Finding the Best Piano Lessons by Ear on DVDs

For some people, the thought of piano lessons conjures up childhood memories of going to weekly lessons and endless hours of boredom practicing the basics. For other people who are considering enrolling their own children in piano lessons, the logistics of taking kids to lessons and the expense involved may seem overwhelming. Adults who have always wished they could play the piano might feel silly signing up with an instructor who mainly teaches children.

Thankfully, as times have changed, so have the ways in which piano lessons are taught. In addition to traditional piano lessons, there are online piano lessons and even piano lessons by ear on DVDs. For many people, learning to play piano by ear is an incredibly enriching and rewarding experience. Not only can they play piano for their own enjoyment, but they can also learn the chord progressions necessary to tackle jazz piano, gospel piano, and even contemporary music.

There are many advantages to buying a piano course on DVDs, the most obvious of which is that you can literally save thousands of dollars on piano lessons. Moreover, you don't have to carve out the time to go to an instructor every week, or deal with the logistical hassles of taking kids too and from piano lessons. With DVDs, you can take the lessons at your own pace and at whatever time is most convenient for you.

If you're considering buying a piano course on DVD, it's important to select the right one. You should, for example, choose a course that will provide you with a year's worth of piano lessons. Similarly, one of the factors you should consider is how accessible the lessons are to the novice. Music theory, for instance, should be explained in terms that are easy for both children and adults to understand. Terms that should be covered include the circle of 5ths, scale degrees, chord construction, chord families, chord inversions, chord alteration, harmonic direction, and ear-theory principles.

Of course, playing the piano is more than music theory. The DVD set you choose should feature an instructor who has years of experience both teaching and playing the piano. Because the process of learning to read music can be an obstacle to those who would otherwise enjoy learning to play the piano, the lessons you choose should teach you how to play by ear by using hundreds of chording techniques.

If you select the right DVD set, and practice for a half hour each day, by the end of three months you should be able to play chord progressions, master the major scales, and understand how most songs are arranged. You should also be able to play in a variety of musical styles, such as contemporary gospel, jazz, blues, country, pop, and ballads.

Learning to play the piano doesn't have to be a difficult process; indeed, it can be filled with enthusiasm and excitement. You just have to find the right piano lessons by ear on DVDs and let the music flow!

Chord Spelling

Understanding Chord Symbols
With the growing interest in Jazz and other forms of music, I find more and more people asking about chord symbols and chord construction. While there are many books out there on the market, there is very little explanation of how chords symbols are interpreted. I’d like to share some of my insight with all you music enthusiasts. In many song sheets chords are given for guitar or keyboard players. Functional names are not used for this purpose. Instead, the root and quality of the chord are given in what may be termed lead-sheet notation (for example, Amaj and F#dim7).
Chord symbols are made up of 3 component parts:
1. The ROOT
    The alphabetical name of a chord.
        i.e. A, Bb, G F# etc.
2. The Chord Type
    Indicating either Major, minor, dominant, augmented or diminished.
3. The extension:
Tones added to the basic three note chord (triad) that changes its sound but not its type. Extensions are represented by scale step numbers    i.e. 9, 11, 13

Here are the basic chord types:
MAJOR    indicated by GMaj., GMa, GM or just G (Note: the capitol “M” is used to designate Major chords.) Major chords are sometimes written without chord type designation. Symbols are also used to designate Major chords i.e. , .

Minor        Indicated by Gmin., Gmi, Gm or G- (NOTE: The lower case “m” is used to designate minor chords).

Dominant 7    Indicated with only the root and extension numbers. Since some major chords and all dominant 7 chords can be written without chord type designations, the following will help you to distinguish between a major chord and a dominant chord: If the FIRST extension number following the root or letter name of the chord is 7 or greater, and it does not specifically state major or minor then it is a dominant chord.
EXAMPLE:     C7b5, C13, C9 and C7sus4 are all dominant chords, but Cm11 is a minor chord and CMaj.9 is a major chord.
If the FIRST extension number following the root or letter name of the chord is 6 or under, it is a major chord.
EXAMPLE: C6/9, C2, Csus4 are all major chords
Augmented
These are 3 note chords indicated by G aug, G+, or G#5
EXCEPTION: G+7 is always a dominant chord as is G7#5

Diminished
    Indicated by G dim, Gdim7, or Gº, or Gº7

5 Reasons to Learn Music Theory

If you thought music theory was a waste of time and not necessary to further your musical goals, then read these following 5 reasons why this is not true.

1.Read sheet music: Being able to play from any piece of sheet music. Well it may be hard to play BUT you can read it!

2.Be able to transpose: Say you are playing a piece from the sheet music you can now read but you think it sounds too high or too low, or just not right. Well now you can move it into a new key and play at a better singing.

3.Be able to modulate: You will be able to, with a few quick moves of the fingers, move your music into a new key with a succession of notes so pleasing to the ear it will bring a smile to your listeners faces.

4.It will increase your skill in improvising: Enough said.

5.Knowing music theory will help you recreate the sounds you enjoy in your favorite songs. Those fabulous chord progressions. The parts that give a song that certain sound. Gospel, Contemporary etc.

To learn music theory you don’t have to become a scholar on the subject. Just at least learn the basics. Getting a good music theory book and spending a few minutes a day reading from it and doing any included exercises can jump start your music playing.