4 Things To Consider When You Begin Learning The Piano

You want to start learning piano but unsure if its worth all the investment towards it. Attain a life-long skill or something you always wanted to learn but didn’t get time before for all the reason that kept you busy, here are few points to consider.

1. Your Interest

Your interest is the key to learning a piano. Does the piano excite you? If it doesn’t, you probably shouldn’t waste your money ‘coz it will not let you make actual progress in learning the instrument. Piano/Keyboard can be a versatile instrument, it can incite variety of emotions. If it drives your passion and inspires you to improve everyday, then learning piano is your calling. First way to show your interest is to have the instrument at your home and all the other necessary material required for you to practice.

2. Objective

What do you expect to get from the lessons? Is it something that you want to invest in professionally or something  as a hobby? Either way, that will help you view your targets as you start learning and understand where you want to be after certain sessions. Objectives can aid your progress to a positive effect as it gives you a goal to reach and that inspires your talent.

3. Time

When you are beginning, you should understand, it takes time, patience and dedication to become good in your ability to play your instrument. So before you start, make sure you can find time for your instrument in your schedule. It is important to practice as regularly as possible if you have the intention of excelling in your instrument. More time you give to your instrument, better your skills become.

4. Commitment

Once you begin learning, give your commitment because if you are in it half heartedly, it will hamper your progress significantly. Find time, invest in piano for a long time, try to achieve a bigger goal and inspire yourself everyday to get better or learn something new on the instrument. Research different kinds of music that helps you understand your instrument more. Invest on a keyboard/piano that will serve you for a long time, make effort to learn that requires to read a piece of music. Dedicate yourself to the lessons require to hone your skills.

We hope this blog post has been able to give you some insight on what you need to consider before you begin learning the piano.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

What is the Best Age to begin Piano Lessons?

The benefits of learning music and playing musical instruments enhances your, ability to learn, memory, happiness, discipline and so much more! Music Education enriches the lives of so many children and it is the best gift a parent could give their child.

As music educators, we are often asked 'What is the best age for my child to begin piano lessons?'. Although there is no exact age to begin instruction, in our experience the best age is between the ages of six and eight. 

You may come across the occasional YouTube videos of children as young as three years playing complicated Mozart sonatas but that doesn't mean every 3 year old is ready to learn the Piano.

Children under the age of six who show an interest in the piano should be allowed to explore and learn on their own time table. They won’t always respond well to an adult-imposed learning structure. Always active and curious, a toddler might pay attention to an adult who is trying to teach them something for about three minutes, but then they notice something else they want to check out. If you put a child at this age in piano lessons, most of the teacher’s time will be spent in redirecting the child’s attention to the piano. It just isn’t a very effective use of your time and money.

Instead, parents of children under age six should be doing things to cultivate a general interest in music. Singing and listening to recorded music are things you can do at home with children at any age. Also, consider enrolling your child in a good preschool music program, like BlueTimbre's Junior Music Program (JUMP). This program build awareness of musical concepts like rhythm and pitch, musical alphabets, music notes, music appreciation and introduction to musical instruments and lays a good foundation for learning a musical instrument.

So, How do you know if your child is ready?

1. Size of Hand - Can your child easily place five fingers on five adjacent white keys? For some five-year-olds, that’s a big stretch! Before beginning piano lessons, make sure your child’s hands have grown enough to be comfortable using a keyboard.
2. Finger Independence - Before beginning piano, children need to be able to move individual fingers. A child who can use three different fingers on three black keys to play is ready for lessons. A child who can only play by picking out the tune with one finger is probably not ready.
3. Interest in Music and Desire to Learn - Probably the most important thing on this checklist is your own child’s desire to learn the piano. If the motivation to learn comes from your child, it will help them overcome all sorts of difficulties they might encounter. If the motivation only comes from you, then sooner or later you’ll end up with a power struggle.

If you’re a teen or an adult beginner, you might get frustrated and want to give up because you feel awkward at first. It may seem easier to stick with the things that you’ve already mastered. If that happens, remember, you are doing this because you want to! Don’t give up. Be patient with yourself as you learn the piano. You’ll feel like a little child all over again. Set aside twenty minutes a day and enjoy that process of learning something completely new. If you can find thirty or forty minutes a day, you’ll progress even faster.

BlueTimbre is a Music Company with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

Source: 

https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/best-age-to-begin-piano-lessons/

5 Tips for creating a Melody from a Chord Progression

Many songwriters start by creating chords and then create a melody as they strum on the chord changes. But most people or texts that teach song writing deal with how to add chords to an existing melody. Or sadly the song writers seem to forget about the most important element – the melody – and concentrate far too much on instrument selection, production effects, lyrics and so on. The melody simply becomes an almost random selection of notes at worst, or a very dull and 'obvious' melody line at best. Without a strong melody line, a song is rarely going to make it on to someone’s iTunes playlist!

So the question is: how do you take this progression you’ve created and come up with a melody that works with it? In this article, we have come with a few tops that will help you to do this, and it works well even if you don’t have a strong music theory background.

There are two main dangers to creating a melody after the chords:

1.     The melody often uses lots of arpeggios (chord-based leaps), making it a bit boring and predictable.

2.     The melody may use the same note over and over again, ignoring the importance of a high point.

So be sure that your melody has shape – an enticing contour that propels the song forward.

Here are some tips that can help you come up with a melody:

1.     Understand the Interaction between the Chord and Melody – For example if the chord that is being played is C Major, then, the melody note to feature should either be C, E or G (the triad that makes up the C Major chord). If the chord being played was G Major, then the melody note to feature should be either G, B, or D.

2.     Make Use of Other Notes in the Scale - work out what key signature your song is in, and then ensure you only use notes from that scale. This will ensure you don't get any 'clashing sounds' that are unpleasant to the ear.

3.     Play the progression many times - so that it becomes very predictable to you.

4.     If this is a verse melody you’re creating, consider using higher pitches once you pass the midpoint of the melody. In other words, you want the higher points of this melody to occur near the end of the verse, preparing the chorus. You’ll also want to have a point in your verse that seems to be a high point, a climactic moment. Chorus melodies should usually be placed higher than verse melodies. So, do the same procedure to come up with your chorus melody, again paying attention to the need for a climactic point. Once you’ve done this step, you should have a mainly stepwise verse and chorus melody.

5.     While stepwise melodies are good, you’ll want to have one or two leaps upward to inject some energy into your melody. This works well after the midpoint of each melody. Leaps make melodies more memorable, but too many actually have the opposite effect, so be careful.

Summary

As you create your verse and chorus melodies, you’ll usually find that they start to acquire a life of their own. In other words, once a melody starts to unfold, there will seem to be a logical way for it to continue. Use your instincts, and go with your gut. As you play your progression, don’t forget about harmonic rhythm. That’s very important. Harmonic rhythm is the regularity of your chord changes, and you’ll want that to be fairly constant. Chords that change according to a regular rhythmic pattern is a crucial part of setting up your song’s groove.

BlueTimbre is a Music hub with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. BlueTimbre management team comes with a decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

Sources:

https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/seven-steps-to-writing-memorable-melodies-part-1--audio-6527

http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/2010/06/04/youve-got-a-chord-progression-how-do-you-create-a-melody/

Importance of Learning and Practicing Scales on the Piano

4 Reasons Why Playing Scales on Piano are Important

Piano scales often get a bad press. Repeated scale practice is often cited as a reason for quitting piano lessons among beginners. The simple fact is, though, that scales are incredibly important - it’s very difficult to become a really good pianist unless you master your scales and practise them pretty regularly.

The problem is that it’s very rarely explained to piano learners why scales matter so much. 

1.     Muscle Memory - Trains your fingers to play common patterns found in music. When you have practised a scale for a while you will begin to ‘just get it’ and the scale will flow naturally from your instrument. What you have done is to begin to develop muscular memory. This is a very useful thing to have. When you see this scale again or indeed a similar one you will be able to rely partially on this muscle memory to help you play the scale. This also applies to snippets of scales, of which there are a lot in music.

2.     Dexterity – one part of learning an instrument involves training parts of the body to do new things, to repeat them and then do them very quickly. Scales are a great training partner. They will help you refine and improve your speed. Slow careful practice of scales at the outset will have you whizzing up and down in no time.

3.     Ears – if you can’t hear what is wrong you can’t correct it. This is true of all of your music practice. Learn to listen very, very carefully when you practice your scales and you will start to hear areas where you can improve your other playing. Pay attention to tuning, articulation, tone quality, consistency etc. Imagine what a perfect scale would sound like in every way and try to make each of your scales sound like that.

4.     Timing – to play together with other people you need to have good time, good internal time. One of the best ways to develop this is to practise scales. Slowly at first, with a metronome if needed until you are placing each and every note exactly where it needs to be, not too soon or too late – just right.

You can get ahead of the music practice game by taking your scales seriously and realizing that they are far from boring. In fact, there is a huge range of possibilities when you begin to think about it. Those that think scales are boring are on the track to slow progression. Realize the potential scales have to improve your music practice and you will be in the fast lane.

Proper fingering of the scales on the piano is very important to the development of your skills and advancement as a pianist.

BlueTimbre is a Music hub with Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in India. BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. BlueTimbre management team comes with a decades of cumulative experience in running structured businesses, music curriculum development, music education and performance.

Sources:

http://howtopractice.com/music-practice-resources/articles/10-reasons-why-scales-are-important

http://www.jamcast.co.uk/why-piano-scales-are-important/

http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/679/what-is-the-importance-of-practicing-scales-on-piano-and-the-proper-fingering-o