The Beauty of Chords

In the piano lesson "Coral Reef," I'm playing just two chords - A minor and F Major. And two chords is enough to yield a few minutes of music! Realistically, I could have gone on and played further, the point is, in the New Age style of piano playing, it's not how sophisticated the use of chords is, it's the way they are played that is important. Just two chords and I was off enjoying the beauty of improvisation.

And because I used just 2 chords, it freed me up to focus on the creative act. I wasn't concerned about when to switch chords or what the next chord would be. I had the entire keyboard to play on. I could play the F Major chord anywhere on the keyboard I chose. Anyway, I chose to use broken chord movement and the result is what you hear in this lesson.

You see, the beauty of chords is that they help you play the music. Once you have a certain chord under your fingers, the rest is pretty much easy because you use the tones of the chord to guide you along. Now you can forget about the thinking mind and let your intuition work for you.

A Source of Inspiration

It's not that I go up to La Jolla, CA to get inspiration. It's just that when I'm there, I feel inspired! I can relax and let go. The worries and cares slip off my shoulders as I look at the natural beauty around me. And then music. A simple melody may come to me. I'll sketch out the first 2-bars as a rhythm, i.e., half-note, quarter note, etc. Then when I play that rhythm on the piano, pitches suggest themselves and off I go!

Nature is always inspiring to me. It renews and refreshes my spirt and makes me feel good about life. What does it for you?

Synesthesia and New Age Piano

What is synestheisa you ask? It's a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.

Sometimes when I'm out in nature, I'll hear melodies or rhythmic patterns that I jot down. Just by looking at trees, I can hear music. Where this comes from I know not, but I'm glad it happens. It really is a joy. And the music that comes through this experience is ALWAYS GOOD!

Ha. Ha. Very Funny!

I just found this great musicians joke page on MIT's site (of all places). Here's a sample joke:

A guy walks into a pet store wanting a parrot. The store clerk shows him two beautiful ones out on the floor. "This one's $5,000 and the other is $10,000." the clerk said.

"Wow! What does the $5,000 one do?"

"This parrot can sing every aria Mozart ever wrote."

"And the other?" said the customer.

"This one can sing Wagner's entire Ring cycle. There's another one in the back room for $30,000."

"Holy moly! What does that one do?"

"Nothing that I can tell, but the other two parrots call him 'Maestro'."

Find many, many more jokes here.

Recommended Listening

What can I say. I like John Herberman. I like the way he plays piano. His music is effortless and timeless. This CD is recorded with nature sounds (which I think enhances the music). Find the CD at Solitudes

P.S. This is a very free-floating kind of playing. If this is a turn-off to you don't get it. But if you enjoy ambient piano as I do, you'll love it!

How to Figure Out What Another Pianist is Doing

A student once asked me; "how can I determine what my favorite piano player is actually doing on the keyboard just by listening?"

An excellent question. Here's how. First, figure out what the left-hand is doing. This is the key to understanding what is being done by any piano player, no matter what the style. Let's take New Age pianist David Lanz as an example. Lanz's style usually revolves around a left hand that plays an ostinato pattern while the right hand improvises. Very few pianists base their compositions on the right-hand.

It has to do with the way the piano is structured. You have the bass notes and midrange section of the keyboard allotted to the left-hand. And this accounts for the "arrangement" of most piano pieces. In fact, once you figure out what the left-hand is doing, you've got it down!

The left-hand will usally be playing an arpeggio, broken or solid chords, or bass-chord arrangement.

Passionate Discussion About New Age Piano?

Yes. It exists. I found this thread on Google Groups about New Age piano playing. Very interesting. Click here to read it.

I also just heard this joke:

What do you get when you play New Age music backwards?

Answer: New Age music

Not that I believe the above joke but I thought it was funny anyway.

Through the Hands of David Lanz

When I purchased this video I was hoping to learn some interesting compositional and/or improvisational insights from David Lanz.

Instead, I got to watch David perform his pieces and then explain them to a group of children. If you're interested in learning how to play Lanz's sheet music, this video might be worth the price. If you are interested in getting inside a composer's head however, I suggest staying away from this video.