The one site I came upon more often than others (because of the Google ads) was something called Rocket Piano. It’s a site that promises to teach you piano. What’s not clear is just exactly what style it teaches. But it does promise to teach you piano.

On the site is a black and white picture of the creator (supposedly) named Ashleigh Southam. Now, I’m not saying this product is good or bad. It would be nice to see a sample

Another site you’ll see a lot is called Hear and Play. This site is a lot clearer in what it teaches - gospel piano. Not being a fan of gospel piano, I can’t comment on the content. What I can comment on, however, is the tacky nature of the website itself. It’s very “sales” oriented as its author wants to sell you his products and services. Nothing wrong with that. Just a little too flashy for my tastes.

All in all, a good piano lesson website will give you a sample of what’s being offered. If not, they’re trying to hide something

I’m not saying that what I offer is the best online piano lessons site. I am saying I show you what kind of lessons to expect. Look you can shop around and buy anything you want. But ask yourself why a website wouldn’t show you what they’ve got first.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in

Who has this kind of money? Not the average Joe on the street. No. Grand pianos are beautiful and great sounding but are way out of the price range of the average family. What to do? Well there’s the baby grand. Here we have a nice instrument that can be bought used for as little as $2000.

While the sound won’t be as full and resonant as

If a baby grand piano is too expensive for you, there’s the upright piano. This is the choice most take. Why? Because they are relatively inexpensive and take up very little space. Some sound as good as baby grand’s depending on make and model. And they have their charm as well. Look to spend anywhere from $1000 to $3000 for a decent piano of this type.

Or you

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Refreshingly, this was one of those CDs I was able to just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

3rd Force possesses the characteristic of being able to bowl you over with their talent alone. The kind of group I really enjoy listening to.

I m of the opinion that Vital Force is certainly 3rd Force s best work in a few years. A totally enjoyable CD and an outstanding release. What I call must have music. I give it two thumbs

While the entire CD is really very good some of my favorites are track 1, In The Full Moon Light, track 3, You Gotta Be Real, and track 7, Set Your Self Free.

My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in “Stuck On REpeat”] is track 5, Lift Me Higher. This is a great track!

Vital Force Release Notes:

3rd Force originally released Vital Force on Feb 18, 1997 on the Higher Octave label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. In The Full Moon Light
2. No Doubt
3. You Gotta Be Real
4. Give It Up
5. Lift Me Higher

3rd Force: Craig Dobbin (piano, keyboards, drums); William Aura (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion); Alain Eskinasi (guitar, keyboards, harp, drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Peter White (acoustic guitar, accordion); Craig Chaquico, Shahin Shahida (acoustic guitar); Anne Hilsberg (flute); Gary Herbig (saxophone, flute, oboe, horns); Jeff Elliot (trumpet, flugelhorn, horns); Rick Braun (flugelhorn); Ozzie Ahlers (piano); Robert Matt (organ, keyboards); Gerlando Compilati (congas, bongos, percussion).

Get the information you want on your favorite smooth jazz songs and artists at http://www.iLoveSmoothJazz.comClyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. SmoothLee is a life long music fanatic, smooth

. Before setting goals

Sometimes the reason why we don’t keep our piano playing goals is that we haven’t been honest with ourselves when we set the goals. Before setting the your goals you have to decide why you want to play piano. Make an honest survey of your assets and wishes in the area of piano playing.

2. Setting goals

In order to set goals that you will actually work towards you have to be honest with yourself. Do I really want to accomplish these

3. Having a repertoire

One common reason for starting to play the piano is to be able to play the pieces of music you like. This means that as you learn to play piano, a goal might be to learn a number of piano pieces, let’s say five melodies, by heart so you can play them in any setting.

These five pieces of piano music is to be learned so well that you don’t have to worry if you are asked to play.

One reason for having a repertoire with piano pieces throughoutly rehearsed is that you can feel that you perform at the top of your ability.

4. Always perform

One great way to

Your family will be your public. There are many occasions for having someone performing music in the home and maybe you will stimulate others in your family or among your friends to play on their instruments in such a setting. Of course you have to plan ahead in order to suggest a performance and in order to prepare yourself.

5. But if you don’t like to perform?

You can actually practice the art of performing

On such an occasion you have to exercise self discipline and play those pieces in your actual program from beginning to end. If you would make a mistake in front of a public, what would you do? Probably you would want to minimize the effect of this mistake and just play on. This is what you have to practice even in this setting.

This will create self confidence in your ability to handle mistakes and will also help you

This is also an excellent time to record your performance for later evaluation. The act of recording is like having a critic in the public.

6. Listen to piano music

You have to look upwards in order to climb to a higher level in your piano playing and this will be accomplished by listening to piano players on an higher artistic level than yourself.

At last a piano playing qoute from an unknown author:

“One man gets nothing but discord out of a piano; another gets harmony. No one claims the piano is at fault. Life is about the same. The discord is there, and the harmony is there. Study to play it correctly, and it

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free piano sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Group Lessons: Learning guitar in a group setting can be lessintimidating for the beginning musician. You not only get thebenefit of having a teacher to help you along you can often judge your progress by where the other students are in the class. Theworst

Private Lessons: This is the best way to learn to play the guitar if you can find the right teacher. The instructor can gauge your progress each week and custom design your lessons for you. You have your teachers undivided attention and you can ask anything you feel is not clear.

CD Lessons: There are many instruction CDs available in nearly any style you can think of. The advantage of this style of learning is you can listen to the CD as many times as you want. Any part that is not clear

DVD Lessons: Instruction on DVD includes all the good and bad points of the CD instruction. The number one advantage to learning guitar by watching DVD video is you can see what the instructor is doing. Visual learning goes a long way toward answering the questions burning in your mind. Music Books: Music books are a time-honored way to learn how to play the guitar. You can find more books on more different styles than most any other

Playing With Other People: The very best way to learn to play the guitar is to get together with other people and play. This is the fastest way to learn. You will learn more by getting out and playing with other people than you ever will sitting at home playing by yourself.

Internet: In these modern times the Internet is a wonderful resource in learning to play the guitar. There are many websites that will show you how to play the

Slowing Down Recordings: You can purchase software that slows down your favorite recordings. This allows you to hear each phrase at a speed where you can pick out the different notes. This is a great way to learn to play.

Friends: Do not overlook your guitar playing buddies. Most guitar pickers are a friendly bunch who will be more than happy to help you along.

The method you decide to use to learn to play guitar is up to you. Try to practice four or five times a week for 30 minutes at a time and you will be

Find your best guitar lesson resources at guitarngear.com

I suggest that you right now start to take command over your guitar. Usually when you are playing your first guitar sheet music melodies you will have to learn the notes in the first position on the guitar. To have a good grasp of these notes on the guitar I suggest that you learn them slowly and with concentration.

I usually begin by teaching the notes on the first string like E on open string, F on fret 1 and G on fret 3. On string two you ll find B on open

Using the previous notes the melody can be played as follows:

E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C

I hope you recognized the melody. This kind of music notation doesn t give any hints as to how the rhythm is to be played but you already know the melody, right!

Is using tablature cheating? My father taught me some interesting things about learning to read guitar sheet music.

My dad was the only guitar

His reply was that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway!

I agree with that and I have found that if a pupil is not motivated learning guitar sheet music they will not advance in this area whether they play with or without tablature.

Do you think

A more important question is if the fingers you choose to use can have a bearing upon your guitar playing. Left hand fingering means which finger you use when playing a specific note.

Usually when playing the first pieces on the guitar on the first frets one plays the notes on the first fret with the index finger, notes on the second fret with the middle finger, notes on the third fret with the ring finger and notes on the fourth fret with your little finger.

Why mess up everything with this fingering stuff? Isn’t it possible to play every melody with your left index finger and forget about

Well, of course you can play melodies with your index finger but your progress will be very limited beyond just playing easy melodies.

Besides you ll have to move your hand all the time as you change frets and, most importantly when reading sheet music, you ll have to look at the guitar fretboard all the time instead of looking at the sheet music.

The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on too many notes at the same time.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play

Is

Are your private guitar lessons expensive? In most cases, lessons range from 20 to 50 dollars depending on whether it is 30-minute or 1-hour sessions. Usually weekly regiments of private guitar lessons tend to follow a couple of year program. Doing the math, that equates to a whopping $1920.00 for a two-year program and could cost you as much as 4800 bucks. Many guitar learning software packages offer very good value for the money and most if not all have a cost that is considerably less than traditional lessons. Some of these software programs even have incremented

Are you permitted to record your private guitar lesson sessions for future reference? One of the foremost benefits of guitar learning software is that you can rewind your lessons over and over as many times as you like until you have it down. You can go at your own pace and the instructor never gets tired of going over the same lessons. Most of all, many of the guitar learning software programs offer written, audio, and video demonstrations. Finally, the majority of the software courses are designed to take from a beginner player to the most advanced and in any style imaginable.

There are all types

What string you use on your or somebody elses guitar doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of personal choice.

As you know Mary Had A Little Lamb is a popular nursery rhyme. Here is the first verse:

Mary had a little lamb
little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
its fleece was white as snow

Thomas Edison used this poem in testing his invention of the phonograph in 1877. It became the first audio

Let’s start by playing on a string of your choice. Play the string with the thumb. If you play the string three times with your right hand thumb we can write it down like this:

0-0-0

If you press down the string on the second fret with your left hand first finger and play it three times and then lift your finger and play on the open string three times like you did before it will look like this:

2-2-2-0-0-0

Got the idea? Well, to play Mary Had A Little Lamb you need two more notes. Press down your first finger on the fourth fret and then on your seventh fret and you have all the necessary

4-2-0-2-4-4-4–2-2-2–4-7-7

4-2-0-2-4-4-4-4-2-2-4-2-0

If you still have questions you can ask a guitar playing friend to help you. She or he will probably be proud to help you.

If this melody is a little bit to easy for you, you can show it to a not guitar playing friend. Many people start to smile when they can play something on the guitar for the first time!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

That’s understandable. Learning piano doesn’t have to be the hard chore so many believe it to be. In fact, it can be quite easy IF YOU START BY LEARNING CHORDS!

For example, in the lesson “Reflections in Water,” available below, we have four chords and a scale to create music with. We don’t need to read music and we don’t need piano tabs either. All we need is to learn how to finger one chord position and play the C Major scale. Then we can use these materials to create music with.

Learning piano this way is infinitely easier (and more rewarding!) than learning

Once we have the chords under our fingers, we can explore the piano in a way that may never have been possible for you before. Many piano students don’t believe they have talent or skill to improvise but this is simply not true. All that is required is the desire to try it. Once students jump in the water, they can’t wait to take a swim and then they’re hooked!

Learning piano without years of lessons is not difficult. All it takes is the ability to learn a few chords and then experiment with them.

Now, if learning classical repertoire is your goal, then of course you’re going to have to learn how to

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Of course music lovers want to get iPod free music downloads and usually they take advantage of the free download websites in the net. The risk with these free download sites is the damage it could bring to your PC. With a lot of ads popping out of these free sites your PC is prone to get viruses, spyware and adware which can affect your PC system performance. You are

Sometimes iPod users cannot be blamed to get iPod free music downloads and risk their PC performance downloading from free iPod download sites because if they think of the money they have to spend on websites with pay per download, they cannot enjoy as many music as they want. Imagine paying $0.99 per download? That s too expensive if you want tons of music for your iPod. Having a gadget like iPod with a large storage

With the popularity of iPod and the increasing demand of music lovers for iPod free music downloads, many websites were launched offering free download for iPod. One of these websites is MyiPodownloads. There is a big difference with MyiPodownloads, unlike other free download websites around the net, this site needs a one time payment fee for membership. But if you become a member after the one time payment you will have access to unlimited music downloads for free. No monthly fees or recurring charges and no pay per download fees. Another very important thing is no spyware, viruses and adware to damage

As an iPod owner it s your choice how to get iPod free music downloads. Did you know that thousands of iPod users are now enjoying their membership on MyiPodownloads? To know more about unlimited iPod free music downloads visit Best iPod Download SitesGerry Restrivera writes informative articles on various subjects including How to Get iPod Free Music Downloads.