Happy New Year from Quiescence Music!

Happy New Year everyone! My resolutions for 2006? Nothing yet. But I'm sure I'll think of something I can improve, change, or rearrange for the new year.

New Composition Journal

I got a new journal for the holidays. The old one's completely filled up and I can barely understand what I've written half the time.

It's a simple spiral bound thing which allows me to place it on the piano keyboard and open it to a page I want - without having the annoying tendency of pages flipping backwards.

I haven't written anything new in it yet. It's just sitting there...waiting. When I do jot down something, I'll write out my 8 empty bars as usual, then write in the first 2-bars of melody. I haven't found another approach that I like so much. It allows me to very quickly capture a musical idea and memorialize it for future reference. It's rare that I'll "finish" a piece at first sitting. I've done it before, but now it seems that I've got many things going at once.

Some I'll finish. Some I won't. But I do enjoy the whole process of it. Sitting down at the piano. Improvisng. And then something... a melody perhaps, a texture. And then the beginning of a new composition.

Compose Music the Easy Way!

There are basically two ways to compose music. One way is by starting from the bottom or the harmonic approach.

A composer/arranger takes a few chords, a phrase to hang them on and arranges the harmony in some kind of pattern. An example of this is the "loop" you often hear in contemporary music. A loop is simply a harmonic background over which a melody (or not) is played.

The second way to compose music is by... Click here to read the rest of this article.

Learn Piano Online and Save Time

Do you know how long it takes to learn the piano? Well, depending on the style you're interested in, it could take up to 10 years! That's if you go the classical note-reading route.

But, if you want to learn piano online the easy way and save yourself years of struggle, learn a chord-based approach first. Sure, note reading is the way most teachers suggest you start out. They reason that you need to read the language of music before you can actually play or create it on your own. Wrong!

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Happy Holidays from Quiescence Music!

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope this last year has been good to you and I hope the next one will be even better!

-- Edward Weiss

Play Piano Online and Save Money!

Do you know what it costs to take piano lessons these days? Anywhere from $30 to $60 an hour depending on the teacher and the studio. But, if you have a computer and a pair of speakers, it can cost you as little as $9.95 a month!

To play piano online, you need to know what to expect. There won't be anyone looking over your shoulder correcting you as you go along. No instant feedback or suggestions on fingering. What you do get is...

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Winter is Officially Here!

It's getting colder. The days are short and the chill in the air is turning very icy! Well, what do you expect? It's winter! Living as I do in San Diego where the temperature right now is 65 degrees, I really can't relate to my northern friends. But, it does get cold at night!

In honor of the season, may I present Lesson 5: "Winter Scene" for your listening pleasure. "Winter Scene" is a lesson from Quiescence Music's online piano class! Click here to learn more!

Click here to listen to "Winter Scene" (Mp3 file - 1.57 MB)

Reflections in Water - A Piano Improvisation Exercise

In the piano lesson "Reflections in Water," you learn how to use a few chords and the C Major scale to make music with. But how is this accomplished? Through the power of limits!

You see, when you know that you'll be playing only 4 chords, and you know how to play those chords, it frees you up to focus on making music. You're no longer focusing on the technical aspects of playing the piano. On the contrary, the technical aspects have been taken care of. Now you are free to...

Click here to read the rest of this article.

The Secret to Fresh Sounding Improvisations

I once had a student ask me how to improvise for more than a minute or two. He had some trouble keeping the music going for longer periods of time.

I told him that the problem wasn't with knowing enough material. He already knew how to play a few chords. It was his attitude - that the trying to come up with something was what was blocking the creative flow.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Beware of Piano Lesson Comparison Sites

Recently, I punched in the term "piano lessons" on Google and noticed an ad that read "Top 5 Piano Lessons Sites." I clicked and noticed 5 websites that teach piano. The first, and most highly recommended site of course was something called "Rocket Piano."

Now, I was just wondering if the creator of "Rocket Piano" thought up this idea to promote his site. Of course!! And the rest of the sites are all affilliates. Be careful when you look at certain comparison sites. Make sure they are independantly created and not some marketing tactic employed by get rich overnight internet scammers.

New Age Music CD #1 at Amazon.com!

It's hard to believe but, Enya's new CD Amarantine is now #1 on Amazon.com. That's amazing. She beat Madonna and Eminem! The reason I mention this is not because I'm a huge Enya fan (although I do enjoy some of her stuff) but because it's very rare for this to happen.

I'm happy for her and very happy for the NewAge genre. It gets no respect usually, but sometimes... well, it gets the kudos it deserves!

P.S. This CD isn't just #1 for the New Age category. It's #1 for ALL categories!!

Lesson Login Problems

Some of our new students are having problems logging in to their lessons. Every time I've tried it myself, I get in so I don't know what the problem is. The only thing I can think of is that they are entering the words "username" and "password" along with the actual username and password.

The information provided by paypal must be entered in exactly or it won't work. Not even an extra space or dash or it won't work. The good news is that once you do log in, you'll be able to create a desktop shortcut to your lessons and won't have to worry about reentering your information.

Allow the Music to Flow

Many people think improvisation is about making something up. True, improvisation is about spontaneous invention but making something up implies that you have to think about what you want to create.

A far better approach is to let the music come out of you unfettered WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT. A radically different approach than trying to come up with something. This way of playing is accomplished when you sit in front of your piano without any expectation of what is to come. You are not trying to control or think something up. Instead, you are allowing the music to flow through you and transform you at the same time.

Play Something Happy

I'll never forget the time I was teaching this one student. She asked me, "Can you show me how to play something happy?"

This really irritated me because I assumed she didn't understand what I was trying to teach her. I wrongly assumed that she knew that if she were feeling happy, the music that came out of her would reflect that.

That's what I get for assuming. You can, if you want, create music that has the "emotion" of happiness, sadness, whatever. But, this music will be contrived and have a certain produced quality to it. Instead, it's much easier just to let your feelings inform the music. This way, you won't have to produce a "happy" music. You'll automatically be able to do this when you're feeling happy and can just sit down and play.

Not my Intention to Make Them Mad

It seems a lot of people are angry about my statements regarding learning how to play piano in the classical style. I'm not knocking the people or the music. I'm just saying what I think is obvious... that note reading and playing someone else's music (no matter how great) is not a creative act but a re-creative one.

Did I miss something here? Is something new being produced? Not really. It's being interpreted differently. I'm not saying this to make people mad. I just think it's time people realized the difference between actually making music and reproducing it.

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... Click here to read the rest of this article.

Why Should Music be any Different?

Imagine someone who wants to learn how to write a short story. He goes to a teacher who tells him to practice writing sentences and paragraphs of other authors works - but never really learns how to write on his own!

Of course, this is an absurd example but essentially, it's the same thing piano students do when they take the classical route. They are essentially skilled typists clicking out another composers music.

Not very creative and certainly not something you'd ask a beginning writer to do. No. They want to express themselves with the written word. Why should music be any different?