Mid-February 2006 Good news! Season 5 begins transmitting to the public television stations in early March. (I can't believe we are in Season 5 already. That's 65 episodes!) Please check your local public television listings for air times in your market. If your local station does not air the show, there is one big way to get that changed. That is to become a member and let them know you want to see "The Piano Guy" in their weekly schedule. Programmers listen to what their members tell them as far as shows they want to see, so let your voice be heard if need be. Just a quick call or email to the station's programming dept. is all it takes. The beauty of public television is that it is viewer supported, which gives you, the viewer, a say in what gets on the air. The show is provided free to the stations, so there is no financial reason for a station to not air us. They just need to be convinced and reminded that there is an audience for the show. Here's what's coming up in this issue of the newsletter:
(By the way, just to make sure you're getting all the graphics in this newsletter correctly, you should see a grinning picture of me in the upper left if you are viewing everything correctly. In case any of you don't see my picture above (particularly AOL users...), you can go to this link (link disabled in this sample) to get the exact same thing on our web site.) -- Piano Guy now on Video on Demand -- I’m proud to tell you about 2 new venues where you can find and watch some of my instructional video segments in a video-on-demand environment: Comcast OnDemand and Akimbo.
For those of you nationwide who are Comcast cable subscribers and have a digital set-top box, constantly rotating segments are available from the OnDemand section of your cable service. These can be accessed by pressing the OnDemand button on your remote. Then select Music from the different choices available. From within Music, select Piano Lessons (it might be on a second page you’ll need to scroll down to). There you’ll find many segments on different topics of interest to you.
Another way to see similar segments is from a service called Akimbo that is now available to anyone who has a Windows Media Center PC. You can find out more about it here: www.akimbo.com -- World's Easiest Latin Feel -- I get a lot of questions from viewers wanting a simple way to get started playing tunes that have a latin feel. It turns out that a lot of old standards played on a piano sound best in some sort of a latin feel versus a swing feel (think Girl from Ipanema for example...) Although you could write many books on the subject (and many have...) I've found one little "gem" that is a good , easy, and appropriate sounding way to get that feel with a minimum of effort. Best of all, unlike most latin grooves that require you to break out of our standard "chords in left, melody in right" hand technique as we work through a lead sheet, this little pattern lets us stay right in our beginning comfort zone of playing chords with left and a melody in the right. It simply requires a specific, repeating rhythmic pattern with your left hand chords. Instead of playing a chord and holding it down for a whole measure until the next chord symbol arrives, you need to get used to repeating the chord with a particular rhythm. Do this: Count out loud repeatedly from 1 through 8 in a steady rhtyhm. (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, etc.) Now tap your left hand on the table when you get to1 and 3 and 6 and 8. Then wait for another whole cycle from 1 through 8 and do it again. For example, I'll bold the numbers you should tap in a cycle: 12345678123456781234567812345678 In rhythmic notation it would look like this:
That is the "robot hand" you need to get going in your left hand... Just sit around at a table, or do it on your steering wheel while driving around, until you can walk and chew gum at the same time as making that rhythm with your left hand. A good practice is to have your right hand tapping the steady "one-through-eights" while your left hand only taps the ones I showed you above. Now, to move it to a tune, you simply play the chords signified by the chord symbols, but only in that left hand pattern instead of holding the chord down the whole measure. If the chords change from one measure to the next, you need to play the next chord on the "8" count from the example above. As with most things musical, this is something extremely simple to hear and imitate and tough to put into written words... Click
here to hear a short audio example (mp3) The "pat your head and rub your tummy" issue comes when you put the melody line with it. That's because the rhythm of the melody probably won't match the rhythm in your left hand. But you know what? That's what makes this stuff fun! Just slow it down as much as you need to (which will probably be pretty darn slow...) until your left hand starts to work independently of what is going on in your right. (Sorry about the cheezy instrument sounds on that audio example. I'm in an airplane writing this, so I knocked it out from a notation program rather than recording it live in my studio.) -- A Great New Book I Found on Songwriting -- Since the last newsletter, I have unearthed what I think is a GREAT book on the topic of songwriting that I've decided to offer from the web store. It is a subject that I continually get questions and comments about, and this book is the best (and most appropriate) I have found to date on the subject. It's titled: How to Write Songs on Keyboards
This helps you find and create interesting chord changes to use on your own tunes. It breaks things down simply, and focuses on pretty basic chords and ideas that you can then start to elaborate on to create more interesting tunes It speaks directly to the heart of trying to sit down and write some tunes, or as is often the case, getting nice chords put to melodies you've already come up with. It also deals with key changes and minor keys as they apply to songwriting. Finally, it comes with an audio CD that has a ton of examples
and ideas from the book on it. It is a really well done book that's
256 pages on very nice paper stock. I'm really impressed... -- Please help us keep your info current -- If you need to update any of your info (email, name, or zip code)
that we have on this newsletter subscription list, please click
on the link below. (The zip code is just used so that whenever I come anywhere close to you to do a live event, we'll let you know.)
-- Long Overdue, New Website Design -- In the next week or so I encourage you to check out my completely redesigned website! We should be going live with it in the next few days, so if you check right now and it looks the same, try it again in a couple of days. (I was anxious to get this newsletter out and didn't want to wait...) The old design was getting a little "long in the tooth" and we've really worked on making the new one much easier to navigate as well as much easier to look at from a design standpoint. The new design will also allow me to get new things on there much more regularly and easily. Finally, we've made a lot of "under the hood" enhancements to the web store to make it much easier to complete a purchase and get an order made with exactly the shipping, delivery, and address options you need. I want you to always feel confident in coming to the web store to get just what you need for your piano playing. I hope you like the new design! -- A Special Deal for Newsletter Subscribers -- I have an esclusive offer for you as a subscriber to my newsletter... Special Kids Starter Package As I mentioned in my previous newsletter, we now have both a book and a fakebook specifically designed for the child player/student. The initial response has been tremendous. I didn't realize how many of you had children or grandchildren interested in playing! However, we have gotten inundated with queries from many of you regarding suggestions as to what else might be needed to get a new child student going in "our" style of playing. So, I decided to put a bundle together that includes the 3 items I think will give a child everything they need to get a great "push off the cliff" and get started. The bundle includes the Play Piano in a Flash for kids book, the Piano Guy First Kids Fakebook, and the Keyboard Chord Finder. The book can be considered the "instruction manual" to teach a child everything they need to know about reading a melody line, chord symbols found in lead sheets, and putting it all together. The fakebook then gives them a ton of fun, simple tunes that they know, in lead sheet format, so that they will have some "fuel for their fire." Finally the Chord Finder gives them a resource to figure out a chord they might not yet know as they begin to play other music not found in the fakebook. This pack is already priced at a 23% discount over the price of the items seperately. In addition, I want to offer newsletter subscribers FREE SHIPPING on the Kids Pack until March 1. To get the discount you must use this coupon
code: This coupon code is only available on orders from
our web store. There is a spot to enter the coupon code
toward the bottom of the page that displays the contents of your
cart. (Here's a little hint: The coupon gives you free shipping on the entire order, as long as the Kids Pack is in your cart. So, load up and your shipping will be free for the entire order!) Here's a link to the actual product page
in the web store: I hope you'll consider taking advantage of this exceptional discount being offered only to newsletter subscribers. The Free Shipping Coupon will expire on March 1st so make sure to order it before that date if you are interested. Again the coupon code is: -- A Generous Offer from a Frequent Guest -- Those of you who watch the Piano Guy weekly series on public television will no doubt recognize the name Bradley Sowash. As a frequent guest (now on all 5 seasons) Bradley continues to help me on the show with his lucid explanations of some of the deeper things we cover on the show. Well, as is also obvious from the show, Bradley's a heck of a player in many different styles. We were talking the other day on the phone and he wondered if any of you newsletter subscribers might be interested in hearing some of his solo piano works. Thinking it was a great idea, he has now generously offered a full, free track from one of his albums on his site. You can find the recording (an mp3 file) here: http://www.bradleysowash.com/fingerlogic.htm I encourage you take advantage of this free opportunity, and, check out his recordings offered from the site. His recordings will blow you away... Thanks Bradley!
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