The Burning Desire To Play Jazz Piano

by: Peter Hostage

Exploring jazz Piano

The professional jazz pianist is expected to know the styles and techniques developed through the history of jazz. What sets the jazz musician apart is the need for excellent improvisational skills in melody and harmony.

The element of improvisation in jazz piano gives the pianist a sense of freedom of expression not found with other styles of music. Though the pianist must know "the rules," those rules can easily be broken in an artistic and creative way. How the jazz pianist applies or breaks those rules becomes part of their own personal style.

Jazz Piano Styles

When you discover all the different styles of jazz piano, one can begin to appreciate the variations in rhythm and discern between the different feelings that each type can offer a listener.

Below are brief introductions of the four main jazz styles and how they relate to piano jazz as we have come to know it and love it today.

Early Jazz

Piano has been an important part of jazz music since its beginning in the 1890's. Before jazz became widespread, Ragtime enjoyed popularity as one of the first music crazes of the modern era.

During this Ragtime era, piano music was the one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the U.S. The ragtime craze helped to fuel the sales of pianos, especially in the North.

Jazz developed as various styles of African-American music mixed and mingled in New Orleans in the first decades of the 20th century. Blues, spirituals, ragtime, band music, and European music melted together to form what is called America's first genuine original art form. What separates Ragtime from jazz is the fact that jazz is not notated, and ragtime doesn't "swing".

Storyville was an area of New Orleans where some local places showcased small bands, and some that would just have a solo pianist. As World War I broke out, Storyville was reported as a threat to the health of or soldiers, and closed it was down. Without this venue, many of those musicians looking for work elsewhere. Jazz was soon off and running, the craze was ablaze.

Stride Piano

In the 20's, a new jazz piano style started to emerge. Stride had the bass/chord left hand pattern of ragtime, but the swing of jazz in the right hand. The pianist performed all the elements of a band: the rhythm, the bass, the chords and the melody, usually at a frenzied pace.

The style evolved from the solo pianist's desire to keep the party going. The outlets these parties provided were the main source of entertainment for many Americans.

Swing Piano

In the swing era, which lasted from the twenties into the forties, sometimes the pianist played only sporadically and sparsely, adding an extra "frill" on top of the arrangement. At the time, swing was the most popular music in America.

Be Bop and Hard Bop

The Be-Bop era evolved as a reaction to the tightly controlled arranged sound of the swing bands. There was a major change in the evolution of jazz piano. The pianist didn't have to keep playing a steady rhythmic beat, but could now convey the rhythm and harmony by just using parts of the chords. The melodies became more angular and soon became featured in New York City, mostly in the clubs on 52nd St.

In the mid fifties, jazz saw new styles emerging. The pianists could use all of the techniques in jazz to develop a style, including elements of stride, swing blues and gospel.

Moving Forward

Since the early 60's, jazz piano has taken on many facets. Jazz has become wide open to interpretation, and the contemporary jazz pianist is able to grasp inspiration from many avenues.

Yes, jazz piano does pull at the heartstrings of many of us. I suggest you take some time each day to find your “jazz ear” so that you are able to feel the passion that jazz will add to your lifestyle.

With such an array of styles to emulate, and have fun with, many inspired listeners soon develop a passion to learn how to play the piano for themselves. There is nothing more satisfying than feeling the jazz beneath your fingertips.

The cost of a jazz pianist is not about the expenditure money for lessons, it's more about the time that you spend dedicating yourself to learning jazz piano, and having fun on your journey. The benefits are too great to go into on this brief article. Let’s just say, it’s definitely worth it all.

About The Author Peter Hostage is a pianist and singer specializing in jazz, blues and swing. Peter shares his passion and knowledge on his website, http://www.teach-me-piano.com. Visit his site where you, too, can learn to play jazz piano online.

Acoustic Guitar Dvd Lessons : The fastest way to start playing

by: Tavares Gooden

Now, There are lots of free resources on the web to get you started such as websites like about.com and ehow.com that can help with chords and notes and such. It can be free, but that doesn't mean that it's quality information that will build you into a well rounded musician. Use your best judgment and you should be fine.

With these you can learn picking patterns that you can apply to any songs you learn. You will also be able to pick up tabs for bluegrass fiddle tunes you can learn to play on the guitar. You can sing the blues. SECOND rule: Get a GUITAR Blues accordion players just don't make it big you know? Ever heard of a blues cellist? Me neither. These days, the easiest way to do that, to start your blues guitar lessons, is to get acoustic guitar dvds lessons instead of hiring a teacher. There's probably a dozen or more other programs you can download that will show you the blues scales (or jazz scales, rock scales). They run about $20 to 50, depending on how in depth and how much you want to learn (still cheaper than hiring a tutor)

Here's a few suggestions from a wide range of artists and genres. "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, "More Than Words" by Extreme, "Under The Bridge" by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles, "House Of The Rising Sun" by The Animals, "Wild Thing" by The Troggs and "Runaway" by The Corrs. These are songs that everybody in the world knows the words to, or at least they can fake it.

The guitarist could be heard playing the odd bass run but apart from that he was in the background. These are songs that everybody in the world knows the words to, or at least they can fake it. Some artists that are always popular at singalongs are James Taylor, Leonard Cohen and Greenday. Oh, and maybe Suzanne Vega. Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and "Captain Jack" are songs that get a crowd going but maybe you need some advanced skills for those, so get acoustic guitar lessons dvd

You can be as basic or as flashy as you like because the songs stand up by themselves with just basic accompaniment or you can use any of the classical guitar style arrangements that you can find in music shops. Practice doing alternate up and down strokes slowly and smoothly using a metronome to keep time. For bluegrass picking use a heavy gauge pick but as with everything, you should try different ones out till you find what's right for you. You will see and hear that a lot of bluegrass guitar playing consists of the guitarist playing bass notes and strumming in between.

Now, this is the point where practicing the guitar can be like a diet...it works for a little while, and yet you eventually fall back into the old habits that you are used to. Dieting is not what we want here. Look, you need to get yourself guitar for dummies dvds to show you the scales. They won't help your broken heart, they won't BUY you a guitar...but if you got those first two covered, then all you need to do is learn the scales right? Don't turn your guitar practice time into extended guitar solos. If you have a track of say, six minutes at your disposal, use it to practice licks and short solo breaks, the age of the twenty minute solo is long gone.

About The Author Everything they never told you about acoustic guitar revealed! For more insider tips and information be sure and check out acoustic guitar dvd lessons Visit the author's web site at: http://acousticguitarlessonsdvd.wetpaint.com

Learning The Guitar Online - The Facts

by: Liam Gibson

From absolute beginners to seasoned players, the internet has opened up a whole new media for those who wish to play the guitar. Many people today are utilizing the easy availability of online sites in order to learn to play the guitar.

The media of the streaming video has allowed people to learn from the comfort of their own front room, at any time of the day or night, whenever they like. Not only that, but it has blossomed into a huge industry - there are a massive amount of sites that you can visit that promise to teach you a very high standard of guitar tutorials. In this article, we will explore some of the advantages of the online tutorial, and some of the things that they can offer you if you are considering learning to play the guitar.

1) Its convenient

You really can learn wherever and whenever you want. Just as more and more everyday experiences are becoming more and more convenient (such as grocery shopping, for example), and learning the guitar is no different. We are lucky to live in such a time when the easy availability of goods and services is part of our social make-up.

Now you can learn for a few minutes at a time if you so wish, and even fit learning to play the guitar around other activities. Traditionally, guitar students would commute to an instructor's studio - taking into account the journey time and travel inconvenience it usually meant putting an evening or an afternoon aside for a lesson.

2) You get to choose your instructor

Instead of just taking lessons from someone who is closest to your home or more convenient for you to get to, this way you can take a look at their biographies, sample lessons and other relevant details. This is a huge advantage, as you will be learning from someone who best fits your particular needs. With the majority of online tutorial sites, you can select from a variety of instructors.

Taking lessons from two or three instructors will give you a good sense of balance and you may even learn better doing it this way - don't have to stick to just one instructor. Some of them are more hands on, whilst others favor a more visual approach, it's worth trying out different instructors to find one that best suits your learning style.

3) Flexibility

Rather than in a one-to-one situation where you often find that you can only learn what the instructor wants to teach you, you have the flexibility to choose what you learn. With an online program, you get to learn what you want to learn.

4) Affordability

The whole business premise of the online tutorial is that they can provide more lessons for less money. In order to learn to play the guitar, a lot of people don't want to spend a whole lot of money. The math is relatively simple: if 100 members of a particular site pay $10 each, then the site generates $1000. This revenue can then be used to film and produce even more lessons.

For a one-on-one instructor, you will realistically be expecting to pay something in the region of $40 per half hour lesson. Therefore, the value of the online tutorial becomes clear - you can get full membership to a lot of the sites for the same price (around $40), which will give you an almost endless amount of lessons.

The only significant downfall when it comes to online learning, is that there is no-one there to ask a question to when you get stuck. It can seem a little frustrating at times when you come across something that you don't understand. This, however, is a pretty small disadvantage when you consider all the benefits of learning to play the guitar online.

About The Author Liam Gibson of http://www.ReviewsMetro.com/learnguitar, specializes in helping aspiring guitarists get the info that they need to make the right choices. Liam, a stage guitarist himself, leads his team of guitar experts to constantly review new courses and products in the market and make sure you get the best value products that work for you. Check out his honest and unbiased independent reviews of the best guitar courses and products at http://www.ReviewsMetro.com/learnguitar. You can also get his free guitar lessons online there too.

Learn To Play Blues Guitar Solos And Make Them Yours

By: Ricky Sharples When you first think about learning to play blues guitar solos you will be faced with wanting to play the blues like the guitar players of the past, but at the same time you don't want to just play their material note for note. The sooner you get rid of the idea that you have to be original right off the bat, the sooner you will be really original. By learning the riffs and licks of B.B. King, Eric Clapton or Duane Allman you are giving yourself something to play. And as you play this music that other guitar players have recorded, you are developing your own style. You don't have your own voice to start with, you need to play other people's stuff to develop yourself. So put aside your ideas that guitar players start off with their own material, and start learning the solos of whatever guitar players you admire from their records. Learn simple licks at first. The first thing you might discover that surprises you is that the solos of the great blues guitarists is not rocket science. Great music does not have to be hard to play. So you don't need an amazing guitar technique to start learning blues but you do need to work on how you play. For this you need to record yourself playing. Do it often and listen to it closely. The way you sit or stand as you play, the way you hold the pick, the amount of force you put into your strokes and whether you use up or down strokes. All of these things are important to whether your playing sounds right. If you think you need improvement, get some advice. Ask other guitar players what they think. Do some busking, get some reactions from your audience. Record a video of your playing, post it on YouTube and get some comments. Go on guitar forums, post the link to your video and ask for feedback. But before you do any of that, you need to have some basic guitar chops. I said before you don't need an advanced technique, but you need to be good enough to play with a little authority. You need to pass your enthusiasm for the music onto your listeners. If you are hesitant and worrying about making a mistake, you need some more hours of practice till you get past that stage. One thing blues guitar solos are not is the guitar player's effects and equipment. If you want to use a certain sound for your playing, that's fine but when you are learning solos, concentrate on learning the music, do not worry about the sound at this stage of your learning. After all, when Eric Clapton stopped playing through Marshall amps or using the wah-wah pedal, it didn't mean he had stopped playing the blues. So a certain guitar sound does not make the blues.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales. Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

How To Fix Acoustic Guitar Buzz

By: Gyorgy Huba

There are many bits on an acoustic guitar that can rattle against each other to make a buzzing noise. Most can be easily fixed once you become aware of them but tracking that guitar buzz down can be a problem if you don't know where to look. The first place to look for the cause of buzzing guitar is the guitar player. If you are not pressing down on the strings with the correct amount of pressure, the strings will buzz or sound muffled. This might not be entirely your fault if the guitar's action is too low. If the strings are too close to the frets you will get a buzz that no amount of pressure on the strings will fix. To fix low action on an acoustic guitar is a matter of going to a guitar store and getting a bridge bone that will lift the strings higher. If the notches in the guitar nut are too deep this will also cause buzzing but that is the least likely cause unless someone deliberately cut the notches deeper. If the slots in the nut are too wide, this will also cause a buzz. A quick fix for low action is a match stick slipped under the bridge bone. If you find the guitar too hard to play now, it's because you have made the action too high. If the guitar is old, you may have frets that are too worn. This will make the strings buzz against the higher frets. All the frets on the guitar need to be the same height. If you are using strings that have balls on the ends, check that the balls are tight up against the bridge. If you find one that is not, unwind the string and reseat the ball so it is snug. The loose ends of nylon strings can also buzz against the bridge so if you have a classical style guitar, check the ends of the strings lying against the bridge. The machine heads - the tuners at the top of the neck - can become loose with age, rattle around. It is probably best to not get involved in repairing them. Just buy a new set. If you have checked all these parts without identifying the cause of the buzz, take your guitar to a luthier or a local guitar dealer to get it checked out. Sometimes there can be loose parts on an acoustic guitar that are not readily accessible that might need some guitar surgery to fix.

Newbie guitar players are flocking to Guitar How-To for the free articles, tutorials and videos on every aspect of guitar playing you can think of. Fast track your guitar expertise now at http://guitar-how-to.com/ Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

A New Way to Read Tabs?

by: Jonathan J. Brett

Recently, I read an article written by someone called the “Guitar Tab Guru” about using a form of TAB that uses letters rather than numbers. He said it was a variation of Lute Tabs, where letters represented the fret positions rather than numbers. (He explained it as a=1, b=2, c=3, etc.) His method, however, used letter names to coincide with the proper note positions on the fret board, such as an F being where an F is located (ex. First fret, first string) and a G being where a G is (ex. Third fret, third string). He then divided the fret board into three separate sections to learn, so that once memorized, the guitarist would be able to locate all of the natural notes on their fret board. Once you can locate the natural notes, the sharps and flats are easily found by raising or lowering the note by a fret accordingly.

I found this article to be particularly helpful in that naming the notes on the fret board has always been a challenge for me. It’s not often that a guitarist is quizzed on note locations, but on rare occasion I have needed to find specific notes that I simply couldn’t locate easily. I could find the notes given enough time to figure it out, but every time wished I could do it automatically, without hesitation. This was particularly embarrassing when I first started teaching guitar lessons, and I had students who could name notes better than I could! I have gotten better, but have always seemed to struggle with this facet of my playing and teaching.

The Guitar Tab Guru article was actually quite helpful to me, helping me learn the troublesome spots higher up the neck. I actually recognized the patterns that he used as modal scales, something that I am quite familiar with. This made learning this technique much, much easier, and I would recommend reviewing your modes first to help you along the way.

The first position uses the Phrygian mode, and uses open strings for the lowest notes. The second position is at the fifth fret and is the Aeolian mode, and the third is at the tenth fret and uses the Dorian mode. For anyone not familiar with these modes, please research them and learn them, as they are very helpful in learning the notes on your fret board this way. This may seem like a lot of work, but it really is relatively easy. I know that www.guitartabguru.com has a lot of other articles about everything guitar, so maybe you could even find one on there.

Once you can identify the notes on your fret board, you will find that you can create more interesting music, as you can quickly come up with the proper notes for any song you are playing, changing positions all up the fret board. I hope you find this information infinitely useful! To check out the article yourself go tohttp://www.guitartabguru.com/Exclusive-Guitar-Tab-Guru-Article.html .

Happy Practicing!

About The Author Jonathan J. Brett is a guitar instructor and business owner. He has recently been asked to be an editor for www.guitartabguru.com after submitting articles on numerous guitar related subjects.

3 Reasons Why You May Not Be Getting Big Results From Taking Guitar Lessons

by: Tom Hess

Have you ever tried taking guitar lessons and ended up quitting in frustration, because you felt you weren’t making enough progress? Or perhaps you have considered taking guitar lessons but because someone you know had a disappointing experience with a guitar teacher, you began to doubt if lessons are worth investing your time and money. This perception prevents you from getting all that you want from your guitar lessons.

There can be many reasons why people quit guitar lessons. Sometimes it is because the teacher failed to inspire you, or because the lessons weren’t focused enough on your specific musical goals, or because the teacher was only mediocre and didn’t know how to help you achieve a specific result. (To avoid this problem download this free guide about how to choose a guitar teacher:http://www.tomhess.net/HowToChooseAGuitarTeacher.aspx) However, another (often misunderstood) reason might be that your own approach to guitar lessons wasn’t as effective as it needed to be in order for you to make real progress.

After teaching tens of thousands of music lessons to all types of guitarists and also mentoring guitar teachers around the world on how to teach more effectively, I began to notice similar and consistent patterns used by most students for learning to play guitar.

I also noticed that the specific approach the students applied to studying with a teacher had a direct influence on their progress. Very often 2 different people can get very different results by studying with the same guitar teacher, because the ways in which the students approached the learning process in general are very different. For example, one student believed that he knew better than the teacher did about how to reach his musical goals and resisted some of the instruction his teacher was giving him. It later became very clear to him that he did not know better. Click on the link to hear his story about how he failed to improve his guitar skills:http://tomhess.net/GetGuitarLessonsMistake.aspx. The other student soaked up everything his teacher was instructing him to do and quickly became a world class guitar virtuoso.

I have found there are 3 types of students who become easily frustrated with their guitar lessons. As you read the rest of this article, be honest and ask yourself if any of these 3 descriptions sound like you. I’ll be the first to admit that at one point I had the characteristics of each of the “ineffective student behaviors” presented below. Looking back many years later, I now understand that one of the reasons why it took me as long as it did to master the guitar (more than 20 years), was due to my own inefficient approaches to learning when I began the journey.

The “Teach me something new today” student type.

You may think it is common sense that guitar lessons should consist mainly of presenting new content, and expect that the guitar teacher’s primary job is to show you things that are “new” to you. However, if we examine this approach a bit deeper, you will see that focusing “only” on seeking out new information will not bring big results long term.

First of all, too much new content quickly leads to overwhelm and burn out (and does not allow enough time to apply the information you are learning). This feeling of overwhelm is what causes you to become frustrated and quit lessons (or worse yet, quit guitar). Second, simply “learning new things” does not lead to mastery. I have had many students come to me being able to do some cool things on guitar. For example, they may have good technique, or a good understanding of how music works, or have good ears. But more often than not, their ability to APPLY and INTEGRATE what they “know” to playing music was very poor. At this point, “learning more new things” is not going to help these students to significantly advance their guitar playing. Simply being “aware” of a concept is not enough. You don’t truly “know” something until you can apply and integrate it with your other musical skills fluently.

This type of training in applying and integrating what you know is probably the single most valuable thing you get out of music lessons and is one area of musical development that is almost universally lacking in many guitarists. This results in massive frustration and disappointment that many guitar players often experience (but often do not realize WHY they are frustrated).

When you take lessons for the first time, you may think that it is great that your teacher shows you something new in each lesson. But if your teacher does nothing else than “show you things”, then as more lessons go by, you will start to notice that you are not really making any significant progress (because no application and integration is taking place). Most people will quit lessons at this point, and will continue to perpetuate the myth that guitar lessons are ineffective, without really understanding the real reasons for their lack of progress.

The type of student who is only interested in learning new things, typically does not stick with guitar lessons for very long. If a guitar teacher begins to talk about a concept the student may already be familiar with, the lesson is perceived to be a waste of time. Because these students may have heard about this concept from somewhere else, they believe that they “already know it”.

Of course, receiving new information is a part of any comprehensive lesson plan (and certainly you will learn a lot of new things by taking lessons), but it is the order in which this information is presented, and the way you are trained to USE, APPLY and INTEGRATE that information that makes guitar lessons with a good teacher so valuable. If learning “raw data” in a linear fashion (and practicing) was all it took to become a great musician, then anyone could buy some books and after studying them for a few years and practicing on his/her own become a highly advanced guitarist. Of course most of the time, this doesn’t happen.

The moral of the story here is to remember that you came to your teacher to learn and grow as a guitar player. In order for this to actually happen you will need to have some patience through the process and realize that sometimes when you ‘think you know something’, you in fact may not really know it yet to the point that you can apply it and integrate it with your other musical skills.

“The Perfectionist”

The next type of student wants to master every little thing their teacher presents in a lesson (or that they discover on their own) before working on anything else. While on the surface this seems like a good idea, it is far from the most efficient approach to becoming a great musician. Learning music is best done in a non-linear approach, meaning that multiple things should be worked on simultaneously without stressing out about totally mastering everything in a linear order. Discover more about why the typical linear approach guitar players follow often fails in this video about how to master the guitar: http://www.tomhess.net/LinearVsGeometricApproach.aspx.

I like to compare learning music to baking a cake. You don’t make a cake by cooking one ingredient at a time and then finally putting them together when each one is ready. If you baked your cake in this way, it would take you a long time to finish and more importantly the cake would not taste as good as when the ingredients are cooked together!

The same goes for musical skills. If you waited until you became a great virtuoso master of technique before beginning to work on (mastering) music theory, then turning to songwriting, and then switching to improvising, it could take you many decades to finally become really good and your skills would not likely be integrated together. What I recommend to you is to follow a non-linear approach (as described in the video above). When learning a new skill, don’t wait until you completely master it; only make sure that you have the fundamentals down and begin immediately to look for contexts to apply it. Then work on integrating this new skill with everything else that you know how to do/play. Application and integration are unique skills that must be practiced separately. This key link will enable you to go from being “the student” who is able to “do lots of things” on the guitar, to becoming a great player who can use all of his musical skills to achieve complete musical expression.

This (non-linear) approach will also prevent you from getting out of balance with your skills and at any level of your musical development, you will be able to apply and integrate everything you know. It is important to note that a ‘non-linear approach’ is not an ‘illogical’ approach. So if you are looking for a systematic and logical approach to learning guitar, you should understand that this systematic, geometric (non-linear) strategy IS in fact the most effective, most efficient and most logical path possible.

The challenger

This personality type often comes out in a player who has been playing for a while and has studied with other guitar teachers in the past. This student may come into their first lesson full of preconceived ideas about what lessons should be like, and dictating to the teacher what and how to teach. I should clarify here that I am not talking about asking questions when you don’t understand something or telling your teacher about your goals. There is a big difference between doing that, and trying to dictate to the teacher what and how to teach. If the student knew that much more about teaching than the teacher, then the student would BE the teacher, right? If you know how to successfully learn guitar on your own and you are TRULY happy with your progress without a teacher, then maybe you don’t need guitar lessons. But if you seek help from a qualified guitar teacher, this means you realized that whatever you were doing on your own wasn’t working as well as you wanted it to. Therefore, you should accept the fact (or at least the high probability) that your guitar teacher knows many times more about guitar playing and teaching guitar than you do and can successfully teach you to play well. (Otherwise, why would you give the teacher your money?) Of course not all guitar teachers are the same, and some are much more qualified to teach than others. If you follow the advice I give in the guide for choosing a guitar teacher, you will be sure to find the best teacher for you.

I always tell my students that in order for them to receive the most benefit from working with me, it is their job to articulate to me their specific musical goals and list their musical challenges. Then it is MY job to come up with the most effective strategy possible to solve their problems and get them to their stated goals as quickly as possible. But in order for that to happen, they need to have faith in me as a teacher, and commit themselves to moving forward together through the learning and training process. My most satisfied and advanced students all followed this advice.

If your guitar teacher has already created many great musicians, chances are, he knows what he is doing and will be able to help you as well. But his ability to help you will be limited (and the process will take much longer), if you constantly challenge everything he tells you to do. Again, asking questions about something you don’t understand is normal, and is part of the learning process. But creating the overall lesson plan is your teacher’s primary responsibility, not yours.

If you recognize yourself as one of the student types described above, think about your current approach to learning guitar and change your mindset. On the surface it may seem like a small action to take, but the difference this can make to your guitar playing may be greater than you have ever even imagined before!

Want to know how to choose the right teacher for you? Download the free guide on how to choose a guitar teacher: http://www.tomhess.net/HowToChooseAGuitarTeacher.aspx

About The Author Tom Hess is a professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He teaches guitar players around the world via online guitar lessons (http://tomhess.net/CorrespondenceGuitarLessons.aspx, Visithttp://www.tomhess.net to get free guitar playing tips(http://tomhess.net/FreeGuitarPlayingTips.aspx), assessments, surveys, mini courses and more.