I'm in the moment, letting the music speak, it's like the world is new again.

The notes flow out of the piano into the air and I know that something magical is taking place. It may last a minute or a half-hour. No matter how long it lasts, I know that I've been transported to a special place. Many musicians know of this place - especially musicians who know how to improvise. There is no planning - only spontaneous invention.

That's from his article, "Zen and the Art of New Age Piano." Edward's writings often deal with the Zen-like aspects of improvisation. There are many people, I know, who don't care for "New Age" piano music. That's fine--none of us can be in love with every style of music. But Edward's writings are well worth exploring regardless, because he captures so succinctly many of the attitudinal keys to improvisation.

And New Age music, at least some of it, especially (in my experience) that done on acoustic instruments, is often a good example of how much music can be made with simple material, and the use of repetition and subtle variation. So, dear readers, even if you don't care for New Age music, check out Edward's writings. And if you want to learn to improvise in a chord-based, New-Age style, Edward's lessons are a great resource, and well worth the small subscription fee.

A free lesson is available at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/

Quiescence Music Goes Hi Def!

Very soon (this August actually) all QM videos will be in high definition. I'm currently using something called "flipvideo" to record the lessons on.

It's small, lightweight, and does a decent job of capturing the keyboard.

But it's outdated. And I have to keep up with technology. Sound should be better too! My birthday is August 18th and the wife wants to get me a new camcorder.

Not the one you see here. But the one I do get should increase the quality of the video tremendously.

I'm looking forward to it. Also looking forward to sharing some new music I'm working on. I've scheduled a tentative CD release date of Jan 2010 but it could be sooner. Doubtful it would be later though. Anyway, look forward to a sharper lesson experience.

How Do You Compose?

Here's an interesting thread started at the Piano World forums about how to compose at the piano.

I started posting at Piano World a few months ago. Although I've been a member forever, I decided to start contributing my own philosophy and tidbits there as well.

Of course, a lot of what I have to say isn't taken seriously over there since we're dealing with "serious" musicians who spend many hours per day practicing and playing other people's music.

I even got into it a couple of time with people who put down the "new age" piano style.

Anyway, click here to read this very interesting thread. I also posted my own method of composing.

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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com/ now and get a FREE piano lesson!

Piano Teachers and Getting What You Want

Let me say from the start that I have nothing against private piano lessons. I think there are good teachers out there who can help you reach your goals. Having said that, I do have some things to say about them from personal experience.

My goal was to find a private piano teacher who could help me create my own music in the style I enjoyed - New Age piano. I knew a few chords but what I really wanted was a mentor; someone who could already compose and improvise and help me do the same. And so I searched my city of San Diego for a teacher.

I found someone who I thought could help me (because of the brochure he mailed) and made an appointment. The first thing he did was assess what I already knew…which was what he was supposed to do. Fine. I showed him the chords I could play.

Then, for some bizarre reason, he started writing out chords on a piece of paper and that was the rest of the lesson! Talk about disappointing! And a waste of time and money.

I soon discovered, much to my dismay, that I probably wasn't going to find private piano lessons that would help me reach my goal. Now, if my goal was learning classical piano, there are literally thousands of teachers out there who could just whip out a folio and have me go through the book.

But I really wanted to be able to create my OWN music. Why was that so difficult?

My search finally took me to my local libraries where I discovered the books and materials to help me.
Look, I'm not saying that there aren't any good private piano lessons out there. I'm saying there are other ways to reach your music goals.

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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson!

Play Piano by Ear in Less Than 1 Hour!

So, you want to learn how to play piano by ear. You think this skill is reserved for those with "special" talent. You're wrong about that!

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 chord 1, the D minor chord 2, and so on. You see how it works.

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 is to say, most pop songs use them. and many, many classical compositions use them. They are the bedrock of modern western harmonic theory.

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, learn these 3 chords in ALL keys. You'll soon get the secret!

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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com/ now and get a FREE piano lesson!

Piano Songs - Create Them Yourself With Just a Few Chords!

Most people play other people's music. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. The classical repertoire is fantastic and worthy of playing.

But what if you want to just sit down at the piano and create on your own? Piano songs can come out of you as easily as drinking a glass of water. Think not? It's true. All you need to realize is it can be done - if you start using a chord-based approach!

For example, in the lesson "Reflections in Water," a few chords and a simple technique is used to create a very nice little piano song.

Nothing complicated or sophisticated here. Just some simple chords in open position and a framework upon which to hang it.

But, and this is important, it's an original piece of music. No note-reading was used. No attempt to "come up" with material. You see, when you're able to freely improvise, piano songs can spill out of you as easy as words do when speaking.

So what's the trick? It's being able to let go of the need to control the outcome and allow the music to unfold on it's own. This is actually an intuitive approach to playing the piano and one that's served me well over the past 15 years.

Look, the goal for most piano players is to be able to either play the classics, or play from lead sheets or fake books. Creating one's own piano music is a foreign notion to most. That's why I'm a big fan of the New Age piano style!

It focuses mainly on improvisation and "free play" and requires very little in the way of technical know how. What is required is the ability to suspend judgment and allow for the unexpected.

This can be very threatening to some. In fact, people come up with all kinds of excuses as to why this music is "inferior" to other types. I always laugh when I hear that argument because I know there's nothing more these people want then just to "be" at the piano.

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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson!

What Is This Pianist Doing?

Here's another of my "What is This Pianist Dong?" series clips. Here we have something that looks .. well, almost unplayable. It's very fast. But take a look here. Forget about the right hand for a moment and watch the left. It's the key to the whole piece.

So, what's being done here? The composer is creating a harmonic background pure and simple. Yes, it's sophisticated technically, but it's just a background nonetheless.

Then, the right hand plays an equally impressive melody.

This goes on for a while. Then, at about 1:40, a new section is introduced giving contrast. The pianist plays this and back again to the original pattern.

Piano Lesson Reviews - Watch Out or Get Burned!

Lately, there’s been a lot of review sites going up on the internet. Piano lesson reviews are among them and you need to be careful here. Why?

Because most piano lesson review sites are biased! That’s right. What most aren’t aware of is that these sites are posted either by affiliates whose only purpose is to make money off of clicks, or the lesson owners themselves who, because of their bias, can’t possibly offer an objective assessment of the worth or detriment of their offering.

Most of these “review sites” promote the same 3 or 4 courses. Why? Because the people offering these course are paying the owner of the review site via affiliate income. In fact, their may not be one unbiased piano lesson review site on the net.

So … what to do? Trust yourself and carefully examine the lessons or courses you’re interested in. Don’t rely or trust what an affiliate website tells you … or you might get burned!

One of the First Pianists to Inspire Me in a Long Time!

Love the sound this guy gets! Looks like he's using open position chords, some inversions, and a simple melody in the Key of D Major.

But it's the sound I like. Very nice and unrushed. Great performance. And it's all improvised in the moment!