music basics

It’s November 1st!–Did you have a good Halloween? I hope so. Today marks the day that I will go live on Facebook Live. You’re invited!–I’ll be on at 1pm and 3pm. I get the same questions all the time…”how long will it take me to learn to play the piano?” It’s a basic question that I don’t mind answering because the answer is different for just about everyone. Some people believe that they can learn to play the piano in one day. Others believe it will take (choose one): one month; a year; two weeks; two months; two years; or maybe 10 years. Nowadays, with social media it’s easy to think you can create your own time line, rules, etc. And, for the most part, that’s true in my opinion.

I recall the first time I received a shock to my system when I rehearsed, performed and discussed music with my non-reading musician friends. They mostly learned to play by repetition and in (gasp!)…real time! The horror!–if you are a classically trained pianist, you don’t just turn on Mozart on iTunes and start mimicking and playing along to the recording. That’s just not how it’s done. But, in the real world of touring musicians, that is an acceptable approach to learning a new piece. My friends don’t wait for music basics to learn a piece. Example scenario: Here’s a track from a hip-hop sample, learn the piano part. No!—there is no slow downer app for it. Just listen until you get it. It may take you one time, it may take you 20 times. And, hey, if you don’t get it after about 20 times, just keep the track overnight and learn it until you get it. Okay? Great! I’ll be back to pick up the track tomorrow or text me and let me know you have it and then we’ll record it via MIDI.

So, for some music basics please feel free to join me this afternoon. We’ll talk about chords, rhythm, pitch, the make up of keyboards and try to have some fun along the way. You’ll find the event on my Facebook artist page.

Have a great day, WordPress! I’ll see you next week.