Piano Practice – Is it Normal to Hate to Practice?
Is it normal for a student to hate to practice? Anybody else feel this way? Most people love music, but hate to practice.
It’s very common for musicians to say they hate to practice. One undesirable aspect of practicing is the simple fact that the musician must practice passages and techniques that are difficult for them to play. This creates frustration on the part of the musician and can make them question their abilities.
Some practice materials are designed specifically to develop technique and playing such materials can be quite tedious. For example, a violinist may spend most of a one-hour practice session concentrating on the proper way to hold the bow and draw it across the strings. In a case like this, no real music may be played for the entire hour. Progress can be slow, adding to the musician’s disdain for practicing.
Lack of motivation can cause the musician to avoid practicing altogether. For most, it takes years (and a great deal of patience and dedication) to become an accomplished musician. The ones that succeed are good at delaying gratification and developing the patience needed to succeed. It’s very common for a musician to reach a number of plateaus where they don’t feel any progress is being made. The patient ones eventually work through the plates and move on to a higher level of musicianship. Others may give up their instrument entirely.
Having practice sessions at the same time on the same day (although important to getting good results) may be too regimented for some musicians. Music, by it nature, is a very creative endeavor, often requiring the freedom to experiment and explore new sounds and styles. Being “stuck to a schedule” doesn’t work for some musicians.
The musician’s attitude toward practice can have a lot to do with their current teacher or instructor. Some teachers go to great lengths to give their students interesting and enjoyable practice assignments as they realize musicians who enjoy practice, practice longer. An experienced teacher who knows their student well, is very adept at choosing music that develops the musician’s skills while giving them something to look forward to playing. Unfortunately, many musicians who need a teacher to keep them focused and practicing may not be able to afford private or group lessons.
Until recent years, methods books for virtually any instrument were quite boring and dry and focused on repetition as being the key element for learning. Method books today often include a number of popular songs, and more interesting and musical materials. Some include an accompanying CD for the student to use for hearing how a piece should be played. You can also find CDs that contain a “backing” band for the student, allowing them to build their musicianship by playing along with others.
Whatever you do, use spaced repetition instead of doing all your practice in one session! If you practice 1 hour per day, break it up into 3 sessions of 20 minutes each. Remember that the mind can only retain what the seat can tolerate. Plus you will keep your concentration better if you only practice 20 minutes in one sitting as opposed to one hour.
Finally, the quality of the instrument being played can have a great effect on the musician’s attitude toward practicing. A poorly-made or dull sounding instrument is just not a pleasure to play. Many students find their playing and attitude toward practicing improves when they purchase a better instrument.
About the Author
Duane Shinn is the author of a free newsletter on piano chords & progressions available at PowerPianoChords.com
Time after time, I have come across pianists who cannot read music well and rely on memorization to save them. Do you admire pianists who can just pick up any piece of sheet music and play without stumbling? If you want to take your sight reading to the next level then check out the piano course "Mastering The Art Of Piano Sight Reading!"
There are a vast number of piano teachers who offer their services and an overwhelming number of software and books available. There is also an incredible amount of online courses for you to choose from. But the problem is that not all teachers, software, books and online courses can teach you in a way that lets you really learn the material without it costing years of your time and a sizeable investment of money.
Some private piano teachers are very skilled at playing the piano, but their teaching methods leave a lot to be desired. They were trained to play the piano, not be a teacher. Most software and books are written to go hand in hand with private tutoring.
Without a teacher, you won’t grasp the instruction. Lastly, many online courses promise that their course is the best and they promise that you can learn piano well in a short amount of time. But when you purchase the course, you discover just the opposite is true – and every lesson in the course is a struggle.
With all of those options available, how can you choose the best course of action to take when you want to learn how to play the piano? You choose the product that will allow you to see exactly what they promise you up front. No hidden fees, no surprises. Few courses will let you see their material without a purchase, but Rocket Piano does.
Rocket Piano takes you behind the scenes with their six part mini course to give you a taste of the incredible instruction offered in their course. Why do they make such an incredible offer? It’s the difference between a love of teaching piano and only wanting to sell a product. Rocket Piano wants to share the beauty of playing piano with everyone who desires to learn.
In their free piano music playing course, you’ll learn about the piano keys and you’ll even be introduced to how to play a song. Even if that’s all Rocket Piano offered in their free introductory course, learning to play a song would be quite a value, but there’s still more for you.
You’ll be taught how to properly hold your hands at the piano and the use of the numbered finger method. You’ll even learn about musical rests and slurs. Slurs alone are a difficult part of piano playing to learn with a teacher, but Rocket Piano takes the difficulty and breaks it down in an easy to grasp manner.
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There are different types of jazz music, each with their own origin and style. Jazz piano music is distinctly different from any other types of music and can be recognized world wide as having a uniquely American flair to it. Jazz had its beginnings in the United States but is now considered to have a fine mixture of African culture thrown in with it.
There are four distinct parts to jazz music that include rhythm, harmony, melody, and tonal qualities. No matter what type of jazz that you enjoy you’ll be able to find a club that caters to your tastes. There are many experimental jazz venues that are popping up all over the place, including many European cities where all types of music are welcomed and appreciated.
One style of jazz is known as the Work Song. This type of jazz is upbeat and rhythmically fast since it was often used to make the work day pass by quicker. The Work Song is repeated over and over in a rhythmic style that is not often heard these days. This type of jazz is often associated with African American music perhaps because of this rhythmic beat that has become the least popular of jazz styles today.
New Orleans jazz began in the early 1890’s. It started out with brass band performances highlighting marching and gospel songs. One of the most famous names from this period was William Basie. He became famous with his band, the Count Basie Orchestra. His music is still listened to and loved today.
Chicago jazz came along a bit later, in late 1917. Chicago was the center of jazz around then since musicians were leaving the south because of prohibition. They were also coming north to look for new employment opportunities and find places to play their new form of jazz. During this period the piano became an important background of the jazz experience. This new sound evolved as Chicago Style jazz.
After World War II jazz went through another transformation and Bebop was born. Bebop is a fusion of fast tempo and changing rhythmic patterns that creates a softer and lighter sound of jazz. Bebop often focuses on a solo performer rather than on an entire band.
Jazz is a constantly changing branch of music that still manages to retain its roots. Jazz piano music is one of the branches of music that has changed and continues to evolve according the different outlook of the listeners. Jazz offers a flexibility – the ability to adapts to different times and needs – and is one of the central reasons it is so popular today.
If you would like to take jazz piano lessons, then I suggest that you check out one of these top recommended resources.
*This is a guest post by John Oszajca from MusicMarketingManifesto.com. If you would like to submit a guest post for consideration of publication to our site, please contact us.
Twitter is like any other social media site in that it can be a tremendous way to drive traffic to your music. However if you are just sending that traffic to your website in the hopes that someone will see how great you are and buy your album you are very likely going to be pretty disappointed.
If you are planning on ditching MySpace and using Twitter to promote your band or music, then I recommend you set up a squeeze page and make sure you are capturing the contact information of those potential fans so that you can market your music later and, with a little luck, actually sell some albums.
The basic way that I use Twitter to sell albums and promote my music is by including my URL to my squeeze page in my profile. I use a twitter bot to grow my follow count by a few hundred each day, a good percentage of these people wind up clicking on my URL and ultimately signing up for my mailing list. Once there, they are in my sales funnel and in time, the album sales start rolling in.
It is also important to communicate with the people that are following you and to a certain extent, the more posts you make the more people are apt to check out your profile and of course your URL. In the end it’s like anything, the more you put in to it the more you will get out of it. But like in the early days of MySpace, I think Twitter is a still largely unexploited traffic generating tool that is great for promoting your band or music on the internet.
For more great tips on Music Marketing go to http://www.MusicMarketingManifesto.com
Tip: Scroll down to the page and there is a link for a free report that is full of some pretty great strategies.
Do you enjoy listening to a nice catchy rap beat? Maybe you like the way a nice beat can sound when you play along with it on the piano.
Music producers have gotten their start in all sorts of different areas of the entertainment industry. And the nice part to see is that the talent and growth is increasing very rapidly these days thanks to the advancements in technology.
Producers used to have to play an instrument or utilize a massively expensive soundboard in order to make rap beats. But nowadays, you can download software to your computer that will effectively replace the need for a recording studio and soundboard.
This is a great solution for people that can not afford to purchase all of the soundboard equipment or for those who simply just want to have some fun making rap beats without shelling out too much cash.
If you want to get started making rap beats online right away, then go check out the Sonic Producer now. Not only is it one of the cheapest ways to make your own rap beats that I have yet to find, but it is also one of the highest quality beat maker programs that I have had the pleasure to ticker with as well.
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Tips For Making Rap Beats
High hats, bass or piano are where most producers start when they are making a rap beat. The best producers will have what is known as a consistent “staple” to their music. This can include, violins, horns, piano, or other strings that help control the flow of the beat. Setting yourself a part when making rap beats, means finding that staple sound for you to use in your beats.
If you have ever read any books on creating music, then you may already know that the basis of any good beat begins with the instruments and strong backgrounds. For example, pianos are often found being used in hip-hop, rap, R&B and soul, which makes learning how to play the piano a great move if you ever want to become a great producer. Take the time to consider the possibilities of controlling one instrument in your music, it can really help to open up new doors to new areas of creativity that you still have locked away inside.
If you are going to use software to make your beats then you are going to require a great amount of patience as well. New software programs always come with a learning curve, then once you finally master the software… well then you have to actually master making sick beats too! So give yourself some time and don’t beat yourself up too badly if you don’t have an album full of dope beats in your first couple of weeks.
Take some time out to listen to other people’s beats carefully. What is it that they have? How are they sequenced? Would you be able to duplicate the beat yourself on your computer? Making rap beats requires constant learning. You must always be studying music and listening to new songs and beats.
Really, when it comes down to it, if you want to become a great music producer then all you have to do is find a sound that meshes with your personality style and then let your creative juices flow. If you want to make rap beats on your computer, then head on over to the Sonic Producer website now.
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