Music Basics

Welcome to the article, "How to Learn to Play the Trumpet". Upon reading this article, you will learn the basic fundamentals of the trumpet. In this article, you will be informed of...

Originally produced in the 1970s, the Fender Starcaster is said to be Fender's attempt at competing in the semi-hollow body market. Although commercially unsuccessful, the guitar has been used by...

Esteban has brought music to millions of people all over the world, and he has also made buying a guitar affordable. One of the nice things about the Esteban guitar is that you can apply...

Rightfully or wrongly, musicians are often stereotyped. From the effete neighbor who looks down his nose as we load our gear into the car to the drunken bar patron who thinks his request to “Play...

Greetings, class. Today’s topic is: How to write an effective ad for music instruction. I’ll start out with this cheerful note. One way in which the current economic conditions has particularly...

Reading music can be as easy as ABC, as long as you know a few tricks. A piece of piano music has two staffs, the bass and the treble, indicating the right and left hand parts of the music. Each...

Whether playing high-speed classical pieces, racing through rock solos or jamming with a jazz group, using memorized scales is imperative. The proverbial "How do I get to Carnegie Hall? (Practice,...

A musical scale is a group of notes arranged in a specific pattern of steps (or distance between each note) to make a set of tones grouped into what musicians refer to as a key signature. The key...

The guitars neck is mostly wood. Some actually use a steel beam running through them to ensure that the neck stays straight even when exposed to different conditions. If you neck becomes bowed...

The C clef, which is familiar to most musicians, can be placed in 2 different positions on the staff. In the past, it could be placed in many different positions on the staff, but all except 2...

Music notes are the language musicians use to speak to one another. A music notes consists of three elements that dictate tone, pitch and duration; a note head, stem and tail. These notes, when...

Scales are the method by which the twelve tones of the musical language are divided and arranged for the purpose of creating melody and harmony in a musical composition. Major and minor scales are...

The percussion section of the marching band is one of the most important sections of the band. The drummers keep the tempo, and the tempo is what keeps all of the marchers together. At first...

Structural notes are the tones in a melodic passage which comprise the basis of the melody. Without them a melody would not be recognizable. Students of music theory learn to identify structural...

Whether you are looking for someone to give lessons to your child or for yourself, how do you go about finding a good music teacher?

Many music book lists CHORD SYMBOLS along with the melody. These books are sometimes called FAKE BOOKS and they use the chord approach to playing piano. Other books such as movie tunes or church...

I am a guitar instructor and have been in the music business for 20 years. One of the first questions I always get from my students (or thier parents) is what kind of guitar they should buy. Alot...

Nylon string guitars are typically easier to play than steel string guitars. They are easier on your fingers and are more forgiving to mistakes.

Learning how to play the chords EM and DM on the piano is very easy if you have a person who is at all knowledgeable about the piano on hand to show you where the chords are. Learning how to play...

If you play piano or keyboard, fully diminished seventh chords are important to know. There are, amazingly, only three of them, and they continue all the way up and down the keyboard. These...

Playing the c scale is one of the basic things you learn when first playing a keyboard. Because the c scale is the first and the easiest scale to know on the keyboard. This is one of the only...

It is impossible to keep your CD's from scratching not matter how well you take care of them. Given enough time of use, your CD's will eventually stop working. If you have a CD that is scratched...

If you play the piano, you would probably like to be able to play more artistically, even if you are just a student. You may play note-perfectly, but you may still not be satisfied. If you feel...

This is the simplest way that I know of to tune a four string bass guitar by ear. A tuner takes out all of the guesswork, but you don't always have one handy. And too, the better you get with your...

Playing the bass guitar with a pick is another style of playing the bass guitar. The pick is held in the picking hand and picked as an opposite to plucking the strings on a bass guitar. The pick...

If you want to play thirds and sixths on the keyboard or piano, you should learn them together. There are two types of thirds and sixths, major and minor. If you learn both the theory and the feel...

I have a classical CD collection that I love to be constantly expanding. However, my calligrapher/piano teacher/college student status currently leaves a lot to be desired financially. As I'm...

One of the most fundamental chords in guitar-playing is the E Minor Chord. Also referred to as one of the "open" chords, it is used in everything from rock music to blues guitar. The...

If you are new to guitar or just never learned how to read guitar tablature you are in for a treat. It's SO easy! After I show you some easy examples of guitar tablature and clearly explain how...

There are many ways to get your music noticed, from hiring professionals to help you make connections, to dressing up like a clown on television. You can do many things that will make people stand...

Teaching kids to play the guitar is rewarding but time-consuming, and while there are basics that must be taught, the teaching sequence and the time spent on each element varies with the child's...

A song, or any intellectual property, is copy-protected the moment it is created. Copyrighting a song is not a requirement for copy protection. Copyrighting a song means registering it with the...

Different tunings can give a different feel to your song. For instance, blues artists tend to use Open A tuning and Open E tuning frequently. Kurt Cobain almost always had his guitar tuned down...

Guitarists like you and me enjoy strumming along with our major and minor chords. But if we'd like to build our chord pile, 7ths are the place to start. Let's do this...

The F Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of F Major – F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, (F) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is G Minor.

The Bb Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of Bb Major – Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, (Bb) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is G Minor.

The Ab Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of Ab Major – Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, G, (Ab) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is F Minor.

The Db Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of E Major – Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, C, (Db) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is Bb Minor.

The G Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of G Major – G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, (G) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is E Minor.

To the untrained musician, sheet music can look like a foreign language. This is not far from the truth. Fortunately, learning to read sheet music will be much easier than learning a second spoken...

Whether you are a professional songwriter or a budding novice, you can make professional-sounding tracks using your computer. By constructing or downloading the required parts to make your music,...

Writing a new song can be a very rewarding experience for a band or artist. A song can be used to express many feelings, from sadness to joy, and can be very simple or complicated rhythmically, as...

With enough practice, anyone can get good at anything. But before you can become a pro, you have to learn how your instrument works, how to use it, and what to expect. Knowing these things will...

Almost everyone has had some experience with stage fright, from the little six-year-old at his first piano recital to the businessman giving a presentation to a large gathering of his superiors....

Those who enjoyed music before the 1980s likely have fond memories of listening to vinyl on phonographs. During the 1980s, music recording took several huge steps forward and left vinyl records...

Anyone can learn to stay in time. It's only a matter of practice and finding the method that works best for you. Lead guitar players will sometimes have a more difficult time, because they're...

You don't want your percussion students to be known as stereotypical dumb drummers, do you? Well, if not, you need to make sure that they drill the basics - know their rudiments, know how to...

The melody that has been running through your mind can be brought to life and preserved through the use of modern technology. Recent years have seen a proliferation of music creation software and...

"Three's Company", "Three's a crowd", "A natural number can be divided by three if the sum of its digits is divisible by three." Yup, three is even the number of...

You will learn that this practice concept will isolate weaknesses and make them stronger. This will enable you to improve the quality of your practice time so that you can: 1. Learn faster. 2....