Piano scales- the most important

There are dozens of piano scales in music. There are major, minor, pentatonic and a whole lot more. There are four important piano scales that every piano should learn. This article will tell you what those scales are and how to play them.

Half Steps/Whole Steps

To learn how to play piano scales, you must first understand half and whole steps. A half-step is the distance from one note to the very next note. For example, the distance between E and F is a half step. The distance from F to F# is a half step. A whole step is simply two half steps combined. The distances from C to D and G to A are whole steps. In learning how to play the scales, we will refer to half steps with an H and whole steps will be referred to as a W.

Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born on August 9, 1963), is a Grammy Award winning American R&B/Pop Diva, actress, film producer, and former fashion model. Houston is one of the most successful and influential singers of all time. Her body of work includes ballads, dance-pop, urban contemporary soul, and gospel. She is well known for her vocal power, control, range and coloratura soprano voice. Whitney is one of the most successful and influential artists of all time. She is also one of the top selling female artist of all time. Houston was one of a handful of black artists to receive heavy rotation on MTV in the 1980s. She became the first artist to have seven consecutive U.S. number-one singles. She holds the record for having seven consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number one hits. Houston has branched out into acting and eventually became a businesswoman, setting up production and recording studios while continuing to record music.

Avoid foods before singing

Your singing performance can be either helped or hindered by the foods you eat beforehand. You shouldn't sing on an empty stomach; however, don't sing on a full stomach either! Here are some tips on how and what to eat before your singing event.

When to Eat Meals before the Performance

Try not to eat only moments before the event. This can cause harmful throat-clearing before or during your performance. Also, if your stomach is full while singing, your diaphragm movement will be hindered. You will find it difficult to take a full breath when needed. Also, you might begin burping! That will definitely turn off any audience!

Norah Jones

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist. Jones played with numerous artists and bands including Wax Poetic and the Peter Malick Group. Jones performed quite frequently with guitarist Charlie Hunter in 2001 and appeared on Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album in a duet with Andr? 3000 in 2003. While Jones is best-known for her sultry-yet-powerful vocal style, often compared to that of Billie Holiday or Nina Simone, her abilities as a jazz pianist have likewise been celebrated. On January 19, 2003 Jones appeared as a guest on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR, performing jazz standards such as "September in the Rain" and "I Can't Get Started," and later that year she appeared again with McPartland at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, performing more standards such as "Lover Man" and "Walking My Baby Back Home". She has performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in both 2004 and 2005.

The introduction to piano tablature

As a piano player, there are various ways that you can learn new songs. You can use sheet music or you can use piano tablature. If you want to learn a new song quickly, the best way is to use piano tabs. This article will give you a simple introduction to piano tablature.

Piano tablature is a system of musical notation that uses letters and numbers. Letters that are lowercase denote the white keys, while uppercase letters denote the black keys.

Cozy Powell

Colin Flooks (December 29, 1947 - April 5, 1998), better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer.

Cozy Powell was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, and started playing drums in the school orchestra, thereafter playing along in his spare time to popular singles of the day. The nickname 'Cozy' was borrowed from the jazz drummer Cozy Cole.

The semi-professional circuit was next, with semi-pro outfit The Sorcerers, a vocal harmony pop band. The late nights and usual on-the-road exploits began to affect his education, and Powell left to take an office job in order to finance the purchase of his first set of Premier drums. The Sorcerers performed in the German club scene of the 1960s.

Jean-Luc Ponty

Jean-Luc Ponty (born September 29, 1942, Avranches, France) is a virtuoso French violinist and jazz composer.
Ponty is the son of a violin teacher, who began his instruction before he moved on to the Paris Conservatory. By the mid 1960s he had moved towards jazz, recording with St?phane Grappelli and Stuff Smith. Ponty's attraction to jazz was propelled by Miles Davis's and John Coltrane's music. He adopted the electric violin. Critic Joachim Berendt wrote that "Since Ponty, the jazz violin has been a different instrument" and of his "style of phrasing that corresponds to early and middle John Coltrane" and his "brilliance and fire".

Top 10 violin concertos of all time

If you're looking for objectivity, you won't find it here. I'm a psychologist by profession and an amateur violinist. So the following list and the explanations are purely subjective, not the opinion of a professional musician or musical scholar, and will probably change by the time I finish writing this. Nevertheless, as of today, here are the top 10 violin concertos of all time (in rank order), and why I think so.

Number 1 - Ludwig van Beethoven, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Opus 61, written in 1806.
"The Gentle Giant." A serene piece of music made of the simplest materials but of immense scope and structure. One of the greatest cultural achievements of Western civilization. Listen particularly for the 5-beat element present almost everywhere in the 1st Movement.

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music video director and actress. Her debut was in 1990 under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola and became the first recording act to have its first five singles top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Following her marriage to Mottola in 1993, a series of hit records established her position as Columbia's highest-selling act. According to Billboard magazine, she is the most successful artist of the 1990's in the United States.

8 Basic FAQ's for the singers

As one approaches the notion of singing, various questions may arise. Many of these are frequently asked by beginning singers. Here are eight of such ponderings:

IS IT TRUE THAT SOME PEOPLE CAN'T SING?

Yes, but such numbers are extremely low, compared to what you might think. If you can speak, you CAN sing, at least at a basic level. Among the origins of this "can't sing" myth are frequently reported conditions such as these two: 1) inaccurate information received in childhood from one's parents, etc., about their lack of singing capabilities, and perhaps delivered in some form similar to this: "Johnny, stop that noise! YOU can't sing"; and/or 2) suffering from "stage fright" to such a degree that singing is perceived as impossible from the get-go.

Vibrato

Vibrato is an important expressive device - essentially one of only three elements (along with dynamics and tempo) that trumpet players have available to change the tension level which outlines the shape of a musical phrase.

On some instruments, vibrato is the fluctuation of loudness or intensity, affected by changes in the air stream. However, on the trumpet it is primarily a fluctuation of pitch, not loudness, created primarily by either the hand or lip. Hand vibrato pulls the mouthpiece away from the embouchure, causing the pitch to drop. Lip vibrato (which might be more accurately called "lip-jaw-tongue" vibrato) is much more commonly used and involves a combination of a loosening of the embouchure, opening the jaws, and lowering the tongue. Thinking the syllable "yaw" (as in yawn) is useful and produces the correct effect without having to think about each physical element. Thus the syllable for a tone with vibrato would be "yaw-yaw-yaw-yaw-yaw".

Keith Emerson

Keith Noel Emerson (born 2 November 1944 in Todmorden, Yorkshire) is a British keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of The T-Bones, V.I.P.s and as backing band to P.P. Arnold (which evolved into The Nice), he went on to start Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP), one of the first supergroups, in 1970. Following the first breakup of ELP circa 1979, Emerson went on to modest success with other bands including Emerson, Lake & Powell, 3 and subsequent ELP reunions during the early 90's. He reunited The Nice in 2002 to go on tour and currently tours (through 2006) with The Keith Emerson Band.

Was the piano created for the hands or the hands created for the piano? About Fingering

Idea 1, fingering written on your music is only suggested fingering, it can be changed. Yes, you can experiment with the fingering and you will find there are several options, sometimes better solutions to fingering.

Idea 2: take a look at your hand and fingers. We have 3 long fingers, fingers 2, 3 and 4. Now look at the piano, there are sets of 2 black keys and sets of 3 blacks keys. See how easy it is, which fingers do you think go on the black keys? The piano was made for the hand. Long fingers reach easily on the black keys, and the thumb and 5 fingers on the white keys.

Christina Aguilera

Christina Maria Aguilera ( born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer and songwriter. She was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film Mulan. She came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera (1999), which was a critical and commercial success. A Latin pop album Mi Reflejo, and a Christmas album, My Kind of Christmas, followed during this period and also sold strongly.

Training Your Voice for Better Singing

Your voice is unique to you and you alone. Don't make the mistake of trying to emulate others. Yes, your sound might be similar to a famous singer, but do you really think the general public wants a counterfeit? They want unique and new, and the music industry is an ever-changing business world. So to fit in, you'll have to develop that unique voice inside... that's just waiting to be fully-developed!

The best way to train your voice is to work on it one point at a time. Practice in one area until you master it, and then work on another. Below are three key areas of voice training that will help you give a brilliant performance.

George Winston

George Winston (born 1949) is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up in Miles City, Montana, United States. Many of his pieces, self-described as "Rural Folk Piano", evoke the essence of a season and reflect natural landscapes. Winston is often heralded as one of the greatest atmospheric piano composers of non-classical music. He is considered to perform in the new age genre, a label that somewhat limits his potential audience. He also is known for his "PEANUTS" tribute album.

George Winston was first recorded by John Fahey for Fahey's Takoma Records.

Self-training in sight-reading:Piano

A good musician should be able to read music as easily as the newspaper. With adequate technique, good eyesight and persistent practice, any pianist may become a good sight-reader. In this case, practice means not the study of music for performance, but the playing at sight of hymns, accompaniments, solo pieces, duets - anything that is within the technical grasp.

Many good performers are poor sight-readers for the reason that mastery of large compositions, which requires many repetitions of small sections at a slow tempo, tends to create an inability to grapple with music in any other way. Here the effort towards accuracy predominates. Thorough study of master works is, of course, indispensable; but the ability to play at sight is equally necessary for the practical musician.

Ian Anderson

Ian Scott Anderson (born August 10, 1947 in Dunfermline, Fife) (also known as 'The Voice of Jethro Tull') is a Scottish singer, songwriter, guitarist and flautist best known for his work as the head of British rock band Jethro Tull.

While a teenager, Anderson took a job as a sales assistant at Lewis' department store in Blackpool, then as a vendor on a newsstand. He later said it was reading copies of Melody Maker and the New Musical Express during his lunch breaks that gave him the inspiration to play in a band.

In 1963 he formed The Blades from among school friends: Barriemore Barlow (drums), John Evan (keyboards), Jeffrey Hammond (bass) and Michael Stephens (guitar). This was a soul and blues band, with Anderson on vocals and harmonica - he had yet to take up the flute.

Dave Valentin

He learned latin percussion first when he was a teenager, and then switched to flute. Valentin's teacher, Hubert Laws, suggested that he not double on saxophone because of his attractive sound on the flute. He studied at the Bronx Community College. He is of Puerto Rican descent.

In 1977, he made his recording debut with Ricardo Marrero's group and he appeared also on a Noel Pointer album. Discovered by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen, Valentin was the first artist signed to GRP and he has been a popular attraction ever since. Valentin has recorded over 15 albums, combining the influence of pop, R&B, and Brazilian music with Latin and smooth jazz to create a slick and accessible form of crossover jazz. In 2000, he appeared in the documentary film, Calle 54, performing with Tito Puente.

Getting a sound on the flute

Getting a sound on the flute is easy! Take just the head joint—the section you blow into. (If you have a one-piece flute, just leave your fingers off the keys or holes.) Lay your lower lip over the edge of the mouth hole, and blow it like a pop bottle.

Did you get it? What’s that you say? You’ve never blown on a pop bottle? All right then, let’s go at it another way. Following is a description of the basic flute embouchure (pronounced “OM-bush-er”)—the way you hold your lips and mouth while playing. Looking in a mirror will help.